Mintos review
Ratings
Loan types available
Personal loans
Mortgages
Business loans
Car loans
Payday loans
Invoice finance
Website and investment product features
Auto-invest
Secondary market
Pooled investments
Manual selection
What is Mintos? How does it work?
Mintos is the largest and most sophisticated P2P site in all of Europe (including the UK). More than €6 billion of loans have been purchased through Mintos so far, and it has over 400,000 registered investors. No other site offers loans from as many lenders (more than 60). The majority of loans available to purchase are in euros, but other currencies are available, including Russian Roubles, Mexican Peso, British Pound, Polish Zloty and others. Once an account is opened and funded, investors can choose from over 450,000 loans available to purchase from the primary market (direct from lenders) or secondary market (from other investors). Mintos offers 14 different filters to help investors find the most suitable loans. Investors can choose how much of any individual loan they wish to purchase. Investors can select loans individually or alternatively make use of the excellent auto-invest tool. See our post on how to use the auto-invest function effectively, to generate the best returns at the lowest risk. The secondary market is extremely active, with hundreds of thousands of loans available. Investors can sell the loans they hold on the secondary market, and choose the price they wish to sell. Mintos makes almost all of its money from charging lenders a commission on the loans that are funded on its platform. The only fee an investor is likely to pay is a 0.85% fee for selling a loan on the secondary market. The secondary market can some times offer better returns for investors, and offers them an ability to sell loans if cash is needed. See our post on how to find the best deals on the secondary market. Mintos heavily promotes its automated investment strategy tool, which uses algorithms to purchase loans on behalf of investors depending on the preferred risk and return profile. The three strategies are ‘Diversified’, ‘Conservative’ and ‘High Yield’. However we recommend creating a bespoke portfolio rather than using any automated strategies, as we explain in this post. Over time, we think that spending time carefully selecting the best loan originators will lead to better returns and less risk.
The importance of managing risk was demonstrated during 2020 when several lending companies experienced difficulties connected with Covid-19 and defaulted on their obligations to investors. We have provided a summary of the lenders who have defaulted, and the likely losses resulting here.
What we like
What we don't like
- Mintos has a huge number of lenders on the one platform, and the list continues to grow
- The website has more features and performs better than any other P2P platform we have seen
- The interest rates available are extremely attractive
- Mintos has excellent customer service
- The Mintos secondary market is extremely active
- Large sums can be invested due to the strong flow of new loans each day
- There is a diverse range of loan types and risk profiles
- Currently #1 by volumes in Europe
- Website offers multiple languages and currencies (including English)
- Android and Apple Mintos apps are now available
- Many investors lost money during 2020 when loan originators defaulted
- Some lenders are very small with a limited track record. The difference in quality between lenders is very high
- Investment opportunities are heavily biased towards the baltics and Eastern Europe, which will not suit some investors
- British residents are currently not permitted to invest (due to regulatory reasons)
Risk and return profile
Conclusions on Mintos
The return and risk profile of a Mintos portfolio can vary significantly. It really depends on which of the 60+ lenders you select, and what types of loans are purchased. Interest rates also tend to go up and down each month. Mintos investors can however normally expect to generate returns in the 9-13% region, which we think is very good in the current interest rate environment. Most loans on Mintos come with a ‘buyback guarantee’. This means that if a loan defaults, the lender will repurchase it from the investor. That makes the quality of the lender itself more important than the borrower, as the investor will only suffer a loss if a lender runs into financial difficulties and is unable to repurchase the loan. So far there have been a few cases where this has happened.
The quality of lenders that are listed on Mintos can vary dramatically, and Mintos does not make it easy to assess which lenders are the best. That is why we created the Mintos lender ratings. It provides financial information about each lender, and also a score out of 100 based on several characteristics. Mintos have now introduced their own rating system, and we provide their ratings on this page too.We feel that there are many lenders on Mintos that in our view are too small, too inexperienced, are loss making, and have poor financial disclosures. However there are several good quality lenders too, and investors portfolios should be allocated towards those ones.
The key is to create a portfolio that is diversified among many lenders, spread across different countries and loan types (auto, mortgage, short-term etc).
Mintos is currently by far the largest European P2P site, and in our opinion, despite its problems, is currently one of the best. The number of lenders appearing on Mintos continues to grow. No other P2P investment platform in Europe currently offers investors the level of potential diversification by loan type, originator and geography. The main currency of the site is Euros although other local currencies are available. The website and customer support in English, German, Russian, Polish and several other languages which is impressive. The website offers a huge number of loan filters, which are useful both for selecting loans and also setting up very tailored autobid loan profiles. Daily emails are made available to investors that summarise all the various transactions that took place the prior day (interest earned, loan purchases and sales) etc.
Mintos offers an online chat facility and customer service is usually excellent. A phone app has just been launched, which we expect to be popular. We have interviewed the Mintos CEO and are impressed with his plans for the site. Our biggest concern remains the wide difference in quality among the lenders that appear on Mintos. There are several which we think are not sufficiently strong to be receiving funds from Mintos investors. Out Mintos lender ratings were designed to help investors choose the highest quality lenders on the platform. The Mintos secondary market is huge, liquid and works well. Overall, for any investors seeking to make their first investments into European P2P loans, Mintos would be our recommended place to begin.
Other sites to consider
Estateguru focused on loans secured by real estate. Rates are generally 10-12% and the site has a very good lending record. Very good returns relative to risk.
Peerberry offers loans from a few different lending groups. Rates are currently around 12%. The website is simple and functions very well.
Bulkestate is a small but growing site focused on loans secured on real estate. It offers loans secured by real estate. Their rates are the highest in Europe for secured loans currently (11-14%)
Viventor is a similar site to Mintos, just smaller. There are multiple lenders listed on the site, but the quality can vary (see our Viventor lender ratings for details).
October is focused on lending to small businesses in France, Spain and Italy. Rates are often a little lower than the other sites we list here, but some investors will like October due to the countries it operates in.
DoFinance offer very simple, well structured products for investors. Some allow investors to sell their investments and recover funds at short notice. Rates are up to 11% currently.
Our legal page contains disclosures and the full terms and conditions of the use of the ExploreP2P site.
Great review! I appreciate the detailed insights on Mintos and the rating. It helps in understanding the platform better before diving in. Looking forward to trying it out!
They don’t communicate. Even if you try to send €9,000 there and they return the payment to you twice, no one will talk to you there. You can try as hard as you want, but they won’t have fun with you. The €1,000 I sent to familiarize myself with this platform went well, but the larger amount has already been returned to me twice.
What will it look like when you want to withdraw the money back home!!!
Mintos stole my money. I had been a customer of Mintos for 4 years when they suddenly demanded to know in detail how I had financed a house purchase several years before I became a customer with them. I am 50 years old and have several companies and cannot possibly account for all my business for the past 30 years. I have been trading stocks for over 25 years and so on. It was impossible for me to be able to answer their questions and then they suspended me and STOLE all my money. I am convinced that Mintos is part of the Russian mafia.
Mintos security system Is a joke. My account has been hackered money Stolen and they refused to refund me.
Very unsafe and terrible customer care
Stay away
Hi. I love your web side. Very good work. My question is on the new user agreement of Mintos. What is opinion?I hate the fact that Mintos will charge me for legal costs involved with defaulted LO. Will Mintos take any responsibility for their wrong doings like allowing Finko providing loans through Mintos while having pending payments? Also who is going to control them on the costs?
If I leave Mintos before 12 of August will I pay for the legal costs on my pending payments?
thanks
I guess most important thing to know is if it is a scam or not. With propoer diversification and low size on each borrower the risk of a single default can be managed.
Excellent review! Mintos is coming a little more risky, looking at the recent LO defaults. Interest rates dropped a lot in few months (for me from 13 to 10.70%) and those where supposed to increase again at year-end. But it didn’t happen. So I’m looking for good alternative platforms to invest in, like Grupeer and the likes.
Hello. Thank you for your review.
I think that the Unique Sales Propoition of Mintos is that they kind of made it to a size and profitability that make them more “stable” and “safe” that most of other p2p lending platforms.
I personally invest in more than 10 platforms but I would trust most of them as some are very small, have no capital and have young teams.
I recommend also Mintos mainly for risk/return performances.