Anyone use Zopa?

[Sun Wukong]

Hi guys,

Just a curiosity, as I have several thousand sat in a UK "savings" account generating stuff all.

Was thinking of moving my money out to a country with interest rates, or taking advantage of a currency crisis somewhere (South Africa )... or possibly some Zopa.

So, how safe is something like Zopa. Do they have any real protection on lenders?

[Sun Wukong]

Also, fucking the banks right off would be lovely. Hence my preference for something like this.

I'd imagine government asset seizure of something like this might be a bit more difficult.

Giggidy.
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Top cat
"Hard times lead to hard people. Hard people lead to good times. Good times lead to weak people. Weak people lead to hard times." Smegballs
"Oh and STE balloons would be one of the nicer things we would receive at the office, the amount of dog turd in jiffy bags is not funny." Jsmith86

[Robby]

I looked into it a few years ago when I had some savings for a house deposit. The way it was written didn't inspire confidence, essentially if I wanted to lend in the high risk/high reward bit there was a chance of losing a lot. I think this has improved now more people use the service so if someone defaults I would be one of 100 lenders in that pool.

I went for a stocks and shares ISA in the end. It was a bit more fun because it updated regularly - either daily or weekly - with the current balance in the fund. It was volatile, some weeks it would gain 15%, some it would lose 10%. I could pull the money out at any time, I think I made 10% on it in 10 months.

Also consider putting it in stocks and shares with a iii account. The general rule is to look for companies or sectors with steady growth and don't put all your eggs in one basket.

The outlier alternative for you is to take advantage of your current circumstances. You're in India doing something charitable. It's a growing economy, you know people, and you're numerate and literate. You could probably do quite well out of offering small loans to small businesses at high but not loan-shark interest rates. This has the added benefit that you can get a good price on products or services from said companies while they owe you money. My brother did this for 6 months in an African country. I did a similar thing when my tattooist was moving shop and needed a loan, I got a big discount on my tattoos while he was paying me back.

[Sun Wukong]

Yeh, that's the issue I have as well.

I like the idea of lending money, but leaving India soon (same company hopefully) and most of the people here are hardcore bastards when it comes to money. It's inspirational or something.

I did get approached by my landlord to lend him money at 12% interest. That seemed pretty shady, and he has total shitfits occasionally which made me less keen.

Compared to that, something like Zopa seem pretty cool.
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Top cat
"Hard times lead to hard people. Hard people lead to good times. Good times lead to weak people. Weak people lead to hard times." Smegballs
"Oh and STE balloons would be one of the nicer things we would receive at the office, the amount of dog turd in jiffy bags is not funny." Jsmith86

[Alpineandy]

[Ben90]

I've been with Ratesetter for about 2 years. They're similar to Zopa but I preferred the way Ratesetter works by giving you far more flexibility and control over your money. You can lend multiple lumps of money at different term lengths depending when you want it back by, reinvest automatically in the market of your choice etc. I saw Zopa as more of a simple deposit-and-forget setup.

P2P lending isn't compensated by the FSCS, but Ratesetter has it's own provision fund of eleventy million in a ringfenced bank account specifically to pay lenders back if a borrower defaults, as such they 'haven't lost a penny' since 2010.

Last year was deemed "not much riskier than a bank"

And without really trying I've managed an average of 3.85% per year (4.8% gross minus income tax at 20%) Put your money away longer and you're looking at well above 5% net return for very little work and risk. PLUS much satisfaction at not letting banker wankers cream off the top of your savings.
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Yamaha FZ6 S2

[panrider_uk]

I'm just looking at putting some money into one of these p2p investments.

Any more experiences to those above?

Ta
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Current bike: Honda ST1100