ZOPA 26 March 2021 at 5:11PM in Savings & investments 20 replies 4K views

ianmarley

Been looking at Zopa one and two year fixed rate at .54% and .69%I assume they are safe as Zopa is now a bank and subject to FFCS up to £85,000.
Anybody had any experience or dealing with them?

ctdctd

Yes, I took out a 2 year fix with them late last year.

Everything worked, they sent emails as required with the progress of my application and receipt of deposit.

No problems at all.

colsten

Zopa will be fine, though you can get better rates elsewhere 

https://moneyfacts.co.uk/savings-accounts/1-year-fixed-rate-bonds/
https://moneyfacts.co.uk/savings-accounts/2-year-fixed-rate-bonds/

maxsteam

If you read other threads you will find examples of people buying bonds with other small banks and having no problems depositing funds and getting monthly interest credited. The problems only arise when it is time to get the money back at the end of the term.

Something that you definitely need to be aware of is that most banks will let you withdraw from a fixed term bond early and just lose some interest. However, Zopa's terms suggest that they will not allow this unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Personally I would not put investment-sized amounts into a small, little-known bank.

coyrls

maxsteam said:

If you read other threads you will find examples of people buying bonds with other small banks and having no problems depositing funds and getting monthly interest credited. The problems only arise when it is time to get the money back at the end of the term.

Something that you definitely need to be aware of is that most banks will let you withdraw from a fixed term bond early and just lose some interest. However, Zopa's terms suggest that they will not allow this unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Personally I would not put investment-sized amounts into a small, little-known bank.

Sorry but that's nonsense.  You are getting your bonds in a twist.  This is a question about a fixed term savings account that is FSCS protected.  There will be no problems getting the money back at the end of the term.

maxsteam

coyrls said:
You are getting your bonds in a twist.  This is a question about a fixed term savings account that is FSCS protected.  There will be no problems getting the money back at the end of the term.

Haha. That's what these people thought too...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78117626
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5904071/raisin-uk-be-aware-terrible-customer-service/p1
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6142872/aa-savings-problem-with-withdrawal-to-linked-account
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6186995/matured-account-with-cynergy-bank-1-week-and-still-no-money-received/p1
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/75939344

moneysavinghero

I only clicked on one of those links but it went like this:

• Oh no my withdrawal has not arrived
• So they contacted the bank and bank said they were aware off a technical issue related to payments made on a certain date and they were working on it.
• A day later bank contacted them to let them know their money has been transferred (and it had)

If the other links are anything like that one then not sure how you are equating it to a risk of not getting your money back.

coyrls

moneysavinghero said:

I only clicked on one of those links but it went like this:

• Oh no my withdrawal has not arrived
• So they contacted the bank and bank said they were aware off a technical issue related to payments made on a certain date and they were working on it.
• A day later bank contacted them to let them know their money has been transferred (and it had)

If the other links are anything like that one then not sure how you are equating it to a risk of not getting your money back.

None of the links support the case and two of them are for Raisin, which is not a "small bank" but a broker "that finds savings accounts at competitive rates".

maxsteam

Personally, if funds are due on a certain day, I expect the payment date to be honoured without the need for phone calls and emails. Generally, with large banks, you can withdraw early and lose some interest. With some lesser known organisations, it's difficult to withdraw early. It's my personal preference but, for something large, I would always prefer to deal with an organisation that I have heard of and that I have dealt with previously.

MichaelAP

I have a Marcus Savings & today opened a ZOPA Savings Account.
Whilst I can access my Marcus Savings from both the App and Web, I notice you can log into the ZOPA Web account but it does not show you any savings details.
As such is it correct to say Marcus shows savings from both App & Web, whilst ZOPA is App only?
The Web version of ZOPA when logging in is a little pointless!

masonic

MichaelAP said:

I have a Marcus Savings & today opened a ZOPA Savings Account.
Whilst I can access my Marcus Savings from both the App and Web, I notice you can log into the ZOPA Web account but it does not show you any savings details.
As such is it correct to say Marcus shows savings from both App & Web, whilst ZOPA is App only?
The Web version of ZOPA when logging in is a little pointless!

I'm not sure the relevance of this to this year old thread, but I hold one or two Zopa accounts, and I didn't even know they had an app. I see my accounts just fine via the web.