Singing Pig

Check out this site www.zopa.com. It has been developed by the team that set up Egg.com and is regulated by the FSA - finanacial services authority.

In summary it allows you to lend money at a rate you set. You can be as strict or relaxed about who borrows from you. Also you can be a borrower as well. The great thing is that Zopa handles the credit checking side of things and the money you lend is spread across different borrowers, thus further reducing the risk!

It also has a referral program.

www.zopa.com

Sounds interesting but I do wonder if all this money pouring in for loans is just going into someone's swiss bank a/c. Apart from you mentioning it I've not seen this advertised around the net at all.

Have you put money in it yet? 

 

I looked at it a while back but was put off by their charge of 0.5% on all monies borrowed and lent, see How Zopa makes money for details.

Trevor 

 

I've put in £50.00 as a test.

I had a chat to Richard Duvall, who is the CEO and guy who set it up about the potential for extending it to cover commercial lending as well. He seems a decent sort of guy and it appears well regulated and controlled. With the expertise the team have from previous jobs, you would expect the corporate governance to be good.

Seems to me, though, to be better ways of making a significant profit if you're a lender - seems designed for people as an alternative to a bad deposit account, rather than something to make good money on by taking an active involvement. Might be good borrowing potential, though, especially if you have slightly non-conforming details.

Craig