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Why Invest in Peer to Peer Lending?

Brian has chosen peer to peer lending as part of his investment portfolio as he enjoys the fact that crowdfunding and P2P lending directly connects lenders with the funders, cutting out the middleman. Brian enjoys engaging with the business owners and seeing how he can have a direct impact on the success and growth of many small businesses.

Why rebuildingsociety.com?

Brian says that he enjoys lending via rebuildingsociety because of the platform’s ethos and dedication to supporting local businesses and developing local economies particularly outside of London, an ethos which he shares and which he has followed in his own business ventures. Rebuildingsociety.com was founded with the intention of opening finance to businesses that had been excluded from traditional means of finance and to offer more than just a financial transaction, by ensuring that through the finance the business was also able to gain access to a wide range of lenders who are able to advise and support the business in the long term. The ability for lenders to pick and choose their investments and continue to engage with the borrowers is a key reason Brian has continued to lend via rebuildingsociety.com, as opposed to other platforms that have become more ‘opaque’ in the way lenders invest. As well as his rate of return, Brian also cites the openness and accessibility of the rebuildingsociety.com team as a factor for his continued investment via rebuildingsociety.com.

How does it compare to other platforms?

Investing across a number of crowdfunding and Peer-to-peer lending platforms, Brian, says as a ‘non-techie’ he has found the platform easy to use and understand. He has found the blogs and information available to lenders on rebuildingsociety.com ‘excellent’ and very useful in helping him to understand how to use the platform, learn more about the businesses and get tips on lending in general. Much of the information Brian refers to is available in our Lender Library.

Advice to new lenders?

Having been an active lender for over 4 years on rebuildingsociety.com. Brian says lenders should:

Read and Review

Brian says lenders should always make sure that they read up and carefully look into the platform that they are lending through. Look at the trading history of the platform, how long have they been around, what is their net return, what is the ethos of the platform and what is the investment structure or the deals on the platform. Knowing more about the platform and ensuring that you understand how it works is fundamental to ensuring the long-term success of your investments via P2P.

Do Your research

When investing manually, Brian says it’s crucial that lenders do the research on the businesses they are thinking of investing in. Reviewing the information provided by the platform as well as publicly available information is important to make good lending decisions.

Start small – Diversify

Brian says that lenders that are new to any platform should ‘start small’ and look to build a well-diversified portfolio, by lending across a range of sectors, regions and business types. As a lender gets more comfortable with the lending process and the platform then they can consider lending larger amounts according to the experience they have gained. If in doubt ask This applies to both asking questions of the borrowers as well as the platform’s team. On rebuildingsociety.com lenders are given the opportunity to directly ask questions of the borrower through the Discussion forums of each loan. This allows lenders to ensure they understand who and what they are lending for and allows them also to build a rapport with the borrower. Brian also says that lenders should ask not to be shy to engage with the rebuildingsociety.com team, who he has found ‘very helpful and accessible’ and ‘has found the guidance that they give very easy to understand’. rebuildingsociety.com is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and has been operating as a peer-to-peer lending platform for over six years, making it one of the longest standing P2P platforms in the UK. rebuildingsociety.com prides itself on the level of transparency offered to lenders and the wealth of information and educational material available to assist lenders and borrowers throughout their engagement with the platform.  Transparency helps lenders assess the risk and make better-informed decisions if you would like to find out more about the risks involved in lending on our platform, visit our risks page.