My Top 5 P2P Lending Platforms – Here Is Why

I seem to constantly get this question: “What are your favorite P2P lending platforms and which ones would you recommend a new investor to look at first?”

So in this post, I’m going to finally share my top 5 in peer to peer lending with you, while explaining why and sharing my experience after over 3 years of investing in the peer to peer lending space. I’ll also show you the auto invest settings I’m using for each of them or how I would set them up if I was starting from scratch today.

Not only that, I also want to openly discuss where these platforms still have room for improvement, as they’re far from perfect.

There is nothing wrong with you preferring other platforms to the ones I mention here. I know a lot of you like Peerberry for example, which is perfectly fine. These are just my personal top 5 as of November 2021.

Note: I used this opportunity to (finally!) update my reviews for the platforms I mentioned in this post. So don’t be surprised if I send you over there for the most up-to-date information and screenshots of my accounts.

As usual, please don’t forget that none of this is investment advice, just my personal opinion based on my own experience as an investor.

My Priorities for Investing via P2P Lending

Let me give you a bit of context regarding my priorities as an investor, as they have changed over time.

I want my investments in P2P lending to be as automated as possible, so a reliable auto invest is very important to me. Over the past few years I realized that spending a lot of time manually choosing specific loans to invest in is rarely worth it, which is why I excluded some platforms from my top 5.

I’m confident that I can get a much better ROI by actually working more, instead of spending hours and hours selecting individual loans to buy.

When it comes to selecting platforms and lending companies for my investments, I try to stick to loan originators with a transparent, profitable business model, which they can prove via audited financial statements.

My Top 5 P2P Lending Platforms

Enough of an introduction, let’s get to my personal top five peer-to-peer lending platforms.

Mintos

Mintos Review – 3 Years Later (11,80%)

I’ve been investing on Mintos since September 2018, so for over 3 years now. With a balance of over 7.840€, this is my largest account in the p2p lending space.

I earned a total of 2.303€ in interest from my loans on the platform so far.

Check out this video if you’re interested in seeing exactly how my money is currently distributed among loan originators and countries, as well as my average remaining loan term and interest rate.

Mintos is the largest P2P lending marketplace in Europe, with over 7,2 billion Euros worth of funded loans so far in total.

While it is true that you can now on average get higher interest rates on other p2p lending sites, Mintos still provides investors with the largest selection of available loans and loan originators from different countries, making diversification a lot better.

Mintos also has a secondary market, allowing you to sell your loans to other investors if you need access to your money before the end of the loan term.

Licensed and Regulated

Not only that, Mintos is now officially regulated and licensed as an international brokerage firm and electronic money institution. This should provide investors with an extra layer of security in the future.

Since becoming regulated, Mintos is slowly transitioning to offering its loans in the form of Notes. Notes are their way of offering p2p loans in the form of regulated financial instruments. Each set of notes will contain 6-20 individual loans and will have its own identification number and prospectus.

The minimum investment for notes will be 50€ each, up from the 10€ minimum we’ve had so far when buying loans on Mintos. Yet, since notes already contain 6-20 individual loans, we should actually be able to diversify our investment more easily.

Thus, I’m looking forward to seeing how these will look in more detail.

So far so good, but we also need to talk about my funds that are currently in recovery, as 2020 has been a pretty wild year for the p2p market.

Funds in Recovery

Throughout 2018 and 2019, I made the mistake of not diversifying my money properly on Mintos. As a result, I ended up with a large chunk of my Mintos portfolio invested in a single Polish loan originator, Capital Service.

That same loan originator ran into financial problems in 2020 due to the crisis, as did a few others. As the name funds in recovery implies, these funds are still in recovery, but the process and legal proceedings will likely take some time.

It’s also possible that this money won’t be fully recovered.

Still, I remain positive, as in my opinion the platforms track record with recoveries has been quite good so far. Either way, I’ll keep you updated via my monthly updates.

Mintos Investment Strategies

This is the part I like the least on the platform, as I’ve had to fiddle with these settings a lot and I’ve never been 100% satisfied with how I set it up.

• What I think about the diversified, conservative and high-yield strategies

Still, here is my step-by-step instruction on how I would set up my own custom investment strategy from scratch today:

• My custom investment strategy

Sadly Mintos is still missing diversification settings for your entire loan portfolio. Right now you can only set them for each auto invest, which sort of sucks if you have several and you want to make sure you don’t allocate too much to a single loan originator. I really hope that they add this feature at some point.

While not perfect, Mintos is still the first platform I mention to new investors entering the P2P lending space. That’s mainly due to its large selection of lending companies, with loans from a total of 34 different countries.

However, it’s sadly becoming harder and harder to find good loans offering over 10% interest on lately. For higher interest rates, you should check out the other platforms making up my top 5.

Viainvest

Viainvest Review – 2 Years Later (12,08%)

I’ve been an investor on Viainvest since October 2019, so for two years now. I currently have over 3.017€ invested here, and I earned a total of 544€ in interest so far.

Here is why this is one of my favorite platforms:

• The VIA SMS Group, which offers all the loans on the platform, has been active in the lending sector since all the way back in 2009 and operates in 7 countries.
• The group has been profitable every year so far since 2013, according to their audited financial statements, which you can find on their website. Their latest one for 2020 should be online soon as well.
• That to me is important for their buyback guarantee for all loans (except business loans) that are over 60 days late, which also includes outstanding interest for the entire period.
• The platform rarely requires my attention. I just set up the auto invest and the platform takes care of everything else. The only time I need to check in is once per month to track my monthly updates.
• I’ve never run into issues, I’m very happy with the interest rate that they offer and I like having the option to sell my long-term loans early if necessary.
• They have just received their investment brokerage firm license as well, just like Mintos.

You can find a lot more details in my updated review.

Here’s how I set up my auto invest:

• My Viainvest auto invest settings

The auto invest can be a bit slow at times, but it will get your money invested on the platform. If you want your money invested faster in return for less diversification, you can always increase the maximum amount you’re willing to invest per loan.

You can also buy some loans manually when you see available ones if you want your money invested right away, but really, I wouldn’t stress too much about it.

Unlike Mintos, Viainvest doesn’t have a secondary market. However, you can sell every long-term loan directly back to the platform after 120 days, by manually initializing a buyback.

• How to sell loans early on Viainvest

I’m pretty sure a lot of people don’t know about that feature.

That being said, here are my two criticisms for Viainvest:

1. The auto invest should be updated to buy loans right away when they become available. It should never be possible for investors to be faster buying available loans manually.
2. While I love being able to sell my loans after 120 days in case I would need some of my money back sooner, I wish there was a filter to see all of these loans right away, instead of having to find them manually.

Apart from that, I’m very happy with my investments on the platform.

• Use this link to get an exclusive 10€ bonus added to your Viainvest account after signing up.

Robocash

Robocash Review – 1 Year In (12,12%)

Even though this P2P lending platform launched in February 2017, it somehow completely flew under my radar. I knew it existed, but I never bothered to have a closer look, as it didn’t seem that exciting.

All of that changed in January 2021, as I did more research into Robocash, the Robocash Group and ultimately became an investor.

I currently have a total of 3.204€ invested on the platform and earned a total of 204€ in interest so far.

Here is why Robocash is now one of my favorites:

• The Robocash Group, offering all the loans on the platform, was founded in 2013. It successfully issued a total of $1.4 billion in loans so far and is active in 7 countries.
• The loans currently come with an interest rate up to 12,3% per year and a 30-day buyback guarantee, including outstanding interest for the entire period.
• And since a buyback guarantee is only as good as the financial situation of the company that’s providing it, it’s great that the Robocash group is highly profitable, which they can prove via audited financial statements, all of which can be found on their website.
• The auto invest always runs smoothly in the background, I never need to check in on this platform.
• There is a secondary market, enabling you to sell your loans to other investors if you need to access your invested funds.

Here’s how I set up my auto invest:

• My Robocash auto invest settings

After setting up the auto invest, it usually takes less than an hour to have the money automatically invested into available loans. You can’t buy loans manually, which is not necessary anyway, as the auto invest does a fantastic job.

Another nice thing is that every loan with a duration of 90 days or more pays interest at the beginning of every month, making cashflow planning a lot easier.

I mentioned that Robocash has a secondary market. Here is how it works:

• Navigate to “My Investments”
• Select one or more loans
• Click the sell button.

I have no personal experience with selling any of my loans on Robocash before the end of the loan term, so I can’t tell you exactly how long it takes on average to get your money back. If you do, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

The good thing is, that unlike Mintos, Robocash doesn’t charge any fees whatsoever to sell loans via the secondary market.

Ok, now that we went over all of the good stuff, here is something I think needs to be improved:

1. In my opinion, it’s not clear right away to new investors how commercial loans work and that we’re actually lending out money to Robocash Group subsidiaries in Kazakhstan and Singapore, to finance their lending operations in those regions.
2. The web design is a bit inconsistent at the moment, between the redesigned front page and the investor dashboard. But as far as I know, they’re working on updating that part as well.

Ok, I think that’s pretty much it for Robocash. You can find a lot more details as well as screenshots of my account in my updated Robocash review.

• Get a 1% bonus on your Robocash investments within the first 30 days via my referral link.

Lendermarket

Lendermarket Review – 2 Years Later (14,45%)

Just like Viainvest and Robocash, Lendermarket also only offers loans from one group of lending companies. In this case, that’s the Creditstar Group, founded in 2006 and operating across 8 European countries.

I started investing on this platform in November 2019. I currently have 2.748€ invested on Lendermarket, and I earned a total of 735€ so far.

Here’s why Lendermarket is part of my top 5:

• I excluded Creditstar loans from my Mintos auto invest, as I buy them here instead. They’re offered with higher interest rates on Lendermarket, currently around 14% per year on average.
• All the loans come with a 60-day buyback guarantee by the Creditstar Group, including interest for the entire period.
• As usual, a buyback guarantee is only as good as the financial situation of the company that’s providing it. Luckily, Creditstar has been profitable for over 8 years now, according to their audited financial statements.
• Once again Lendermarket also has an auto invest that does its job reliably, so apart from my monthly updates, I never need to check in on this platform.

Here’s how I set up my auto invest:

• My Lendermarket auto invest settings

It’s up to you if you want more loans with shorter or longer durations, I like having a mix of both.

While I’m a happy investor on Lendermarket for close to two years now, they aren’t perfect either.

Unlike all other platforms in my top 5, there is currently no secondary market, so you should be willing to hold your investments until the end of the loan term (which I am).

Ok, that’s it for Lendermarket. Feel free to check out my full, updated review for a lot more details and screenshots of my account.

• Get 1% cashback on all of your investments in the first 60 days on Lendermarket via my link.

Iuvo Group

Iuvo Group Review – 3 Years Later

Let me first give you a bit more background information about this one.

Iuvo Group is part of the Management Financial Group, which owns a large number of different financial service providers and lending companies, most of which are active in Eastern Europe.

The group unites a lot of experience in the lending sector, starting with Easy Asset Management all the way back in 2005 in Bulgaria. After also entering other markets like Romania, Ukraine and Poland via different brands, the MFG group was founded in 2015 as a holding company of all of these financial service providers.

As of 2021, the group owns a total of 14 brands, including Iuvo Group which was launched in 2017.

I opened my account on Iuvo Group in October 2018, making this one of my first investments in the P2P lending space 3 years ago. I currently have an account balance of 2.662€ and earned a total of 1.008€ in interest and late payment fees so far.

Here’s why Iuvo Group is part of my top 5:

• The MFG Group is transparent and publishes audited financial statements for itself and its lending companies on a yearly basis. According to the last available financial statements, both the group itself as well as its 5 loan originators on Iuvo Group (Easy Credit, Viva Credit, iCredit Romania, iCredit Poland, Access Finance) have all been profitable, which is good to see.
  Again, this is important for the buyback obligation after 60 days, which is only as good as the company and in this case also the group of companies, that’s ultimately behind it.
• Iuvo Group enables me to diversify my P2P investments into loans from Bulgaria and Romania from experienced, profitable lending companies. Romania and Bulgaria are two countries that I have very little exposure to on other platforms.
• Last but not least, I rarely have to do anything here either. The auto invest reliably does its job and invests right away when loans are available.
• There is a secondary market.

Here’s how I set up my auto invest:

• My Iuvo Group auto invest settings

As I mentioned, all the loans come with a buyback guarantee by the lending company, which activates if a loan is more than 60 days late. Sadly, in case of buyback, you don’t receive interest for the delay period on Iuvo Group.

Still, I haven’t found that to be much of an issue as far as my monthly income is concerned on the platform.

You’re able to sell your loans early to other investors if you need access to your money before the end of the loan term via the secondary market, but you should know that Iuvo Group charges a 1% fee on every successful sale.

Iuvo Group clearly isn’t perfect either. Here are the two main issues I have after 3 years with them:

1. From my funds on Iuvo, 428,6€ have been stuck in recovery from the Polish business loan originator CBC (formerly known as KFP) since July 2020. Iuvo Group is doing its best in Polish courts as far as the recovery is concerned, so I remain optimistic.
   Still, these things take some time and until it is resolved, those funds in my account are not earning any interest. I also think that Iuvo should show these funds being in recovery in the dashboard underneath delayed loans. Right now, while they’re still included in the total account balance, I can only find them when checking the list of my investments, the fastest way is sorting by status.
2. While Iuvo Group’s support team is very friendly and responsive, over the past few years a few people told me that Iuvo Group called them after they registered, to help them set up their account. Now, I think that in itself is not an issue, but these people disabled communication via phone on purpose in their settings when they signed up. And they still received a phone call. That’s not something that should happen, so I hope they’re not doing that anymore.

Alright, that’s it for the last one in my top 5! You can find more details as well as screenshots of my account in my regularly updated Iuvo Group review.

• Get 0,75% cashback on all of your investments in the first 60 days on Iuvo Group via my link.

Conclusion

I hope was able to explain why these are currently my top 5 platforms as far as my investments in P2P lending are concerned and what makes each of them unique in my opinion.

Now you also finally have my updated auto invest settings for each of them, as I know that’s something many of you have been asking for.

While these are my favorites, I also wanted for this post to remain somewhat balanced and to be open about each platforms downsides. That way, you can make up your own opinion in the end. Hopefully, I was able to do that.

What is your favorite peer-to-peer lending platform? I’d love to know in the comments.