promotion

Crosslend: Cashback and Dutch loans

wiseclerk 4 Comments

Crosslend LogoP2P Lending Marketplace Crosslend launched last September. The unsecured loans are open for investment for investors in Germany, Spain, UK and the Netherlands.
I gave a short overview in my Crosslend review for investors. So far the couple of Crosslend loans, I invested in, are all current.

In mid-January Crosslend added Dutch loans and I made a bid on the first Dutch loan listing. The majority of loans are still sought by Spanish borrowers. Currently there are over 50 Spanish loan listings available and also a few German or Dutch ones.

10% Cashback

Crosslend currently offers a cashback promotion. New and existing investors get 10% cashback on all successful investments made until March, 31th 2016 (up to a maximum bonus amount of 1,000 Euro per investor; further conditions apply, e.g. minimum investment of 250 Euro during promotion period). Investors contemplating to test Crosslend should consider making use of this cashback offer now.

Update Jan 31th: was informed that this offer runs currently only in the German market; other markets will follow later

Mintos Announces Buyback Guarantee for Car Loans

wiseclerk

Mintos LogoLatvian p2p lending marketplace Mintos today announced a buyback guarantee for all car loans issed by Mogo that are currently on the marketplace or will be listed on the platform until July 31st, 2015. The buyback guarantee applies for the lifetime of these secured car loan. Under the agreement Mintos concluded with Mogo, Mogo will buy back any of those loans that are 60 or more days delinquent.

All secured car loans are originated, pre-funded, and serviced by mogo. It means that similar to real estate backed loans, Mintos puts on the platform already funded loans (and most have had a number of successful payments) and investors can start earning interest from the moment they have invested in a loan. Mogo keeps 5% of each loan on its books.

This construct provides additional security to investors – a bit like the provision funds some UK marketplaces maintain; only that in this case it currently is a limit-time guarantee.

Mintos Buyback

Zopa Promotional Offer: Rate Promise

wiseclerk

Today Zopa announced yet another promotional offer for lenders: Rate Promise. In this limited time offer Zopa promises lenders that ‘… the money you lend within the Offer Period, for up to 5 years, will earn an average return of 5% over the lifetime of those loans.‘ That is after fees. The offer is valid from January 9th till Feb. 3rd. Actually for some lenders this will mean even higher guaranteed returns – see full T&C of the Rate Promise here.

I think Zopa’s repeated promotional offers (cash backs and now rate promise) are signals that Zopa feels the impact of the p2p lending competition which entice Zopa’s customers with models that seem more appealing (there has been a lot of discussion that with the introduction of Safeguard Zopa became much less transparent) or could yield higher returns. In terms of p2p lending loan volume originated per month the main competitors are certainly gaining ground on Zopa.

While this is a (nearly) no risk offer for those lenders managaing to invest during the promotion duration, users on the Zopa Talk board do wonder what longtime impact this has for Zopa. And rightly so as Zopa will have to cover any shortcomings from its fee margin. Done repeatedly it will effectively result in an unlisted fee decrease.

I am sure it will fulfill the probable short term goal: increase funds on offer and originations in January.

Smava Subsidized Loan Promotion Ends With Little Success

wiseclerk

Smava in the time from September, 15th 2010 to October, 15th 2010 offered subsidized loans to new customers (borrowers). The offer was limited to loan amounts up to 2,500 Euro and only available for 36 months loan terms.

Eligible borrowers could take out a loan at an APR of 2.99%. Since lenders received “normal” rates (typically between 5 and 13% nominal depending on credit grades) Smava subsidizes the difference. Over the duration of 36 months this will cost Smava about 150 to 300 Euro per loan.

According to Wiseclerk stats about 150 loans with a total volume of 350,000 Euro closed at the reduced rate.

Reasons for this marketing promo

Smava did not comment about the motives behind this offer. While the resulting CPO of this offer is higher then with other marketing channels, Smava could have speculated that the press picks the special offer and that the traffic from the generated press coverage leads to additional loan requests that are not eligible for the offer. Furthermore the rate of 2.99% APR could place Smava prominently ranked on loan price comparison sites.

Results

In my opinion this offer had low success. Judging by economic facts it might be considered a failure. Little additional press coverage was generated by this special offer. The total loan volume funded per month did not rise compared to previous months. The offer might aid the positive image of the Smava brand though.