Zopa Away!

2006-10-23

I’ve just signed up for an account with Zopa, a UK-based peer-to-peer money lending market (for a similar US-based site, see Prosper). It’s going to be a few weeks before I can seed my Zopa account with some capital to lend, but the concept looks absolutely fascinating (as well as potentially lucrative), and I can’t wait to see how well it turns out. It looks like it has the potential to cause some disruption to a part of the financial market in the same way as Paypal did, and I hope it does well. Given the recent news of Muhammad Yunus winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his novel microcredit form of lending, let’s hope that innovation in finance continues, and governments don’t choose to regulate it further.

Comments

I borrowed £2000 from zopa for my niece, to help her buy her first car. As far as borrowing goes, they gave me the best rates I have ever had, and over 2 years the interest is only a little over a £100. As I had created an account with them, I also recently decided to put some of my won money in to be lent. I have had money sitting in a savings account for years which makes little each year, and the interest rates on zopa, even after bad debt etc...etc.... are a lot better. Gotta say, I think its a great idea.

— Gman 2007-07-06 14:51

Well, to be honest I'd kinda forgotten about it. I think they've committed the first cardinal sin, which is to fail to stay in touch. I've had no emails about how wonderfully or otherwise my investments are doing. I should check sometime, but am not so impressed as I initially was.

— andrewferrier 2007-03-18 00:22

How did this go, then? Keep us updated?

— dps 2007-03-17 20:21

Great name... Zopa. In russian it means butt :D So hwta that means? Let's hope our money don't be thrown in the zopa? :D :D

— Financist 2006-11-10 08:19

Chris, that's interesting to hear. Guess I'm not too concerned about problems borrowing money. As far as lending goes, I think the rates at the minute look good - it's hard to see how you're going to get more without either a tax-free product (e.g. an ISA), or investing directly in the stockmarket. There certainly aren't any flexible savings accounts with rates like Zopa are currently advertising. Anyway, it's a bit of fun too, so maybe I'm paying slightly for that! But I'm intrigued. I'll keep everyone up-to-date with how well it works.

— andrewferrier 2006-10-23 16:27

I spotted it in your delicious stream too and must say I'm intrigued. Will watch your progress with interest!

— dps 2006-10-23 12:49

I discovered Zopa about 6 months ago. Sounded like a nice idea but people (including me) have had problems getting it to lend you money (even if you have a good credit score) and from a lending point of view it is not a particularly lucrative investment.

— Chris Tomkins 2006-10-23 11:52