Month: March 2016

How to Open a UK Bank Account Online

wiseclerk 1 Comment

As I started to check the facts for this article I planned to title it ‘How to Open a Free UK Bank Account Online’. Lateron I had to omit the word ‘Free’ – see below, but it still is a bank account that anyone in Europe can open online, all that is needed is an Android smartphone. That’s right, it is not limited to British expats, but open to anyone living in Europe. There is no iPhone App yet, but it is planned.

Why I opened a UK bank account

For the UK p2p lending marketplaces I use as a non-UK resident, a bank account in the UK is not really necessary. I use Transferwise and Currencyfair to transfer money and handle the currency exchange. One process where I think having a UK bank account is very useful, is when I want to withdraw money from one UK p2p lending marketplace in order to then deposit it at another UK p2p lending marketplace. Naturally in that scenario, I do not want to convert the pounds back to Euro and I want the transfer to be fee-free.
Therefore I looked for a bank account, that would allow me to do this online. Another requirement was that I should be able to open this bank account without traveling to the UK and entering a bank branch.

I opened a Monese account

I opened a Monese current account. To do this, I first downloaded the Monese app on my Android phone. Then it took about 10 minutes to register. In the course of the process I took photos of the front and the backside of my ID, did a selfie (smile) and filled in a form. That part was completed rather fast.

After that I had an unverified account, which had some restrictions. To lift these I uploaded the PDF of a recent bill with my name and address on it and waited. It took about 6 days until my account was verified.

Benefits of a Monese account for me

I have an own bank account number. Together with the sort code (which actually is the one of NatWest since Monese cooperates with NatWest) I can transfer money inside the UK fast and free. This is the main function for me. The account has more features, but actually I won’t be using these. Should I want to transfer money from my Monese account to my Eurozone accounts I will continue to use Transferwise or Currencyfair instead of making the transfer as I currently think this is the best way to optimise forex rates and at the same time minimize transaction charges.

Is this a free account?

Monese accountWhen I signed up on March 18th, Monese promoted it as a free account. And in fact my account still is, I don’t pay a monthly fee and the transaction types I want to use are still free in my account (see screenshot). Other features – which I do not need like an ATM withdrawal or a card purchase abroad are priced.

But I talked to other investors, who signed up later than me (last week) and they were offered by Monese ‘First month free 4.95 GBP/ month‘. Seemingly Monese no longer offers accounts without a monthly charge to  new customers (if this is uncorrect and it is still possible to get open an account without monthly fees applied, please post hints and tips how to do it in the comments. Thx!).

It should be noted that the account is not covered by FSCS as it is regulated as an e-money product.

The app so far does what it should and is self-explanatory, if a bit basic.

About a week after I opened the account I received a welcome letter with a VISA debit card, which I actually don’t need for my intented use of the account. But for other customers it will be useful to have a card with the account.

Monese VISA debit card

Update: Just received the message that my account won’t stay free either: ‘Hi …, as one of our early members you have been enjoying a mostly free service as part of our launch celebrations, only paying our rock bottom 0.5% fee on currency exchange when sending money abroad. Without you, we would not be here today and as a small “thank you” we’d like to give you an additional 2 months free servic. From 1st June, 2016 you will be billed a simpley fixed price of £4.95 per month taken directly from your Monese account balance,…’

I Opened a MoneyThing Account

wiseclerk 1 Comment

Moneything logoTo achieve further diversification of my p2p lending investments I opened an account at the UK p2p lending marketplace MoneyThing. All loans on the platform are secured by assets, which consist of a mix of property and other items like cars. MoneyThing launched one year ago and has since originated 10 million GBP in secured loans. It is operated by Capital Mortgages Direct Ltd. in London. So far none of these loans had any troubles.

The key aspects for investors:

  • 12% interest rate p.a.
  • interest paid from the day the bid is made into a loan
  • no fees for investors
  • all loans secured by assets
  • bridge loans with a term of 3 to 24 months
  • there is a secondary market
  • minimum deposit is 100 GBP, minimum bid is 1 GBP

Steps to start lending

1. Registering

First I filled in the online form. MoneyThing is open to international investors, but the form had no country field, so I did enter town and country in the ‘town’ field. Later the same day I got an email from support asking me for ID and a further document to be uploaded as non-UK residents can not be automatically verified by their systems. I did that and within 5 minutes received the message that my account is now verified

2. Depositing

I used Transferwise to make my first deposit into the account to reduce transfer and currency exchange costs. A Transferwise alternative is Currencyfair. This time Transferwise took 3 days – a little longer than my usual experience for transfering to the UK with them.

3. Selecting the loans on the market

MoneyThing lists all loans in a single market view – there is no separate secondary market view. All available loan parts are highlighted in yellow. Since loans are sorted chronologically to find parts of older loans on sale the easiest way is to resort by the ‘Available’ column. Otherwise just scroll down.

Moneything loan listings

Clicking on a loan reveals detail information about a loan and supporting documents (e.g. a valuation report). Continue reading →

Live Stream of the P2P lending Conference in Vilnius presented by Savy*

Sponsored Post

The first P2P lending platform in Lithuania, SAVY, is organizing their second annual P2P lending conference on the 23rd of March in Vilnius, Lithuania. Guest speakers from all over the world, including the co-founder of LendIt Conference Jason Jones and the leaders of the top Baltic P2P lending companies – Mintos, Bondora and SAVY, amongst others, will engage in a number of panel discussions and presentations.

The conference will be focused on the possibilities of P2P lending and Crowdfunding, while the participants will touch some important topics related to the prospects, challenges and trends for Alternative Financing on a global scale and in the Baltic region specifically, as it offers a considerably higher return on investments than most Western European countries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B29ozFU0CQE

Live stream of conference starting at 13:30 GMT+2 on March, 23rd

*Sponsored post: This post was paid for by Savy.lt, the conference organizer. I rarely publish sponsored posts, but in this case I thought the content is a very interesting fit for the blog audience.

P2P Lending Marketplace Afluenta Raises 8M Series B From IFC and Elevar Equity

wiseclerk

Afluenta LogoAfluenta, headquarted in Buenos Aires, announced today the completion of its Series B funding round from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector institution of the World Bank Group, and Elevar Equity, a venture capital firm. IFC and Elevar Equity are investing 4 million US$ each.

Afluenta seeks to disrupt the traditional financial services industry, cutting out middlemen and using proprietary technology to transform the process of applying for a loan, thus facilitating access to financing. Afluenta says it offers borrowers a simple, affordable and less bureaucratic experience, while delivering better yield for individual and institutional lenders.

A pioneer in the region, Afluenta plans to use the proceeds of the Series B financing for accelerating its network expansion plan across Latin America. Launched in Argentina in 2012 and in Peru in 2015, Afluenta plans to launch new services in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil in the next 12 months to consolidate as the first pan-regional player of this new and disruptive alternative financing. Continue reading →

Twino to Remove Currency Risk for UK Investors

wiseclerk

Latvian p2p lending marketplace Twino today announced plans to shield UK investors using the platform from currency risks. So far all investments on the platform are conducted in Euro. Twino already takes the currency risk of Polish Zloty, Danish Krone or Georgian Lari versus the Euro. Now it plans to make the platform more attractive for investors holding their assets in GBP. The announcement reads:

One of TWINO promises is that we protect investors from currency risk. Thus, while investing on TWINO you don’t need to worry about Polish Zloty, Danish Krone or Georgian Lari appreciating against euro, as every transaction on the platform is performed in EUR.

However, investors from the UK still face the risk of EUR appreciating against GBP, which might lower their returns. Therefore, next week we are planning to launch a major upgrade that will remove the currency risk for investors, who hold their investable assets in British Pounds, equalizing the benefits of investing on TWINO with Eurozone investors.

The functionality will allow investors to choose the currency that they want to invest in (either EUR or GBP), and every transaction on TWINO will be processed in the chosen currency (including deposits, withdrawals, investments, repayments, etc.).

We will provide a further notice when the new functionality launches, and will be reaching out to existing investors, asking if they want to convert their TWINO accounts to GBP.

We are glad to be the first platform in Continental Europe to provide such functionality and hope some of you will benefit from it!

The Twino CEO Jevgenijs Kazanins indicated that Twino is hedging the currency risk, an action that is possible for a platform with volume but not available or viable for individual retail investors, would they strive to do it on their own.

LendInvest Raises 17M GBP Series B from Atomico

wiseclerk

Lendinvest logoLendInvest, a UK online marketplace for property finance, has completed a 17 million GBP (25 million US$) Series B equity investment from Atomico, the technology venture capital firm founded by Niklas Zennström, the co-founder of Skype.

This is LendInvest’s second equity investment in nine months. In June 2015, LendInvest secured a 22 million GBP (33 million US$) Series A investment from Beijing Kunlun, the listed Chinese technology company.

The round takes LendInvest’s total institutional funding (debt and equity) to over 200 million GBP (285 million US$).

LendInvest was launched in 2013 by founders Christian Faes and Ian Thomas, and has lent 560 million GBP to finance 2,100 properties in the UK. The UK mortgage market – a £1.3 trillion sector  is traditionally offline, slow and generally a very poor consumer experience says LendInvest.

Today LendInvest’s technology reduces the time taken to process mortgages from months to days, while maintaining rigorous credit controls. LendInvest has also opened up mortgages as a new and attractive asset class that delivers returns of over 5% per annum for investors.

LendInvest will use this funding to accelerate its investment in technology and extend its lead in the property finance market. The company is recruiting its first Senior VP of Engineering and will expand its technology and product teams. Continue reading →