Swaper review

Table of contents

This screen is uncluttered and uses a pleasant color scheme
Swaper's auto-invest is a model of readability

Swaper's overview

Swaper allows to invest mostly in short-term (one month) individual loans. Loans used to yield 12% for a long time, but the interest rates were increased to 14% in March 2020. All loans are covered by a buyback guarantee A buyback guarantee is a guarantee provided by the platform or a loan originator. If repayment of a loan is delayed by more than a given delay (usually 30 or 60 days), the platform or loan originator will buy back the loan. The guarantee may cover only part of the capital, or in a much more interesting case, both the capital and accrued interests. As the conditions vary from one platform to another, it’s very important to check this point.. For very large portfolios (€5,000 or more), the interest rate is increased to a very nice 16%.

My opinion on Swaper

It has always been hard for me to choose between Robocash and Swaper. For a long time, Swaper’s much better ergonomics has incited me to prefer this platform, in spite of the cash drags which used to occur regularly.

However, what finally tipped the scale in favor of Robocash is this platform’s transparency and financial solidity. Indeed, Swaper’s loan originators are mostly blackboxes, which publish zero financial information. In contrast, Robocash Group provides audited financial statements. They show that the group has been consistently profitable for several years.

Detailed ratings

Actual performance

My portfolio’s performance doesn’t reflect the current interest rates, which increased in Spring 2020. New portfolios are likely to perform better, at least in short term.

Loans liquidity

The loans volume on the platform finally seems to match investors’ demand.

Reporting

The available reporting is rather basic, but will be enough for most investors.

Transparency & reliability

Transparency is Swaper’s main weakness. Indeed, lack of information regarding the platform’s loan originator doesn’t inspire confidence.

Website ergonomics

The platform is straightforward to use.

Swaper's pros & cons

Pros

  • Auto-invest is very easy to configure, even for beginner investors
  • Opportunity to invest for a very short duration
  • High interest rate
  • Additional 2% interest rate for large portfolios

Cons

  • Lack of information regarding the lending company's financial solidity
  • The platform used to suffer from cash drags

Loans characteristics

Loans durations

Short-term : less than one month

Loans kinds

Consumer

Minimal investment

€10

Buyback guarantee

Buyback guarantee available

Currencies

EUR – Euro

Overview of Swaper's loans

For most investors, the loans offer a uniform 14% interest rate for a 1-month duration; there are also a few longer-term loans on the platform. Currently, borrowers are located in the following European countries :

  • Spain
  • Poland
  • Denmark

Swaper also used to provide loans in Georgia and Russia, but these aren’t available as of Summer 2020.

Investors with a large portfolio will enjoy increased interest rates. Indeed, when investing more than €5,000 for more than 30 days, an additional 2% will be granted. This bumps the interest rate to a rather record-setting 16% !

This makes Swaper a very interesting platform for investors with large sums available. However, it remains to be seen whether the available loans volume will be enough for them to invest all their funds.

Loans volume

Indeed, for a while, Swaper had troubles handling the amount of money deposited on the portal, thus I often found myself with a large idle account balance. That was my main concern about this company, and the reason why the sum I invested there is rather low.

Fortunately, the situation has improved gradually. As I’m updating this article in Spring 2021, all my funds are invested.

Investing manually remains a problem, though. Auto-invest portfolio usually invest in all available loans, which leaves nothing for manual investors.

This has been a recurring problem at Swaper. As of Spring 2021, only ViaInvest suffers of the same kind of liquidity troubles. Ironically, the situation on this platform is actually opposite Swaper’s. Indeed, ViaInvest’s auto-invest is too slow and doesn’t manage to invest, as all available loans are taken by manual investors !

Buyback guarantee

The delay for buyback guarantee used to depend on the loan duration; now, it’s 30 days for all loans. This is a shorter delay than most competitors.

Both principal and accrued interest are covered by the guarantee.

Platform’s transparency and reliability

Swaper’s greatest flaw is the lack of financial disclosure by the platform’s parent group, which also owns originators on the platform.

Swaper’s background and team

Swaper was founded in 2016. Their office is located in Tallinn, Estonia.

The platform is a subsidiary of Wandoo Finance Group. This is very similar to Robocash, which is used to fund loans in Robocash Group’s loans portfolio.

Part of Swaper’s team is introduced on the platform’s website. Swaper’s LinkedIn page seems rather empty, though.

Loans descriptions

Many P2P platform provide details about the borrowers. It’s not the case at Swaper; however, it’s not a bit deal. Indeed, as an investor, this is rather useless information.

Loan originators reliability

Swaper’s loan originators are also part of Wandoo Finance Group. Unfortunately, Wandoo Finance Group doesn’t disclose annual reports. We thus can’t assert their reliability, or even the financial health of the group as a whole.

This is a large negative, when many competitors provide make their financial statements available :

  • Their direct competitor Robocash is a subsidiary of Robocash Group, which provides financial statements audited by KPMG. They show that Robocash Group has been profitable for three years.
  • Placet Group issues loans at Moncera. Their financial reports are audited by Ernst & Young, and show that this loan originator is consistently profitable.
  • ViaInvest provides reports audited by BDO, and is also a profitable entity.
  • Lendermarket provides loans from Creditstar. Although no financial statement is available for the platform itself, CreditStar published annual financial reports and is financially very solid. However, some doubt remains about their trustworthiness, as the audit was conducted by a second-rate auditing firm.

In spite of the reports not being available publicly, screenshots were published on Kristaps Mors’ new website. They show a profit for 2019 around €366,000, a rather meager figure.

Swaper has announced plans to onboard new loan originators. Investors can only hope that they will be more transparent than Wandoo !

One positive for Swaper is that unlike most competitors, audited financial reports are available for the platform itself. To my knowledge, the only competitor which also does so it Moncera. The 2019 report was audited by Profitius, a largely unknown firm. It shows that the platform managed to be profitable, with profit slightly larger than €400,000.

Track record

Until now, Swaper’s track record is great. Unlike marketplaces such as Mintos or Viventor, no loan originator has defaulted or got suspended. As a result, investors didn’t lose any money, even during the Covid-19 epidemics.

Reporting & statistics availability

Swaper publicly displays figures such as the number of investors or the total investments amount. Although the strong growth which took place during most of 2019 has taken a hit, the portfolio’s size keeps on increasing. Overall, loans were issued for a total value of more than 200 million euros.

Platform's features

Early exit

Early exit available

Investing methods

Auto-invest

Manual investing

Secondary market

While the short-term nature of most loans make it rather unnecessary, there’s a secondary market available, should you want to resell your loans.

Selling a loan is trivial. In the open investments list, simply click on the loan and confirm the sale.

Loans are always sold at face value. There’s no fee involved.

Manual investing

For a long time, investing manually at Swaper was impossible. Indeed, although the feature existed, there was simply no loan available to invest in; all new loans immediately got bought by auto-investors. Although the situation has somehow improved, it’s still often the case.

However, using the auto-invest is so simple to use that there’s little point in picking up loans by hand.

Auto-invest

The auto-invest feature is really easy to configure.

One minor annoyance though, actually also found in ViaInvest‘s website is the color scheme used for toggles. Surprisingly, a red toggle actually means “on”. I really can’t figure why they don’t use more classical checkboxes instead !

Apart from that, this screen is extremely readable, as you can see in this screenshot :

This screen is uncluttered and uses a pleasant color scheme
Swaper's auto-invest is a model of readability

Website’s ease of use

Languages

English, German

Funding methods

Available languages & translations quality

Swaper’s English translation is great.

Swaper's registration process

Signing up at Swaper is quick an easy. I’m a bit surprised that there’s no third-party KYC KYC (Know Your Customer) checks are procedures used by financial businesses in order to verify the identity of their clients. Most Crowdlending platforms will require a copy of an identification document (identity card, passport, driving licence); an utility bill or bank statement may be necessary as well. process using services such as Veriff or Onfido. Indeed, prospective investors only need to upload an identity document and a utility bill.

Account funding and funds withdrawal

The initial account funding has to be made via SEPA transfer. The next transfers can be made via TransferWise if needed.

Website’s design and ergonomics

Swaper‘s website is pleasant to use and works well, thanks to a limited set of features.

Reporting

The website offers common reporting features such as investments list or account statement. Some of this data is downloadable as an Excel file.

Documentation

The FAQ A FAQ is simply a compilation of Frequently Asked Questions is rather complete, and seems to have been expanded recently.

Swaper's App

Swaper provides an app, which is available for both Android and iPhone.

In terms of reporting, it provides an overview of your portfolio. A detailed transactions list as well as the open and closed loans list are also available.

In addition, it’s also possible to :

  • Create a new auto-invest scheme, as well as edit, pause or delete an existing one.
  • Invest manually
  • Display the bank account used to fund your account
  • Withdraw money

Overall, the app is well designed and provides an alternative way to follow your portfolio.

Communication & support

Swaper will send a weekly account summary, as well as a monthly newsletter.

The platform also has a blog. Most posts don’t provide much value, but several of them provided insights regarding the platform’s future and thus made for an interesting read.

Official Swaper pages on social networks

Support

There’s a live chat available, and it’s possible to get in touch with Swaper by e-mail. I sent them questions several times and their answers were always both prompt and precise.

Actual performance of my Swaper portfolio

12,69%

At the end of July 2022, the XIRR for my Swaper portfolio was 12,69%.

My actual performance is lower than the current interest rates, as these have increased in Spring 2020. Returns are overall in line with my expectations, although past cash drags have decreased them slightly.

Don't hesitate to read my most recent crowdlending portfolio review for detailed platforms performance comparison as well as historical performance.

For a detailed comparison of the different p2p-lending marketplaces, check out this article.

Portfolio creation date

I created my Swaper portfolio in February 2017

Swaper's main competitors

Swaper's facts & figures

Location

Marupe, Latvia

Founding year

2016

Loans amount financed

€252,889,660

As of November 2021

Who can invest at Swaper

To become an investor you need to be at least 18 years old, be a resident of a European Economic Area (EEA) country and have a bank account in a bank situated in an EEA country. An individual is recognized as a resident if he or she is a citizen, has a residence permit or is registered as a tax payer in an EEA country.

Swaper FAQ

In conclusion...

If Swaper's parent company Wandoo Finance group published audited financial reports, it would be a great step forward. This would allow investors to assert this loan originator's financial solidity.

For now, more reliable alternatives exist. Among them is of course Robocash, which has been competing with Swaper for years. Although it suffers from poor ergonomics and interest rates are lower than at Swaper, I still consider it a better choice.

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.

11 thoughts on “Swaper review”

    • Hi Jørgen !

      Currently all my funds are invested, but a few days ago there was still a little amount available. I’ll check back again during the month and update my review accordingly !

      Thanks to your comment I just discovered your blog, and will be checking Robocash – although to be frank I don’t have any additional fund to try them our right now 🙁 –

      Have a nice day !

      Jérôme

      Reply
  1. Hi Jérôme. Good to hear that your funds are invested. I actually like Swaper quite a lot. If you have any problems with cash drag feel free to contact me. I have not had a single day where my money has not been invested. You might need to change your auto-invest setup. I wrote a small guide in my Swaper review.

    Reply
    • Well, with the 2% additional interest rate, Swaper may actually become very interesting – provided one is ready to invest 5000€ in order to get the Loyalty bonus-.

      It actually pained me that there were not more loans available in their platform, so I would be pleased if the situation improved !

      Reply
  2. Hi, recently it is hard to find loans in Swaper. I speak for a portfolio of about 1k euro. Can someone share his/her experience?

    Reply
    • Hello Barbarosa, is the situation still the same? do you recommend opening an account with Swaper for diversification purposes? will it need much follow-up?

      Reply
      • Hi Claude,

        My current experience with Swaper is than the loans supply has increased and currently all my funds are invested. Once you’re done configuring auto-invest, there’s really nothing more to do, especially as Swaper’s offer basically never changes. I don’t even remember changing my settings once since I registered !

        Reply
  3. Hi,
    Are you currently experiencing cash drag again? I started to invest a couple of weeks ago on Swaper with a 1K€ portfolio to try out first and see if it makes sense to put 5 K€ there to get the extra 2% (+ get some returns in the Mintos drop in interest rate context) and my initial deposit needed between 1 and 2 days to be invested. However, after some early repayments the reinvestment took 3 full days for… less than 150 euros…and only after i increased the maximum amount per loan from 50 € to 150€ so i actually only managed to reinvest in 1 loan.. I read in some other blogs that increasing the number of AI strategies (but it makes no sense otherwise on Swaper since all loans have same interest rate, are short terms and belong to the same group of LOs) or increasing the maximum amount per loan could help on Swaper so i have done both even if i don’t like much the later..
    Nice blog btw 🙂

    Reply
    • Hi Julien,

      Thanks for the compliment ! I just checked my Swaper account and indeed have idle funds again, something that didn’t happen in the last months. Maybe it’s an effect of the current bonus campaign, as many investors sign-up in order to enjoy the additional 2% !

      The “multiple auto-invest” trick used to work well, but now I think that we can only setup one auto-invest portfolio.

      Reply
  4. Yes I thought about the potential effect of the bonus campaign, and actually saw that the offer is extended for one month more. I missed it even though it was already in place.. 🙁
    I watched recently an interview of the CEO done by an investor in their premises and she was saying they have growing supply in loans and that’s why they started to adverstise and launched this campaign. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UJLoS29mCc

    You can still set up several AI portfolio (I did it) but i have no idea if that actually has an impact.

    Reply
  5. I am retrieving my money from Swaper for two reasons, sorted on priority
    1. 80% of my loans are bought back by Swaper. The quality of the loans cannot be good is they have to repurchase so many of the loans.
    2. Cash drag. I have three porfolio’s running simultaneously, but still whenver I log in there is money not being used. Sometimes it is a small amount, sometimes a big amount.

    Reply

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