9 best Peer to Peer lending in Europe 2020 [+ my 2🏆picks]

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Here is a quick reference list of the best Peer-to-Peer lending platforms in Europe in 2020

▶︎ Read what I’ve learned analyzing >40 profitable P2P platforms

Why should these ratings be reliable?

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11,02%

Early exit

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Automations

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safety nets

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One click investing

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Know more

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
12,04%

Early exit

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Automations

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safety nets

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One click investing

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Know more

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
10%

Early exit

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Automations

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safety nets

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One click investing

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Know more

List of the best P2P lending 2020

Flender is an Irish P2P lending business founded in 2015. Their success is probably given by their mindset. The aim of Flender is to cooperate with SME instead of squeezing out the maximum profit. Doing business this way they’ve achieved a valuable goal, an extremely low default rate (0,8%).

Flender website is smooth and all the data and settings an investor may need are at hand. Secondary market is not available yet, auto-invest (autoFlend) is easy to setup.

Info about Flender:

• Minimum investment: 50€

• Returns: 10,5%

• Languages: English

• Partner program: YES (5% bonus)

• Cashback for new sign-ups: Yes 5%✅

My tip: I avoid “V” class loans

Take action now:

Alternatives: October / Crowdestor (20%)

Learn more about Flender

Visit Flender sign up page

Mintos isn’t the best one in terms of returns (though they are still high) but it ranks first for many other parameters I value.

The diversification, both by type and by geographic area, guaranteed by Mintos is rather unique. This makes it presumably safer.

What’s good with Mintos?

Investor love its BuyBack formula.

95% of Mintos loans originators promise to re-buy their loans ( available on Mintos) that are later than 60 days.

Mintos’ finances are somehow separated from those of the originators, so virtually, if one of its originators goes “belly up”, Mintos would be not be very directly hit.

Mintos has more than 200,000 active investors from 74 countries.

All the loan originators need to keep in their wallet from 5% to 15% of each loan, in order to share the risk with investors.

Info about Mintos:

• Read Mintos’ Terms of Use

• Minimum investment: €10

• Returns: from 6% to 18%

• Secondary market: YES

• Guarantee net: YES

• Online experience: Excellent and intuitive. Statistics are clear and easy to read. High returns.

• Languages: 7

✅ Cashback for new sign-ups: YES Bonus for new users: 1% (on the deposits for the first 30/90 days. Basically I got €100 as a sign up bonus for every 10,000 I deposited

My Tip: I only buy loans in my currency / Status: current / Amortization method: full

Tip for beginners: Test the “Invest & Access” formula to get started right away, then add some “custom investing”.

Take action now :

Read What is my direct experience with Mintos

Go to mintos sign up page (no code needed)

Bondora is famous, established and controversial. The vast majority of those who have invested cautiously doesn’t complain about it at all.

In the past (and a little less now), Bondora has also processed high risk loans, with huge annual returns (>40%). This has attracted some investors who however have then seen some of these loans end up in the recovery process, which isn’t always immediate or resolving (read how do I easily setup my Bondora for >10% return).

Loans offered range between an AA (safest) to HR (High Risk) rating. Loans can come from Finland, Estonia and Spain.

Still today, by making random tests on Bondora I managed to simulate returns beyond 50%  with Portfolio PRO. Such high-returning loans are risky and I simply avoid it.

Also learn more about it by reading “from zero to Bondora” and decide for yourself. The learning curve to be able to use it isn’t too steep, but rather doable for everyone.

It is available in many languages and there are already thousands of users (60k at 2019).

Info about Bondora:

• Minimum investment: 5€

• Returns: from 8% to 79% (theoretically)

• Languages: 24

• Secondary market: YES

• Guarantee net: NO

• User experience: easy to use, but the look is too cartoonish. Returns are potentially very high.

• ✅ Cashback for new sign-ups: YES

My tip: I stick to the safest AA-A-B (C) loans, returns are still very good

Bonus for new users:  5€ which can be invested in 5 loans (not much, but you can get it also by signing up from Google/Facebook accounts and this is cool)

Take action now :

Learn more about Bondora

Go to bondora sign up page (no code needed)

It is thus very fascinating to scroll through the projects published on the website, select those with more potential and act as if you were a Venture Capitalist! Unlike the latter, you will however have the privilege to expose you for a minimum of just €20, and so you can lend little amounts to many projects.

The investment is blocked and the returns, even if much higher than the bank average, don’t go over 10%. If you like the idea, giving money to businesses is surely the same as giving a push to the real economy. The languages are French, Spanish, English and Italian.

Info about Lendix:

• Minimum investment: 20€

• Returns: roughly from 5% to 9%

• Secondary market: NO

• Guarantee net: Yes

• User experience: Good, returns within the average.

• Languages: French/Italian/English/Spanish

✅ Cashback for new sign-ups: YES

My tip: take some time to understand how it works before investing (learn more ⬇️)

Bonus for new users: €20 (min. investing 500€)

Take action now :

Before continuing, I invite you to repay the effort and the research I have put in writing this article: It takes ages to test, study and to sum up the outcome, you just have to share this post to say thank you! It costs you nothing, and it makes me proud!

Information about Envestio:

• Minimum investment: €1

• Returns: about 17%

• Secondary market: No

• Guarantee net: Partial

• User experience: Good, returns are high

• Languages: Eng Ger

☑️ Cashback for new sign-ups: Yes

My tip: Ask them some statistics about past investments (there is not much data)

Take action now :

Read my bad review on Envestio

Alternatives: FLENDER / OCTOBER / CROWDESTOR

EstateGuru is a tool for secured property-backed loans.

I am a very satisfied investor and I have zero late loans with >11% yearly return.

Info about Estategugu:

• Minimum investment: €50

• Returns: 12,2% (1% a month)

• Secondary market: NO

• Guarantee net: NO

• User experience: Very good

• Languages: 4

• ☑️ Bonus for new sign-ups: YES 1%

My Tip: I diversify on many loans and prefer “bridge and development loans” backed by a “first rank” mortgage.

Take action now :

Visit the Estateguru sign up page

Read what I think of EstateGuru

ALTERNATIVES: CROWDESTATE (18%)

Grupeer is a loans marketplace very similar to Mintos in the way it works.

It is really fast growing and the team behind it is reliable.

Info about Grupeer:

• Minimum investment: €10

• Returns: 13,2%

• Secondary market: NO

• Guarantee net: Yes

• User experience: Very good

• Languages: 3

• ☑️ Bonus for new sign-ups: No

My Tip: I diversify on many loans and I use it as a supplement to Mintos

Take action now :

ALTERNATIVES: MINTOS

Read what Grupeer team says

Visit Grupeer

BEST UK BASED P2P

(mostly for Uk citizens only)

The United Kingdom is undoubtedly the biggest and most structured market of p2p lending. In the UK, in some cases, it is possible also to request tax breaks for this type of investment. It’s called IFISA (Innovative Finance Individual Savings Accounts) and it allows to investing up to £20,000 per year tax-free (which can be cumulated).

Funding Circle 🇬🇧 (UK only)

The most famous British p2p is now also available in the US.

The first time I heard about p2p was precisely in relation to Funding Circle, and since then I was introduced to a (beautiful) world. This platform only deals with business loans, that is to say, it gives credit to businesses and it affirms to have 72,453 investors who have lent 2.7 billion pounds, earning 135 million in interests. These are impressive numbers.

Everyone can invest, you just need to be over 18 years old and to be living in the UK.

Info about Funding Circle:

• Minimum investment: £20

• Returns: from 4.8% to 7.5%

• Secondary market: YES

• Guarantee net: NO

• Online experience: Modern website and top user experience. High returns

• Languages: 3

• Uk only

Zopa 🇬🇧 (UK only)

Once upon a time when you looked for a loan you’d go to the bank. Zopa has changed all of this by introducing social lending and by using the internet as an instrument to connect those who looked for a loan with lenders.

Zopa is so requested that it has currently slowed down the flow of potential investors in order to balance the supply and demand of the loans.

From 2017, Zopa has unfortunately removed the guarantee on non-performing loans. The minimum investment is £10, and the fractionation is guaranteed by the investment system itself.

The transparency is total and everyone can ask for the list of loans, in order to consult it or to evaluate the chart with the default rates listed by year.

Info about Zopa:

• Minimum investment: £10

• Returns: from 3.7% to 4.5%

• Secondary market: YES (1% commission)

• Guarantee net: NO (since 2017)

• Online experience: excellent website, top transparency and user experience

• Languages: English

• UK only

• ☑️ Bonus new sign-ups: £50 (conditions apply, only available in the UK)

Download my personal P2P Lending checklist

4 things I liked to know before starting with the best peer to peer lending:

• Is P2P Lending Profitable?
• Is P2P Lending right for me?
• Is P2P risky or regulated?
• How ethical is P2P lending?

✅Benefits of P2P lending

The main benefit of investing in peer to peer loans is the access to some very high revenue investment with a potentially adequate risk.

The success of peer-to-peer technology started with music file sharing. Napster, eMule (..the slowest one) and then Torrent, then with movies on p2p. Now with p2p sports streaming and p2p payments. The attention is now all on p2p lending, the one with the loans, and it isn’t difficult to understand why.

Here’s my point of view on p2p lending for those who are investing in Euro (and not only). This is my experience.

The truth? I was skeptical like you. YES, I really was. Now, after some years, I am careful in loan picking, I recognize the risks involved and I am very happy of the outcome.

Now read what’s important to know in choosing the best P2P.

Compare P2P lending websites in Europe

What is P2P lending? (in brief)

PEER TO PEER LENDING CONCEPT IS SOMEHOW EQUIVALENT TO AIRBNB... BUT IT CONNECTS BORROWERS AND LENDERS Click To Tweet

P2P Lending websites offer loans to investors.

The operation is rather simple:

1. Loans approved by some credit/finance companies are partially or totally offered online.
2. Those who wish to invest in loans can do it on the dedicated P2P websites.
3. Anonymously, one proceeds to a single purchase of loans, automatically or in bulk with the criteria that one have set up.

The ease and the immediacy of the operation is surprising.

“Social lending” (P2P) for me is a way to create both additional streams of income (and compound interest) with a decent risk/return ratio in a”low-interest era”.

Everyone is looking for a ranking of the best crowdlending websites available, so I wrote my definitive answer.

Direct loans between private citizens are enjoying great success.

How old is P2P lending?

The first service of this kind was offered by Zopa already in 2005 in the UK, and it’s still in operation.

🚫SOCIAL LENDING IS NOT FOR EVERYONE

This is true for two reasons:

1. One is skepticism. Most people just don’t trust new financial tools because they’ve never heard of it. Trust comes from knowledge, and knowledge takes time. (It took me months to trust and start investing in P2P loans)

2. Another reason is greed. When people are asked to choose between 8% and 35% yield many get wrong and go for the second. It would be ok, but very often the loans that offer the highest returns are also the loans with the worst performances in terms of punctuality.

I find it safer to balance risk/reward in P2P lending.

There is an increasing demand for the “safest” class of loans from the smarter investors. It is important to make the system select for us the best and safest loans for us when possible.

After all, the returns are definitely high compared to what’s on offer on the market today.

This is an age of low interest rates and low inflation, it is hard to find good deals around.

This blog is not a recommendation to invest in any of these tools. 

It is just one more point of view from someone who is invested from some time already.

It may inspire those who are just starting out, and those who want to take it up a notch but have no time for studying the mechanisms.

Keep in mind that the loans aren’t always guaranteed and, even if they are, some limits and conditions apply. It is appropriate to choose loans with reasonable ratings.

The investment process isn’t always as immediate as you’d expect. Sometimes you may have to wait some hours/days before being able to see the assigned capital. Setting up very restrictive parameters to the loans in automatic wallets is generally the cause of the slowness of the process.

In my experience Fixura was the slowest to buy my loans while Mintos is still the fastest (invest & access 2019).

The default risk of a platform or of a loans originator is never to be excluded. There haven’t been sensational cases in Europe a part from Lendy in the UK, but for example, there has been one in China. Generally, the finance of the P2P websites are well separated from the users’ one’s so, even in case of a default, happy ending solutions are still possible.

P2p lending might be a good tool to distribute the risk of a part of a global portfolio while enjoying automated returns. Click To Tweet

The European bail-in system, that offers a guarantee to bank deposits under 100k Euro, isn’t obviously extended to any investment included p2p lending loans.

I don’t invest all my capital in social lending and I distribute it on more than one tool or at least in two different countries.

Social lending is regimented and authorized, it isn’t the Wild West – rules are clear and they are dictated by organizations in each Country.

All the listed websites are able to provide detailed information about the service they offer and they are usually extremely transparent, precisely to get over the diffidence of future users.

When I see something fishy I run away and I make sure my readers get what’s important to know in real time.

It is good to keep in mind that the platforms that offer many guarantees and advantageous taxation programmes will normally give lower returns. Instead, the most aggressive solutions, together with crazy returns, can also provide me with late or defaulted loans.

Let’s remember that high returns are often linked to adequate risks. 

I look for the “sweet spot” in P2P Lending, I invest myself and I share what I learn by doing.

Social Lending situation in Europe today

Uk has the biggest market for P2P but unfortunately, their tools are most suitable for UK investors.

Other big and reliable p2p platforms are in the Baltic countries.

Their stories are more recent, but they are raising millions of euros in record time. Perhaps they are solving the problem of those individuals and companies who, often unfairly, cannot obtain credit in the traditional way.

For those who can speak German, there are also AuxMoney, Smava and Zencap.

🚦How ethical is P2P lending?

Doubts of the ethicality of some loan originators.

Some originators in some countries charge borrowers with very high rates. This happens for a series of reasons that aren’t always caused by some not-to-ethical practices.

On one hand, some of these individuals/ businesses wouldn’t find easily credit elsewhere. On the other hand, a short loan of a small amount of money is obviously subject to relevant fixed costs (in relation to the amount) that make the total cost of the loan go way up.

It is possible to get informed before investing to ensure that the rates applied to borrowers are sustainable.

No-profit P2P Lending

On Kiva, we can finally lend without interests to people with small projects in developing countries. I’ve done it and the feeling of helping people is amazing, the website is awesome and it is even possible to gift a 25$ coupon to whoever we want to.

You don’t make a profit on Kiva, but you have the certainty to be doing some good, and that’s wonderful. I think it’s an extraordinary gift idea. The website is only in English.

Similarly to Kiva, we have Zidisha.org , Trine.com , Fundeen.com and BabyLoan.org .

How to compare P2P Lending platforms?

I’ve prepared my own P2P lending comparison table  a time-saving and up to date tool.

The majority of the instruments mentioned has been tested in depth and for long long time. Returns higher than 25% are often only hypothetical.

✅Final considerations and P2P winners

In my opinion Bondora and Mintos are the most accessible to anyone and are both easy to start with (are also open to international + non-resident investors)

• Mintos is also suitable for large P2P investors (it’s also the most popular choice)

• Bondora even allowed me to register through my google account and make a deposit by credit card

• Flender is a good P2P for those willing to invest in specific business projects (up to 16% and proportional risk)

• EstateGuru is my pick to invest in property-backed loans (12,24%)

• Crowdestate is fast growing and offers high returns (up to 18% and proportional risk)

• Lendix/October is not performing well anymore. On Lendix is more complex evaluating the risk

Sometimes there are P2P cash-back campaigns available for new subscribers. I myself took advantage of those campaigns but the bonus is never my main reason to invest.

Which one of the mentioned P2P are you using with profit?

Did I miss anything?

Your comments are very welcome!

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