zopa.com ? Anyone know of this?

[lon]

I saw on BBC News 24's Click about zopa.com, it is the marketplace for
Social Lending. People lend and borrow money with each other, sidestepping
the banks.

Has anyone else come accros this sort of thing?

Pros/Cons?




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[MrCheerful]

I saw on BBC News 24's Click about zopa.com, it is the marketplace for
Social Lending. People lend and borrow money with each other, sidestepping
the banks.

Has anyone else come accros this sort of thing?

Pros/Cons?

been going a long time, remember you may lose your investment

 

[John Boyle]

I saw on BBC News 24's Click about zopa.com, it is the marketplace for
Social Lending. People lend and borrow money with each other, sidestepping
the banks.

Has anyone else come accros this sort of thing?

Pros/Cons?

Yes. I am a lender there. Its been going a couple of years. I think it
is still a bit of a novelty and I have not been lending long enough to
express a view as to risk/reward. Judging from some of the contributions
to its forum I am not sure all of its lenders actually understand what
is happening!

 

[lon]

Yes. I am a lender there. Its been going a couple of years. I think it is
still a bit of a novelty and I have not been lending long enough to
express a view as to risk/reward. Judging from some of the contributions
to its forum I am not sure all of its lenders actually understand what is
happening!

Im thinking of borrowing via them..




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[John Boyle]

Im thinking of borrowing via them..

I think its probably safer for borrowers than it is for lenders who
expose themselves to the risk of bad debts.

 

[Chris Blunt]

been going a long time, remember you may lose your investment

There's some risk of losing part of your investment, but when you loan
money to people through Zopa you don't lend more than about £20 to any
one individual borrower. Any bad debt should be more than compensated
for with higher interest rates.

Chris

 

[Virgils Ghost]

Yes. I am a lender there. Its been going a couple of years. I think it is
still a bit of a novelty and I have not been lending long enough to
express a view as to risk/reward. Judging from some of the contributions
to its forum I am not sure all of its lenders actually understand what is
happening!

Unless you can run fractional reserve lending this isn't really going to
bother the banks.

 

[Chris. Parnell]

I've had a few hundred pounds with them for several months, but
no takers and they keep suggesting that I drop the interest rate
that I am looking for. With interest rates rising recently I
would have expected someone to take my money by now !

 

[Eric Jones]

I've had a few hundred pounds with them for several months, but
no takers and they keep suggesting that I drop the interest rate
that I am looking for. With interest rates rising recently I
would have expected someone to take my money by now !

You have asked for some pros and cons - well I have read your post you don't
know me - I don't know you - so would you be willing to lend me some money??
Can't see any pros myself other than people who would not get a mainstream
loan on the high street, getting a cheaper rate than from a moneylender.

 

[Simon Finnigan]

You have asked for some pros and cons - well I have read your post you
don't know me - I don't know you - so would you be willing to lend me some
money??
Can't see any pros myself other than people who would not get a mainstream
loan on the high street, getting a cheaper rate than from a moneylender.

When I was looking for a loan to buy a car, I had a look through a few loan
comparisson sites, sincluding noes that ask for quite a bit of detail to get
an idea of your credit "score". I got excellent scores (fairly good
earnings, never defaulted on anything in my life etc, regularly get the
lowest interest rate offered on products that don`t have a set rate, credit
cards for eg). Northern Rock turned out to be the best company for me with
a low APR (can`t remember what). Zopa would have offered me a loan for 1%
lower APR if I had met all their criteria (I didn`t quite earn enough at the
time to qualify for that low rate, but the earning limit wasn`t excessively
high). I am certainly not a sub-prime candidate for loans, so it`s worth
bearing Zopa in mind for anyone considering taking out a loan!

 

[tim.....]

When I was looking for a loan to buy a car, I had a look through a few
loan comparisson sites, sincluding noes that ask for quite a bit of detail
to get an idea of your credit "score". I got excellent scores (fairly
good earnings, never defaulted on anything in my life etc, regularly get
the lowest interest rate offered on products that don`t have a set rate,
credit cards for eg). Northern Rock turned out to be the best company for
me with a low APR (can`t remember what). Zopa would have offered me a
loan for 1% lower APR if I had met all their criteria (I didn`t quite earn
enough at the time to qualify for that low rate, but the earning limit
wasn`t excessively high). I am certainly not a sub-prime candidate for
loans, so it`s worth bearing Zopa in mind for anyone considering taking
out a loan!

And here is the reason why it probably won't work.

For you to want to borrow, you want it to charge less than
the bank charges.

For me to want to lend, it has to pay me more than I can
get from the bank.

There just isn't enough margin to keep both sides
happy.

tim

 

[Simon Finnigan]

And here is the reason why it probably won't work.

For you to want to borrow, you want it to charge less than
the bank charges.

For me to want to lend, it has to pay me more than I can
get from the bank.

There just isn't enough margin to keep both sides
happy.

A good loan rate seems to be in the region of 6.2%, for me to take out a
loan. A good interest rate for me in a bank account would be in the region
of 5% from a Halifax websaver (roughly). When you include the special
offers that Zopa run offering a bonus 1% on deposits here and there, there`s
the potential for it to work on good candidates for loans. When you look at
the rates charged for sub-prime lenders, it gets to the point that it`s
worth the risk to your money for the potential returns. I`m not an investor
in it myself, nor do I have a loan with them, but i`d certainly consider it
from either side if my circumstances changed