June 2020: P2P revenue back on the right level

Kuetzal and Envestio were declared bankrupt last month, and the action against Grupeer has started. If you look at the long term, it is ultimately good for the market to mature. As the platforms become more regulated, more self-regulated, and more transparent, the risks for investors ultimately decrease.

However, as an investor it remains important to keep a close eye on your investments, and to actively try to reduce the risks by ensuring a good spread of your investments. Common sense also remains important, if an investment or expected return appears to be too good, it is more likely that it is indeed too good and therefore very risky.

Just like last month, most of my passive income comes from the stock platforms. The corona drop was a good time to step in, but in the long term it is not expected that these nice grow figures will continue like this. Perhaps there will be another drop when the impact of the crisis on the economy and companies becomes clear towards the end of the year. If companies are going to prepare the annual accounts, the prices can still get a big blow, unless those companies have already given warnings or taken significant measures well in advance.

Anyway, you probably have your own ideas about all these developments, so let’s quickly move on to the figures of the past month. Also let me know in a comment how you get through these times as investors, I think it would be nice to read (and also for other readers too, of course).

Portfolio overview June 2020

Last month my portfolio increased by € 1,931.43 and my average rate of return over all platforms is 7.9%. The table below shows the details for each category.

Passive income per month

You can find my definition of passive income on my portfolio page.

Activities

To show you how little effort is involved when investion via crowdfunding and crowdlending I have added an overview of the manual actions in the last month:

Crowdlending

My P2P income has returned to a reasonable level. In the past 2 months I have received about six to seven hundred euros in interest per month, which makes an annual return of 10-11%. That makes me happy.

In order to ensure more spread, I will apply a limit per platform for now. If there is more, I will withdraw this whenever possible, and deposit it on a platform that suits me and is not yet at that limit. Or maybe I’ll try out a new platform. For the time being I have set the limit at 5,000 euros, but maybe I will increase or decrease this later.

The use of such a limit per platform can be useful for everyone, because it forces you to make and follow rational decisions. It is all too easy to have much more money in a platform that offers much higher returns, but that of course also involves much higher risks. If I had followed this practice earlier, I would not have lost so much money at eg Envestio.

 Bondora

On December 31, I withdrew 500 euros from Bondora Go & Grow, to see how long a withdrawal now takes. The graph below shows how the withdrawal is spread over 10 days. June 6/7 was a weekend, apparently the withdrawals are only processed on working days.

You will receive the same interest (6.75%) on the amount that has not actually been paid out yet. That makes it less bad that it takes 10 days, although that is a lot less liquid than before. Hopefully they will process the withdrawals in one go again soon. On the other hand, your money is usually significantly longer ‘locked’ in other platforms.

The amounts withdrawn from Go & Grow will go into your main Bondora account, and from there you can have it transferred to your own bank account. This is very fast, it was in my own account the very next day.

I will be withdrawing money again next month. I also want Bondora below the limit of 5,000 euros, and then I can see if it takes just as long to withdraw it.

My investments at Bondora returned € 31.86 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.8%.

When you register through this link you’ll receive a 5 euro bonus. Just give their Go & Grow option a try for a few months, and don’t try the other advanced options.

 Brickstarter

Brickstarter has opened the secondary market to everyone. When you are logged in you will see the new option ‘Marketplace’ at the top of the menu. There is already a nice list of investments for sale. Some are offered with a premium instead of a discount, so be careful.

In addition, as an investor you can also place a ‘purchase order’ on the market, and of course hope that other investors will agree to sell you their investment for that price. Via the menu you can go to ‘My orders’, and there you can create a new order:

My investments at Brickstarter returned € 0.00 last month, and my average return rate is now 3.1%.

 Bulkestate

This month 3 new projects have been added to Bulkestate. The interest rate is quite high at 14-15%, but they do come with a mortgage guarantee with an LTV of 32-65%.

At Bulkestate, 2 of the 8 projects I invested in (Silgaiļi and Aleksandra Apartments I) are in arrears. Bulkestate has started preparations to take over the relevant properties, which are subject to a mortgage, if payments are not made.

These were also the projects that pay interest per month, so no interest was added this month.

My investments at Bulkestate returned € 0.00 last month, and my average return rate is now 4.2%.

 Crowdestate

At Crowdestate I received the invested 500 euros back from a completed project, with interest. I withdrew it so I can deposit the funds in another platform. It arrived in my own bank account the next day.

My investments at Crowdestate returned € 12.62 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.9%.

 Crowdestor

On June 22, I received the repayment of the “Renovation of eclecticism style building” loan (EUR 2586) at Crowdestor. The last interest payment was in February, and the remaining interest was now also paid, 180 euros. I also received a lot of interest for the ‘Energy production plant’ project, a little more than 160 euros.

Altogether a large amount and because I am well above my ‘platform limit’ of 5000 euros at Crowdestor, I have withdrawn this immediately. This was also in my own bank account the next day.

My investments at Crowdestor returned € 347.46 last month, and my average return rate is now 15.3%.

 EstateGuru

At EstateGuru, all 11 projects I invested in are completely up to date with payments, so no arrears. It is immediately visible on the dashboard if there is a payment delay of 4 days or more. 7 projects I had invested in have been paid in full. This makes an investor happy.

One of my investments was fully paid back this month, and I was able to immediately invest the received 150 euros again in a new loan with an interest rate of 12%. The term is 18 months, and is insured via a first-class mortgage (65% LTV).

Not long after, an investment of 200 euros with interest was repaid. At that time there were 2 projects to invest in: a full bullet loan at 10.5% and a bullet loan at 10%, both with a term of one year. Normally I would go for the 10.5%, which is a nice bonus after all (unless the loan is less attractive due to other factors such as the LTV). But I am not really into full bullet loans, where all interest and repayments in one go take place at the very end of the term. With a bullet loan, the loan is also repaid in 1x at the end of the term, but the interest is paid periodically. Usually per month, sometimes per quarter. In this case every 6 months, so that is no different from a full bullet loan. But I still like that a lot more.

My investments at EstateGuru returned € 24.20 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.7%.

 EvoEstate

On June 15 I received an email from EvoEstate that two new ‘Skin in the Game’ projects had been put on the platform, projects in which the owners of EvoEstate also invest private money. That’s why I added some money from other platforms here. The next day this was in my account, but then the projects were already fully funded. So they are very popular.

That’s why I invested the money in a few other projects, including a project in the USA. Talking about geographical spread…

On June 16, I also invested 200 euros via Evoestate in the project “Zielona str.27, Nowy Sącz city, Poland” on the platform Nordstreet, and immediately received the bonus of 1 euro (Evoestate gives 0.5% cashback bonus over your investments in the first 6 months). However, the investment was repaid on June 23 because the project on Nordstreet was canceled. The bonus stayed in my account, so that is very neat (and easily earned).

My investments at EvoEstate returned € 8.36 last month, and my average return rate is now 2.3%.

 Fast Invest

Fast Invest has updated the website somewhat, and it is now also available in the Dutch language. However, if you log in, everything is back in English, even if the language is set to Dutch. I expect it to be translated little by little in the near future. I think it is positive that they take the trouble to translate everything into Dutch. This is a step they don’t necessarily have to take, so it slightly boosts my confidence in the platform again.

On the other hand, I can hear from different people that withdrawals take a very long time, which in turn gives less confidence.

At the beginning of this month, I turned off my auto-invest at Fast Invest so that I can withdraw what is above my set limit and test the time it takes to withdraw funds.

My investments at Fast Invest returned € 0.00 last month, and my average return rate is now 13.0%.

 Flender

Flender also continues to run well, and the crisis measures have been eased in Ireland too. Of the 2,871 euros invested, only 1.3% is late in terms of payments (just 38 euros). The rest is completely up to date, so that’s fine and reassuring. Flender does not have a buyback guarantee, but apparently they select borrowers well so that even in these times things will stay upright.

My investments at Flender returned € 16.81 last month, and my average return rate is now 6.8%.

 Funding Circle NL

At Funding Circle NL you can no longer invest as a private individual, but the investor dashboard still has a large “Invest now” button. This leads to a page with zero available projects. It would have been neater if they clearly state here that investing is no longer possible because they only focus on large institutional investors and no longer on private individuals. Clearer too.

My investments at Funding Circle NL returned € 33.78 last month, and my average return rate is now 8.7%.

 Grupeer

Grupeer is still up in the air, and has updated the portfolio status and lenders. The lenders are divided into 5 categories, according to their level of cooperation:

At the same time, it is indicated that there will be a detailed action plan next month. So no concrete steps have been taken towards the investors, and of course it remains difficult without blocked bank accounts. I wonder what the action plan will say about that.

It is difficult to estimate the intention, but so far this can all just be time-wasting. In any case, the action to get the money back through legal means continues, and I heard that investors will be able to join again soon. More information can be found here.

My investments at Grupeer returned € 0.40 last month, and my average return rate is now 12.2%.

 Iuvo

I withdrew 250 euro at Iuvo on June 22 because I am well above my 5k limit. The next day it was already in my own bank account. So super fast.

At Iuvo, my income jumps back and forth a bit, due to the crisis. This month I only received a little bit of interest, most of it were late fees:

My investments at Iuvo returned € 45.44 last month, and my average return rate is now 11.5%.

 Lender & Spender

The Dutch platform Lender & Spender no longer charges closing costs to borrowers, instead they now charge costs monthly. On an annual basis, costs came down to about 0.5% and the borrowing rate on the new loans will also be about 0.5% higher. According to Lender & Spender, the aim is to maintain the net return for investors. We will see if this will be reflected in the figures in the coming months.

My investment is now spread over more than 1,450 loans, and just under 1.5% of these are behind in payments. Fortunately, that is quite low. Delayed interest is charged on the missed payments, so that investors are compensated for missed returns.

My investments at Lender & Spender returned € 9.62 last month, and my average return rate is now 4.6%.

 Mintos

At Mintos I adjusted the auto-invest of EUR account, so that it invests a maximum of 4000 euros. I can distribute everything above that, as I want to deposit more money in my KZT and RUB accounts. Maybe I will also deposit a part in Invest & Access.

Of the 5,000 euros that have been invested in EUR loans, just over 300 euros fall into the ‘pending payments’ category. This means that the borrower has already paid, but the lender still has to pay this to Mintos. Last month, this amount was practically the same, which means it doesn’t add up. So a good sign.

My investments at Mintos returned € 53.47 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.6%.

When you register via this link you’ll receive a 1% cashback bonus over all your investments in the first 90 days.

 NEO Finance

My investments at NEO Finance returned € 15.49 last month, and my average return rate is now -8.4%.

When you register via this link you’ll receive a 1% cashback bonus over all your investments in the first 3 months.

 Reinvest24

Finally, I now have a positive return at Reinvest24, the revenues have now fully covered the one-off investment costs.

My investments at Reinvest24 returned € 5.26 last month, and my average return rate is now 0.5%.

 Robocash

Robocash has increased the investment limit, which was 10,000 euros and has now been increased to 15,000 euros per month or 180,000 euros per year. I personally do not think it would be wise to invest such large sums via a single platform. Spreading across multiple platforms as well as forms of investment is crucial for safer investing.

At Robocash I received no interest this month. It was quite variable anyway, in February I only received 70 cents interest, while the previous two months broke records (28 euros and 15 euros). I think their borrowers pay quite irregularly, so I’m just waiting around next month. My return rate is still fine.

My investments at Robocash returned € 0.00 last month, and my average return rate is now 8.8%.

 TFG Crowd

TFG Crowd is in the process of registering legal entities in the UK and Germany, and applying for a crowdfunding license from the UK and German financial authorities. That is good news, because they will then be subject to stricter supervision.

Furthermore, they now have a new category of investments: invoice financing. These are short-term projects, usually 3 months with fairly high interest rates (24%). I invested a little bit to see how this works.

My investments at TFG Crowd returned € 36.90 last month, and my average return rate is now 18.7%.

 TWINO

My investments at TWINO returned € 63.42 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.6%.

 Viainvest

Just like TWINO, Viainvest has now submitted an application to the Latvian financial authority for an IBF license (Investment Brokerage Firm). As this process progresses there will probably be improvements and adjustments to the website and the processes, to better match the legal requirements. The license will offer multiple benefits to investors, especially that the government guarantees 90% of their invested capital with a maximum of 20,000 euros. A little less than the guarantee system for bank and savings accounts, but still very nice of course. Hopefully it will never be necessary.

Viainvest has grown to nearly 16,000 investors in the 3.5 years since it was founded, and has provided more than 195 million euros in loans. All loans are provided by the parent company, the lender VIA SMS Group.

My investments at Viainvest returned € 38.75 last month, and my average return rate is now 12.1%.

When you register via this link you’ll receive a 10 euro bonus if you invest 50 euro or more.

Crowdfunding

 CrowdAboutNow

At the Dutch equity crowdfunding platform CrowdAboutNow, the ‘Beer in a Box’ campaign runs for another 21 days and 77% of the minimum amount has already been invested:

When the minimum of 250,000 euros is reached, those investors collectively receive a total of 25% of the shares. The maximum amount is 500,000 euros, in which case a total of 33% of all shares in the company will be distributed to the new investors/owners. That means that the percentage of shares that an investor gets will decrease as more is invested:

So it seems most convenient if the minimum was just reached. On the other hand, if much more is collected the company has more funds to grow considerably, which in the end is also good for the investors. So the only thing that counts for me is that the minimum is reached and the deal will be closed.

My investments at CrowdAboutNow returned € 0.00 last month, and my average return rate is now 0.0%.

 Seedrs

My portfolio at Seedrs decreased by € -96.39 last month, but this is solely the result of fluctuating exchange rates as several investments are in British Pounds. My average return rate is now 8.3%.

When you want to try Seedrs for yourself, you can register via this link and you’ll receive £25 free investment credit after investing £150 or more within 30 days of signing up to Seedrs (around 175 euros).

Stock

My equity portfolio has risen reasonably this month. The differences between the different platforms is quite large, but in the end it is about the combined result.

 BinckBank

Everything looks green and positive at Binck Bank, and this month’s results offset the loss at DEGIRO.

My investments at BinckBank returned € 2,340.25 last month, and my average return rate is now 453.3%.

 DEGIRO

I received my first dividend at DEGIRO this month for my AB InBev shares. :

For these shares, this means an extra return of approximately 1% on an annual basis, which is of course a nice bonus.

My investments at DEGIRO returned € -1,192.22 last month, and my average return rate is now 75.4%.

 ING

At ING I received EUR 14.63 in dividends from my AEX ETF.

My investments at ING returned € 135.95 last month, and my average return rate is now 5.2%.

And finally…

That was it for this monthly update. You can subscribe via the contact page and you’ll receive an email the moment a new update is published. Or just visit again next month, that’s up to you.

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Below you can also find the link to my previous post, and on this page you can find my tips and results of the previous months.