Is Mintos Safe? [Scan your portfolio] 7 Epic fails + Psychological Traps

How safe is Mintos?

How to make it safer?

How to avoid allocation mistakes?

Here I report 7 typical P2P investors’ mistakes and my own Mintos allocation

The best part?

✅ I’ll give you instructions to find out if you’re unbalanced

 + some actionable Mintos tips & tricks

Until now I have peacefully lent 136.580,85 € on Mintos so …I can talk

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⚠️ Mintos is a high-risk investment platform. Mintos’ lenders can default or stop paying. Borrowers are not always reliable. Do not investing money you are not willing to lose.

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My intention is to invest on Mintos:

• In the safest possible way
• For the long term
• Not for the highest yield

( ..I know this sounds boring but the outcome can be surprising)

In this article, I mainly want to summarize the best and the worst approaches to Mintos portfolio distribution from my (limited) point of view.

Also read the best Mintos alternative out there!

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After writing the most complete guide on how to use Mintos, now I want to focus on how to make it safer.

Is Mintos safe?

Mintos has 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars on my P2P ratings table  and ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars on my awesome P2P comparison table.

My main goal when investing is preserving the capital and then make it grow.

I am not for gambling or all-in strategies with my money.

Since P2P lending may not be the safest practice in the world, I value Mintos for making P2P a bit safer than it was before.

[bctt tweet=”Mintos safety depends also from the use we make of it” username=””]

Picking the loans properly can make our Mintos a safer investment.

Safer P2P doesn’t mean risk-free.

Mintos lenders can go belly up, suffer major problems and delays due to internal or environmental causes.

Thi is to say that, even if protected by the excellent buyback guarantee, loans can go late or default for different reasons.

It is normal on Mintos to have a part of the loans in ricovery status.

This does not mean the money is lost, but it is a risk I need to be ready to face.

 

⭕️ Mintos is NOW open again to new investors

They also offer a big bonus to new investors.

50€ + 1% Mintos Bonus

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How do I allocate my funds on Mintos

This is very connected to the choice of the best Mintos originators and geographic preferences.

A good Mintos loan allocation should take into account many factors.

What is my ultimate goal?

To have a safe, resilient and durable Mintos portfolio

⚠️ If I was someone who feels insecure on setting up a portfolio on Mintos manuali I’d rather let the invest & access work for me.

The new Invest & access conservative is a decent option to get started fast on Mintos without complex setting and difficult questions.

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List of the most common Mintos allocation mistakes

Of course, this is only my opinion, and I strongly recommend you to find your truth by making tests and reading from other experts.

[bctt tweet=”I am not a Michelin-starred P2P super-expert. I am a human investor who makes tests and listens to people to learn from them” username=””]

It doesn’t matter how much money I have invested, I want to avoid beginners mistakes and I need to make my Mintos a safer place where to grow my money.

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☣️Mistake n°1

Premature ejaculation on Mintos💦

I know some Mintos investors only go for “short term loans”

Guess what…I don’t agree!

Is Mintos safer if I only pick short-term loans?

Lender default risk is rather the same, but doing this I will heavily affect my loan diversification.

• Only some lenders in some countries work with short term loans
• Short-term focused lenders may have more aggressive policies
• New regulations are (eventually) reducing the APR in some Baltic states and more regulations are to come

Regulators will probably reduce the number (and the profitability) of short loans available soon.

Short term loans are, on average, the less ethical class of loans and sometimes are just loans issued to pay the previous loan.

I don’t want to feed this monster. Investing comes with responsibility, so I care so I try to act accordingly.

I believe short term loans are not safer just because of the short duration.

Mintos and P2P lending, in general, should be considered for long term investing purposes.

My takeaway: 

I do not concentrate on short-term loans and try to get the lowest APR when possible.

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☣️Mistake n°2

Sharing the same amount evenly on all loans originators

I know some Mintos investors do their best to equally share their money on all loans originators

I don’t do it.

Among all possible mistakes, this is by far the less troublesome, I’d not even call it a real mistake, but keep reading…

What I want to point out here is that doing so I am putting on the same level originators that have very different profile risk and should not be treated the same.

Did you know that some Lenders only (or mostly) serve “indirect loans”?

Well, it is not a big issue maybe, but I should take this into account.

[bctt tweet=”Sharing my funds on all lenders would inevitably bring to overweight some countries and some loan types and I don’t want that” username=””]

I’d prefer to start from the (presumed) lender reliability and overweigh them.

This doesn’t mean to focus on 5 or 15 lenders, but only to overweight those who know are more transparent and reliable.

My takeaway:

I give more weight to the lenders I prefer and than I spread the rest on the others. I just avoid the smallest and the lowest rated.

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☣️Mistake n°3

Going for the highest interest rate (whatever it takes)💪🏼

I know some Mintos investors just go for the highest interest loans

Again, I don’t agree.

I couldn’t agree less.

Let’s use our brain, it is not that easy. I wish it was.

Why?

It will not be easy, the day:

• Some hundreds of our borrowers lose their job
• Some loan originator goes bankrupt
• We are too exposed to some specific country or loan type
• A sudden change in regulations brings restrictions on a specific country/Lender
• The currency we traded to buy high-interest loans crushes

Hopefully, that day will never come, but should this happen, I will make my portfolio to have a more resilient structure.

I will keep on having a very conservative profile on Mintos.

What is a reasonable interest rate on Mintos loans?

I think the P2P lending risk has to be balanced by high interests. For the safest lenders, this may be as low as 6-7% for me (only for the sake of diversification).

Some of the safest Mintos lenders pay less than 8% interest. Should I cut them off my portfolio? I won’t.

I want as many good loans originators as possible in my portfolio. Even if they pay lower interest rates.

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☣️Mistake n°4

Trading currencies on Mintos📈

I know some Eurozone Mintos investors get loans in currencies different from euro

One more time, I don’t agree.

Why do they do that?

• To get much higher interests!

Mintos allows me to invest in different currencies and some loans are just listed in different currencies. These loans normally pay higher interests.

To be successful in such a strategy, the investor should be able to control more things.

Do these people have any experience in (successful) trading currencies or to forecast currency fluctuations?

Well, I hope they do. Even though I find it pointless to mix two things like forex trading  and loans in P2P.

Moreover, if I know for sure that weak currencies have a historically tendency to lose value against the Euro

Am I sure to do the right thing in investing in those currencies? The 18% interest on loans might be erased by an ordinary swing of the exchange rate.

I do not invest in other currencies but Euros on Mintos (my currency).

Of course, I do play with currency exchange rates, but not on Mintos.

Doing some very small experiments on Mintos investing in different currencies is absolutely fine since one knows what is he doing.

Did you know there are fees to pay when exchanging money on Mintos? Maybe not.

My takeaway:

I invest in Euro in euro-issued loans only.

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☣️Mistake n°5

Some lenders don’t pay fees during “grace period”

I know some Mintos investors avoid loan originators that don’t pay fees during “grace period”.

Guess what…I don’t agree!

Less than 3% of my loans spend time idling in a “grace period“. For me, it is pointless to exclude those loans and reduce the diversification to earn some extra cents.

Did you know only 7 lenders have long “grace periods”? I think the impact is marginal.

I strongly believe it is crucial to avoid (or reduce exposure) to some loans originators and to some specific loans depending on the time horizon. On the other hand, I only consider Mintos and P2P investing in general for long term investing purposes.

My takeaway:

I prefer diversification over micro-optimization.

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☣️Mistake n°6

Some loan originators don’t pay fees on delays

 

I know some Mintos investors avoid loan originators that don’t pay interest on income on delayed payments.

I partially agree.

Since approximately 20% of my loans stay in a late payment state, I’d better worry about it.

Worrying itself is a useless activity, so I’d rather address the problem with a solution.

Should I exclude all the lenders that don’t offer interests on late loans?

I decided for myself. NO.

One more time, doing so will heavily reduce my diversification.

Why?

Because the lenders that are not offering me late payment fees are just too big (and reliable) to be excluded for the sake of some extra euros.

One of the lenders with that issue is Mogo. I will not exclude Mogo from my best Mintos lenders list. At least not yet.

Of course, I consider reducing exposure to some of these lenders if more reasons arise.

My takeaway:

I prefer diversification but I keep my eyes open.

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☣️Mistake n°7

Micro-investing on Mintos🔬

I know some Mintos investors fraction investments on thousand of loans

I do set my maximum investment per loan up to 30/60€.

Is it too much?

Absolutely not, and I tell you why.

I know that many get obsessed with minimum amounts and some investors don’t even let the auto-invest buy more of the same loans (limiting buying potential).

Fractioning our investments on many loans is virtually correct, but I should remember how buyback works.

Beware: What I am going to say  makes sense only if I am investing in buyback guaranteed loans.

First things first.

On Mintos there are direct and indirect loans.

Getting buyback guaranteed loans on Mintos from direct loans lenders means getting an exposure towards the loan originator, not to the borrower.

The good news?

• Most loans on Mintos are “direct”

In any case, if the borrower doesn’t pay, it will be the lender to refund our money whenever a borrower doesn’t pay.

If I am invested in direct loans, the day the lender goes out of business it would not make a big difference to me if I am exposed towards 200 or 2000 borrowers.

Why?

Because I am first exposed to the lender.

This is the opposite I need to do with indirect loans on Mintos, and on other P2P websites with no buyback guarantee (like Bondora)

On Bondora I will fraction a lot and also care about the quality of the borrowers.

My takeaway:

I prefer buyback/direct loans.

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Cashback and …run away

I know some Mintos investors trade on cashback offers

That’s absolutely fair, I did a bit of this with the first generous Mogo campaigns. The only downside is that it can be time-consuming. If I am trading with small capital I won’t be able to see a huge performance boost.

How to do trading on Mintos Lenders cashback?

Easy:

1. Wait for the extraordinary cashback announcement (via email from Mintos)
2. Subscribe to the campaigns
3. Buy the offered loans complying with the given conditions
4. Cash in the bonus and immediately sell the loans

Does it work?

Yes and no.

The risk is to get stuck with unwanted loans if we don’t succeed in selling it.

It has been a great opportunity doing that with the first generous Mogo campaigns.

 

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Arbitrage and trading on Mintos

I know some investors do arbitrage on Mintos secondary market

That’s a nice idea but let’s take a much closer look.

Are you on Mintos to make a hands-off investment?

If yes, skip this chapter.

Arbitrage takes time and some knowledge.

Mintos loans can be in 5 different states:

• 30-60 days late
• 15-30 days late
• 1-15 days late
• Grace period
• Current

Beware of this before starting because late loans are normally cheaper.

Since loan prices on the secondary market can differ a lot, there are opportunities to buy loans at discount and sell it at premium.

Open up a loan detail and go to “Investment breakdown”.

You will see all the “shareholders” of that loan and their sale price. The offer might range from +20% to -99%.

A profit can be also made by buying at discount and sell at par or with a reduced discount.

Investing this way I can profit by the price difference and not from the interest rate.

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Is Mintos the safest P2P?

Relatively yes, but P2P lending investing is never risk-free.

The relative safety on Mintos comes from different aspects:

 

• I can rely on the buyback only if it is offered by good lenders
• I can distribute my loans on many countries reducing the geographic risk

• I can spread my loans across shorter and longer duration
• I am welcome to use automation and enjoy fast cash in on current loans
• I can fine-tune my custom strategy and get exactly what I decide to have in my portfolio

• I have full control (as we will see below) on what’s inside my portfolio
• The access to fresh stats has always been guaranteed so far
• Age of the platform. Mintos is a 2015 P2P, it is getting older compared to the competitors
• Size. Mintos is the biggest loans marketplace in Europe (ex UK)

With the arrival of the Mintos “Invest & access” portfolio which is totally automated, I believe investors should pay extra attention to their loan distribution. At least, I do.

I use both strategies (I&E + Custom) and I do my best to avoid to be too exposed on some particular lender, country or loan type.

Keep reading and I’ll explain to you why I am …so boring.

Why should I care about Mintos safety?

Because ..safety matters.

• If I am about to start with Mintos and I want to do that safely, I will be happy to read how to setup it properly also beyond the “Invest & access”
• If I am already investing, I might want to take stock of the situation and in case, bring adjustments

So, if you are started or about to start with Mintos, you are reading the right article.

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What is the problem with “Invest & Access?

Loan distribution

“Invest & Access” is a great tool to invest hands-free.

My tests are in progress to see if it can get me too many loans from some specific loans originators and some specific countries.

From my tests the ordinary loans-allocation with “Invest and access” is not bad at all, but two things can happen:

1. I get mainly exposed on 4 or 5 lenders
2. The automation could change one day and start to get me also low-quality loans

The first issue is already a reality, even if the 4 or 5 lenders are very good ones

The second issue is that if I rely too much on automation this may lead to losing control of my loans allocation (..this is an issue for a P2P lending NERD like me).

This is why I find correct for me to find a balance between:

• Custom strategy
• Invest and access
• Manual investing (this is for P2P nerds)

Yes, I buy my loans in these three ways.

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How to know if I am overexposed on Mintos🔮

If you want to know if your portfolio on Mintos is balanced just do this:

1. Login to Mintos
2. Go to “My Investments” page
3. Start to play with the settings (you cannot make any damage from here)

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Your portfolio under X-rays

Now to get a complete picture do this:

Click on the “country” and “loan originator” button above the pie chart.

I consider my portfolio “balanced” if none of the slices is bigger than 25%, but 15% is better.

From the filters, on the left sidebar, I can make a deeper analysis

Do I have any loans without buyback guarantee?

• I can find out here by heading on the “buyback guarantee” filter.

What class rating are my loans?

• I can filter loans out by class.

If I want to find out what “Amortization method” I have for my loans it’s easy:

I scroll down to:

• “Amortization Method”
• Select “All”
• Deselect “Full”

This is interesting.

Why?

Doing so I get a view of the loans with those characteristics and I keep in mind that “Full” is always preferable.

My takeaway? I only buy “partial” and other types of loans from the best lenders.

I do this because if my filters are too tight I am likely not to get enough loans from those good lenders.

Finished investments

What happened to my old and reimbursed loans?

My repaid loans are stored in “finished investment page”, a forgotten page on Mintos.

In truth, it is important, since it reminds me how many thousands of loans have been repaid (or bought back) peacefully.

I can also pull out interesting data out of it.

So far, I have lent 136.580,84 € on Mintos

 

 

50€ + 1% Mintos Bonus

 

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Conclusion

So, is Mintos safe?

Don’t trust me.

Go to Mintos and decide for yourself. I gave you all the information to understand how safe is Mintos, if it was not enough now go to the Mintos review.

Too much information?

Get more about this topic and future evolutions through the “boring newsletter”!

If you are in search of a slower and “safer” way to invest you may want to read the latest MoneyFarm Review.

P.S.

Have I missed something? Am I totally wrong?

What is your experience so far? Have you tested a different setup?

Is Mintos safe in your opinion?

I’d be glad to hear from you!

Use the comment box to interact and then share this post!

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