Zopa.com

[frauke]

I recently joined Zopa.com as a "lender".....

Its an interesting concept.

e.g. I recently lent £10 to someone, who borrowed nearly £8,000. They have agreed to repay it over 60 months. I offered it at a interest less than they were prepared to pay, and it was accepted along with over 150 other offers.

The low amount per loan I currently offer is due to:

1. The length of time before I get repaid
2. To spread my risk.

The costs are very low (1% of the interest paid).

Is anyone else a member - either as a lender or a borrower?

[bumfluff]

I haven't got much of a clue about interest rates though, so I don't know if those are good or bad.. definitely an interesting idea, though.

[Brian Turner]

I've seen Zopa come up before - it certainly does sound very interesting - something to look at more closely when I have time.

[frauke]

Zopa is certainly catching on as a place to deposit money, especially as deposit rates are so bad. Shopping around for the best rates can be hard work!

[frauke]

I received my first repayment on a loan of £10 which I lent at 15%...... I'm impressed. Its was exciting to login to see the interest and capital repayment on my account.

I think I was lucky to get that rate, most of the loans (each at £10) since then have been at 12%, and now I am offering to lend @ about 9%. There seems to be more competition between the "Lenders" so the rates on offer are certainly going down.

But for a lender - it is still way above anything we could get from keeping it on deposit. Its not a place to put "emergency funds", but more long term money.

[Brian Turner]

I've looked at this, and to be honest, I'm staying away - I just don't see real protections for lenders here.

Looking at the loan requests, a lot of people using Zopa are using it as a lender of last resort. In the current economic crisis, it looks too much like high risk.

2c.