Innovative Finance ISAs

liamcov

There isn't much info about these on the site or forum - does anyone have any experience / recommendations of providers etc?

eskbanker

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/peer-to-peer-lending/ is the MSE article, but the fact that it's archived after last being updated three years ago tells its own story about how that particular bubble has largely burst.

https://p2pindependentforum.com/ is the external site that posters were often directed to for further information....

Albermarle

liamcov said:

There isn't much info about these on the site or forum - does anyone have any experience / recommendations of providers etc?

Most IFISA's were for P2P platforms. Unfortunately the sector is much smaller than it used to be due to the closure of many P2P platforms. Some in a reasonably orderly fashion but some in administration/liquidation/fraud trials.
Some IFISA's do still exist, although it is a very small subsector compared to the usual ISA's.

eskbanker

The annual gov.uk ISA statistics are quite revealing, in that you have to zoom a long way into this chart to be able to discern the tiny sliver of IFISAs (representing 0.2% of ISA subscriptions in the most recent year)!


https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2023/commentary-for-annual-savings-statistics-june-2023

Albermarle

eskbanker said:

The annual gov.uk ISA statistics are quite revealing, in that you have to zoom a long way into this chart to be able to discern the tiny sliver of IFISAs (representing 0.2% of ISA subscriptions in the most recent year)!


https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2023/commentary-for-annual-savings-statistics-june-2023

I took one out in the early days. I knew they were a niche product, but was surprised later to find out that in that tax year, I was one of only 2,000 people who had started an IFISA.
For the record the platform got into trouble ( surprise )  but luckily it was run down, rather than anything worse, and I did get my money back with some interest.

masonic

I have several, provided by firms that are in administration and replete with bad debt from almost a decade ago. Serves as a reminder to stick to mainstream investments.

techno12

I'm still in an IFISA - with Funding Circle, which was p2p at the time.

Put £20k in, have about £250 ish remaining to take out, but it has been drip fed for years as you can only withdraw what the businesses lent to have paid back thus far. Compounding/reinvestment stopped a few years ago when they left the p2p market so it's just a case of waiting until all the existing loans have been paid.

Started off with lending to 500 businesses, down to the last 45 now. I did panic a bit when Covid hit as I assumed loads of businesses would default, but that never happened (I guess the govt schemes helped there).

Worked out ok, made about £3k in the 5 years or so that I've had it, might increase slightly if some of the remaining bad debt (£2k ish) gets resolved in future.