Loans On Unbolted, a P2P Pawnbroker

P2P lending company Unbolted, a pawnbroking offering that we wrote about in New Peer-to-Peer Pawnbroker: Unbolted, has now got off the ground with four small loans and one very large one.

I'll just summarise these loans now, so that you can get an idea of the sorts of loans the company is currently matching.

The large loan, which is last in the following list, includes an interesting and powerful extra safety feature.

Gold loan

• An £800 loan secured again 55 grams of 18 carat gold.
• Approximate value of the gold is £1,000+.
• Approximately 80% loan-to-value.
• Interest rate: 8% (0.65% monthly fixed).

This loan is protected from a fall in the gold price using an investment device called “derivatives”, which, in this case, basically works like insurance. You can read how Unbolted protects against gold price falls in New Peer-to-Peer Pawnbroker: Unbolted.

Five rings

• £609 loan against five ladies rings.
• Valued at a total of £870.
• Loan-to-value is 70%.
• This is earning 10.5% (0.85% monthly fixed).

Classic car and art

A loan of £5,866 against a VW Karmann Ghia 1971 and two pieces of art collectibles.

We have no further details.

Military medals

A loan of £2,173 against a collection of nine military medals.

We have no further details.

Antique scientific books

• The loan is for £750,000 against a selection of antique scientific books being put for sale.
• Valuation is approximately £2,080,000.
• Effective LTV of 36%.
• Interest rate is 9.5%.
• The loan term is nine months but it is likely to be repaid in 4-5 months.
• The loan is planned to start in March.

The purpose of the loan is an advance against the planned sale. The sale will be conducted through a specialist and a leading name in book auctioneering.

The auction house instructed for sales has valued the books. To give Unbolted lenders confidence, the auction house will absorb losses of up to £200,000 before you take any losses. A powerful safety feature!