Solid 11% – 13%+ Annual Returns Available Investing With One Of Europe’s Best Peer to Peer Lenders, PeerBerry! – PeerBerry Review plus PeerBerry Strategies. Is PeerBerry Safe? Find Out!
What is PeerBerry?
PeerBerry is a leading European Peer to Peer Lender, providing mostly short term loans to consumers & businesses around Europe.
Offering easy, hands-off returns between 10% and 14%, PeerBerry is an excellent option for diversification when investing in Euro currency loans. PeerBerry also offer a “buyback guarantee” on most of their loans, which means their loan originators will buyback loans and repay principal and interest if payments are delayed more than 60 days.
PeerBerry is very similar to Mintos, RoboCash, Grupeer & Viventor where it does not originate most loans itself, but uses loan originators (other financial retail lenders, who then list their loans on the PeerBerry marketplace). This means that PeerBerry’s loan flow is generally good, keeping cash drag to a minimum and offering a good amount of diversification.
My Experience with PeerBerry
Although I only started lending with PeerBerry recently, I have been very well acquainted with them since they started the platform as they were originally part of the Aventus Group. This meant they had the backing of a large Fintech firm from the very start, so PeerBerry got a lot of media attention. This made them very popular in the Euro lending market as they were (and still are) looked at as one of the safer options.
Once I started lending, my funds were lent out in a couple of days, and from there on in “hands off investing” has been my experience. I’ve literally not needed to change anything. Their auto-invest system works well, distributing funds between PeerBerry loan originators and loans quickly and efficiently. Once lent out, funds seem to stay invested making upwards of 11% annual returns with zero cash drag so far.
So, with easy, hands-off investments paying very decent returns. PeerBerry have good reason to be part of my diversified Peer to Peer lending portfolio.
Latest Update
PeerBerry really have turned out to be one of the most reliable Euro lenders so far. They are still communicating and managing their loans, and the situation well. Capital has been easy to withdraw from the platform and most of it arrives in my bank account the next day.
My PeerBerry Strategy
I have drawn down my account about 50%, but I’ve decided to stay invested with what’s left for now and I’ll keep a close eye on loan delays etc. PeerBerry thus far have shown they are one of the better (if not the best) Euro Peer to Peer lenders. As soon as things start to pick up, I’ll have no hesitation at all in increasing my investment again with PeerBerry.
PeerBerry was launched on November 1st, 2017 in Riga, Latvia. Since then they have grown the platform to over 18,500 investors and have lent over €212,000,000. PeerBerry have paid out almost €2,000,000 to investors in earned interest, with an average return of 11.51%.
Peerberry were originally part of the Aventus Group and only listed loans from Aventus on their platform. They have since been purchased by a group of shareholders which now allows them list loans from multiple originators on their site enabling greater diversification of investors funds.
Regulation
PeerBerry is not regulated as the UK Peer to Peer lenders are by the FCA, however now they are based in Latvia which is part of the EU and as such, they will need to adhere to European financial laws.
With many of the European lenders, investors look more at the history and strength of the lender, and also asset security to assess the safety of a platform. Instead of relying on a regulator.
Signup Process – PeerBerry Review
Opening an account with PeerBerry is relatively easy. Just the usual ID & anti money-laundering checks.
They typically need a copy of your passport or ID card. A utility bill or bank statement to show your current address will also be required. Both can be uploaded to the PeerBerry website digitally.
Residents of most countries who can comply with the ID & anti money-laundering checks can signup with PeerBerry. You’ll also need a Euro currency bank account.
If you don’t currently have a Euro bank account with IBAN number, take a look at this post I did on Currency Exchange and Moving Money which might give you a few ideas.
Deposits & Withdrawals – PeerBerry Review
Deposits and withdrawals are made by bank transfer (SEPA transfer so IBAN number required).
You will be provided with the relevant bank details when you go to the deposits screen.
Deposits usually show up in your account the next working day depending on what time you send them (although PeerBerry say 1-3 days, this has not been my experience).
Withdrawals are only to a verified bank account, and typically take 1 – 2 business days.
Time to Become Invested – PeerBerry Review
PeerBerry now has a good sized loan book provided by 23 loan originators. If you use auto-invest (as I do) then once you’ve set up your investment strategy, it can take a couple of days for your capital to get distributed into loans. As you can see in the screenshot below, the loan criteria and settings are relatively basic and easy to setup. My personal PeerBerry lending strategies are discussed later in the review.
If you choose to lend manually with the regular loan listings, it will take as long as it takes you to decide on which loans you want to be invested in.
PeerBerry has a has a good set of filters which means you can filter on required fields (similar to the auto-invest filters) to find loans you want to invest in manually.
Who are we lending to?
PeerBerry P2P is a true Peer to Peer Lending Platform. Lenders (investors) are lending directly to borrowers. Loan agreements are directly between the lender and the borrower. PeerBerry just acts as a middle man, managing loans, payments and debt collection etc.
Similar to Mintos, Grupeer, Robocash & Viventor, PeerBerry itself doesn’t originate most of the loans like many P2P lenders. It has over 23 “loan originator companies” it works with, and they originate the loans locally, then provide the loans to PeerBerry for individual lenders to invest in.
Loan Types – PeerBerry Review
PeerBerry provides mostly loans to consumers in the form of short term loans or payday loans. PeerBerry does also provide a few other types of loans, such as real estate loans, business development loans, and also car loans. However most loans I’ve seen on the platform are short term loans to consumers.
Loan Security – PeerBerry Review
Both secured and unsecured loans are available on the PeerBerry platform. However most of the short term consumer loans have no asset security.
Remember the PeerBerry buyback guarantee offers security for lent out capital by buying back late loans, so asset security is less important, although not to be discounted if available.
Default Rates – PeerBerry Review
PeerBerry don’t publish their default rates. As most originators offer buyback guarantees, they are less important than if investing though a company like Zopa or Funding Circle that don’t offer any kind of buyback guarantee or provision fund, and therefore default rates can make a significant difference to the account yield.
Amortization
There are different types of loans on PeerBerry; fully amortizing, partially amortizing, interest only and bullet loans (balloon payment). Although because most loans are short term loans, they don’t amortize as they are typically paid back in full within a short day period (30 days in most cases for short term payday loans).
Amortization is the paying off of debt with a fixed repayment schedule in regular installments over time. It reduces the risk of the loan compared to a non-amortizing loan in which nothing is received until the end of the loan period, or only interest is received monthly, and then the capital repaid at the end of the loan period.
It’s easy to see loan details including the loan term and amount, just by clicking on the loan number in the loans listing screen.
Selling Loans and Withdrawing Capital – PeerBerry Review
There is no secondary market available with PeerBerry, so when you invest in loans, make sure you understand the loan term. PeerBerry loans are typically shorter term loans which really minimizes the need for a secondary market. All you need to do is wait until the loan term completes to retrieve your capital.
Also ensure you have the correct settings in your auto-invest strategy for the loan length you need.
Diversification – PeerBerry Review
Diversifying capital into loans is easy with PeerBerry because of the size of their loan book.
Their predefined auto-invest portfolios diversify automatically based on the settings you give them, and with the self-select loans, you decide the amount you put into each loan.
Provision Fund
There is technically no provision fund with PeerBerry. However the previously mentioned PeerBerry buyback guarantees provided by their loan originators really help to put more confidence in PeerBerry loans.
Buyback guarantees in my eyes are as good as, if not better than a single provision fund. This is because we are not relying on just one company to step in if a loan goes into default. Each originator is responsible for its own guarantee, which PeerBerry regulates to an extent. The risk of course is if an originator goes out of business, which has happened once in the past with a Mintos originator, but not with PeerBerry so far to my knowledge.
The PeerBerry Website is simple but effective. It’s fairly easy to figure out where everything is and how to set up auto-invest strategies or manually select loans.
Return Rates
PeerBerry return rates are very good, at an average of around 11.50% since their platform launched. Their website says the average is 11.51% as I’m writing this review. Although lately there have been a lot of 12.50% loans come available.
PeerBerry actually used to offer interest rates much higher (up to 16%) when they first started. However recently the rates have come down due to increased investor demand and the growing safety of the platform.
My Personal PeerBerry Investment Strategy
My Investment strategy with PeerBerry is simple. I choose a few specific originators which get good ratings in various areas like company size, profitability, history & transparency (see screenshot below). All of which offer a buyback guarantee (set the “buyback guarantee” field to “on”), and set the interest rates between 11% and 20%. I only invest in loans from Poland, Czech Republic and Ukraine, again because of recommendations I’ve found based on lender stability & loan default rates in those areas.
I choose a loan interval of up to 90 days. Then set the loan max amount into any one loan at €50 as there are usually plenty of loans available. You could go less if your investment was a smaller amount. The remaining principle in the loan is kind of a mute point for me, so I just set it 10 low and 5000 high which should capture most short term loan values.
The rest of the settings I use are in the screenshot below. Once set, I just hit “Save & Activate” and let the strategy go. As previously mentioned, it can take a couple of days for PeerBerry to get all funds loaned out.
PeerBerry Review – Summary
PeerBerry is certainly a viable platform for lending out Euros. Their return rates are excellent for auto-invest, short term loans. With little to no time required to manage.
The PeerBerry buyback guarantee and history with Aventus in my opinion makes PeerBerry one of the safer Euro lenders out there. So I have no hesitation investing in PeerBerry as part of my diversified Euro portfolio.
The PeerBerry staff are always professional whenever I need to contact them for anything, and they all speak English very well.
Thumbs Up Points for PeerBerry
Unique Diversification – focusing on consumers and businesses in many different countries in Euro currency.
Great Returns – 11%+ for loans in Euros is a good rate.
Short Term Loans – If you don’t want to ties money up for long periods, there are usually plenty of short term loans available.
Auto-Invest – auto-invest options are nicely configurable allowing us to pick up just the loans we want in our portfolio.
Website Easy To Use – shortens the learning curve and time to get invested.
PeerBerry Buyback Guarantee – most originators offer the “PeerBerry buyback guarantee” and will buy back the loans if they go in to default, therefor making investments safer.
Thumbs Down Points for PeerBerry
No Regulation – may make PeerBerry a riskier proposition, however having a good history and multiple loan originators for diversification helps lower the risk.
Latvian Based – for UK investors this may not be as comfortable as investing in UK companies. European investors don’t seem to see this as an issue though, and I certainly don’t.
Currency Risk – investing in a currency other than your home currency can have it’s own inherent risks if it falls. If your home currency is Euros then this is not an issue.
No Secondary Market – for selling loans. Most loans are short term though, so getting capital out shouldn’t take too long.
No Tax Free Savings Account – such as an ISA for interest free investing.
Is PeerBerry Safe? I consider PeerBerry to be in the medium risk category. Even taking in to consideration the “PeerBerry buyback guarantee”, PeerBerry is still an unregulated business with a relatively short track record.
Who Can Invest with PeerBerry?
Safe?
Residents of most countries that can conform to the EU’s money laundering regulations can invest with PeerBerry. Contact PeerBerry for more information
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 Disclaimerbefore making investment decisions.
The Obvious Investor website uses cookies to offer you the best possible browsing experience. By browsing this site, you give us the ok to use cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
_abck
1 year
This cookie is used to detect and defend when a client attempt to replay a cookie.This cookie manages the interaction with online bots and takes the appropriate actions.
bm_sz
4 hours
This cookie is set by the provider Akamai Bot Manager. This cookie is used to manage the interaction with the online bots. It also helps in fraud preventions
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement
1 year
Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category .
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Cookie
Duration
Description
_ga
2 years
The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_gat_gtag_UA_127056176_1
1 minute
This cookie is set by Google and is used to distinguish users.
_gat_UA-127056176-1
1 minute
This is a pattern type cookie set by Google Analytics, where the pattern element on the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. It appears to be a variation of the _gat cookie which is used to limit the amount of data recorded by Google on high traffic volume websites.
_gcl_au
3 months
Provided by Google Tag Manager to experiment advertisement efficiency of websites using their services.
_gid
1 day
Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Cookie
Duration
Description
NID
6 months
NID cookie, set by Google, is used for advertising purposes; to limit the number of times the user sees an ad, to mute unwanted ads, and to measure the effectiveness of ads.
(3.7 / 5)
