Mintos Invest & Access Review: How to Reduce Bad Lenders

In this short post, I ‘m going to show you how to use Invest & access from Mintos in the best possible way

I will also give you my opinion on Invest and Access based on my experience.

This post includes :

• My own setup
• My advanced strategy
• A comparison with similar tools
• The real return of I & A
• Invest & Access review
• What’s bad about I & A

Let’s read the invest & access review.

🛠 How does Invest and Access work?

Invest & Access has been created from Mintos to simplify the process of investing in P2P loans.

Investors can decide if to use I & A or not, but approximately 40% of Mintos users have this service active.

Once activated Invest and access will buy any Mintos loan that fits these Mintos terms. 

When I have the Invest and access active this service will buy me loans automatically.

What are the benefits of Mintos invest & access?

The main benefit comes from the possibility of investing in one click.

The second most appreciated benefit of invest & access is that the “current loans” inside our portfolio are immediately available for sale. This is to say that approximately 70% of our invest & access portofolio stays available for cash out.

Does it work?

Yes, but there is also some criticism about it. Now everything is fine, but during the first coronavirus crisis months large investors have notice some delays in the cash out process.

Has invest & access improved from its inception?

Dramatically. Yes.

The first version of invest & access in 2019 was just an automating system to buy loans.

Now there are three levels of autoinvest right for every investor.

The first invest & access is blamed of been buying low quality loans from low rated lenders. This is partially true.

There are 3 levels of “invest & access”:

• Diversified
• Conservative
• High-Yield

Let’s find out which is the best one and why.

The conservative “invest & access” ⭐️

Spoiler: This is my best (and only) Mintos invest and access portfolio.

If I activate this strategy, Mintos will buy for loans that have:

1. buyback guarantee
2. risk score from 7 to 10 (where 10 is the best score)
3.  originated by lenders that have most loans current
4. originated by companies that have less than 10% of pending payments

This is mum best invest and access because it would mostly focus on providing me the safest loans. Of course I could do better, but this is totally automated and partially available to cash in.

The diversified “invest & access”

This is the worst one.

Why the diversified is bad? Diversification is good, isn’t it?

This kind of auto invest will also buy loans that are NOT protected by the buyback guarantee offered by most lenders. This may possibly lead to loans form low rated lenders (and we don’t want that).

The high-yield “invest & access”

This is a strategy that will only focus on the loans that pay more.

It will also buy only loans covered by the buyback guarantee.

The downside is that it will not car about the rating of the lenders, so any loan originator, even the less trusted one may be included (and we don’t want that).

How to cash in money immediately with invest & access?

To cash out my money from I&A I just have to click the “cash out” button on the dedicated page. By doing so I command Mintos to sell all my current loans (within the I&A portfolio) on the secondary market.

The Mintos Invest & access service has priority over all the other Mintos buy & sell operations (manual and auto invest orders).

How much money will I be able to cash out instantly from Invest & access?

Approximately 70% in normal conditions.

On average the current loans of a portfolio represent 70% of the total, so this is the money I would be able to cash out immediately.

The rest of the loans will stay in my portfolio until they reach maturity or I can sell it on the secondary market manually.

To sell a loan on the secondary market is easy. It can be also fast if I apply a discount to the sale.

Note: Some investors report that they were not able to cash out the 70% but much less and the operation could took days to be completed. I cannot confirm this since the test I performed gave me an expected 72% of loans sold within a few hours.

I believe the Invest & access promise of immediate cash on invested loans is a bit too big. The Secondary market is not the stock market, so liquidity can be a problem. 

I’d prefer an Invest and access that:

• Invest a maximum of 100.000€ (in order to avoid “icebergs”)
• Buy the same percentage of loans from only very high rated lenders (8 to 10)
• Only buy from lenders that have been on serving loans on Mintos for more than 1 year
• Promise to cash out just 50% within a week (that is more reasonable)

With these features the Invest and access would be a better place where to put the money and more advanced users would use it.

✅ My test

The conservative strategy I activated on my account worked perfectly and very fast.

There were only two setbacks:

1. Some loans were 100€ (I normally buy less than 50€ for single loan)
2. Some loan duration were above my average maximum duration (48 months)

There are many ways to avoid this (even if this is not a great issue).

I can set the target investment to less than 1000€ and after a few hours add another 1000€ and so on. Doing so the system will not buy 100€ loans, but smaller size.

there is not much to do about  the longer loan duration.

READ WHAT I THINK ABOUT MINTOS AFTER 6 YEARS INVESTING

What is the maximum Invest & Access portfolio size?

The maximum invest and access portfolio available is set to 500.000€.

It was previously 200.000€.

Some advanced investors are worried about what could happen if many large investors would try to cash out their portfolio all at the same time. Will Mintos be able to provide enough buyers on the secondary market?

I have an opinion about this Invest and access aspect.

Mintos is growing very fast and soon institutional investors will get into the game. The total size of Mintos today is above 5.000.000.000€. With these numbers, I believe it is possible Mintos can supply enough liquidity to the secondary market. As stated in the I&A terms and condition this will work under “normal market conditions”.

What is the Invest & Access real return %?

There has been a huge discussion about this.

If one would read terms and conditions before investing there’d be no surprises.

It is clearly stated that the outcome depends a lot from the market conditions, so in a certain period, there might be better loans and a few months later some worst loans.

My average return when I started my tests was 12%. This percentage faded to 9% a few months later and now is hovering 10%. I don’t really care, safety and a good distribution of the loans comes first to me.

🛡 Is invest and access safe?

Some advanced Mintos investors complain about the way it worked in the past.

I look at the numbers and I say “yes, but..”.

What’s that?

The average default rate of the lenders on Mintos  is minimum so far, so the problem is very limited. Of course market conditions can change and we’d better be ready, but for now there is no much to worry about. Investing in loans is never too safe but with this diversification I feel quite good.

READ HOW SAFE IS MINTOS

Beware that Mintos lenders can default. It happened in the past and it will happen again.

💡 Invest & access advanced strategy

Even if I am able and willing to spare some time of setting some perfect auto-invest portfolios I’ve decided to keep a slice of my Mintos in the I&A.

What I don’t like about I&A is not the limited chance to cash out money or the lower interest rate.

What I don’t like about it is the quality of some loans and the total loss of control.

So why to keep trying?

Easy!

I want to keep testing it to report to my readers and I also want to fight any cash drag.

Since cash drag is a problem from time to time, I like to have some I&A active that has priority over everyone else.

Let’s dive into it.

⭐️ Invest & access 2021 RevenueLand-adjusted

Since I am a bit obsessed with fine-tune on about everything (investing, cooking, fishing, exercising) I also do some cleaning on what is bought by the Invest & access.

“Cleaning means I like to get rid of some low rated lenders loans from time to time. This is to keep my overall portfolio clear of low-quality stuff.

Let’s be honest, this is a NERD’s stuff and ordinary investors do not need this fine-tune adjustment, especially if they have less than 50% in I&A.

I’ll show you how to do it in 30 seconds.

This is my exact procedure step by step:

1. Stop the i&a
2. I head to the “portfolio page on Mintos”
3. The “current investments” page is displayed by default
4. I scroll the left column until I find the “strategy” menu
5. I select conservative/diversified/highYield “invest & access”r

What I see is the list of active loans that have been bought from the invest and access tool. 

Now I scroll up again to see the pie chart on the top right of the desktop.

Now I make sure not to have a big concentration on a single lender. This is not likely to happen. If I spot a lender that is above 25% I’d put some of its loans on sale at par.

I am not finished yet. 

What I do now is:

1. Go to the left column again.
2. Head to the “Mintos ratings” and use the filtering option to filter out the loans you don’t like
3. When I have a selection ready I can put it on sale on the secondary market

Ok, but the secondary market is not free!

Who cares?!

My priority is to have a “clean portfolio”.

So, why don’t just buy loans without the i&a?

Because the loans I buy through the I&A are easier to sell since I&A has priority over all other tools.

How to sell loans on Mintos secondary market?

Follow me, it is easy.

1. On this same page go up to the top right again
2. Press the button “sell all”

1. Now press “review and approve”
2. Apply a discount using the “-” symbol before the number
3. Discounts between -0,1% and -2% work fine
4. Accept the sale
5. Wait 30 minutes, 1 day is even better
6. I start a new portfolio like the one shown in this video
7. Re-activate the I&A after a few days or not

By doing this simple cleaning every 3 or 6 months an investor can keep the invest & access active but also be quite sure not to have too many low rated loans.

The invest & access will take care of the diversification.

WHAT ARE THE BEST MINTOS LOAN ORIGINATORS?

Invest & Access Vs. Auto-invest

What is better? The Autoinvest provided by Mintos with all the fine settings or the 1-click investing tool Invest & Access?

I don’t recommend anything but I have my opinion.

I love investing and I have time to spare on adjusting my strategy like a crazy, but I know most people just don’t have this time and will and that’s ok.

Invest & Access is not that bad, because the buyback guarantee on Mintos is working just fine so far. The average default rate on Mintos is extremely low so, it would not be necessary to worry too much.

On the other hand,I like my auto-invest portfolios, so I have the most of my loans bought manually or from the auto-invest custom strategy I setup.

A small share of loans is left to the Invest & Access.

By using the Auto invest with conservative settings I am likely to get a 1% more compared to the I&A.

💎 Invest & Access Vs. Bondora Go & Grow

What is better? Invest and Access or the popular Bondora  Go & Grow?

I&A and G&G are very different but they aim to solve the same problems:

1. To keep money available while invested with high returns
2. To invest in 1 click without any special knowledge 

The comparison is unfair for many reasons because the origin of the loans is different. As a matter of fact,  Bondora is able to issue its own loans while Mintos is only a marketplace for lenders and investors. Mintos is much bigger than Bondora.

First difference I&A Vs. G&G :

• Mintos invest & Access instant availability is mostly limited to 70% of the total
• Bondora Go & Grow capital is 100% instantly available 

Second difference I&A Vs. G&G:

• Mintos Invest & Access invest in loans with buyback guarantee
• Bondora Go & Grow invests in any loan they like issued on Bondora itself

Third difference I&A Vs. G&G:

• Mintos I&A average return is about 11%
• Bondora Go & Grow serves a 4% capped

Fourth difference I&A Vs. G&G:

• Mintos I&A only gives me the chance to add money to it manually
• Bondora G&G can work like a DCA/PAC adding a monthly amount

Fifth difference I&A Vs. G&G:

• Mintos I&A does not add any “gamification”
• Bondora G&G seems to be made for families. It gives you goal settings and the potential gains are clearly stated before and while investing

I have to add that, so far, with my tests, I have been able to cash out money from my little Bondora Go & Grow in a matter of minutes.  They use the SEPA instant credit transfers and money is on my bank account just a few minutes after I insert the order. With Mintos, it takes a bit more. All of this under normal market conditions, so I tend not to trust this too much.

What I don’t like about these two tools?

I am about to say something rather unpopular. I believe the gamification of the savings can be a great tool to make people save and invest more. What I don’t like is that the instant availability of the money invested can give a false sense of security. I know that investing in loans is a potentially risky practice, so the automation only solves the problem of reducing to zero the time to manage the investment. 

Since I care about safety I use both Bondora Go & grow and Mintos Invest & Access for a share of my loans.

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES TO MINTOS

Conclusion and recap

I&A is also a good tool for Mintos to allocate the lenders’ loans with more freedom among the investors. I never forget that one of the main duties of a marketplace is to provide enough loans to investors and enough investors to the loan originators to work properly.

I will keep my tests on Invest & Access and I will share the updates on the health of the tool on the Huge Revenue newsletter.

Now it’s your turn!

What’s your opinion about Invest & Access?

Have you found a better way to keep enjoying the hands-free I&A while clearing out what you don’t want?

Will you test my advanced strategy?

Let me know!