RateSetter

[Paultry]

Have many Lemon flavoured Fools become users of this as an investment route?

I just became aware of it from Monevator and consider it a good deal, at least with the £100 reward.

I would welcome any thoughts and advice. Paul.

[mc2fool]

Have many Lemon flavoured Fools become users of this as an investment route?

I just became aware of it from Monevator and consider it a good deal, at least with the £100 reward.

I would welcome any thoughts and advice. Paul.

I couldn't find anything on http://www.ratesetter.com about a £100 reward or bonus by going into the site from the top, so to speak.

However, on a google I did find http://www.ratesetter.com/welcome-bonus, which headlines with "RateSetter £100 welcome bonus" but goes on to say, "The welcome bonus will be available for all eligible customers who have registered their account before midnight on 06.10.2016".

So, unless I've overlooked it and you can find a £100 reward offer on their site that's current, it looks like the opportunity for that has passed.

In answer to the general question of Ratesetter et al as an investment route, you may like to flick through the TMF Social & P2P Lending board, as was. http://boards.fool.co.uk/social-and-p2p-lending-51613.aspx

[jackdaww]

I have used Ratesetter for a year now , a rolling monthly arrangement paying 3% on £1000.

I made a small withdrawal to test it , which worked ok .

and they gave me £50 a month after i joined ---- which was nice ...

.

[kempiejon]

I've some money with Ratesetter and the £100 bonus was a factor for pulling me in, I only get 2.5% now rolling, I'm not sure that's good enough for much longer. I have more money with Wellesey, they gave me 5% on a fixed rate and a free ipad mini for an opening gift.

[Paultry]

It seems I was out of date and too late for the bonus £100.

I did not check the date of the information on the Monevator site.

The rates suggested by your kindly replies are not so attractive, but I will look into all the suggestions. Thank you. Paul

[melonfool]

There is a referral bonus of £100, so if you know (or can find...) anyone who already uses RS they get the £100 for recommending you. The usual agreement is to split it £50 each.

Mel

[jackdaww]

.
with ratesetter you have the option to set your own asking rate -

ie you could specify say 5%.

what the risk implications are i have no idea .

.

[theIg]

Some information, hopefully of use.

I've been 'investing' in Ratesetter since the start of this year after weighing up the pro's/con's of main P2P's.

Apart from the £100 bonus (which although appears to have ended - but please see my link at the bottom of this post ) the key factor for me was the Provision Fund which covers bad debtors - I don't believe the other P2P's do this - certainly not when I did my research.

According to their stats, all defaulted loans have been covered and so far no-one has lost money - something I'm aware of other's who invested at higher rates in more risky P2P's have done.

https://members.ratesetter.com/ratesetter_info/provision_fund.aspx

I invest soley now in the 5 year markets - depending on the amount available, it's usually between 4.8% - 6% market to get it matched - pretty much always within 24h for the sums I've deposited. (usually around 1K)

Whilst I wouldn't tie up funds for 5 year for such a relativity low rate - there is an option to 'cash-in' the loan providing another lender is willing to take this onboard. Again, according to their info there is not much of a delay in this happening - I believe - at last looking, there was a 0.7% loss here- but I look at it that I can get savings of 4-5% and pull out my funds whenever I wish, far superior to the rolling rate, or any other instant savings account anywhere.

The 5 year rate also is repaid monthly and you can choose how this re-invested or whether deposited back to you- I personally re-invest it in the same.

You have full of control on your investments in terms of selecting the initial rates and they seem to have all the bases covered from what I wish to know before depositing and to more importantly give the impression of security for your investments.

I've no experience apart from research/3rd party reviews of other P2P's but at present, I'm happy with RS and the relative risks, and funds there make up around 8% of my portfolio.

My recommend a friend link http://link.ratesetter.com/tzpjtwm with a mention in the T'C's of : Your friend can request to withdraw their money at any time, but must keep a minimum of £1,000 invested for 1 year to qualify for their £100 bonus. This will be deposited into the Rolling Market at the Market Rate within 2 weeks of qualifying.

This was taken 2mins ago from my referral page so perhaps it's still available from certain individuals ?

[melonfool]

Yes, as I said above, the referral bonus is still live, I know of someone who two yesterday.

Mel

[NeilOne]

I've been using RS for about a year also , mostly the 3 and 5 year (the 3 year has now been removed) . The main issue is what happens in the event of another financial crisis and we won't know until it happens. I expect the provision fund would be under stress and some losses would occur but so would most of the alternatives.

[playdumb]

Folks,
my first post on LemonFool after the Motley Fool boards demise, and I can't believe it's on P2P, a board I rarely visited

The markets chat blog of the FT called FT Alphaville have a long running series on P2P lenders. The latest on RateSetter is -
https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2016/11/30/ ... tch-begins

at the bottom of that article are links to a number of other P2P blog entries, most by Kadhim Shuber a new-ish journo at the FT who has taken a keen interest in P2P
The summary is (I'm paraphrasing!) - they are for the most part banks, without the regulation!

[Mull1]

I have been with RS for over 2 years now, and consider them the safest for your money and a reasonable interest rate.
I was initially with Zopa for over 10 year now and wanted to diversify (although I consider Zopa and RS to be very similar).
Indeed I prefer RS and am gradually moving money away from Zopa (as I consider RS has a slightly higher rate, although this varies).
But RS and Zopa basically lend to other individuals who require loans on an unsecured basis, but there are other P2P companies that extend this idea further, and provide loans to individuals and Companies on a secured basis (ie asset backed loans). For some reason, these asset backed loans have a higher interest rate. There are quite a few P2P companies in this area, mainly using housing and land as security, but also some use Cars, gold and jewellry (to name a few).
My view is that the P2P idea can be extended, to provide backing for social and business projects. Indeed a number of crowdfunding ventures have been set up to provide for charitable projects, for example to send children with cancer abroad for specialist treatment.

Mull