PeerBerry’s overview
PeerBerry allows to invest in individual loans, with interest rates around 12%. These loans are secured by a buyback guarantee.
My opinion on PeerBerry
Thanks to the large selection of reliable loan originators A loan originator is the firm that originally provides the loan to the borrower.
They usually lend a small percent of the amount using their own funds, while the
remaining is put on sale on loans marketplaces. The part of the loan kept by the
originator is called called skin in the game; it’s typically 5%-10% of the
loan amount, and is supposed to encourage originators to provide quality loans., overall ease of use and good returns, I’ve decided to increase PeerBerry‘s overall rating.
Detailed ratings
PeerBerry’s pros & cons
Pros
- Extremely regular performance
- Great diversification thanks to the many loans originators
- Many loan originators belong to the profitable Aventus Group, which makes them rather reliable
Loans characteristics
Loans duration
Loans kinds
Minimal investment
Buyback guarantee
Currencies
Overview of PeerBerry’s loans
PeerBerry offers only loans in Euro. They all yield interests monthly.
Their duration vary greatly; there are payday loans with a duration shorter than one month as well as car loans for a 3 years duration.
Interest rates used to be in the 11% – 13% range. However, during the Covid-19 outbreak, most originators on the platform drastically reduced their loans volume by focusing only on low-risk borrowers. Moreover, as on the same time PeerBerry’s investors base grew thanks to their great crisis management, the loans demand now greatly overcomes the supply. These two factor combined have brought interests down, and now most available loans have interest rates around 9% or 10%. This situation is likely to be temporary, and the platforms expect most originators to issue more loans during the summer.
Most borrowers are located in Ukraine, followed a large share of Polish loans. Other countries include Russia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Denmark, Kazakhstan and Republic of Moldavia.
The minimal investment is € 10.
PeerBerry’s Customer Loyalty Program
Investors with a large portfolio will be rewarded by a greater interest rate after 3 months on the platform. The bonus starts at an additional 0.5% for portfolios larger than € 10,000, and can be as high as 1% for € 40,000 portfolios.
Compared to Swaper‘s Loyalty Bonus, PeerBerry‘s offer is less generous, as it requires a larger portfolio and the final interest rate is lower. Indeed, Swaper’s interest rates are bumped to 14% for portfolios larger than € 5,000.
Loans volume
I didn’t notice any cash drag at PeerBerry since I started investing, which is a great advantage over competitors Swaper and Robocash.
Loan originators
As I’m updating this review in May 2020, there are more than 20 loan originators at PeerBerry. The largest share of loans on the platform (around 80%) come from originators which are subsidiaries of Aventus Group. Another 15% are issued by subsidiaries of Gofingo, while the remaining 5% come from LitHome, an issuer of real-estate loans.
I used to dislike the lack of information provided about the loan originators, as well as the poor readability of the data. Fortunately, the related screens have been totally re-designed. They now contain a lot of useful data for each loan originator :
- A short description of the company
- Country of operation
- Creation date, number of employees
- Portfolio size
- Loan kind and average interest rate
PeerBerry also published several blog posts about Aventus Group and Gofingo.
One drawback of the platform is the lack of rating for originators, so it’s hard to evaluate their reliability. However, a great source of independent ratings is Explore P2P’s ratings for PeerBerry’s loan originators. Although most originators initially received low ratings, many of them are now rated 60/100. While ratings for originators on loans marketplaces such as Mintos which vary greatly from one originator to another, they tend to be more uniform here thanks to the group guarantees provided by both by Aventus and GoFingo.
Buyback guarantee
PeerBerry‘s buyback guarantee covers both capital and accrued interests. It triggers after a 60 days delay.
Platform’s transparency and reliability
The top management is introduced on PeerBerry’s website, along with links to their LinkedIn profile. Current CEO Arunas Lekavicius has more than 10 years of experience of finance. The platform was originally founded by Aventus Group in June 2017, but was later sold to two private investors.
I appreciate the much-improved data provided for the originators. What is still missing is actual data regarding the platform itself, especially an audited financial report. Also, more complete data regarding the loans portfolio would be appreciated.
In terms of reliability, the fact that most loan originators on the platform are subsidiaries of the large, profitable Aventus Group is a very positive aspect.
Impact of Covid-19 outbreak on PeerBerry
As mentioned previously, the Covid-19 epidemics has lead to decreased interests on the platform.
Another consequence was a better communication from the platform, mostly regarding their originators. For example, the platform published an interview with the CEO of Aventus Group.
As many investors are concerned about the safety of their investments, both Aventus Group and Gofingo decided to provide a group guarantee for all the related originators. This is a very positive outcome, which will also make it easier to invest. Indeed, before this decision was taken, only a handful of originators were regarded as reliable as most of them are often rather small and don’t have much track record.
Also, as expected, the loans volume on the platform has decreased (minus 20% in April compared to March).
Overall, investors seem greatly satisfied by the way PeerBerry handled the crisis. According to a quality survey conducted by the platform, “95% of investors have assessed (our) performance during the crisis as perfect”. While marketing claims always should be taken with a pinch of salt, this reflects the opinion of most investors on Telegram or Facebook.
Platform’s features
Early exit
Investing methods
Secondary market
There’s currently no secondary market; according to the FAQ, it’s a planned feature for long-term loans.
Manual investing at PeerBerry
Although investing automatically is much more convenient, it’s possible to invest manually at PeerBerry. The loans list can be filtered using a variety of criteria :
- interest rate
- remaining loan term
- investment amount
- country
- loan originator
- loan type
- presence of a buyback guarantee
This last criterion is actually useless, as all loans on the platform come with a buyback guarantee.
As the assignment agreement has to be accepted by clicking a checkbox for each individual loan, it takes many clicks to invest in a single loan.
Like most competitors, PeerBerry displays many details about the borrower and loan purpose.
Auto-invest
Like the remaining of the website, the auto-invest screen is rather easy to use. It’s definitively much easier to use than the one at Mintos, but less readable than at Swaper.
A few minors improvements are possible, though. For example, it’s not possible to quickly check if all originators or countries are checked without clicking on the combo box. Also, several labels are rather small, which makes them hard to read.
Website’s ease of use
Languages
Funding methods
PeerBerry’s registration process
Registering a PeerBerry account is quick and easy. There’s currently no KYC procedure.
Account funding and funds withdrawal
The only way to add funds to your investor’s account is via a SEPA transfer. Uploading a copy of your ID is necessary in order to withdraw funds.
Website’s design and ergonomics
While PeerBerry‘s website won’t win design awards, it’s very easy to use.
Available languages & translations quality
PeerBerry‘s website is available in English and German as well as Spanish. Overall the English translation is good, although some sentences could be rephrased.
Reporting
The usual array of reporting screens is available at PeerBerry : account balance, transactions list, investments list.
The layout of the transactions list could be slightly improved : indeed, the top of the screen displays the transactions filters, the account summary… but it’s necessary to scroll down to see the transactions themselves.
On the dashboard, investors will be able to see their portfolio’s net annual return; however, this is the value for the expected XIRR, not the current one ! In my initial PeerBerry review, I pointed the fact that the displayed value was 12.56%, while my computed XIRR was 11.56%. These values are now much more in agreement : 11.82% according to PeerBerry, 11.61% based on my own computations.
Documentation
Overall, the documentation could be improved. For example, the FAQ doesn’t mention the buyback guarantee. It would also benefit from a re-ordering; indeed, it currently starts with mentioning the Loyalty program, but it would be more logical to start with the registration process. The How it works page is quite succinct.
Support
It’s possible to reach PeerBerry by live chat during business hours. The platform’s website also includes their phone number, and an e-mail address.
I got in touch with the support twice as I had questions about the buyback guarantee. The delay to reply was a bit long (usually 2 business days), but the answer was precise.
Communication from the platform
When it comes to e-mail communication, I welcome the opportunity to configure the frequency of the account overview e-mail; it can also be disabled. Similarly, it’s possible to opt-out of the monthly newsletter.
PeerBerry also communicates through their blog; in addition, they’re active on several Facebook groups related to P2P investments, which I think is a great move.
Actual performance of my PeerBerry portfolio
11,47%
At the end of July 2020, the XIRR for my PeerBerry portfolio was 11,47%.
The performance of my PeerBerry portfolio is slightly lower than expected, although extremely stable. Overall I consider that it's a great result when taking the platform's reliability into account !
Don't hesitate to read my most recent crowdlending portfolio review for detailed platforms performance comparison as well as historical performance.
Portfolio creation date
I created my PeerBerry portfolio in January 2019.
PeerBerry's main competitors
For a detailed comparison of the different p2p-lending marketplaces, check out this article.
PeerBerry's facts & figures
Location
Founded in
Number of investors
Loans amount financed
Historical return
As of June 2020
Who can invest at PeerBerry
PeerBerry's supportPeerBerry is applicable for investors who can make deposits from their own accounts opened with the credit institution, payment institution or electronic money institution registered and licensed in the country, to which the regulatory and other requirements for the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing in accordance with European Union legislation apply. Basically You can become an investor of PeerBerry if You have a possibility to make a money transfer from any European Union bank, via Paysera, TransferWise or other payment provider which is credible for us.
Disclosure
Please note that this review may contain affiliate links. It means that I will earn a commission if you decide to invest after clicking through the link – at no additional cost to you, of course -. Please understand that I have experienced all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the commissions I make if you decide to invest through my links.