The Lemon Fool

Has anyone any experience of using Zopa? Martin Lewis (MSE) listed them as offering 1.36% interest, web based, fixed for a year.

No, is the short answer!
I was with Ratesetter until they sold out to MetroBank, and did 'OK' even with pandemic issues

Immediate thought is the interest rate premium doesn't look enough for the risk if this is P2P lending -unless there is some guarantee attached
e.g. Paragon do a 1 year fix at 0.91% (non ISA) fully FSCS protected.
Can you link to MSE article?

Why not try Atom. 1.5% fixed for a year. App only I expect.

I have a instant access account with them and when I withdraw the money it takes less than a minute to get to my main bank account.

No experience with them but they are backed by the FSCS, so up to £85,000 is safe

Atom are ruled out they are app based

granretire wrote:Atom are ruled out they are app based

please explain why

Because I only use free WiFi on my mobile. Hence no financial stuff on the mobile. I am pay as you go.

Thank you, I didn't realise it was personal, I mistakenly thought you meant generally

granretire wrote:Has anyone any experience of using Zopa? Martin Lewis (MSE) listed them as offering 1.36% interest, web based, fixed for a year.

No experience but as FSCS backed and there website looks better than the other similar one I looked at I decided that they are safe enough. Of course it would be best to know that they aren't admin hell as there's only so much time you want to spend for 1.36%

granretire wrote:https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/?utm_source=MSE_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=07-Sep-21-50694558-110&source=CRM-MSETIP-50694558&utm_campaign=nt-bestbuys-quicklinks-one&utm_content=8#fixedsavings

Thanks , didn't realise Zopa had branched out into fixed term protected savings - thought they were solely P2P
Looks pretty good for 1 year - better than my ISA (0.85%)

granretire wrote:Has anyone any experience of using Zopa? Martin Lewis (MSE) listed them as offering 1.36% interest, web based, fixed for a year.

Yes, I opened a similar one year fixed rate a/c with them last November. It's at 1.05% which was amongst the best available at the time.

Don't have a lot to tell you ... I check all of my accounts every weekend and the amount shown on that one goes up every month, as the interest is credited. I hope that means the money is still there.

I did already have a Zopa a/c, a P2P account I put £1K into some years ago, just out of curiosity really. I've not been tempted to add to it and I wouldn't have opened the 1 year fixed a/c without the FSCS cover.

But in any case, as I already had an account with them I can't tell you what hoops you'd have to jump through as a new customer with them nowadays, although I don't recall it being particularly onerous when I joined them.

I opened a one year fixed rate account with them last week, no previous connection. Pretty painless. They couldn't verify my bank account from the sort code and account number, so I had to upload a bank statement and it took a couple of days for them to confirm that it was verified. I then transferred some money across and got an email shortly after confirming receipt.

Thanks very much for all your replies. My bank got really upset over me moving money to them. Had to jump through various loops, speaking to bank staff. Then about 2 hours later my bank rang (home and mobile) and texted mobile to confirm I knew what I was doing/how I got the Zopa info, etc. The multiple attempts at getting hold of me the second time was because I was in the garden and didn't heard any phones. Can't blame my bank for looking after me!

granretire wrote:Thanks very much for all your replies. My bank got really upset over me moving money to them. Had to jump through various loops, speaking to bank staff. Then about 2 hours later my bank rang (home and mobile) and texted mobile to confirm I knew what I was doing/how I got the Zopa info, etc. The multiple attempts at getting hold of me the second time was because I was in the garden and didn't heard any phones. Can't blame my bank for looking after me!

They are not looking after you; they are looking after themselves!

how I got the Zopa info

None of their business. You should charge them for that sort of information!

Steve

Been a ZOPA lender pretty much since they started. Lost interest in P2P when the default rates started to rise and the non payment insurance was withdrawn. My experience is that once set up the systems run well but I always found the website a bit clunky and unclear. Never had any problems withdrawing cash held on account, but I don't remember the transactions being fast. I've been aware of their cash savings offering since it was planned, but never been tempted by them. Atom I also use and they are efficient.

granretire wrote:Thanks very much for all your replies. My bank got really upset over me moving money to them. Had to jump through various loops, speaking to bank staff. Then about 2 hours later my bank rang (home and mobile) and texted mobile to confirm I knew what I was doing/how I got the Zopa info, etc. The multiple attempts at getting hold of me the second time was because I was in the garden and didn't heard any phones. Can't blame my bank for looking after me!

Come to think of it that happened to me too when I tried to faster-payments my funds into my Zopa 1 year fixed a/c.

Despite cahoot requiring a username, three characters from my password, three digits from my security number and an OTP sent to my mobile phone to login, then my security number again and another OTP to set up the payee, and then another OTP to actually do the transfer, it then decided that something dodgy was going on and locked my account.

Soon followed by a phone call from them and an extended bunch of question to get access back again and the transfer authorised ... phew!

granretire wrote:Because I only use free WiFi on my mobile. Hence no financial stuff on the mobile. I am pay as you go.

Your choice, but a wifi that lets you post to lemonfool will let you run an app!

I don't want to go too far off topic, but even my £7 a month SIM from Tesco gives me 2 GB of data, plenty to use some apps once in a while. I will look into some of the suggestions above. Most of my cash is earning a princely 0% in brokers' accounts.

UncleEbenezer: Public wifi is not very secure. hence the reason I do not use my mobile for any financial apps.
Midsmartin: I use my mobile very rarely - only maps and the occasional text. Texts cost me 2p a go, data 1p a mb. I doubt if I spend more than 20p a year!