We’re still down several persons for our Panel of Peers, so I hope you’ll consider volunteering. The Panel governs 4thWay on behalf of all lenders to ensure it remains independent. 4thWay’s Panel of Peers maintains our accuracy, impartiality, and candid research. I’m glad to say…
Most people benefit from automatic tax breaks on peer-to-peer lending as explained in our guide: How Is Peer-to-Peer Lending Taxed? However, not everyone does, which can make lending through a pension attractive. And there are other advantages to lending in a pension. There are also cons though,…
Before you start to assess a P2P lending website or IFISA provider that does personal loans, it really helps to understand the characteristics and features of personal peer-to-peer lending. In other words: what are you getting into when you lend your money in these loans,…
Peer-to-peer lending websites and IFISA providers that do not appear to have the correct permission from the financial regulator are the ones that are most likely to turn out to be the real monsters that cause panic, fear and financial loss to individuals. Below, you…
Crowd2Fund looked like it was going to take off. It was going to raise millions of pounds in startup funding through its own users this year. It was going to hire experienced staff. And it was going to become very transparent with its data, so…
My main research focus over the past few weeks has been on re-interviewing Growth Street, probing for more details, and pushing it for better quality data. This article covers all that, with my usually candid opinions thrown in. Check out my three-minute summary and, if…
There’s a lot for lenders to learn about the Growth Street ISA, launched in 2019. Take a dive into all the important aspects right here, and find out how it compares to the Growth Street’s ordinary lending account. The Growth Street ISA is covered by…
This is just a brief note on the two recent P2P lending site closures. Lendy has closed after lenders suffered a high amount of late and bad debt, as well as very expensive legal problems, among other things. (I wrote about some of its issues…
This is quite a bit of fun for me today. I’m going to look beyond peer-to-peer lending to my old, very well-trodden stomping ground of shares and savings, where I spent nearly 20 years of my life before peer-to-peer lending took over. If you want…
A property IFISA is a tax-free investment account where you can lend to borrowers who have real property – real estate – to back up those loans. This piece is based on a vast amount of research over many years. I could have easily made…
I’m going to explain some of the strengths and limitations of reserve funds. Then I’m going to write about three simple steps you can take to give yourself the level of safety you probably want and have expected all along, to get yourself prepared for…
I have always invested in investments that are relatively easy to analyse, so that I have a good chance of being able to weigh up the risk-reward balance properly, and invest with a large margin of safety. The types of investments I choose also need…
From our point of view, it was never a good start for Lendy, formerly called Saving Stream. Since the beginning, it never passed the basic, simple tests cited in principles one and three of 4thWay’s 10 P2P Investing Principles. In short, Lendy hasn’t provided enough…
We have some rare information about CrowdProperty‘s performance and it looks like it is finally opening up, allowing a wee bit of analysis of some the risks. This is great for me, because I’ve suspected that this is one of the rare P2P lending sites…
ArchOver* is now the latest established P2P lending site to introduce auto-lend combined with auto-diversification. The ArchOver Investment Plan, as it is called, does three very useful things, the third is about the type of diversification on offer, which is a feature that deserves expanding on….
Many Tesla bond investors are complete lunatics. Today, I read on CNN that Tesla bonds have fallen in price so much that anyone buying its bonds due for repayment in 2025 will now effectively earn 8.6% annual interest. (A falling price for selling your bonds…
Proplend has launched an auto-lend feature for its “tranche A” property loans, whether you lend through its regular account or its IFISA. Proplend’s tranche A loans are for a maximum of 50% of the property’s valuation. Many loans are against properties that are earning income for…
As of today – the day we upgraded our ratings system – a new entrant to 4thWay’s PLUS Ratings is LendingCrowd. LendingCrowd* has completed over £34 million since 2014 in business loans and it offers an early exit if you are able to sell your…
Just for a bit of quick background on HNW Lending, it does short-term property loans and development loans, as well as asset-backed loans (see info box), to individual borrowers who are rich in assets and property. It pays around 6% to 10% interest. There have…
You probably think a better question is “Why on Earth would I want to do unsecured business lending when I can do secured lending? It’s a good question. Secured business lending, after all, means that you are lending to a business that has property, equipment,…
