4thWay has long collated more data on peer-to-peer lending than probably anyone else, stretching back to the very first P2P loan ever made. And now, we have sufficient data from a large enough number of important P2P lending providers to start accurately tracking performance. So…
I’m back! It’s been ages since I told you about anything through 4thWay, so I’m pleased to take you through the latest on cashback. Whatever happened to P2P lending cashback? A few years ago, the regulator banned cashback, which had been used to lure people…
Some lenders choose to lend through a type of pension called a self-invested personal pension, or SIPP. These are many and varied, but they often give investors an expanded choice of what they can invest in, albeit for a high price. SIPPs have historically suffered…
We told HMRC that, reading the rules for ISAs, “they don’t actually prohibit people opening multiple IFISAs in one tax year, provided they only subscribe new money to one of them”… Do they? A representative from HMRC has told us this “looks correct”. That’s about…
As you may know, you can only open one IFISA in a tax year, which runs from the 6th of April to the 5th of April, and this limits your ability to spread your money and the risks across lots of providers. Opening more than…
Last year, in 2023, if you invested in one of the cheapest and best share funds to cover the entire UK stock market, through Vanguard, and you did it directly through them in their own ISA, you’ll probably have made around 6.8%. That’s assuming you…
Owning property is one of the four ways that gives 4thWay its name. As we sometimes say: “there’s the savings way, the property ownership way, the stock market way, and now there’s the P2P lending way: the 4thWay”. All are equally fantastic ways to save…
Peer-to-peer lending is not a regulated phrase. By 4thWay’s definition, any online lending company is peer-to-peer if it structures itself and its loans to offer the same level of protection as direct lending, in order to protect lenders in the event that the lending company…
I just have time for two brief updates on Proplend, which is truly one of the most remarkable P2P lending and IFISA providers for lowering your risks while paying attractive interest rates. Instant diversification in extremely safe loans available now At time of writing, Proplend*…
Nationwide says we’ve just had four months in a row of falling property prices. To some people, that means there are more falls to come. My colleague has expressed his views on that in a separate piece. But some peer-to-peer lending accounts seem…
We don’t get soooo much interest from 4thWay readers when we write about the social and environmental impacts of P2P lending. Our focus is on the risks, rewards, growing your wealth, or earning an income from money lending. Understandably, that’s what you’re most interested in….
It takes endless patience and often remarkable intelligence to do nothing. Whether you’re a monarchist or not, you can still learn from the Queen, who was an absolute master of those useful skills, which you can apply in your P2P lending. The Queen must have…
Even over longer periods of time, – and perhaps not even that. over all time periods. How good are bonds? On average, bonds are “a bit naff”, according to the fantastic UBS Global Investment Returns Yearbooks. OK, the research doesn’t actually use those words, but it…
This article was originally the introduction and background to a piece called P2P Lending: How To Deal With Rising Interest Rates. But it got too long, so those tips on lending through rising rates now has its own page. In contrast, the page you’re reading…
When you’re locked into lending at lower rates P2P lending is almost invariably fixed-rate lending. Your existing borrowers aren’t going to start paying you more just because rates today are going up. Your cash is tied to that and it’s not partaking in any increases….
Naturally, we can’t know the answer to the question in the title precisely, because every major economic event is unique, coming with different causes, different factors happening at the time. However, investors need to invest – and lenders need to lend – with a large…
Recently we made a new effort to get even more data from the P2P lending providers to really get a full idea of how easy it is for lenders to get their money lent out at the moment. We wanted to know if we could…
Getting your money back when using auto-lend Some P2P lending accounts and IFISAs spread your money across loans automatically or have similar “auto-bid” or “auto-lend” features. When it comes to getting your money back from these sorts of accounts, a 4thWay user summed up the…
What is a secondary market? A secondary market allows you to buy and sell existing loan parts to or from other lenders. You might do this for bigger profits, to exit early or for other reasons. The only realistic way to leave P2P lending loans…
We’ve ranked the P2P lending providers in a few different ways on the 4thWay website, either in best-of articles or in our comparison tables, which can themselves be sorted in three different ways. And we’ve covered the details in reviews for them. But we had…
Independent opinion: 4thWay will help you to identify your options and narrow down your choices. We suggest what you could do, but we won't tell you what to do or where to lend; the decision is yours. We are responsible for the accuracy and quality of the information we provide, but not for any decision you make based on it. The material is for general information and education purposes only.
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The 4thWay® PLUS Ratings are calculations developed by professional risk modellers (someone who models risks for the banks), experienced investors and a debt specialist from one of the major consultancy firms. They measure the interest you earn against the risk of suffering losses from borrowers being unable to repay their loans in scenarios up to a serious recession and a major property crash. The ratings assume you spread your money across hundreds or thousands of loans, and continue lending until all your loans are repaid. They assume you lend across 6-12 rated P2P lending accounts or IFISAs, and measure your overall performance across all of them, not against individual performances.
The 4thWay PLUS Ratings are calculated using objective criteria that can be measured and improved on over time, although no rating system is perfect. Read more about the 4thWay® PLUS Ratings.
*Commission, fees and impartial research: our service is free to you. 4thWay shows dozens of P2P lending accounts in our accurate comparison tables and we add new ones as they make it through our listing process. We receive compensation from Invest & Fund, Loanpad and Proplend, and other P2P lending companies not mentioned above either when you click through from our website and open accounts with them, or when you make an investment, or to cover the costs of conducting our calculated stress tests and ratings assessments. We vigorously ensure that this doesn't affect our editorial independence. Read How we earn money fairly with your help.
