I enjoy the idea of lending people money directly, and GoPeer certainly seems to have a good volume. However, it is all consumer based and certainly I think there is more risk with consumers in many ways, especially in Canada with such high consumer debt.
So I tried a business lending platform called LendingLoop. It has a nice interface, and like others you can setup both auto-investing as well as auto-deposits. The big difference is the volume of loans. While I never have cash sitting idle with GoPeer, it is quite common with LendingLoop. It seems like a struggle to invest funds.
To combat this I used a higher per loan amount and still I have had trouble getting loans. I do use the same grades as GoPeer – A+ to C.
For 2022 the gross returns seemed reasonable, and LendingLoop doesn’t show you need returns, but after some quick match it looks like a net interest rate around 7 or 8%. This probably isn’t worth the risk in many ways, but I will leave the initial investment in the account and let it auto-invest and see what happens.
If you are going to try out LendingLoop, why not use my referral code and we both get $25? https://my.lendingloop.ca/lenders/retail_lenders/registrations/new?code=e35d06