Is p2p investing really investing?

[Colgar]

every investment there is always a bit of a gamble... loto, hoseracing, stocks , property

p2p - I do think it is an investment. It is providing money in return for a risk weighted return.

Like other investments it also has the other factors like it is not very liquid, in that your money is pretty much tied up for the term.
your initial investment/principal wont grow which is analogous to no capital gain
you do get monthly, or periodic, repayments which is your cash flow.


Overall I do like the idea of p2p as in principal it puts peeople with money together with people who want money and are willing to pay a charge on top.
This in a way cuts out the middleman(the banks) which I like but unfortunately you still need a middleman(harmoney,squirrel...etc) to take their cut.

From a borrowers point of view, I would only use the p2p if it was cheaper and more accessible than going to the banks. But then there will always be people(with the higher risk profile, people who can't go to banks) who would normally go to the 2nd or 3rd tier finance companies for their loans. I guess p2p is competing with these also.

From a borrowees point of view they can put there money in for a certain return. And this return is clipped by the middle man. But it can be diversified enough to sprea the risk.

It will be interesting to see the longterm of these p2p companies, but if the us and uk is anything to go by it seems like they might be here for a long time.

Also interesting is the different operators all have different models.
Lending Crowd
Harmoney
LendMe
Squirrel Money.

Don't you mean lenders point of view?

Also, how would you describe each operators model in a sentence?

[AppleCrumble]

Don't you mean lenders point of view?

Also, how would you describe each operators model in a sentence?

Yep lenders, borrowees is bad english.

this post is a start, it shows what they disclose, on each operators model. I hope to add to it.