✦ Best peer-to-peer lending in Europe 2021 [ranked for safety]

Here is a quick reference list of the best Peer-to-Peer lending platforms in Europe in 2021.

I have tested myself most of the ranked P2P platforms and I’ve collected direct information about the rest.

That way, I could find the best Peer-to-Peer Lending websites on the market today based on actual data.

Here is the best peer-to-peer lending websites list:

This table of the best peer-to-peer lending sites is focused on Europe. There are many lists of best P2P platforms accessible only to US or UK citizens, so this is useful to European investors or international investors with e bank account in Europe.

To access a more complete list to compare peer to peer lending websites that goes beyond the most popular P2P lending platforms you can visit the official compare p2p lending table.

How to invest in P2P loans now?

Investing in peer to peer lending is simple and accessible.

Requirements to invest:

1. Being 18+ years old
2. To own a bank account in Europe

You’ll be required to be +18 years old and to own a bank account in Europe. International investors may use a Revolut / Transferwise for the above mentioned tools to deposit, invest and withdraw money.

In many cases it is enough to register, deposit via credit card and start a 1-click investing procedure. No further action is required over time and no difficult questions are asked.

P2P lending minimum investment in Europe is very low (10€ to 100€ on average) and returns can be extremely high.

What I believe is important is to fully understand how it works and what are the risks and the benefits. To balance risk and reward is key. Beside choosing the best peer to peer lending website it can be convenient to adjust the automatic investment settings properly.

Since investing in loans, like every investment, can be risky, it is important to focus on safety and to aim for the safest loans instead of searching for the highest return.

In order to invest in P2P lending the workflow is:

1. Choosing the best P2P lending websites
2. Register
3. Deposit the money to invest
4. Activate the auto-invest feature
5. Cash in or reinvest the interest

How to automate the process?

One of the best things about P2P loans investing is that most platforms provide one or more investment automations.

The investor can set the automation with a few clicks (sometimes just one click) and the platform will keep on buying and manage the loans for him.

The biggest benefit beyond the hands-free is that all the money from the interest earned lending money could be automatically reinvested and thus generate compound interest.

Ho do I protect my money invested in loans?

Investing in loans is a rather new way to invest money. This is why it most investor want to know how safe is P2P lending.

Different peer to peer lending websites offer different levels of protection to the investor.

1. Early exit

In most cases P2P lending platforms allow to sell the loans before the expiry date. Let’s call it “early exit”.

This gives a good level of protection because I am free to leave whenever I want. Unfortunately this applies in reality only in normal market conditions. To sell a loan I need another user ready to buy it and this is not always the case, especially if that loan is late.

2. Buyback guarantee

A very frequent protection given to investors is called “Buy Back Guarantee” (or late loan repurchase).

Marketplace lending like Mintos, IUVO and Peerberry offer this feature to their investors.

How it works?

The problem the buyback policy aim to solve is that some loans are not paid on time.

When I buy a loan and the borrower is late in payments for more than 60 days, the loan originator that issued that loan will have to buy it back and refund me the money I’ve invested.

Beware, it is not the marketplace that promises to buy back your late loans. It is a loan originator duty. So, before trusting this system 100%, it is smart to make sure the loans we pick are offered by a solid lender that will honor the buyback promise.

3. Diversification

One of the best ways to invest in peer-to-peer lending is to lower risk through diversification.

Using more P2P platforms to invest will expand to numbers of loans and lenders we have to trust. Doing so we directly lower to risk. If one loan goes late it won’t be a big issue since I will have a thousand more loans that are regularly paying. Same applies to lenders. If one loan originator does not honor the buyback guarantee (yes, it can happen) I will have other 20+ that are doing fine.

Now let’s see the best peer to peer lending websites in detail…

Mintos ★★★★★

Why Mintos is one of the best P2P lending?

• ✅ It is the biggest P2P in Europe

• ✅ It is the most popular choice

• ✅ It is one of my best picks ⚜️

Mintos isn’t the best one in terms of returns (though they are still very 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 because, so far, it worked 99% of the times.

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 370,000 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

Find out more about Mintos Promo codes and real 1% refer a friend links in 2021.

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

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

Take action now :

Read What is my direct experience with Mintos

Mintos alternatives?

MINTOS HOW DO I INVEST IN 1 CLICK?

IUVO ★★★★★

✅ One of the “safest” P2P marketplaces

✅ License by the Estonian FSA

✅ Originators have 30% skin in the game

IUVO is based in Estonia but it has connections (and loans) in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian loans are well known to be good and all originators on IUVO have to hold 30% of the loan amount. This is to fairly share the risk with investors.

Doing so, even if the loans here are “indirect”, the platform can be considered quite safe and reliable (P2P investing is risky anyway).

Info about IUVO:

• Minimum investment: €10
• Returns: 13%
• Secondary market: YES
• Guarantee net: Yes, buyback
• User experience: Cool
• Languages: ENG BUL GER ESP
• ☑️ Bonus for new sign-ups: X

My Tip: Do not focus on one or two lenders

ALTERNATIVES: Mintos and Viventor

Estateguru ★★★★★

✅ It is the biggest in € for real estate

✅ It is transparent

✅ It is one of my best picks⚜️

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. In my opinion this is one of the best peer to peer lending for real estate (crowdfunding).

Info about Estategugu:

• Minimum investment: €50
• Returns: 11,4% (1% a month)
• Secondary market: YES
• Guarantee net: NO
• User experience: Very good
• Languages: 4
• ☑️ Bonus for new sign-ups: YES 0,5%

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

Take action now :

Read what I think of EstateGuru

ALTERNATIVES: CROWDESTATE (14%)

Flender ★★★★☆

• ✅ It is possibly one of the safest P2P for business loans in Europe (P2P is risky)

• ✅ It is one of my best picks⚜️

Flender is an Irish P2P lending business founded in 2015. It is good for investors that feel too exposed on Latvian/Estonian P2P platforms.

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 (1,8% late +120 days).

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 (the excellent autoFlend) is easy to setup. Never forget it is geographically limited to one country.

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 as an additional protective measure + I prefer to invest within the first 30 days to maximize the generous bonus

Take action now:

Learn what I think about Flender (review)

Alternatives: October / Crowdestor (15%)

Peerberry ★★★★☆

• ✅ It is big and popular

• ✅ Connected to a very large lender

• ✅ Return up to 11,1%

Info about Peerberry:

• Minimum investment: 10€
• Returns: from 11.1%
• Languages: 3
• Secondary market: Yes
• Guarantee net: YES
• User experience: The sleekest ever.
• ✅ Cashback for new sign-ups: 1% bonus

My tip: Diversify on more lenders and make sure you don’t have too many overlapping with other P2P (advanced users only)

ALTERNATIVES TO PEERBERRY ARE: MINTOS

BEST UK BASED P2P
(mostly for Uk citizens only)

I wish every country could have Ifisa, not only UK.

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).

Here is a list of the best peer to peer lending in the UK:

• Funding Circle (UK – DE – USA)
• Zopa
• Ratesetter
• Bridgecrowd
• Kuflink

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 De USA only

Download my personal P2P Lending checklist

✅ 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.

HOW SAFE IS P2P INVESTING?

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

Peer-to-peer lending platforms ranking

🗜 What is P2P lending? (in brief)

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.

There is mutual interest in P2P lending. Borrowers can get liquidity out of the banking circuit. Lenders get high interests on this debt.

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.

Things to know about peer-to-peer lending in 2021

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.

Am I protected by the European deposit guarantee scheme?

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.

Is investing in p2p loans “immediate” like buying stocks?

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 2021).

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.

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 in some cases authorized. 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.

Video Best P2P lending Youtube

Here is the best peer to peer lending video to explain P2P lending just to anyone:

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 often 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

Ethical P2P lending is a must. The feeling I get when I have a loan repaid (no interests) from someone far in the world is priceless! I feel I am actively helping someone with a specific project.

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.

Visit Kiva

Similarly to Kiva, we have lendahand.com, Zidisha.org , Trine.com (profit 7%), 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 15% are often only hypothetical.

Short list of the best Peer to Peer lending in Europe:

• Mintos 9% – The most popular – The most diversified
• IUVO 13% – Old and reliable
• Estateguru 11% – All projects are property backed – transparent team
• Flender 10% – The best P2P for business loans – Small but growing
• Peerberry 12% – Supported by solid loan groups – Great team
• Twino 11% – One of the oldest and most stable P2P tools
• EVOestate 9% – A big growing surprise (real estate crowdfunding)
• Bondora 15% – One of the oldest P2P – Great tool with the right settings
• Crowdestate 12% – One of the oldest real estate crowdfunding

✅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).

They both have a 1-click investing automation.

• Mintos is also suitable for large P2P investors (⭐️ it’s also the most popular choice)
• IUVO-Group is a great alternative (or supplement) to Mintos.
• EstateGuru is my pick to invest in property-backed loans (12,24%)⭐️
• Flender is a good P2P for those willing to invest in specific business projects (up to 16% and proportional risk)
• Bondora is the best for one-click investing ⭐️. I’ve registered through my Google account and made a deposit by credit card
• Crowdestate is fast growing and offers high returns (up to 17% 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.

Other P2P lending platforms that I am examining are Evoestate, Lendermarket (a former Mintos lender) and Nibble.

As you can see there is not an absolute best peer-to-peer lending platform in Europe. What is possible is to pick 2 or 3 of the most established ones to start with the root foot.

Now it is your turn!

Write in the comments below your experience with P2P lending.

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