[Closed] Peer to peer lending...

my email address is set up to recieve paypal gifts, feel free to "lend" as much as you dare

I too, offer a no questions answered service.

Brighton might borrow your peer.. i hear theres is a bit charred and rusty

I have £10 leant out through zopa, as an experiment to see how well it works etc. I expect to get about £11 back in a few months.

I had my eye on it as a as and when investment, putting a bit on each month, as a hard to access savings account as much as anything, but I've not had any spare money for a little while and decided to put my sons money into national savings bonds.

I guess of you're looking to invest ethically (ish), don't want too much risk and don't have loads to put down it could be good.

Loans are spread over several parties so If one borrower defaults you don't lose all your money, and zopa chase defaulters like any bank. Costs are reasonable (2%IIRC) and you can choose your borrowers and they level of risk (as well as what they are borrowing for etc).

For borrowers, normal credit checks apply but rates can be better than high street, terms more flexible and profits go to people like me to spend on bikes and holidays rather than a management company to spend on guns and child labour.

I've toyed with it.

Obviously, you don't get the government-backed guarantee of a normal savings account.

The other thing to watch out for is that unlike a bank, you don't get to write-off your bad debt against tax. Ratesetter seem to have found a neat way around this which is to maintain a bad-debt fund. This reduces the headline rate you earn, but means you generally don't lose money on bad debt, and means you're not paying tax on profit that you haven't made.

There's a good chance that the regulations will change to fix both of the above in the not too distant future.

I've borrowed thrice from zopa, excellent service, good rates, can over pay with no penalty and can do everything online.