Is there any P2P lending left.. ??

Malkytheheed

I was looking at P2P lending as I want to get involved in it as we head out of Covid. I personally feel it will be a decent punt at that time. But after spending 30 mins scouring the funding circle with absolutley NO mention that they werent accepting new business on their homepage (I had to find out via an obscure google article). Then started to look at personal P2P lending in ratesetter only to find out that rates are half advertised? So I went to Zopa to find they werent accepting new accounts?? What is this all about? I get we are in a pandemic but I should be responsible for my risk taking. 

Just looks impossible to do peer2peer lending at the moment, which really annoys me to be honest, I have always belived in buying when others around you are panicing and it has served me very well. But how do you do that if all the vendor sites are totally restricted? Have they done this by themselves or is this more gov meddling and control? 

grumiofoundation

We have just got our final pennies out of ratesetter.

Have a small amount in Kufflink but the repayment dates keeps getting pushed back (unsurprisingly really).

verybigchris

P2P was a bubble for years. Rather than fully bursting, it's slowly deflating as the air escapes around all the sticking plasters they've covered it with.

Be thankful you can't open a new account, and run as far away from it as possible.

Malkytheheed

verybigchris said:

P2P was a bubble for years. Rather than fully bursting, it's slowly deflating as the air escapes around all the sticking plasters they've covered it with.

Be thankful you can't open a new account, and run as far away from it as possible.

That is your opinion. I think it could be strong in the coming recovery years. 

Grenage

P2P returns are what, maybe 5% average return with the risk and hassle of removing money.

An index tracker would probably get around 9% so I'm curious why some find them attractive.

verybigchris

Imagine a perfect market for P2P, where fair platforms match honest borrowers with rational lenders. In that scenario, risk matches reward perfectly and it's a sound investment.

Now add to the mix:

• naive investors who are frustrated at low savings rates and are happy to throw their money into P2P without doing any proper due diligence
• shady platforms performing all kinds of shenanigans to maximise their cut
• fraudulent borrowers giving false info to get loans
  

All those things will suppress the rates available to lenders and/or increase the risks of investing. By definition, it's simply not possible for P2P returns to match the risk as long as any of those three factors exist.

Albermarle

Grenage said:

P2P returns are what, maybe 5% average return with the risk and hassle of removing money.

An index tracker would probably get around 9% so I'm curious why some find them attractive.

It is not black& white - one or the other . A small % in P2P, or other non stock market related investments, as a diversifier is still a valid strategy due to what I have highlighted in bold . Clearly not everybody would agree, and I have only withdrawn money from P2P in the last couple of years rather than add any, but now I am leaving what is left alone as some of the sites seem to be over the worst and so far I am still making a few %.

Bravepants

I still have a small amount of money stuck in Lendy, a P2P company mostly aimed at the property market, which you would have thought would provide a better guarantee of return. But that only works if the valuations of properties are all above board! And would you believe it people can default on property loans too!

Alexland

I came to the conclusion that the likely return wasn't enough for the risk profile but if you are interested in P2P property lending then Kuflink had very good customer service when we used them and are still offering incentives for new customers. I would be happy to recommend them to strangers and enemies.

Tantalus86

I've been moving funds out of zopa and funding circle - IMO the returns don't justify the risks and you rely on the platform to do the due diligence on the respective loans they lend out. Saying that I can't say I've had problems with them, the UI is simple and easy to use on both of them but personally there are better investment options out there in funds. Don't go near Ratesetter.

The only p2p i'm doing at the moment is with SoMo (used to be called bridgecrowd). They provide bridging loans but requires a mimimum investment of £5k per property - so differs from Zopa which splits your investment into micro loans to multiple people to pool the risk together. But SoMo gives you all the property information and you can choose which properties to lend money to (YOU make the choice) and returns are about 10%. 

Aceace

Hi @Malkytheheed, I'm a big fan of P2P. Roughly half my investable portfolio is in it, spread over thirty-odd platforms. Like all investment sectors, some are good and some are not. I've invested in the 3 you've mentioned and would put all 3 in the not good category. The platforms that others have mentioned on here are much better (SoMo, Kuflink). Here are some others that you might like to take a look at: Loanpad, CrowdProperty, CapitalRise, ABLrate, Unbolted, Landlordinvest and Proplend to name a few. 

Of all of them I'd classify Loanpad as the safest to get started with.