It wasn’t long ago that we compared Crowd2Fund* to Funding Circle. (Read Crowd2Fund Versus Funding Circle: Which Is Better?) Since then, I have been passed an update on bad debts from a colleague. The proportion of all-time loans that have gone bad at Crowd2Fund (the…
Tax-free P2P lending through a pension is back! For a couple of years, SIPPclub helped many people use SIPPs – a kind of pension – to collectively lend more than £20 million on a range of P2P lending sites. It was covered in an article…
This article was originally published on 11th October and has been updated due to fresh statistics from Crowd2Fund. Crowd2Fund was one of the first P2P lending sites to be granted full authorisation by the financial regulator. It does loans to small businesses paying 8% to…
There are a lot of ways to look at a P2P lending site to get a handle on the risks. Here are three ways that can lead to false positives. 1. The P2P lending site has won awards Almost since P2P lending started, P2P lending…
What we learned about RateSetter’s experiments Rhydian Lewis, RateSetter’s* CEO, got the chance to present his business recently. I’ve set the above video to start from the point where I think it might be particularly interesting to individual lenders as regards to RateSetter’s own business,…
One of the two first questions* that Leigh Baker, 4thWay’s chief risk modeller, asks senior people in the industry is: “How much have you lent through your own P2P lending site?” What particularly interests us is not just the amount that the founders and other…
Here’s a picture to show you what the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority does and what it doesn’t do to make P2P lending safer. The FCA has effectively blocked around 300 applications from businesses wanting to start a P2P lending site and I have seen its…
Cliff is an experienced freelance journalist hired in as 4thWay’s “Chief P2P Cynic” to give you the alternative view. Read about Cliff. Typically, UK investors have two main options when it comes to lending out their cash via peer-to-peer (P2P) websites. The first is to…
It’s both invoice lending and ArchOver month at 4thWay. Since it’s high time more lenders got to understand the beauty of this kind of lending. ArchOver is one of the only invoice lending P2P sites that has provided 4thWay with all the information we need…
There are all sorts of reasons why a P2P lending website may no longer be able to pay its bills. It might run out of start-up funding before it has started to earn enough money. It might succumb to better, more nimble competition. It might itself…
First I’ll tell you about the lending bubble, then I’ll share my views about how much it affects us as individual lenders, and then I’ll say what action we can take now. The growing personal loans debt pile Financial advisers, debt charities and the Bank…
Cliff is an experienced freelance journalist hired in as 4thWay’s “Chief P2P Cynic” to give you the alternative view. Read about Cliff. Some months ago, I was chatting with Neil Faulkner, founder and owner of 4thWay. During our conversation, Neil asked me a key question,…
Development loans offer attractive interest rates of 8% or more, secured on land and property, so they are appealing to lenders. Most property P2P lending websites focus on development loans more than other kinds of property loans. (See sidebox, right, to find out what development…
At first glance, Assetz Capital’s* Property Secured Investment Account looks pretty much like what I always thought its Great British Business Account was really meant to be. Its British business account describes itself as lending in loans that are “usually” backed by land and property,…
There’s a hidden cost that we at 4thWay have not given much attention to so far, but we’ve just had an email from one of you about it. It’s called “cash drag”. Cash drag is when you have money sitting in your P2P lending account…
This week I received a newsletter from a popular money-saving tips website that said: “Peer-to-peer lending isn’t the only option for savers keen to earn more – there’s also investing to consider.” It was just yet another time that I’ve heard P2P being described as…
We have had a lot of requests for updates on the big three P2P lending sites, namely Zopa, Funding Circle and RateSetter. There’s an awful lot of important things to say about each of them, so here goes: Zopa Core earns a 4thWay PLUS Rating…
Prime personal loans P2P lending site Lending Works* is one of a smaller number of P2P lending sites that uses insurance to protect lenders from specific situations. What the insurance does for lenders Lending Works’ insurance could pay out if and when a borrower is unable…
Not enough time to read this 4,000 word report? See the simple, plain English summary here. In this report: The Guardian says: RateSetter was hit by £80m of problem loans. Is that true? Significant mistakes admitted by RateSetter. The risks and rewards at RateSetter have…
One of my colleagues wrote a 4,000-word report on RateSetter, explaining some recent troubles it has had as well as his opinion on whether individual lenders should sell RateSetter loans now. It’s called Fact Check: RateSetter Hit By £80m Of Struggling Loans. I know that…
*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 Growth Street, RateSetter and Wellesley, and other P2P lending companies not mentioned above either when you click through from our website and open accounts with them, 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.
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 opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not held by 4thWay. 4thWay is not regulated by ESMA or the FCA. All the specialists and researchers who conduct research and write articles for 4thWay are subject to 4thWay's Editorial Code of Practice. For more, please see 4thWay's terms and conditions.
