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

Compare all P2P lending products, including IFISAs or just compare IFISAs.

Visit our most popular pages at the moment

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

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.

How's It Going With Invest & Fund, Loanpad And CapitalRise? Kuflink: Why New Rates?

4thWay's specialists have been busy conducting full reassessments for the benefit of lenders. See what they have to say about the popular (with good reason) providers Invest & Fund, Loanpad and CapitalRise, in this combined update.

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.

New! FOLK2FOLK Review

Thanks not just to several analysts and specialists at 4thWay, but especially to FOLK2FOLK, for completing the looooooong process of getting assessed and listed on 4thWay.

At last, we have the FOLK2FOLK Review!

Crowd2Fund In Suffering

It's an understatement to say that Crowd2Fund has not had the most successful trajectory.

Lenders need to factor this into their decision making.

Read about it here.

25 Peer-To-Peer Property Lending Websites

We try to update this once a year, as it's very popular for some reason! Probably because people love property-backed lending. Figures and facts have been updated and the number rises to 25 from 24. Read on.

CapitalStackers Review – Reassessed

This year, 4thWay has had potential borrowers complain to us that CapitalStackers is too strict in approving loans. As someone who wants to see risks contained for lenders, that is not a complaint I find very disturbing!

One of 4thWay's specialists has completed a very thorough reassessment of CapitalStackers.

The main changes to the review are in the section “How good are CapitalStackers’ interest rates, bad debts and margin of safety?”

Is Peer-to-Peer Lending Safe For Lenders?

We've updated and added to one of our 10 core guides. You'll now see:

Why is P2P lending so stable?
How do the risks compare to savings accounts and the stock market?
“Lower risk” doesn't mean “no risk”.
Why the financial regulator needs to be cautious about P2P lending.
Why and how your money can get tied up for longer in P2P lending.
What is the safest way to do peer-to-peer lending?
Is there a higher-risk, higher-return way?

Read all about it!

When FSCS And FOS Protection Doesn't Work When You Think It Will

A 4thWay reader wrote in with some succinct comments on protections lenders and investors usually expect to get – but which haven't always work out.

Read about how this has gone horribly wrong a few times in recent years.

Compare IFISAs

It's a new ISA season and you probably know it's even easier to invest in IFISAs now, since the government made the rules easier from 6th April.

Visit our P2P lending IFISA comparison tables where you'll see their IFISA ratings and reviews.

Oh, did we tell you that 4thWay has a 100% record in both positive and negative investment recommendations and ratings since we started in 2014? Now you know.

So check out the IFISAs and their 6.5% to 10% returns.

Proplend Review: Updates

The now profitable Proplend has paid out £23 million in interest with just £40,000 in losses. And none of its outstanding rental-property loans are bad debts.

Read 4thWay's thorough reassessment of this remarkable investment opportunity.

Development Lending: “Last Six Months Have Been The Worst, Including The Pandemic”

Individual lenders, spoiled by years of property development loans (mostly) repaying more or less on time, will have seen a steady, swift increase in late and problematic loans over the past year or so.

What is going on? Is it something to worry about? What if on top of that there's a crash and recession to contend with?

Read about the trajectory of P2P development lending.

I Can't Believe I Forgot To Share This With You!

Matt Howard wrote an update on the 1st January about how P2P Lending Beats The Stock Market, Yet Again, In 2023.

And I forgot to share it with you! It's now the 25th March, for goodness' sake!

Better late than never, read about the unbroken 19-year record of positive returns for P2P lending and how often it has outperformed shares.

Lendwise Review Updated-Not-Updated

Just letting you know, we've re-conducted our Lendwise 4thWay PLUS Rating assessment and conducted some fresh research, but this has not impacted our research or 4thWay's specialists' opinions.

Here is a link to the Lendwise Review, but, if you read it in November when we updated it last, you'll not really see anything new this time.

Which P2P Lending Companies Boost Lender Returns With Default Interest?

When borrowers fall late, some providers pay lenders additional penalty fees and/or interest.

This can boost your annual returns on some loans by 3-4 percentage points!

Somo Review Updated: Now Paying Over 10% To Lenders

After a complete reassessment, the biggest changes to Somo are tougher requirements before you're allowed to invest, e.g. in terms of how wealthy you need to be (boo!) and much higher lending interest rates after fees – back up in the double digits again (yay!). 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.

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