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Investors who know which loans they want to invest in can easily find which platforms match their preferences, using the following criteria :
- Loans kind
- Investment duration
- Buyback feature
- Auto-invest availability
- Presence of a secondary market or other early exit mechanism
Loans kinds
Which loans do you want to invest in ? Individual loans are rather standard, and in most case come with the added safety of a buyback guarantee. They’re often rather short-term, although car loans usually span over several years. Business and real-estate loans often offer higher returns, but they are more speculative and may not be covered by a buyback guarantee.
Loans durations
For how long do you want to invest ? If you want to invest in long-term loans, it’s strongly advised to use a platform that features a secondary market or offers an early exit option, in case you need to access your funds before the loan maturity date.
Buyback guarantee
Loans covered by a buyback guarantee are safer than those without it. Learn more about the buyback guarantee on our article about borrower’s default.
Early exit (secondary market or platform buyback)
A very useful feature when investing in long-term loans is a secondary market, which is a marketplace where investors may resell their loans to other investors. Other platforms offer a buyback option, meaning that they will buy the loan back; however, this usually incurs a rather large fee.
Investing methods
Being able to invest automatically based on your investment preferences has several benefits : it allows to save time, prevents tedious and repetitive loans selection, and increases diversification. However, while this feature is standard for individual loans, not all platforms for business and real-estate loans offer it.
CrowdEstate
While in the first half of 2018 CrowdEstate was somehow victim of their success, the situation has improved a lot. Indeed, the loans supply and demand are now much more balanced, and the auto-invest process has been improved in order to allow time for manual investments as well.
Although the real-estate loans became less speculative, they still offer excellent investment opportunities. In addition, the excellent ergonomics of the platform and the great level of details provided for investments make it a great choice for user who want to transition to non-guaranteed loans.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Crowdestor
In a rather short time, Crowdestor managed to become my favorite platform for speculative loans ! Indeed, between the excellent performance, the large supply of diversified loans and the solid buyback guarantee, it’s hard not to be impressed ! I only regret the lack of an auto-invest feature as well as of a secondary market The secondary market is a marketplace allowing investors to sell loans from their
portfolio to other investors. This is useful if they need to get their money back
before the loan’s maturity..
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Ekassa
Ekassa is an excellent way to begin investing in peer-to-peer loans. Their offer is even simpler than DoFinance‘s, and in most cases it’s also more profitable. Investors who don’t want to bother configuring auto-invest will appreciate the extreme simplicity of both Guaranteed and Profitable strategies !
Loans characteristics
Platform features
EstateGuru
While the interest rates offered by EstateGuru‘s projects are lower than at Envestio or BulkEstate, they provide great investment opportunities for those who want a more conservative portfolio. It’s also an excellent complement to CrowdEstate‘s real-estate loans.
EstateGuru’s long list of successful investments (as well as the way they managed the defaulted projects) help build confidence in this platform. It took me a long time to invest there, as I initially targeted more speculative loans. However, I’m planning to grow this portfolio regularly, in order to have a more balanced loans portfolio.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Grupeer
While Grupeer‘s interest rates have decreased in late 2018, the performance of the platform is still very good – especially when taking advantage of the cashback campaigns -. For investors who want to start investing in loans other than individual loans, it’s an excellent choice thanks to the ease of use and great buyback guarantee.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Mintos
Mintos‘ success is well deserved ! They deliver an excellent and very regular performance, and the impressive loans volume means that basically any amount can be invested without fearing a cash drag. Also, thanks to the availability of investing methods other than manual or auto-invest, even beginner investors can easily invest through the platform.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Viventor
Viventor is an excellent choice for beginner and advanced investors alike. This P2P loans marketplace offers very high interest rates, and the website’s ergonomics is excellent.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Bondster
Bondster offers great interest rates through a website that’s both well designed and very pleasant-looking. I really enjoyed investing on this platform and plan to grow this portfolio in the next months.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
DoFinance
I must admit that DoFinance‘s simplicity is very appealing. Anyone who had to face Omaraha’s interface will probably fall in love with DoFinance ! Although the offered interest rate may seem to be low, a 11% interest rate for a 6 months investment with zero headache is worth considering; shorter durations are less interesting though.
It’s a pity that their offer has become so confusing, with so many strategies to choose from !
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Envestio
The performance of my Envestio portfolio is excellent, and if it weren’t for the much reduced loans volume in summer 2019, it would be hard to find something negative to say about this platform. With an improved liquidity, I’d bump their rating back to 4.5 stars with no hesitation !
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Fast Invest
Fast Invest‘s website is extremely easy to use and offers great interest rates in addition to incredible buyback guarantee terms. While I was very cautious about this platform at first, I enjoy this platform more and more as it continually improves. Indeed, I’m especially impressed by the last upgrade to their website, which is straightforward to use and provides a lot of documentation.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Flender
Flender is a great way to finance businesses in Ireland. The returns are competitive and in spite of minor usability troubles, the website is easy to use.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Iuvo
After more than one year on the platform, the performance of my portfolio is stable, slightly below 13%. For investors who don’t care about the weak buyback guarantee, Iuvo provides a great opportunity to diversify their portfolio.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Kuetzal
For investors who can accept to take some risks by investing in speculative loans, Kuetzal is an excellent complement to Envestio, CrowdEstate and Crowdestor.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Omaraha
I used to really love Omaraha and have invested up to 60% of my P2P assets there. For a long time, it was totally worth investing some time (and of course money) there, in spite of the terrible interface. But now that the interest rates and loans volume have decreased, it’s harder to recommend it as much as I used to; I’ve also reduced my portfolio’s size.
In spite of this, for investors who want to focus solely on individual loans, Omaraha still offers the best returns.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
BulkEstate
BulkEstate is a nice complement to real-estate crowdfunding leader CrowdEstate. The featured projects offer a good risk/reward ratio for investors who don’t want to invest in the more speculative real-estate projects offered by other competitors such as Envestio.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
FinBee
In spite of the high interest rates, the performance of my FinBee portfolio is rather low, as the loans aren’t covered by a buyback guarantee. Guaranteed loans from Mintos and Fast Invest are probably better choices for investors seeking for predictible and regular returns.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Monethera
In spite of the very high interest rates offered by the platform, I advise investors to proceed with caution due to the lack of track record. However, at medium term, it looks like Monethera will be a worthy competitor to Crowdestor, Kuetzal and Envestio.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Swaper
Like Robocash, Swaper will mostly appeal to short-term investors; for longer durations, many platforms offer higher returns. Overall, Swaper looks like a better choice than their direct competitor Robocash, thanks to the better ergonomics and translation. Moreover, as the platform finally managed to increase the overall loans volume, the cash drags that regularly plagued the platform seem to be a thing of the past.
Swaper is also a great choice for investors who plan to invest at least € 5,000; indeed, the Loyalty bonus will grant them a 14% interest rate, making this platform extremely competitive !
Loans characteristics
Platform features
TFGcrowd
The great interest rates and solid buyback guarantee on many loans seem to make TFGcrowd a great choice to diversify your portfolio. However, as the platform doesn’t have much track record yet, I encourage investors to be patient and grow their portfolio slowly.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Robocash
After Robocash decreased their interest rates from 14% to 12%, it lost much of its interest. Indeed, many competitors offer higher returns, and often have a much better ergonomics. However, this platform may still appeal to very short-term investors.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Wisefund
Just like TFGcrowd and Monethera, Wisefund currently lacks a track record. Consequently, I can only recommend it as a complement to more established platforms such as CrowdEstate, Crowdestor, Envestio or Kuetzal.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
Bondora
Too much marketing, not enough returns : Bondora totally fails to deliver the expected results. It’s hard to be confident in long-term results when a portfolio’s returns decrease month after month ! If only Bondora spent as much time improving the returns as they spend working on their marketing, all their investors would be rich. But for now, all we have is promises of great expected returns. I’d advise investors not to listen to their marketing tricks, and to invest through a company that actually focuses on investors.
Loans characteristics
Platform features
ViaInvest
Loans characteristics
Platform features
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