P2P lending, IFISA lending and other online lending is pretty simple and straightforward to do well, but only if you do all the routine things right. Neither 4thWay’s lending tips nor any other educational information from us or elsewhere online can save you from disappointment,…
The majority of peer-to-peer and online lending focuses on development lending. That sector has gone through a very rough patch in recent years and I’ve been wondering whether too many individual lenders have not spread across other types of lending. So it’s a good time…
I’m super proud of what 4thWay has done for many lenders and of our record. We have made some mistakes, but our ratings, research and guidance has been very accurate. More accurate than it needs to be for lenders to comfortably make satisfactory returns over…
Sometimes P2P lending companies close down or shift away from being P2P businesses. When they do, you want to see loans repaid in an orderly fashion. That’s why they have plans for this scenario in advance. These plans are intended to make it highly probable…
I don’t often write about the ethical, ecological, responsible, “doing good” or social aspects of lending. Hardly anyone clicks on headlines like that. Yet now that I’ve tricked you into this one with my vague title, would you give me a few minutes, as: We…
LEND.ch is a Swiss peer-to-peer lending provider offering lending in Swiss francs (CHF). It hasn’t opened up to 4thWay’s specialists with data and access to its key people and therefore we haven’t conducted our usual week’s long assessment of it. So this is kind of…
Update: the first answer was corrected on 10th June after a stupid error by me. My apologies. On the positive side, on the 11th June HMRC explicitly confirmed to 4thWay that our second answer is correct. We have two questions on flexible ISAs and one…
We had a query from a 4thWay user about tax rules on lender fees recently, so I thought we could answer that for everyone. The reader was asking about whether lender fees are tax deductible, what that even means, which P2P lending companies currently charge…
Occasionally lenders reach out to 4thWay and describe what they are up to, how they’re doing and what their experiences have been when lending. I really appreciate the contact from you! Recently I had an email that inspired me to write this page today. I’m…
The people normally using 4thWay’s research are all very lucky. I mean, I presume you have money to spare if you’re lending it. There are an awful lot of people who can’t say the same. Yet I think it’s worth looking at the other side…
Whenever you invest (and money lending is a form of investment), you’re taking a risk that you’ll lose money. Not just lose to inflation – which is a loss that is practically guaranteed to happen in savings accounts. But I mean an actual loss in…
However, I’m not going to remind you what the latest property-price forecasts from the UK’s best-known economists are for 2025 or the next 12 months. If you want to know, you’ll have to look them up yourselves. Here’s why… What happened in 2024? To start…
This content today is extremely different to normal, but I need to get it out, as it’s pressing on my mind. Unusually, this page is not about a cold assessment of an investment provider or lending tips. Instead, it’s all about me. I have to…
The key risks in IFISAs are: Psychological risk: your own greed and fear. Concentration risk: you don’t spread your money across lots of loans and P2P lending sites. Credit risk: borrowers don’t repay you. Platform risk: the P2P lending site (the “platform”) goes bust and…
Lendwise’s lending accounts are unrated. These loans are expected to pay lenders around after bad debts. Visit Lendwise or keep reading the Lendwise Review.
Your main protection is that loans and cash are segregated Firstly, lets get a sense of proportion. Because FSCS protection here is actually a very minor point. If you have loans at a P2P lending company or if that site is holding some of your…
Just brief thoughts on this new story. LandlordInvest is apparently winding down at the insistence of the FCA, which appears, according to brief reports from Alternative Credit Investor, to have issues with its CEO, Filip Karadaghi, who has been forced to step down. We have…
This guide page is to: Describe to you just how incredibly powerful it is to spread your money across lots of high-quality loans. Offer guidance on how much diversification you need. Give you tips on how to go about doing that and how to lower…
Invest & Fund lending slowed, but should pick up again 4thWay’s specialists conducted a full reassessment on Invest & Fund this month. There’s nothing at all to report on the risk-reward balance, which remains solid. This update is more about a slow down in lending…
There are some items that we pay close attention to at 4thWay. For example, we have often described some of the signs we look for that a P2P lending provider is kicking the can of bad debt down the road to hide its actual performance….
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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