How much have you made on P2P Lending sites?

Maceo

Hi,

With the drop in the base rate its looks like your average savings account and even ISA is going to offer you next to nothing in terms of interest.

For those who already use P2P sites was wondering how much money people have made so far (after losses) and over what period.

I started using Zopa back in 2012 and few years later started using Ratesetter and now recently Funding Circle.

So far I have earned £12,500 in interest over 4 years. Obviously this is without tax taken off.

Even with tax taken off it puts savings accounts and ISA's to shame, I am roughly earning 5% on all my investments in P2P. With savings rates so low I really wonder how people are going to get an income from their savings.

bigadaj

Useful post. I've only just started getting into p2p over the last few months and have a few thousand invested but will be increasing this over the coming months and probably years.

I've deliberately avoided Zopa, and have enough in rate setter just to get their bonus. These platforms seem to be all unsecured lending, rates barely above those on current accounts and regular savers, with no clarity over the loans being undertaken.

I'm sticking with Moneything, Savingstream, Ablrate etc which are secured and give 12% ish.

Have you had any defaults as yet?

2010

bigadaj wrote: »

I'm sticking with Moneything, Savingstream, Ablrate etc which are secured and give 12% ish.

Have you had any defaults as yet?

The last sentence seems very reassuring.
So you can lose all your money then?

Now interest rates are so low it`s not worth saving (after current accounts), I can see a whole lot of gullible people going down this P2P route and getting their fingers badly burnt.

A distaster waiting to happen, 12% is not sustainable.

2010

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/peer-to-peer-lending

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-3262573/Hidden-dangers-peer-peer-lending-Sick-pathetic-rates-Fed-big-banks-Watch-high-tech-firms-money.html

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/feb/15/peer-to-peer-lending-nicola-horlick

Startup1985

2010 wrote: »

The last sentence seems very reassuring.
So you can lose all your money then?

Now interest rates are so low it`s not worth saving (after current accounts), I can see a whole lot of gullible people going down this P2P route and getting their fingers badly burnt.

A distaster waiting to happen, 12% is not sustainable.

Yet another ridiculous post by someone that obviously has no experience in p2p but reads thre press horror stories.
Like any investment you spread out your investment to minimise any losses. Anyone who puts all their cash into one loan is a fool with their money. People who reject the idea of p2p based on horror stories that they read in the papers are missing out on a decent income investment.

2010

Startup1985 wrote: »

Yet another ridiculous post by someone that obviously has no experience in p2p but reads thre press horror stories.
Like any investment you spread out your investment to minimise any losses. Anyone who puts all their cash into one loan is a fool with their money. People who reject the idea of p2p based on horror stories that they read in the papers are missing out on a decent income investment.

Your money is not guaranteed by anyone, it` s a gamble whether you get any interest or your money back.

Look how safe the Iclandic banks were, luckily they had the government backing.
Unlike P2P which isn`t backed by anyone.

People will get their fingers burnt looking for higher returns than saving accounts.
Watch this space.

bigadaj

2010 wrote: »

Your money is not guaranteed by anyone, it` s a gamble whether you get any interest or your money back.

Look how safe the Iclandic banks were, luckily they had the government backing.
Unlike P2P which isn`t backed by anyone.

People will get their fingers burnt looking for higher returns than saving accounts.
Watch this space.

Don't invest in p2p but don't comment from a position of ignorance like some sort of doom monger.

The Icelandic banks didn't have government backing, it was a political decision to bail out retail bank investors in the uk to avoid any wider instability.

My comment on a default was just that, you take on risk and manage that risk. You stick to <1% in bank accounts if it suits you but your missing out in terms of inflation and potentially shortfall of your aspirations, and certainly in relation to other asset classes.

One of the difficult concepts for many people is that you are actually losing out currently by holding sterling in cash. It's been the target for the uk government, and indeed most governments, to reduce debts by means of inflation. They've not managed to do that very successfully, but waht your pound buys now compares to ten years ago as opposed to what returns you would get from shares, property and other assets shows cash to have gulley lost out, you will be poorer.

My comment about defaults was just that, a default doesn't mean you've lost all your money. A default of a p2p loan means that assets are recovered or taken over, these are then sold and the capital repaid to lenders, potentially at less than 100% but significantly above 0%.

Would be very interested to find out where you hold your assets, another gold bug possibly?

JohnRo

I gave up on ratesetter a few years ago having joined quite soon after they started with a five figure sum. The rates available plummeted and just didn't reflect the risks imo and the early talk of them providing a provision fund dividend bonus paid to lenders soon went quiet when institutional backers got involved, so assumed that disappeared into their back pockets.

My only direct p2p exposure currently is with SavingStream, invested £2K since June to test the water, 54 loan parts held returning around £20 a month total.

Considering investing more in future but want to see if the current crop produce a significant quantity of delays or defaults. To mitigate that possibility I've been incrementally selling down loans into the secondary market as the contract expiry date approaches, in the hope of avoiding any potential delays or defaults.

*The pipeline for new SavingStream loans appears to be drying up though which may be a precursor to future rates of return decreasing.

masonic

Clearly P2P lending is no replacement for the 100% security of cash on deposit, but just because there is risk in an investment, it does not make it "a gamble whether you get any interest or your money back". I feel sorry for those who are stuck in cash just because of extreme risk aversion. It is going to be very painful for them to see the spending power of their capital shrinking in the coming years.

Back to the topic of the OP, I've so far made a return of about 10.5%. I've experienced one default with 100% recovery of capital and interest. I have one other loan currently in recovery. I don't expect that I will continue to enjoy the same rate of return in the future and would not be surprised if that rate trends downward to 6-8%. I hold about 10% of my investments in P2P.

Startup1985

2010 wrote: »

Your money is not guaranteed by anyone, it` s a gamble whether you get any interest or your money back.

Look how safe the Iclandic banks were, luckily they had the government backing.
Unlike P2P which isn`t backed by anyone.

People will get their fingers burnt looking for higher returns than saving accounts.
Watch this space.

I am literally lol'ing! I take it you do not invest in the stock markets either, no funds or anything? I will keep risking my fingers being burnt ( default loss and then recovery) for 12% you keep your fingers nice and cool claiming your <1%

:beer:

andrewm1981

Personally I've got a lot in ratesetter. Too much. Mostly in rolling month, as I wanted easy access. Made about £5k/ year in interest. I found the website easy, well designed, and I've had no problems with them at all. Having said that, 3 % doesn't really do it for me anymore, so I'm going to put my eggs in a variety of riskier baskets, and drop maybe £5k into 4 or 5 different p2p lenders to see how they perform. But I'm reducing my exposure from 40% down to 10-15% in p2p