A recent article in the Independent suggests that Zopa, the “eBay of lending”, is really starting to take off.
Zopa launched in March of last year, and the initial reaction was to wait and see whether there was much take up for the service. Zopa now has 48,000 users, and boasts loan rates as low as 4.4%, which can make it one of the cheapest lenders. According to the article, there has been no cases of bad debt so far, which is the big problem if you’re lending your own money.
On the down side, as Zopa is a “live” market, you can never quite be sure whether you’ll get the best rate – a lot comes down to whether there are enough people available to lend the money at the point you apply, so some of it comes down to luck.
There are now plans for Zopa to expand into the U.S.