Peer-to-peer lending sites: MSE guide discussion

granta wrote: »

I am new to P2P lending and have recently opened an account with Ratesetter with the intention of investing in the rolling market.

I'm surprised at how low the rates are....over the last week, they have fluctuated between 2% and 3.5%. Is that the current average as I can't find any historical data? Just looking to hear from more experienced investors at what kind of rate you have been able to obtain?
The 1 year fixed is 4% so am wondering whether to go for that instead.
Any views gratefully received.

You can get 5.9% on Ratesetter 5 year. If you want short term then you are better off with Assetz Capital 4.1% instant access or 5.1% 30 day access. Usual warnings apply.

MoneyGeoff wrote: »

You can get 5.9% on Ratesetter 5 year. If you want short term then you are better off with Assetz Capital 4.1% instant access or 5.1% 30 day access. Usual warnings apply.

Totally agree with MoneyGeoff re Assetz. I started with Ratesetter first - when the rates were more like 5%+ on the 1 year (most of my 1 year money was around 6%). However rates dropped earlier this year, I think through a combination of money inflow, Ratesetter manipulating rates by making default money automatically going in at current rates and so on.


Assetz is my preferred platform of all of them - personally I would steer clear of the GBBA though.

granta wrote: »

Thank you for the advice. I signed up via the £100 bonus so the first year return isn't bad if you take that into account. I think I will go for the 1 year fixed at 4% and then start to look at some of the other platforms for depositing higher amounts.
Can I ask why you like Assetz, apart form the better rates?

Yes, the £100 bonus does make it better, £1000 investment at 3% with a £100 bonus, technically a 13% return.


Reasons i like assetz:-


Platform is straightforward to use.
Choice of accounts - 1 month notice account giving 5.1%
easy access account giving 4.1%
MLA (manual lending account) select your loans to invest in


i have money sat in the notice account with the view that 5.1% is better than any cash bank account my a long long way.


The MLA I enjoy the process of assessing the credit reports - selecting the individual loans and so on.


With Assetz it does feel a lot more interactive and I guess that is part of being an active investor rather than the more passive approach of ratesetter where you set your %'s and let it get on with it.

taylornj wrote: »

Assetz Capital has a 0.5% bonus on new lent funds until end of August, earning bonus rate until 4th Jan 2019.


I use Assetz capital as a holding account, getting up to 18% on other P2P platforms.

And there's me chuffed with a return of 7%+ overall on Assetz.


18% is a different territory altogether.

granta wrote: »

I have a lot to learn!! How can you get 18% return?
On Ratesetter, I can't see how you would get a borrower to offer you a higher rate than the market average at any given time. From what you have all said though, there are more pick and mix borrowers to choose from on other platforms where you can take a higher risk and thus offer a higher rate?

18% return i suspect comes with a higher level of risk.


Every platform does things differently.


Ratesetter as I previously said is a bit passive in that you dont "choose" who you lend money to, the only thing you can do is manually set the rate you want to lend out at and even that has been described as awkward to setup by many. Primarily because its in ratesetters interest for you to lend at their definition of market rate.


Assetz you can fire and forget in a similar way with the instant and 30 day accounts, stick £500 into the 30 day and odds are you would get 1/12th of 5.1% next month in interest.


But they also have the MLA (Manual lending account), where you decide if you are going to lend £100 to someone who wants to buy a chip shop in Nottingham or £200 to someone who wants to renovate an inherited property to sell on or £300 to someone who wants to buy their business premises. This is fun and I like it. Its also nice because if you invest in a number of these the repayments are all throughout the month so almost every day I log in and see interest being added.


Another platform like Kuflink is all property and again you can invest £100 for someone to develop some flats or they also have an "autoinvest" option where you throw £200 in and it splits that across 5-10 different loans.


Kuflink does some good referral bonuses as well, think its £100 for referrer and £100 for referre and last time i looked it was for a £500 investment (@bxboards on this forum is a good sharer of bonuses for kuflink)


I suspect the 18% is higher risk platforms, ultimately it is all a gamble though and the adage goes dont gamble what you cant afford to lose.