Fancy a 8.4% Interest Rate?

puk999

mikb wrote: »

I suspect that if everyone started piling money into RS, Zopa and FC as part of their 15K ISA limit, then rates would be falling from where they are now, not rising to 8.0% +

Exactly. There'd be a glut of lenders competing for the highest rates thus driving the rates lower. I decided not to get involved in P2P lending because I read on here that rates were already quite low because it had become more mainstream.

planteria

with P2P becoming more 'mainstream', perhaps the rates will come down, through competition? and perhaps regulation will have to be increased, raising costs to the companies handling them. it will be interesting to see how much banks want to fight for those cash deposits.......perhaps there won't be a huge difference between them in the end.

TattyBear

mikb wrote: »

No idea where 8.4% has come from, I'm a lender on RS and there are no such rates currently available.

4.6-4.8%, however, is the current 3 year lending rate.

5.6-5.8% for 5 year.

Mikb, can I ask what your general experience of Ratesetter has been? I read the Telegraph article here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/isas/10715131/How-an-8pc-peer-to-peer-Isa-could-work.html

and am thinking about dipping a toe in. I have a small amount 2yr fixed rate cash ISA maturing next month, and for what I've got in there, it's not worth reinvesting at another fixed rate for more than a year given current rates. I'd rather stick a few grand in Ratesetter for 2 years and get a ballpark 4% return albeit with some risk, although RS says it has a fund to cover borrower defaults.

mikb

TattyBear wrote: »

Mikb, can I ask what your general experience of Ratesetter has been?

I'd rather stick a few grand in Ratesetter for 2 years and get a ballpark 4% return albeit with some risk, although RS says it has a fund to cover borrower defaults.

Remember: The 4% return is on the money you have lent out, and as the money will keep coming back to you each month (capital and interest), you won't earn 4% on all of it. Unless you keep pushing it back out again!

Like a regular saver, but in reverse -- you start with a lump sum lent out at 4%, and end up with nothing lent at the end of 2 years.

I joined fairly early on (Jan 2011) and went straight at the 3 Year market. When the 5 year one launched, I switched to that and mostly stayed there, with all repayments and interest now being recycled into the 5 year market. If I thought interest rates were on the up, I'd probably go back to 3 year.

The early days of 7-8% lending seem to be behind us, for now at least!

I've had no problems with RS at all, a couple of minor website glitches which they not only acknowledged and fixed, but phoned me up to discuss and clarify.

Their website is really easy to use and navigate, and of the main P2P lenders they are the one I have most with. They do what they say, no messing about with promotions, special rates, having to "game" the system to lend at all, no nasty surprises of money being lent at lower rates than you expect etc. etc.

They are quite active in posting on the http://p2pindependentforum.com/ and are prepared to engage with customer feedback etc.

The banks could learn a lot from these new upstarts snapping at their heels, but I'm pretty sure they won't ...

simon1402

I intend to make use of P2P ISA(s) when they become available but that is predicted to be 2017. For now I have some money getting about 2.5% in cash ISAs and some getting 3% in a Santander 123 account. Should I leave it there or get another ISA for 2014/15 and increase my holding in it in July?


I also have some money in each of RateSetter, Zopa and Funding Circle so could move more into those but do not want to put all my eggs in one basket. What is the best strategy in the run up to P2P ISA availability in 2017?????????


Thanks in advance for any advice/opinions.