How To Use The Bad-Debt Rate

Lenders can use the bad-debt rate to see how low bad debts have been in the past on a P2P lending webste. An average annual bad-debt rate of 0.5% during a moderate or good economic backdrop is very low, for example. Any bank would be…

Are Bad Debt Forecasts Misleading?

Forecasts might not be the best way to decide whether to lend through a particular P2P lending website, but there are plenty of other ways to do so. UK Bond Network, a P2P lending website, recently sent 4thWay® enough data to get listed in its comparison…

Should I Borrow to Lend?

I remember working at stock-market investment website The Motley Fool when Stuart Watson was the editor. He was a smart guy. That’s why, when I told him a friend was re-mortgaging his house to invest in the stock market, he had a very intelligent response,…

Tax On Bad Debts Ends in Five Days

Here’s a short, but certainly sweet, article. I just had to pull a recent 4thWay® article explaining how 13% earned interest and 6% bad debts could leave you with a profit of less than 2%, all because we are taxed on the bad debts that…

I Hope You Stress Test Better Than The Banks

The Bank of England is asking the UK’s biggest banks and building society to perform stress tests again. Like last year, the tests are not as extreme as the events of 2008-10. The argument is that that period was seen as a rare event that only happens…

Why Assetz, LendInvest & Wellesley Have Countless Subsidiaries

The founders and directors of LendInvest, Wellesley & Co. and Assetz Capital have over two dozen limited companies between them either as part of their P2P lending operations or as companies very closely related to them. Why? More specifically, is this an extra risk that we lenders…

Lending Works Lending Strategy

Lending Works lending strategy is short and simple, because this P2P lending website is simple and easy to use. You have limited strategy options available, but it still requires a little bit of maintenance. Lending Works Lending Strategy: take it or leave it! Many P2P lending websites…

New £1,000 Tax Break When P2P Lending

Savers were given a new tax break in the Budget on Wednesday, but it wasn’t clear at the time whether that was going to extend to your P2P lending. Zopa has told us today that it just received confirmation from the Treasury that it does…

Landbay: Lend Instantly, Spread Risk Automatically

We needed to fill a few gaps in Landbay’s data in our detailed comparison tables, so today I interviewed John Goodall, CEO. Landbay is one of the safest P2P lending websites, focusing on high-quality residential buy-to-let landlords and properties. It has clear, strict lines in…

10 Years of Zopa: 10 Times More Interest Than Losses

Zopa, the oldest P2P lending company in the world – the one that started it all, right here in the UK – turned 10 today. Let’s look into how well it has contained losses, even during the worst recession for nearly a century, and how…

P2P Lending is Not Like Picking Shares

Back on Wednesday, 30th July 2014, there was an interesting interview on Money Box on BBC Radio 4. But I only just listened to it this morning. At roughly 13 minutes in, the conversation turns to one man’s experiences with peer-to-peer lending. That man is…

Low Risk, Market Beating P2P Lending Opportunities

This guide will be updated regularly with the latest low risk, market beating P2P lending companies If you’ve been using the easy P2P lending options: You can earn dramatically more interest while keeping your risks low. You need to be willing to put a bit of extra…

Buying Shares in P2P Website Assetz Capital

Assetz Capital is a large P2P lending company offering secured business loans, and it has a good record when it comes to bad debts. Now, Assetz Capital is looking for investors to buy shares in itself through Seedrs, a website that enables you to buy shares…

Wellesley P2P ISA Bond is Not P2P Lending

Note that, since this article was published, Wellesley & Co. has greatly clarified its marketing and re-named the bond the Wellesley Listed Bond. Wellesley & Co. has been offering one of the safer P2P lending opportunities for individuals like you and me. However, its new…

Why I Prefer Shares to Higher-Risk Lending

Yesterday I wrote about why I stick to low-risk P2P lending. Today, I want to write about why I look to shares for my higher rewards. To me, there’s no competition when choosing between higher-risk P2P lending and the stock market. Regarding high-risk P2P lending,…

Why I Stick to Low-Risk P2P Lending

At 4thWay® we write all our views, both positive and negative, about P2P lending. We don’t shirk on our responsibility to tell it like it is. With this in mind today I’d like to tell you about why I stick to low-risk P2P lending instead…

When The First Bad-Debt Provision Fund Will Fail

What happens when, not if, a provision fund is overwhelmed by bad debts? What makes these reserve funds so solid? Before we look at how some of the bad-debt provision funds will eventually be breached, let’s look at why they’re such tough nuts to crack. Because that just…

Lending Works Rate Lock Is All Upside

All of us at 4thWay® missed a very important detail about Lending Works‘ new interest rates last week. We’re not sure if we all need stronger lens prescriptions or if the consumer loans P2P lending company hadn’t explained its “Lending Works Rate Lock” properly to begin…

New Mintos Offers Great Autolend Options

Those of you who like to take a bit more risk might try P2P lending company Mintos. Key risks It’s riskier because it’s new, having started in September 2014. It’s also riskier because, well, it’s based in Latvia, so I don’t know much about how…

Personal Guarantees Like “T-shirt Body Armour”

I put it to the wise community at P2P Independent Forum whether personal guarantees count as secured lending. Before I share their views, here are two unavoidable definitions: Personal guarantee Business borrowers sometimes give their “personal guarantees” that they will repay a business loan using the owners’ and directors’…

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