Guides, Reviews & Tips

Why do peer-to-peer lending? It offers much greater returns than savings with lower risk than the stock market even when you commit your money for less time.

4thWay provides candid information about all the risks and benefits, so that you can decide for yourself whether it's right for you.

Below we show you five great ways to learn about peer-to-peer lending and P2P IFISAs, so you can earn more money, more safely!

The sections on this page

Read our 10 Core P2P Lending Guide pages

What is P2P Lending? Or see an image explaining the same in How Peer-to-Peer Lending Works.
Is Peer-to-Peer Lending Safe?
4thWay's 10 P2P Investing Principles.
The 13 Key Peer-To-Peer Lending Risks. (And two more risks in IFISAs: IFISAs: What Are The Risks?)
4-Step Strategy to Safe Peer-to-Peer Lending.
10 Ways To Get Your P2P Lending Money Back!
Peer-to-Peer Lending Vs Other Investments.
How Is Peer-to-Peer Lending Taxed?
The IFISA (P2P ISA) Guide.
How One Lender Is Losing Money – A Lesson In P2P Lending Diversification.

Other popular mini-guides include Can Your Business Lend Through P2P? and How Much to Invest in Peer-to-Peer Lending.

If you get stuck for understanding any jargon, we offer you our Peer-to-Peer Lending And IFISA Glossary.

Every single word on this website is 100% original research and opinion from 4thWay, the first P2P ratings agency in the world. We are regularly the victims of plagiarism from bloggers or money websites. These copycats sometimes even copy incorrectly, leading to dangerously incorrect information. So please support us by reading our content! Sign up to our newsletter.

Compare lending products and IFISAs

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See P2P lending reviews from 4thWay's specialists

There is probably no better way anywhere on the Web to quickly learn about each individual P2P lending opportunity than by reading reviews from our specialists.

Read our very popular and educational reviews for each P2P lending site by going to the compare page and then clicking on the reviews that interest you, so that you can see other key information side-by-side, such as their 4thWay PLUS Ratings.

Or you can click on the links here if you just want to read individual reviews in peace:

Read our latest research and tips

Everything On IFISAs This New ISA Season

Look no further. Here's everything you need to know:

Visit 4thWay's IFISA comparison tables to find out which IFISAs are rated Exceptional by 4thWay in our rating system with a perfect record – or simply to read our specialists' candid reviews on different IFISA providers.

Visit The Peer-To-Peer IFISA Guide to get answers to all your questions about how IFISAs work and the taxes.

Read IFISAs: What Are The Risks?

The Lead Weight Of Responsibility

Whoa, this is heavy.

In possibly his most candid piece yet, 4thWay's CEO unburdens his soul on leading the research that has brought 11 years of success to all lenders consuming 4thWay content.

Being diligent about the responsibility of calling the shots accurately appears to have good and bad sides. Read on if you want something very different – and very personal – compared to our usual content.

Lendwise Review – Updated

While 4thWay no longer conducts its resource-intensive, core ratings assessment on Lendwise, this rare, non-property P2P lending company still supplies very detailed data and is open to answering our questions.

The Lendwise Review has been updated. The most substantial changes are in the section How good are Lendwise's interest rates, bad debts and margin of safety?

Kuflink Review Update – And Some News When Lending Before 6th May

4thWay's leading specialist has conducted another forensic investigation and the team has reassessed the risk-reward balance of the underlying loans using the banking tests that underpin the 4thWay PLUS Ratings.

The Kuflink Review has been updated with the latest information. Let me point you to the section in the review that summarises both March 2025 news and the most notable findings from 4thWay's Kuflink reassessment.

Proplend Review Update – Risks Lowered Further

Proplend lenders have now earned nearly 700 times as much money in interest as in write-offs.

But that's not even the most important finding from the detailed reassessment of Proplend, led by our Head of Research.

Jump to the summary of 4thWay's biggest findings on Proplend or read the entire updated Proplend Review.

Update On The 3 Most Profitable P2P Lending Providers

Well over a year ago, we shared with you the most profitable P2P lending companies that are transparent with 4thWay about their people, processes, results and lending data.

See how their financial health looks now.

Loanpad Review: Reassessment Finds 5 Items Of Note

We’ve completed another reassessment of Loanpad and its rating. Quite a few things came up. If you’re not familiar with them, check out the whole review. If you want a summary of the five biggest new items of note, hop straight to the section: “The five biggest items from our March 2025 reassessment of Loanpad“.

Best Innovative Finance ISAs In 2025

In selecting the best Innovative Finance ISAs, our specialist is looking for excellent, stable, consistent historical results, strict standards when assessing loans, and a team that is capable of following through with those assessments.

4thWay P2P And Direct Lending Index: Biggest Losses Ever

December 2024 had the most bad-debt losses in the 4thWay PADL Index since it's beginning in 2014. Read more here.

Invest & Fund Review

Invest & Fund recently removed the 0.5% annual charge on its IFISA, boosting your lending returns, and it's hired yet another experienced person for its lending team. We've done a thorough reassessment of this provider and found that if anything it's even better than before. Impressive. You can see the review here.

The 13 Key Peer-To-Peer Lending Risks

This is one of the most important pages on online lending you'll ever read on the 4thWay website. Take your time on it, learn the methods to reduce the risks, and your lending results will undoubtedly become even more secure and reliable.

Full AxiaFunder Lending Results (After A Loss)

As AxiaFunder's history has progressed and a few case losses have occurred, it has become more important for us to receive detailed information on the results of the law cases that you fund and how profitable this has been for you.

AxiaFunder now provides us with that data. One of our specialists has summarised its results in our review, in the section How good are AxiaFunder's returns, bad debts and margin of safety?

You will also find other small updates throughout the AxiaFunder Review.

Lande Strengthens Risk-Reward Balance

Lande has continued to make huge improvements in the quality of its loans as it looks for new borrowers or allows existing borrowers to borrow again on better terms for lenders.

Indeed, it's gradually made a variety of improvements. To read the latest reassessment of its key people, processes, lending data, borrowers, risks and rewards, read Lande Strengthens Risk-Reward Balance.

Assetz Exchange Is Housemartin

One of 4thWay's specialists updated you just a few months ago on Assetz Exchange.

Firstly, it has changed its name to Housemartin, to further distance itself from the Assetz brand.

So, if you need to read up on it in future, you'll do so in the Housemartin Review.

Secondly, as promised in October, I'm letting you know that we have details of its new plans in the event it needs to wind down its online lending business. You can read about its wind-down plans in this section.

P2P Lending Returned 5 x More Than Savings Over 10 Years

I hope you don't mind if we share a press release with you. It's not quite our usual writing style as it's tailored for journalists, but it saves us writing out basically the same fascinating research twice for two different audiences.

It's about the remarkable difference in performance between P2P lending and savings, especially when adjusted for inflation.

CrowdProperty – It's The Climactic Moment

The consequences of inflation, worker shortages and other issues that slammed into property developers a couple of years ago are finally now culminating. Delayed property-development loans and bad debts at CrowdProperty are likely now peaking.

Our specialists have reassessed CrowdProperty in full. You'll find the substantial changes to the CrowdProperty Review in the section How good are CrowdProperty's interest rates, bad debts and margin of safety?

Other updates

We are mostly only able to update the Blend Review using publicly available information, as we have limited contact and no data or documents from them.

Nevertheless, a 4thWay specialist has made some small changes throughout most of this review, if you'd like to get up-to-date. Here it is.

Proplend: What Lenders Say About It

We've updated the Proplend Review after another reassessment. While there are few changes, I want to draw your attention to a new section after fresh research into what other lenders say about Proplend.

HNW Lending Loses Major Court Case

HNW Lending has lost a court case to recover an outstanding debt, after the judge found that HNW Lending had no claim against the borrower.

Find out about this explosive result, other issues covered by the judge, and what it means for lenders in that and other HNW Lending loans.

Small CapitalStackers Update

With CapitalStackers' only two bothersome loans bothering some more, here's an update to its review. The key changes are all in the section How good are CapitalStackers’ interest rates, bad debts and margin of safety?

Another minor update

While we updated, the Unbolted Review, there is nothing of note that has changed, except to state that we are getting increasingly out of date due to receiving no fresh data from Unbolted. As time goes on, confidence in our assessment of Unbolted will therefore continue to degrade. Here it is.

Assetz Exchange Achieves Its Freedom!

Assetz Exchange's record remains perfect and looks strong, yet there's still some other news.

It's been approving a few more loans after something of a barren period and the clouds are now rapidly parting, as it clears away past issues on the board and in its historical loans, one at a time.

Here's what has changed after our latest reassessment.

LandlordInvest Winding Down – Impact For Lenders

The FCA has banished LandlordInvest's CEO and the provider, which has long paid reliable double digits to lenders, is apparently winding down at the regulator's insistence.

While we have little information, read the briefest summary and Neil Faulkner's initial thoughts on impact for lenders.

4thWay P2P And Direct Lending Index: September 2024

P2P and other online direct lending continues to outperform the stock market and with no volatility to speak of. See the comparison graph over 10.2 years.

4thWay P2P And Direct Lending Index: August 2024

The latest figures from the index comparing P2P lending and other online direct lending to the stock market over more than 10 years.

4thWay Peer-To-Peer And Direct Lending Index

The new 4thWay P2P And Direct Lending (PADL) Index was launched in August 2024. It enables investors to compare long-run returns to shares and other asset classes.

Discover the 4thWay PADL Index.

Kuflink: Why New Lending Rates?

There are some items that we pay close attention to at 4thWay. One of those is lending rates and any hidden meanings when they change that might indicate risks. After Kuflink's recent substantial change, one of 4thWay's specialists looked into it.

The Remarkable Long-Term Performance Of P2P Lending

We now have sufficient data from a large enough number of important P2P lending providers to start accurately tracking performance. 4thWay begins to make a direct, historical comparison to other asset classes, such as the stock market.

Read about P2P lending's long-term performance.

Somo Review – Deep Reassessment

Talking about stable and reliable, the giant Somo continues to grow it's long record, paying double-digit returns and no losses of money lent. Our specialists have completed a thorough Somo reassessment and re-rating.

What Peer-To-Peer Lending Cashback Is Available?

Ooooh cashback…You can't help but have a love-hate relationship with it. Even though it demonstrably boosted overall returns, it was a relief when cashback was banned. But it's not really banned, as you can still get it – if you look far enough. Read more.

A Few More Updates

Not that I want to keep pestering you about the same providers! But we've got yet more updates on these two:

AxiaFunder has provided more data that updates its track record for the first time this year. See an assessment of its latest returns on the three types of cases it funds.

Lande is once again eligible for 4thWay PLUS Ratings assessments. Read that part of the update here.

Why The Best Time To Lend Is Now

2022 was arguably the worst year for money lending since P2P lending started, even though lenders still had positive results and grew their pots substantially.

2024 has a fantastic chance of being the best year ever if you're currently lending or adding to your lending now.

Read about this phenomenon.

AxiaFunder To Cover £500,000 In Losses

AxiaFunder made something of a rookie error and has therefore decided to cover some unexpected losses out of its own pocket. Good thing it's already profitable.

Read about what happened and what is AxiaFunder doing to prevent it ever happening again?

Kuflink Review – Updated

One of our specialists has just headed a new, deep reassessment of Kuflink through detailed data, interviews and other sources.

You can read the complete, updated review here.

Alternatively, skip to a summary of all the most important changes to the review.

Smaller Updates

Three more Lande updates (could be good news):

We just updated you on Lande two months ago, but three more things have happened since then. I've simply added to the same page, so see the three amended sections:

Our core risk-reward assessment and Lande's 4thWay PLUS Rating. Looks like good news!

Buying and selling existing loans early, before the borrower repays.

Automated lending.

Minor Sourced Capital updates:

Sourced Capital hasn't offered 4thWay easy access to its key people or provide detailed data for us for quite some time, so there's little we can do to assess it properly to ascertain the risk-reward balance for lenders. Nevertheless, we've made minor updates to our review on Sourced Capital.

Double, Triple (Or Nothing) Your Money With This Offer

It's not just the opportunities paying a “mere” 8% per year that we cover on 4thWay. Sometimes there are much higher returns available.

And not always are the risks of major downside so well minimised (although certainly not zero!)

The next opportunity to take part in this particular kind of opportunity will likely be listed on AxiaFunder in a couple of weeks, so you've got till then to assess the offer, review AxiaFunder itself, register, and get through its regulatory procedures.

Read about it here.

More research from 4thWay

Add to your knowledge by signing up to our newsletter, or by looking through our candid opinions (our main category of research) and P2P lending news. Every piece of research is with the sole purpose of helping you to lend better, making more money, more safely.

If you are interested in particular areas, you can visit specific sub-categories of our research: P2P property lending, P2P lending strategy, P2P and macroeconomics, and Alternative P2P Investing. You'll find it all in our articles and research section.

To get the best lending results, compare all P2P lending and IFISA providers that have gone through 4thWay’s rigorous assessments.