Opinions and Reviews on the P2P Platform

Today I tell you about ViaInvest an online platform to invest in peer to peer personal loansthat type of exchange where private individuals finance other private individuals instead of banks and finance companies.

By creating an account on ViaInvest website you will have at your disposal numerous loans in which to freely invest your money, you will not come into direct contact with the borrowers, non-bank credit institutions will receive the loan requests and pass them on to the users of the platform.

The important thing to know is that as a lender you will accrue the right to hovering interest rates around 13%. Il P2P Lending it can be a convenient, comfortable and accessible financial alternative, but it is not without risks.

If you want to try your hand, start by choosing a professional and reliable platform, it could be ViaInvest or another, continue reading the article to find out!

What does ViaInvest do?

ViaInvest belongs to the financial service provider VIA SMS Group which has its head office in Riga Latvia. The Company is present in several countries and is one of the leading consumer credit institutions in Europe.

I mentioned in the introduction to the operating principle of ViaInvest, let’s see it in detail.

Borrowers from Latvia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Romania and Spain are applying for loans from VIA SMS Group and its subsidiaries located in the listed countries – these are mainly applications for consumer loans.

Loan applications are evaluated on the creditworthiness of the borrowers, if approved by the Company le fund now with its resources. Subsequently the contracts are listed on the ViaInvest marketplace and made available for public investment.

Borrowers undertake to repay their debt on time with interest which is redistributed by ViaInvest to all investors who have participated.

The investment service offered by the platform is free and is aimed at all natural persons adults with tax residence in one of the European countries or in Switzerland. Similar requirements also apply to legal entities (companies). The site is in English only!

How investing works

Each investor is in full control of when and how much to invest, the only limit is l’minimum amount Of 10 euro on loan. An investor will never find himself financing a loan in full as the Loan originator (the company issuing the loan) always maintains a minimum stake of 5%, which means that companies and investors have an interest in the success of the deal, therefore the system is safe.

How much does an investor earn? The proposed interest rate varies according to the credit rating of the borrower, higher risk is accompanied by higher interest.

The interest rates on ViaInvest are not very high, they stand at 13%.

What investment types are available on the platform?

From 2 August 2022 ViaInvest allows you to invest in asset-backed securities.

These will replace the current type of investment with a single loan.

The types of single loan available are:

• Short term loan: term consumer loan with a maturity ranging between 7 and 30 days. The borrower will have to repay the entire loan amount within the stipulated loan term or extend the loan term;
• Installment loan: it is a consumer loan with a maturity ranging from 3 to 12 months, with the borrower being required to repay the loan within the stipulated term by making constant monthly payments;
• Credit line: consumer loan with an open-ended contract, with the borrower being able to choose the repayment terms, i.e. either repay the full loan amount after 30 days or make monthly payments until the entire borrowed amount is repaid.

Enrollment path

In order to invest, whether we are talking about a natural or legal person, it is necessary to register on the site by filling in all the fields required by the registration form.

When you have created your account you can proceed with the first deposit into your ViaInvest virtual account. For the purposes of your identification, the first payment must be made exclusively by wire transfer from your personal bank account.

The manager verifies the correspondence between the personal data you declared and the bank details of your account, if they match your account is activated and you are able to proceed with the first investment.

Subsequently you can also make deposits with electronic systems such as Transferwise and via digital banking apps. Funds loaded into your virtual account but not invested will always be withdrawable when you want, however you will be asked to provide a copy of an identity document.

Manual and automatic investment

ViaInvest provides the option of automatic investment as an alternative to the manual one. Identifying and choosing loans can take some time and you may not necessarily have any.

With the manual investment you must necessarily select the active loans one by one, you can find them in the Loan listings by ViaInvest. The filters allow you to view only the offers that match your parameters (Loan originatortype of loan, desired interest rate, etc.).

Investing automatically, on the other hand, allows you to save time, diversify better your investment portfolio and to create more than one, activities which, if you are not practical, could be difficult for you.

The instrument AutoInvest it only asks you to set your choice parameters (loan duration, interest, amount), after which it automatically makes investments in available loan agreements that match your rules.

If you allow it, the earnings from payments will automatically be reinvested in other loans. The settings can always be changed and you can stop using the feature at any time or combine it with manual investment.

Buyback Guarantee

The buyback guarantee is a very useful option that protects the investor. It guarantees that the loan originator will repurchase the loan agreement if the borrower’s payments are more than 30 days late.

In this way you will be reimbursed for the invested capital and accrued interest. Loans secured by buyback are marked with a special icon. Not all loans are guaranteed!

What are the risks?

P2P lending investments can be a lot risky. Basically there are 3 main risks:

• The borrower does not pay or pays late;
• The loan originator goes bankrupt;
• The platform itself goes bankrupt.

The most likely risk is the one that concerns the default of the debtor’s obligations. Investing in unsecured consumer loans involves a high risk, there is no guarantee that the invested sums will be repaid on time or will be returned.

However, most of the contracts on ViaInvest are insured by the buyback guarantee so you can stay calm but don’t let your guard down.

Income taxation

The gains derived from the investment are subject to taxation during the tax return. However, ViaInvest manages taxes directly within the platform and offers investors the possibility to choose:

1. Withholding tax may be applied to income generated on the platform by ViaInvest. Income will be taxed according to the legislation of the country of origin of the loan;
2. The investor assumes the responsibility of managing the commitment himself and must upload on his investor profile the copy of the tax residence certificate against double taxation issued by the Revenue Agency of the country of residence. The certificate must be provided before any investment is made.

Find more information on the platform’s website.

Why choose ViaInvest?

Viainvest is the typical Peer to Peer lending platform of modest size that does not allow a continuous flow of loans, in fact at the time of writing this review there are none active.

But it has positive sides:

• It is focused primarily on short-term loans, some very short;
• The minimum investment is only €10;
• Most loans have a buyback guarantee;
• There is the AutoInvest feature;
• The site is user friendly.

Why not choose it?

The defects of this platform are not many but they have a considerable weight:

• Expected returns decidedly low compared to the platform average.
• Periods with lack of loans.

With the same offers, there are other platforms that are more competitive in terms of returns and investment opportunities. I invite you to read the other reviews available on Affari Miei in the section Crowdfunding.

Opinions of My business

Let’s be clear, I have no opinions against using the ViaInvest platform, it is a professional and reliable marketplace, but it is not very competitive. The choice is yours!

In any case, the advice I give you is to invest responsibly because these are still unsecured investments. The solution is not just to diversify your portfolio as much as possible, but to invest only a small percentage of your savings that is not vitally important.

If you want to understand once and for all whether it is worth investing in crowdfunding, watch this video.

Conclusions

In this article we have covered the Peer to peer lending platform ViaInvest. Now you know how it works and what interests it promises you, you can choose whether to use it or not, in full awareness.

Before saying goodbye, I remind you that on my blog you will find lots of informative content, guides, reviews and interesting articles on the vast world of investments and savings. It is always useful to read the personalized route-guides:

Good continuation on My business!