P2p

Carmk2008

What's the least that you can invest into p2p I was thinking of doing £40 a month to test the water if possible the aim is to build up an investment portfolio for the next 25-30 years.

Currently we have £80 pm going into first direct regular savers and £50 pm going into fidelity. We also have a buy to let bringing in £450pcm we are also hoping to buy another one in June if the figures stack up. I pay into the works pension but only the minimum. We also have 50% equity in the house we stay in.

Any links to p2p would be much appreciated and info to which platform would be best to invest in, I don't mind going for high risk for better returns. Thanks in advance.

ozaz

I invest across 5 P2P lenders (Zopa, Ratesetter, Funding Circle, Assetz Capital, Saving Stream). I'm not sure what the minimum investment terms are for all of them but at least one of them (Assetz Capital) has a minimum investment amount of only £1.

I found these web pages and websites helpful when first looking into P2P

General Intros
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/peer-to-peer-lending
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/savings/peer-to-peer-lending-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-leadi/

In-depth reviews of several lenders
http://www.financialthing.com/

Who offers IFISAs?
https://p2pblog.co.uk/innovative-finance-isa/

Who offers cashback bonus on signup?
(there are also MSE forum threads with willing referrers)
https://p2pblog.co.uk/p2p-cashback-offers/

JohnRo

http://p2pindependentforum.com/

TheShape

Carmk2008 wrote: »

Currently we have £80 pm going into first direct regular savers and £50 pm going into fidelity. We also have a buy to let bringing in £450pcm we are also hoping to buy another one in June if the figures stack up. I pay into the works pension but only the minimum. We also have 50% equity in the house we stay in.

You can pay £300 pm into a First Direct Regular Saver @ 5% interest fully protected by the FSCS. If you're thinking of saving/investing a greater amount each month I would question why you are not maximising an account with a guaranteed rate of return with guaranteed return of capital (assuming you have less than £85k with the HSBC Banking group (if you have, why only £80pm into the regular saver?).

Can you pay more into your works pension, will your employer match the additional contributions? Are you a higher rate taxpayer who would benefit from the tax relief on pension contributions?

Have you got savings/an emergency fund equivalent to at least 3-6 mths outgoings (perhaps more as you have a BTL)? If you have, you could probably already be making greater use of your First Direct regular saver.

If you do not already have the emergency fund and are using guaranteed interest/capital protected savings options I would not be recommending putting money into p2p. I say this as someone who has been investing in p2p platforms, albeit only for about a month so far.

ozaz

TheShape wrote: »

You can pay £300 pm into a First Direct Regular Saver @ 5% interest fully protected by the FSCS. If you're thinking of saving/investing a greater amount each month I would question why you are not maximising an account with a guaranteed rate of return with guaranteed return of capital (assuming you have less than £85k with the HSBC Banking group (if you have, why only £80pm into the regular saver?).

Good point Eagle Eye!

Fatbritabroad

I also wouldn't touch saving stream atm. Someone will join doubt post a link shortly

novice_1

Saving Stream is not suitable for a £40 per month investment as the minimum is £100 per loan, though potentially you could try to bid £100 and resell the £60 straight away.

If you are just putting a small amount in to experiment and learn, something like Assetz Capital could be a good introduction:

1) They have lots of different types of investments (manual, automated) so trying them out would give you a feel for what you like and what type of site you might use long term
2) You are not missing out on the opportunity to do a £1k/£2k minimum joining bonus later (Funding Circle, Zopa, RateSetter etc.)

masonic

novice_1 wrote: »

Saving Stream is not suitable for a £40 per month investment as the minimum is £100 per loan, though potentially you could try to bid £100 and resell the £60 straight away.

Eh? Since when? I regularly picked up low amounts (as little as £1) on the secondary market during the time I invested there.

But I wouldn't touch SS with a bargepole at the moment.

Superscrooge

If you are prepared to invest £1,000 for 12 months with RateSetter they are offering a bonus of £100 which gives an effective interest rate of 14%. See below link for full details

http://monevator.com/ratesetter-high-interest-offer/

novice_1

masonic wrote: »

Eh? Since when? I regularly picked up low amounts (as little as £1) on the secondary market during the time I invested there.

But I wouldn't touch SS with a bargepole at the moment.

I meant on the primary market, min pre-bid is £100. You are right on the secondary market.

masonic

novice_1 wrote: »

I meant on the primary market, min pre-bid is £100. You are right on the secondary market.

New investors would do well to spend most of their time purchasing on the secondary market initially. That's the way to quickly diversify across loans.