IFISAs: What Are The Risks?

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 Review

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.

The 3 P2P Lending Providers With The Best Financial Health

Initially published well over a year ago, this page has been updated in March 2025. P2P lending companies’ financial health is of great interest to lenders and of course to us at 4thWay. If a P2P lending company is already making money then it lowers…

4thWay P2P And Direct Lending Index: December 2024

December 2024 had the most write-offs since July 2014 at about £4 million, but the interest paid outweighed that, so the month was still positive overall. That nudged up the year’s return to end on 7.61%, after costs and all losses.   The 4thWay Peer-to-Peer…

Which P2P Lending Sites Offer FSCS Protection On Unlent Cash?

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…

Peer-to-Peer Lending Vs Other Investments

In this guide, we explain how peer-to-peer lending performs when compared against stocks and other investments. Here’s a short summary of what you’ll learn Useful investments for most people are 1) Savings accounts, 2) peer-to-peer lending, 3) buying your own home and 4) the stock…

LandlordInvest Winding Down – Brief Thoughts

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…

4thWay P2P And Direct Lending Index: September 2024

  The 4thWay Peer-to-Peer And Direct Lending Index (PADL Index) enables investors to compare long-run returns to shares and other asset classes. Constituents’ returns have massively outpaced the stock market. In the ten years since start of the index, annualised returns after costs have been…

What is Peer-to-Peer Lending?

Here’s an overview of how you can earn an income and make money by helping others escape the banks through peer-to-peer lending. You open an online account with one or more peer-to-peer lending companies, and then you can lend money to people or businesses, including property owners….

4thWay’s 10 P2P Investing Principles

Peer-to-peer lending – and other online direct lending – is on average relatively low risk compared to the stock market. And it’s relatively easy to assess compared to picking shares – provided you arm yourself with knowledge. But it’s still, most definitely, an investment. This…

Is Peer-to-Peer Lending Safe For Lenders?

The process of money lending has been very profitable for thousands of years, even before computers and credit reports. There have been credit-reference agencies since the mid-1800s. From then onwards, it has become increasingly easy to assess borrowers and decide what interest rates to charge…

4-Step Strategy to Safe Peer-to-Peer Lending

Safe peer-to-peer lending is not as risky as the stock market. Not by a long shot. On average! However, as with the stock market, the risks in P2P lending are not uniform. Some lenders will lose a lot of money over the next half century, simply…

4thWay P2P And Direct Lending Index: August 2024

  The 4thWay Peer-to-Peer And Direct Lending Index (PADL Index) enables investors to compare long-run returns to shares and other asset classes. Constituents’ returns have massively outpaced the stock market. In the ten years since start of the index, annualised returns after costs have been…

4thWay P2P And Direct Lending Index: 10-Year Performance

As of 30th June, 2024 The new 4thWay Peer-to-Peer And Direct Lending Index (PADL Index) was launched in August 2024. It enables investors to compare long-run returns to shares and other asset classes. Constituents’ returns have massively outpaced the stock market. In the ten years…

How’s It Going With Invest & Fund, Loanpad And CapitalRise?

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…

Kuflink: Why New Lending Rates?

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….

The Remarkable Long-Term Performance Of P2P Lending

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…

Look Outside P2P Lending: Investing In Shares

Recently, for a friend, I returned to my old stomping grounds of share investing to look at the best options for her. I was interested to know how these had changed since I last assessed them in great detail, which would have been early in…

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