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ThinCats, Zopa, etc

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    ThinCats, Zopa, etc

    I know a few here are advocates of Zopa (DimPrawn especially IIRC) and I started looking into it a bit this week.
    A friend recommended I look at ThinCats which appears to be a similar model but specifically for business loans - it also has a much larger minimum "chunk size" of £1000.

    One thing I noted about ThinCats is that they specifically say both individuals and businesses may use it, which raises the idea of YourCo investing in TC.

    Anyone who uses these services or has done serious research like to share more? Where do they come on the risk spectrum i.e. is it suitable for a side-investment only, or safe enough one could use it as a substantial part of their investment portfolio?
    Originally posted by MaryPoppins
    I'd still not breastfeed a nazi
    Originally posted by vetran
    Urine is quite nourishing

    #2
    Never heard of them, but I dabble with FundingCircle.

    Have a look here and see what people think: Home | P2P Independent Forum

    Comment


      #3
      I used Zopa a few years ago as a lender, maybe a year or so after it started, something like that. Worked quite well for me, I put in £500 I think, sometimes I reinvested, sometimes I withdrew. I didn't keep track of how much I made in total but it was an interesting exercise and one I might well repeat.

      I had one borrower default on me but since my share of his borrowings was only a tenner and he'd paid half of it back before defaulting then fair enough. On the whole I made a profit so happy with the way things worked out.

      If you lend to lots of different people who all have different payment dates, you could pretty much log in every day and see your funds trickling back in, and you could then decide whether to make them available for lending again or just withdraw them.

      I don't know if Zopa works any differently now but back then you could choose what sort of borrower you were happy to lend to (low medium or high risk) and you could also choose what interest rate you wanted to get on each chunk. So you could lend £50 to low risk people at 9%, another £50 to low risk at 9.5%, £100 to medium risk at 10.3% etc. You could also choose how much to lend to an individual with the default being £10 I think. Sometimes money got allocated quickly, sometimes it stayed in their holding account earning a few percent there. This was back before interest rates fell to 0.5% though.
      • The meaning of life is to give life meaning
      • Worrying about tomorrow spoils today

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by d000hg View Post
        I know a few here are advocates of Zopa (DimPrawn especially IIRC) and I started looking into it a bit this week.
        A friend recommended I look at ThinCats which appears to be a similar model but specifically for business loans - it also has a much larger minimum "chunk size" of £1000.

        One thing I noted about ThinCats is that they specifically say both individuals and businesses may use it, which raises the idea of YourCo investing in TC.

        Anyone who uses these services or has done serious research like to share more? Where do they come on the risk spectrum i.e. is it suitable for a side-investment only, or safe enough one could use it as a substantial part of their investment portfolio?

        Interest rates are too high, at Barclays you can get 3-4% why go here do you have bad credit?

        Comment


          #5
          I just checked: Santander are offering loans "from 4.2%" and Zopa is offering rates as low as 4.8% to the borrower. I think they check borrowers are legit as well.

          But I think you're deliberately misunderstanding me.
          Originally posted by MaryPoppins
          I'd still not breastfeed a nazi
          Originally posted by vetran
          Urine is quite nourishing

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by d000hg View Post
            I just checked: Santander are offering loans "from 4.2%" and Zopa is offering rates as low as 4.8% to the borrower. I think they check borrowers are legit as well.

            But I think you're deliberately misunderstanding me.
            You want to lend?

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by d000hg View Post
              I think they check borrowers are legit as well.
              Back when I was a lender Zopa checked people's credit ratings very stringently, so much so that although I was lending money through them I didn't actually qualify to borrow anything.

              They have to be very careful with choosing the borrowers, because ultimately it's not their money they're lending out.

              Zopa also set up a marketplace thing, a bit like kickstarter, where borrowers could pitch directly to the lenders and if you as a lender thought they were ok then you could agree to lend £x to them. But each borrower has to get their loan fully funded before getting any of the money. I'd stopped reinvesting by this time so didn't look into that side of it too closely.
              • The meaning of life is to give life meaning
              • Worrying about tomorrow spoils today

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by DannyF1966 View Post
                Back when I was a lender Zopa checked people's credit ratings very stringently, so much so that although I was lending money through them I didn't actually qualify to borrow anything.

                They have to be very careful with choosing the borrowers, because ultimately it's not their money they're lending out.
                Good to know.
                Originally posted by MaryPoppins
                I'd still not breastfeed a nazi
                Originally posted by vetran
                Urine is quite nourishing

                Comment


                  #9
                  ZOPA Update

                  Anyone got any updates.

                  I've now got about 26k in Zopa returning 4.7%. Spoke to them earlier, they reckon it'll be another 2 months until the FSA grant them ISA status.

                  I pulled out of Ratesetter.

                  For P2P Lenders, what is everyone using and what are you getting?
                  What happens in General, stays in General.
                  You know what they say about assumptions!

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Why did you pull out of Ratesetter? I was thinking of giving them a go.
                    England's greatest sailor since Nelson lost the armada.

                    Comment

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