Peer to Peer investments - what's on at the moment?

bobski_111

Just wondering if anyone is having good experience with saving/investment in peer to peer products at the moment.

Pre-pandemic I had good experience with Zopa, Funding Circle and Ratesetter but they're all closed to retail saving at the moment. I've tried Lending Works but they aren't matching my money, it's just been sitting there for a few months. 

Keen to get back into this market as I always thought it had some genuine value that meant returns were higher than just the risk premium.

Edited to add: Looking to invest £10k-£20k so nothing that only takes big money. 

Albermarle

I've tried Lending Works but they aren't matching my money, it's just been sitting there for a few months.

They have also largely stopped new lending . You should have received an e mail about it.

Most P2P lenders in the area of consumer or small ( usually micro ) business lenders have pulled out /are running down their lending books.

P2P lenders in the area of property related lending , have either gone bust, or have survived and are open for new business again.

Then there is a mixed bag involved in green investments, pawnbroking; non UK firms etc 

lifemagic

Nope. The money I had in Funding Circle is still unavailable for withdrawel since Covid, so I'm drawing down interest. So an instant access account was basically suspended for nearly two years with nothing I can do about it. Never again for me. I'm using Nexo now (crypto). GBP 4% instant access, 3 month bond 8%.

agent69

The gloss has come off P2P lending over the last few years, mainly as it becomes apparent that it is impossible to wind down failed platforms without major lender losses.

If you look at the independent forum you will get a feel for who is currently flavour of the month. However, it wasn't long ago that Collateral and Money Thing were top of the list, and look where they are now.

ZeroSum

lifemagic said:

Nope. The money I had in Funding Circle is still unavailable for withdrawel since Covid, so I'm drawing down interest. So an instant access account was basically suspended for nearly two years with nothing I can do about it. Never again for me. I'm using Nexo now (crypto). GBP 4% instant access, 3 month bond 8%.

Funding circle was never instant access. You would've needed to sell your loans which probably would've taken a hit.

You're also able to withdraw capital repayments & not just the interest as you claim.

Also with FC, many of the businesses have used covid loans to payback FC loans so you should've had a decent chunk repaid. I've had about 50% of mine back since the start of covid

ZeroSum

bobski_111 said:

Just wondering if anyone is having good experience with saving/investment in peer to peer products at the moment.

Pre-pandemic I had good experience with Zopa, Funding Circle and Ratesetter but they're all closed to retail saving at the moment. I've tried Lending Works but they aren't matching my money, it's just been sitting there for a few months. 

Keen to get back into this market as I always thought it had some genuine value that meant returns were higher than just the risk premium.

Edited to add: Looking to invest £10k-£20k so nothing that only takes big money. 

Have a look at LoanPad & Kufflink

dunstonh

Keen to get back into this market as I always thought it had some genuine value that meant returns were higher than just the risk premium.

I think you were underestimating the risk.    When things are good, no-one is unhappy.  Its when the bad periods come along that you get a true measure of the risk and looking at the failures, closures and all those stuck in illiquid accounts gives a fair indication of the risk level that really exists.

Aceace

bobski_111 said:

Just wondering if anyone is having good experience with saving/investment in peer to peer products at the moment.

Pre-pandemic I had good experience with Zopa, Funding Circle and Ratesetter but they're all closed to retail saving at the moment. I've tried Lending Works but they aren't matching my money, it's just been sitting there for a few months. 

Keen to get back into this market as I always thought it had some genuine value that meant returns were higher than just the risk premium.

Edited to add: Looking to invest £10k-£20k so nothing that only takes big money. 

IMO, there are plenty of decent platforms to choose from, and some that are not worth the risk. To save repeating lots of details, you can see my end of year summary for 2021 here: https://p2pindependentforum.com/post/443233/thread

Discounting platforms with minimums of £500 or more per loan, and those that don't have an autoinvest mode (since your previous platforms did), these might interest you: 

Property secured loans: CrowdProperty, Kuflink and Loanpad. 
Unsecured consumer loans: Elfin Market. 
Pawn based loans: Unbolted. 

Lots more details on P2PIF, both good and bad. Also might be worth a look at 4thWay.

london21

Assess your risk appetite.
Can be high risk. 

Malthusian

lifemagic said:

So an instant access account was basically suspended for nearly two years with nothing I can do about it. Never again for me. I'm using Nexo now (crypto). GBP 4% instant access, 3 month bond 8%.

Gets fingers burned by treating junk loans to small businesses as an instant access deposit account. Says "never again". Promptly sticks same fingers into illegal "instant access" accounts (loans to crypto bros). Says "this is fine".

Still, it could all work out.

dunstonh

Malthusian said:

lifemagic said:

So an instant access account was basically suspended for nearly two years with nothing I can do about it. Never again for me. I'm using Nexo now (crypto). GBP 4% instant access, 3 month bond 8%.

Gets fingers burned by treating junk loans to small businesses as an instant access deposit account. Says "never again". Promptly sticks same fingers into illegal "instant access" accounts (loans to crypto bros). Says "this is fine".

Still, it could all work out.

"This time next year Rodney, we’ll be millionaires."