Peer to Peer Lending - February 2020 Lending Update

P2P Lending Portfolio Update For February 2020

 

For February 2020, the Peer to Peer lending sector was again quiet. It seems the Coronavirus and the following securities market fallout got all the attention and P2P just ticked along in the background.

The question a lot of investors seem to be asking is “how is the virus going to affect Peer to Peer Investing?”. The answer of course is; no one knows yet. If it is just a short dip, then perhaps not at all. If it becomes a longer, drawn out situation which then turns in to a recession, then of course it could have an effect on how borrowers are able to pay back their loans. Looking over my portfolios, I’m not too worried. Most of my capital is either with big companies who have provision funds and (hopefully) staying power to weather at least a mild recession, and/or it is invested in assets with good asset security backing and low LTV’s so if we do see defaults, we should be able to recoup most of the capital.

That being said, no P2P platform is a bank, so it will pay to keep an eye on things and watch for anything that seems to be going awry. In the event of a deep recession, income rates will fall at best, capital can be lost in a worst case scenario.

The other thing to think of if you want to invest but are worried about what will happen with the economy, think of investing with companies that enable easy access to capital. Growth Street, Assetz Capital, Loanpad, Lending Works all have short term access accounts.  

Re-balancing & Diversifying

Once again in February I needed to change my diversification rules (I can almost hear the eye rolls already). I’m really struggling now to find more lenders I trust to keep larger chunks of capital in, so I decided to up the number from 15k to 20k for my most trusted lenders that I know. So now Assetz Capital, Growth Street, Kuflink, Lending Works & Loanpad are all around the 20k mark.

My reasoning and justification for this change of rules: 1. Safety – these are what I consider to be my safest lenders (although not the highest returns). 2. Liquidity – with these lenders my experience so far has been that I can move capital from them quickly if needed. In the P2P lending world it seems nothing is permanent, so it’s good to have options to move capital quickly when needed. Things change all the time.   3. Inflation – I hate to have capital sat in the bank making close to nothing, and actually losing value to inflation. For some reason it just irritates me knowing what it could be making, and that it’s basically losing value every day sat in the bank. So if/as I find other lenders to diversify into, I will move capital from these larger accounts to the new lenders as needed to try and diversify further. For now though at least the capital is earning something and in what I consider to be the lower risk lenders.

New Lenders

I added a couple more investment platforms in February. I say “investment platforms” because for the first time I’ve gone away from pure Peer to Peer lending by investing with a company called UOWN in GBP who offer “co-ownership” in property. I wrote an initial review of UOWN here explaining reasons I decided to invest with them if anyone is interested in taking a look.

In the Euro sector I added Viventor, another loan market company like many of the other Euro lenders. Again I wrote an initial review on Viventor here. The loan market lenders (who don’t lend capital themselves, but offer a “marketplace” for loan originators) seem to make a lot of sense to me. They give an extra level of diversification and the platforms themselves are not under the pressure to originate all of the loans. This has obviously worked well for Mintos (the largest European platform which is already profitable) and others like Grupeer, Swaper, Robocash & PeerBerry.

 

Moving On

If you would like to see historical individual Peer to Peer lender account screenshots from my lending accounts etc. You can click on the links next to each Peer to Peer lender update and go to the account page where you can see balances and what I’m actually invested in. 

For the current month, I have added thumbnails of account screenshots below the account title. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge. 

 

Disclaimer

Some of the links on this website are affiliate referral links. For cashback offers, you’ll generally need to use these links to qualify for the cashback. If you use these links I can sometimes receive a commission, at absolutely no cost to you. This helps me to run the website, write new platform reviews and publish monthly portfolio updates. I don’t receive commissions from all lenders, and it has no effect on my ongoing opinions on platforms, which are entirely focused on generating Income from my investments and preserving capital.

 

 

GBP Portfolio Update Small_UK_Flag

Income from the GBP Peer to Peer lending portfolio was finally up in February from £448.67 in January to £797.01 in February. Funding Circle again hit me with defaults, but at least they were smaller in February at £183.40. The account still came in with an overall loss of -£36.35 for the month. Funding Circle is a classic example of a good company ruined by greedy executives (read the review to learn more). 

Overall GBP Portfolio XIRR was down a little again from 5.40% in January to 5.39% in February. This is mainly due to the larger lenders who all reduced their return rates toward the end of last year, plus CrowdProperty hasn’t started paying back yet as projects are not repaid until they complete.  

 

Small_UK_Flag GBP Lender Income Table For February, 2020.

 

Lender

Feb. Income Account Value XIRR
Ablrate £93.12 £10,354.46 13.07%
Assetz Capital £113.17 £21,439.34 5.98%
CrowdProperty £74.17 £12,663.20 N/A
Funding Circle – £36.35 £19,234.34 2.88%
Growth Street £64.31 £20,710.62 5.11%
Kuflink £92.05 £18,543.98 6.49%
Landbay £0.00 £0.00 3.48%
LendingCrowd £53.76 £10,122.07 7.14%
Lending Works £70.32 £20,439.94 5.55%
Loanpad £69.91 £20,928.45 5.79%
Mintos GBP £83.73 £9,824.59 9.72%
Octopus Choice £8.76 £15,008.76 N/A
RateSetter £48.69 £15,128.46 5.08%
Unbolted £61.37 £9,993.93 7.85%
UOWN £0.0 £1,000.00 N/A
Zopa £0.00 £9.70 0.00%
TOTAL: £797.01 £205,399.84 5.39%

 

Historical Monthly Lender Tables Are Available Here.

 

Total GBP P2P Monthly Income Chart

Total GBP Portfolio Value

 

Individual Lender Updates 

 

Ablrate 

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Ablrate Account

Ablrate Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending UpdateAblrate Account Screenshot 2 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Ablrate Monthly Income Chart

After sending more capital over to Ablrate last month, it makes sense that we would get a large jump in income from the account. XIRR is still holding it’s own at over 13% which makes Abrate my top GBP lender as far as “actual” percent return is concerned. 

XIRR did come down just a little from 14.03% in January to 13.07 in February. But I’m not complaining at 13%+ and that was likely due to cash drag while I was investing the extra capital last month.

 

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Assetz Capital

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Assetz Capital Account

Assetz Capital Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update Assetz Capital Account Screenshot 2 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Assetz Capital Income Chart

Assetz Capital are still one of my larger lending accounts. Income has come down a little due to a reduction in return rates last year (as with many of the larger lenders). Still not complaining though at almost 6% with asset secured lending.

XIRR increased a little again from 5.96% in January to 5.98% in February . Last month I said “I may actually break my diversification rules with Assetz Capital as I see no real reason to withdraw capital at the moment”. And that’s exactly what I did, so they’ll stay at around £20k for the time being along with my other £20k accounts.

 

Assetz Capital Signup & Cashback Offers

No current cashback offers from Assetz Capital (unfortunately).

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CrowdProperty

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My CrowdProperty Account.

CrowdProperty Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending UpdateCrowdProperty Account Screenshot 2 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending UpdateCrowdProperty Account Screenshot 3 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

I continued adding capital to CrowdProperty in February (added another £2,000 as loans became available). As a reminder, they are a new lender I added to the portfolio in October. In short; a first charge, secured property lender with an excellent track record offering 7%-8% returns on medium term (12-24 month) loans. Rather than go through everything in this update, I decided to write an initial review here for anyone interested in taking a look at them.

The way to invest here I’ve found is to manually grab chunks of loans as they become available. Instead of using the auto-invest, as auto-invest is only allowed to take up about half of the value of each loan. Then it puts a percentage of each lenders capital into each loan. I found I wasn’t getting enough invested, so I decided to invest manually. It seems the way to get money lent out faster is to be in front of the computer when a loan comes live as I’ve found I can get the full £500 I like to have per loan if I’m fast (the loans sell out in a couple of minutes as they are very popular). You can see a list of my current loans by clicking on the screenshots above. I’m starting to get a nice portfolio going now.

Returns

My CrowdProperty account won’t begin to show much return for the first few months as most of the loans I’m invested in don’t pay until the loan completes. All capital and interest is paid back in one go. This is normal with some development loans as it allows the developer to complete the project and sell it before having to worry about large loan payments while the project is ongoing. Obviously this adds some more risk to the loans, but that’s why most are paying around 8%. I feel very comfortable with CrowdProperty at these rates as all loans have first legal charge on assets, which should make it easier to get all capital back if a loan was to default.

You can see from the screenshot below when capital and interest is expected to be paid back with my CrowdProperty investments. Looks like all of my current investments will have been repaid within 12 months.

CrowdProperty Account Screenshot 4 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

If you’re looking for higher returns in GBP lending, definitely worth checking CrowdProperty out. Please consider using the link below so CrowdProperty will know that I sent you.

 

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Funding Circle

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Funding Circle Account.

Funding Circle Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Funding Circle Monthly Income Chart

As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader of Obviousinvestor.com, I’ve been trying to get out of Funding Circle since July 1st 2019. It’s taking a while but I’m slowly getting there.

XIRR declined AGAIN from 3.08% in January to 2.88% in February. I’m still showing an overall profit with Funding Circle at least, but again there were defaults. Funding Circle defaults for January were £183.40 and came in with an overall loss of -£36.35 for the month.

I did manage to withdraw £1,500 in February (from repayments & loan sales).

 

Funding Circle Signup & Cashback Offers

For anyone considering investing in Funding Circle, I would suggest you wait and see how things pan out, there are better lenders to invest with at this time.

However if you’re a new investor, and do still want to invest with Funding Circle (bad idea), the cashback offer for new investors is: Invest £2000 and receive £50 Amazon Gift Certificate. If you are hell bent on investing with Funding Circle, you may as well get the bonus.

Use this link to qualify for the Funding Circle cashback >>>

 

 

Growth Street

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Growth Street Account

Growth Street Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Growth Street Monthly Income Chart

Growth Street are one of the lenders which got topped up to £20k+ again in February. It hasn’t shown on the income yet as it was closer to the end of the month when I sent over the funds. Income increase should start to show again next month.  

I never worry about having money invested with Growth Street. 5.3% return with (almost guaranteed) access to capital within 30 days really does take some beating. I proved this to myself recently when I decided to reduce my exposure to any single account. I needed to withdraw some capital from Growth Street, so I just switched off my reinvestment settings and everything was available in my account to withdraw inside 30 days.

XIRR holding steady at 5.11% in February.

 

Growth Street Signup & Cashback Offers

For new investors, Growth Street have a very decent cashback offer: Invest £5000 or more for 1 year for £200 cashback.

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Kuflink

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Kuflink Account

Kuflink Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Kuflinkn Monthly Income Chart

I once again increased my investment with Kuflink in February as they still have a very good loan flow. The Kuflink account is sitting around £18k right now but I’ll likely bring them up to the £20k mark in March as I feel very comfortable with Kuflink and their property secured loans with low LTV’s. I’ve been lending with them for almost 2 years now and I couldn’t be happier.

XIRR increased just a little from 6.44% in January to 6.49% in February.  Anything over 6% with this kind of loan security is a good investment.

 

Kuflink Signup & Cashback Offers

Kuflink have a great cashback offer right now which is well worth taking advantage of if you are thinking of investing with them. You can get up to £500 in cashback bonus (depending on how much you invest).

New Kuflink customers receive the following Kuflink cashback on an investment of £100 or more when they use signup links from obviousinvestor.com. Must invest into loans within 14 days of first investment to qualify for cashback.

Investment Amount & Cashback

£100-£999.99 – £20.00

£1000-£4,999.99 – £100

£5000-£9,999.99 – £250

£10,000+ – £500

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Landbay

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Landbay are no longer allowing investment from retail investors. See link below for more information.

See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Landbay Account

 

 

LendingCrowd

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My LendingCrowd Account

LendingCrowd Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending UpdateLendingCrowd Account Screenshot 2 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Lending Crowd Account Growth Chart

No complaints here with my LendingCrowd account. They seem to understand their borrower base very well. As you can see from the screenshot above, late payments/defaults are a total of 9 (from over 400 loans). They always seem to be between 7 and 12 I’ve noticed and that provides an average return of over 7%.

LendingCrowd’s monthly income is not as consistent as some other lenders, but they still do well over time with XIRR sitting at 7.14% in February. Loan flow has been down for the last few months unfortunately but I’ve managed to keep cash drag to a minimum by buying on the secondary market.

LendingCrowd Signup & Cashback Offers

If you’re new to Peer to Peer lending and would like a shot at some higher rates; take a look at one of the last P2P lenders that still allow bidding on loans so you can get the best rates!

No current cashback offers.

Use this link to check for new offers or to open a standard account  >>>

 

 

 

Lending Works

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Lending Works Account

Lending Works Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Lending Works Monthly Income Chart

After increasing my account value to £20k, we’ll hopefully see Lending Works income continue to increase. Unfortunately at the end of last year, not only did I decide to reduce my exposure to many lending accounts (Lending Works included), but Lending Works were also one of the lenders which reduced their return rates. They were paying 6.5% on the long term account, for almost 2 years, but then it came down to 5.4% in December 2019. This of course will reflect on the income level as much as anything.

Lending Works XIRR held steady in February at 5.55%, which is around where I expect it to stay. Not a bad rate for the level of safety and liquidity Lending Works offer. I had just been spoiled with the 6.5% for so long 🙁 

 

Lending Works Signup & Cashback Offers

£50 cashback for investing £1000.

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Loanpad

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Loanpad Account

Loanpad Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending UpdateLoanpad Account Screenshot 2 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Loanpad Income Chart

 

 

Loanpad are another £20k account now. I increased the account value as I think that 5%+ returns for 60 day liquidity and such low LTV’s on secured assets make them one of the best and safest lenders out there right now.  XIRR came down a bit again from 5.89% in January to 5.79% in February. No complaints here though as the target rate for them is 5%.

The 5% target rate on the Loanpad Premium account is the actual rate you get, not taking in to consideration investing all of the returns for the effects of compounding. As opposed to the AER (Annual Equivalent Rate) given by most other lenders (both Peer to Peer and Banks/Building Societies) which estimates the rate based on all of the interest being invested back in to the account.

I’ve been lending with Loanpad for over a year now and I feel like they are a very good option for investing capital with the best asset protection in the industry. I like their focus on safety and assets with low, low LTV’s (you can see some of them highlighted in the screenshot above). I’m very happy I decided to lend with them early on. I think they are growing fast now and they’ll go on to do great things.

 

Loanpad Signup & Cashback Offers

Loanpad have a great cashback incentive for readers of ObviousInvestor.com if you’re thinking of joining:

  • £50 bonus if you invest into a lending account a minimum of £1,000 within 4 weeks post registration and keep this invested for 365 days.
  • £150 bonus if you invest into a lending account a minimum of £10,000 within 4 weeks post registration and keep this invested for 365 days. 

 

Use this link to signup & qualify for the Loanpad cashback offer >>>

 

 

 

Mintos (GBP Account) 

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Mintos Account

Mintos GBP Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Mintos Income Chart

I’m still having to withdraw GBP capital from Mintos because GBP MoGo car loans have gone away for good it appears. Unfortunately it looks like I’ll need to keep drawing it down without any more GBP loans available. 

XIRR decreased (as is expected) in February to 9.72% down just a tick from 9.73% in January. Sad to have to withdraw GBP from Mintos, but on the bright side I still have a good XIRR return on Mintos Euro loans and the loan flow is much better there.

Unfortunately Mintos are still saying that UK residents can no longer invest in Mintos loans for now. Hopefully that will be ratified soon.

 

Mintos Signup & Cashback Offers

If you are NOT a UK resident, Mintos have a wonderful cashback bonus, one of the best in fact. Mintos offer 0.50% of the value of your investments cashback for the first 90 days you are investing with them!

Use this link to signup & qualify for the Mintos cashback offer >>>

 

 

Octopus Choice 

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Octopus Choice Account

Octopus Choice Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

 

I added this new lender back in January. Octopus Choice are a well know, profitable company. I have looked at them several times before, but their target return rate is only 4% which wasn’t enough to entice me before. Now that RateSetter & Lending Works have lowered their rates, Octopus Choice has become a viable option for diversification.

One thing I’m not too impressed with is that already; I have capital tied up in late loans (see the red box on top of the screenshot). At 4% income, I would expect to be able to withdraw funds as needed, but already there is some stuck. I don’t expect to see too many actual losses to defaults as loans are very well asset secured, but just the whole “can’t withdraw late funds” thing is a bit irritating as it might take a while to get everything back if it has to go through a legal situation. I can deal with that with assets paying 8% or more, but at 4%? Not worth it. I’ll keep an eye on OC and if things get worse, I may start drawing the account down already.

 

 

RateSetter

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My RateSetter Account

RateSetter Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

RateSetter Income Chart

As of December 2nd RateSetter rates dropped significantly. “Access” still pays 3%, but “Plus” has been lowered from 4% to 3.5% and “Max” has been lowered from 5% to 4%.

I’m not particularly impressed with RateSetter at the moment because of the low rates, but I feel like they are safe enough so a good place to park capital at a measly 4%. I miss the days of when I could get in at 6% or more!

RateSetter did not get an increase in capital to the £20k mark in February as I think there are better options.

 

RateSetter Signup & Cashback Offers

RateSetter is offering £20 cashback for investing £10. 

Use this link to signup & qualify for the RateSetter cashback >>> (heck, £30 from £10 is easy money, even if you don’t invest any more than £10). 

 

 

Unbolted

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See All Account Date & Screenshots From My Unbolted Account

 Unbolted Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Unbolted Monthly Income Chart

Unfortunately I had to withdraw about £850 from Unbolted in February. This is only because cash drag was getting too much. I’m just not able to get enough capital into loans at the moment to keep invested. Unbolted have become very popular recently (unsurprisingly with 8%+ returns on easy sale-able assets). So they now have a lot of investment capital and not so many loans. Hopefully we’ll see in influx of new loans soon so I can move some more capital back over to Unbolted.

XIRR was down a little again in February to 7.85% because of the cash drag. 

Unbolted are not like the big Peer to Peer platforms such as Funding Circle or RateSetter, and I like that. I like Unbolted’s spin on asset secured pawnshop style loans, and I certainly like the 8%+ return rates. When Unbolted loans default, assets are sold very, very quickly. Unbolted typically recover more than the item was worth. The average at the moment is 117% of the loan value is recovered! I regularly get emails saying that a defaulted asset has been sold and capital recovered, and the amount has been credited to my investment account. Zero losses in almost 2 years so far. See my Unbolted Review for more information on this unique lender. 

One last thing that struck me about Unbolted over the last few weeks with all the media touting an upcoming recession: in a recession, pawn shops typically do better than in a good economy. When people don’t have money, they often need to borrow money to get by. If banks won’t lend them money, an option is to lend money against personal assets. Basically Unbolted is high-tech pawn shop, so in theory they should do just fine in a recession, if not even better.

 

Unbolted Signup & Cashback Offers

Unbolted has a cashback bonus for ObviousInvestor.com readers – £50 cashback if you invest just £1,000 by using the the link below. 

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UOWN

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See All Account Date & Screenshots From My UOWN Account

UOWN Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

UOWN are not classed as a a Peer to Pee lender. However I decided to add them to my portfolio and give them a try in February. UOWN are a Crowdfunding platform which offers ownership in development projects and rental properties with potentially very high returns. I like the company background, and the stability they appear to have. I’m also interested in “co-ownership” as an alternative investment type. I wrote an initial review on UOWN which explains why I decided to give them a try. 

 

UOWN Signup & Cashback Offers

No cashback offers currently. 

Use this link to learn more or signup with UOWN so they’ll know I sent you >>>

 

 

 

EURO Portfolio Overview Small_Euro_Flag

Not much new in the Euro market in February. There is still a lot of panic and discussion going on through the P2P lending groups about the collapse of Keutzal and Envestio. I have written more about that below under the Envestio section of the update.

These smaller Euro lenders are (in theory) more risky than the GBP lenders, mainly because of regulation by the FCA in the UK which dictates how they do business. Although on the flip side, regulation can stifle a business and restrict it unnecessarily, which can also nave a negative effect.

I still personally feel that Euro lenders like Mintos and Grupeer are fairly safe bets though, just because of their history and size. But all investments carry risk, whether they are regulated or not.

I’ve decided to add another Euro lender Viventor who are similar to most of my other lenders in that they are a “loan marketplace” instead of issuing their own loans.  I wrote an initial review on Viventor here.

The loan market lenders (who don’t lend capital themselves but offer a “marketplace” for loan originators) seem to make a lot of sense to me. They give an extra level of diversification for investors, and the platforms themselves are not under the pressure to originate all of the loans. In addition, the platforms can help investors by working with loan originators on their behalf if originators get into difficulty, or don’t adhere to lender marketplace guidelines.

This has obviously worked well for Mintos (the largest European platform) and others like Grupeer, Swaper, Robocash & PeerBerry.

I think (for now at least) I’ll stick with the marketplace lenders I have. Crowdestor is the only exception, but I like having them in the mix as they offer higher returns and some very interesting projects. Their deals seem to have been vetted quite well now (because of the Envestio & Keutzal hoo-haa) so that adds another layer of comfort.

Back to the Euro Portfolio

I was finally able to buy some more Euros in February when the exchange rate from USD/EUR hit 1.08. So I purchased some more Euros and increased the value of Mintos, PeerBerry, Robocash & Swaper plus added Viventor.

XIRR from the Euro Portfolio was down a bit for the month of Febuary to an overall 13.44% from 13.54% last month. I think this was mainly because there was zero income from Envestio (obviously) and many of the Robocash loans I’ve been getting into (from Singapore) are paying less interest. No complaints though as the cash drag from Robocash has now all but gone away.

 

Small_Euro_Flag Euro Lender Income Table For February 2020.

 

Lender

Feb. Income Account Value XIRR
Crowdestor €100.76 €6,721.85 16.16%
Grupeer €51.10 €5,540.85 13.55%
Mintos Euro €166.58 €21,635.67 13.36%
PeerBerry €21.75 €5,021.75 8.88%
Robocash €18.43 €5,445.18 11.85%
Swaper €21.50 €5,107.28 10.92%
Viventor €0.00 €5,000.00  N/A
 TOTAL: €380.12 €54,472.58 13.44%

 

Historical Monthly Lender Tables Are Available Here.

 

Euro Total Monthly Income Chart

Total Euro Peer to Peer lending portfolio value

Individual Lender Updates 

 

Crowdestor

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Crowdestor Account

Crowdestor Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update   Crowdestor Account Screenshot 2 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Crowdestor Monthly Income Chart

Crowdestor took a lot of heat after the Envestio debacle and they have come through it very well. Some of their projects have been pulled apart by nervous investors and, so far at least, have stood up to the extra scrutiny. This is all good for the rest of us investors. At least we’re not laying awake at night wondering if the projects are real. 

XIRR increased a little bit from 15.75% in January to 16.16% in February. Certainly can’t complain about Crowdestor projects delivering these types of returns. Hopefully this continues into the future.

Crowdestor also keep adding new projects to the mix. Often the projects seem a little strange for a P2P platform. like the Warhunt Movie I picked up a bit of in February (just a couple of hundred Euros). This loan pays 18% returns to start, plus a possible 12% more in “success fees” if movie exceeds its targets (that’s 30% returns). This stars Mickey Rourke as one of the leading actors, a very well known celebrity.

Although the movie doesn’t pretend to be some Hollywood blockbuster, it appears to have good backing, and the story sounds intriguing enough. It will be interesting to watch how it progresses. I always liked Mickey, especially in The Wrestler 🙂

You can read more about Warhunt here

Crowdestor Warhunt Movie Screenshot - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

 

Crowdestor Signup & Cashback Offers

No cashback offers from Crowdestor this month. 

Use this link to check for new offers or to signup with Crowdestor >>> 

 

 

Envestio

Last Month I did a full write up on the Envestio situation. If you missed that, you can read it here in last months update

It appears that the class-action law suite is progressing aggressively and has already been filed and Envestio given their 10 day notice to bankruptcy. I read they have over €10 million in claims against Envestio from a few thousand investors.

I’ve been trying to decide what to do with the Envestio investment as far as investment tracking here on my site. I know that some folks are just taking the whole thing as a complete loss and moving on. I think (at least for this month) I’ll keep in on the books but remove the capital so it doesn’t affect overall XIRR. I know it will eventually have a big affect, but I won’t take it as a full loss YET, as there is still a possibility of some recoveries from the law suite. So I’ll just give it a few weeks and see if we can find out what’s left as far as project repayments and bank accounts. I’m hoping that, because this was (supposedly) secured lending, their might be some recoveries. I’m not holding my breath though or under any illusion that this might not be the case.

 

 

Grupeer

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Grupeer Account

Grupeer Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Grupeer Monthly Income

Grupeer income is steady, reliable and regular. I see very little cash drag and the account requires nothing as far as management. I’m very happy with this investment. Grupeer is a Loan Market lender as mentioned in the introduction.

XIRR is steady at a very reasonable 13.55%. As I buy more Euros, Grupeer will be an account that I’ll be increasing the value of.

 

Grupeer Signup & Cashback Offers

No cashback offers from Grupeer at the moment.

Use this link to check for new Grupeer cashback offers or open a free account >>>

 

 

 

Mintos (Euro Account) 

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Mintos Account

Mintos EURO Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update 

Mintos Income Chart

Once I had bought some more Euros in February, €10k of them went immediately to Mintos. As you can see from the screenshot of my auto-invest portfolios below, Mintos has started to get some of those nice 16%+ short term loans back in. Mostly though the Finko & Sun Finance loan originators. I didn’t need to touch my auto-invest settings to get them. It just automatically picked them up as they appear.

Mintos EURO Loan Originator Screenshot Feb 2020 P2P Lending UpdateMintos EURO Account Screenshot 2 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

This portfolio above is obviously heavily skewed to Finko loans, and I’m ok with that. Finko is a highly rated originator, and all Finko loans are short term (30 days for most), so as the loans mature, I’ll be picking up more short term loans from wherever they are available. I’ve found with Mintos, it’s possible to have a lot of capital in a single loan originator at times. It moves around though depending on where the loans are coming from. I have my auto-invest setting set to only pick up loans from originators with good ratings though, so hopefully that should keep me relativity safe. I would definitely not be comfortable if I was picking up a huge percentage of loans from a C or D level originator. You can see which originators I invest with in my Mintos Review

I really like Mintos, and that’s why they are my largest overall lending account (GBP+Euros). As of today, they have facilitated lending out almost €5 billion Euros from 254,000 investors in 32 countries. And above all they are a profitable business. 

 

Mintos Signup & Cashback Offers

Mintos cashback bonus; 0.50% of the value of your investments cashback for the first 90 days you are investing with them (Not open to UK residents unfortunately).

Use this link to signup & qualify for the Mintos cashback offer >>>

 

 

PeerBerry

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My PeerBerry Account

PeerBerry Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

 

PeerBerry is a new Euro lender I added in January. I then increased my investment with them in February once I bought more Euros. 

I decided to add them because they are like a “mini-Mintos” inasmuch as they have multiple loan originators they work with and the platform is a loan market, instead of the platform actually being the lender themselves.

It’s early days yet with PeerBerry, but so far so good. I wrote an initial review here which explains why I decided to invest with PeerBerry.

 

PeerBerry Signup & Cashback Offers

No cashback offers with PeerBerry this month, however if you would like to take a closer look at their platform, please;

Use this link to go to the PeerBerry website and check for new offers >> so they’ll know I sent you.

 

 

 

Robocash

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Robocash Account

Robocash Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Robocash Monthly Income Chart

Robocash was having a lot of cash drag (un-invested cash) in January so I finally decided to withdraw some Euros and try out another platform (PeerBerry). Of course just after I did, they got an influx of loans from Singapore at around 10%-11%.

So, once I bought some more Euros in February I topped the account back up to €5k and bought in to the Singapore loans by setting up a new portfolio specifically for those loans.

XIRR dropped a bit again 11.99% in January to 11.85% in February as the target rates for the Singapore loans are lower (around 10% – 11%). Still just under the lender target rate of 12.00% though. Another easy auto-invest account which requires no maintenance at all, provided they can keep the new loan flow up of course.

 

Robocash Signup & Cashback Offers

No cashback offers with Robocash this month

Use this link to check for new Robocash cashback offers or to open an account >>> 

 

 

Swaper

See Full Review

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See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Swaper Account

Swaper Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Swaper Monthly Income Chart

 

I increased my Swaper account to €5k Euros as I did with the other Euro lending accounts in February when I purchased my last batch.

Still getting a little cash drag with Swaper.  It wasn’t quite so bad in February though with XIRR increasing a little from 10.54% in January to 10.92% in February. This should keep increasing moving forward as repayments are invested, although we need to get away from the cash drag in order to do that. 

Swaper Signup & Cashback Offers

No current cashback offers.

Use this link to check for new Swaper cashback offers or to open an account >>> 

 

 

 

Viventor

See Full Review

Visit Website

 

See All Account Data & Screenshots From My Viventor Account

Viventor Account Screenshot 1 - Feb 2020 P2P Lending Update

Viventor is a new Euro lender added to the Euro portfolio in February. 

Rather than go in to my reasoning for investing and everything in detail here, I wrote an initial Viventor review to explain why I decided to invest with them. The short of it is; stable, established platform with lots of loans through “loan originators”. They are very similar to the other loan market lenders in the Euro Portfolio like Mintos, Grupeer, Swaper, Robocash & PeerBerry.

 

 

Summary

I’m trying to keep the updates shorter these days. Hopefully I’m still getting across what I’m doing and why? I have so many lending accounts now it takes a LONG time to do a full write up on all of them.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please comment on the post or email me, I’m always open to feedback! 

You can always go back and look at the previous updates for more details on why I’m investing in these companies and my ongoing lending experiences with each of them.

Finally I hope the month of March goes well for everyone. I will update you on my P2P Portfolio investments around the same time next month.

 

Thanks for reading my blog! Please feel free to comment below if you have comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions. You can also email me if you prefer. I love feedback!

 

Please note, most of the cashback offers on this site are for new lenders to a company. I suggest you do your own research before investing as cashback offers change daily.

 

If you’re new to Peer to Peer Lending, you can learn more about it on my page About Peer to Peer Lending. Also take a look at my Peer to Peer Lending Guide, Where to Start if you’re just thinking about getting your feet wet. Individual lender reviews are all here.

 

Disclaimers:

This page is presented for informational purposes only. I am not a Financial Adviser and therefore not qualified to give financial advice. Please do your own research and make your own investment decisions. Do not make investment decisions based solely on the information presented on this website.

*   My opinions, reviews, star ratings and risk ratings are based on my personal investing experience with the company being reviewed. These ratings are personal opinions and are subjective. 

**  Some of the links on this website are affiliate referral links. When you click on these links, I can sometimes receive a commission, at absolutely no cost to you. This helps me to continue to offer new reviews & monthly portfolio updates here on my website. I don’t receive commissions from all platforms and it has no effect on my ongoing opinions on investments & investment platforms. Income from my investments and capital preservation are my main motivations.

Platforms reviewed on this website I am currently investing with, or I have invested with in the past. You can see with full transparency on my Portfolio Returns page which assets & platforms I am invested with (or have previously been invested with) at any point in time. I am not paid a fee by any of the companies to write reviews, so the reviews are unbiased and purely based on my own personal experiences.

Please read my full website Disclaimer before making investment decisions.

 

 

 

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