Mintos Review 2021: I share big changes after 6 years of investing
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Investing in P2P loans on the Mintos platform is popular with small investors of the younger and older generations who want to start investing, diversify their investments and earn passive income. The minimum amount to invest is only 10 EUR, so the review of Mintos starts very positively. I have been investing in P2P loans since 2013 and I am happy to share my signs, ideas and experiences.
The original review of the Mintos platform and P2P lending and investing was published at the end of 2017. Since then, I have always tried to update it to bring you added value and up-to-date information. The last major update took place in August 2021, when I share my experience with ending investing on Mintos and other P2P platforms.
However, P2P investments and specifically Mintos brought me not only very nice returns, but also a great experience from the investment world. During that trip, I learned a lot and at the same time appreciated my money. I wish the same to you, every reader.
What is Mintos
Mintos is a P2P platform that connects loan applicants with small investors and thus provides space for safe lending of money without a bank, for investors it is a form of investment with the essence of passive income.
The dynamic Latvian company Mintos funguej since the beginning of 2015 and very quickly has become the most popular and sought-after peer-to-peer platform for investing and lending money in Europe. It is sought after by investors mainly due to the high yields offered, long-term history, transparency and good security, including the setting of guaranteed repurchases of outstanding loans.
What is P2P
Peer-to-peer loans (so-called P2P loans) are loans that are demanded and secured by people, they are so-called loans from people and people. Banks and other financial institutions do not enter here. At the same time, it is a crowdfunding system, ie money for a loan is collected from a large number of people, where everyone invests only a small part and the total amount is gradually deposited. This reduces the risk for investors because a large amount is distributed among a large number of investors.
Mintos plays the role of a marketplace here, which is a kind of intermediary between the loan applicant and the investor (the one who lends money).
In fact, there is another party to P2P loans, the lender, which is the company that receives the money and then provides it to the end borrower.
History of Mintos
Mintos was founded in 2015 by two founders, Martins Sulte and Martins Valters, who negotiated with four other angel investors. Together, they combined the EUR 4.5 million investment with which they launched the company.
In 2020, Mintos launched its own crowdfunding project, which involved more than 6,100 investors who together invested more than € 6.5 million. This is the most money invested in a crowdfunding campaign.
The Mintos team currently has around 200 employees.
Mintos occupies 45% of the P2P market in continental Europe, has more than 340,000 investors registered on its platform and 28 million loans have been financed. In 2021, Mintos continues to be the best peer-to-peer platform for investors who want to try P2P investing.
Mintos has won a number of awards and is regularly awarded in the AltFi Alternative Finance Winner People’s Choice Award.
How Mintos works as a P2P platform
The basic function of P2P platforms is to connect investors and loan applicants. Mintos does so through a wide range of non-banking companies, each of which specializes in, for example, a slightly different type of loan or operates in a different country.
After joining the system, each investor has an overview of the huge number of requests (loan applications) and can invest any share of at least 10 Euros in each.
There is an inexhaustible number of offers and, like investors, they are growing at a rapid pace. Mintos then divides them into a relatively wide range of categories – loan type (8), country (13), currency (7), non-banking company (26+), thus surpassing other popular platforms such as Lendy, Twino, Zonky , which have such a diversity they can’t offer. You may notice that a large portion of loans are currently for car loans.
Mintos statistics
Mintos attracts new investors primarily to the possibility of high returns. Official statistics and the experience of longer-term users show an average profit of 1% of the amount invested per month, ie 12% per year.
During the coronavirus crisis, there were changes in yields, a number of loans went into arrears and some companies went into insolvency.
Yintos yield
- It used to be on average 12% per year
- I was able to have 17% – 18% per year in the manual settings
- During the coronavirus period, the average return was 1% per year
Here are some interesting statistics and numbers.
Investors’ net returns on Mintos have long been around 12%. It was not until 2020, when the coronavirus crisis came, that there was a huge decline. Although the gross return in 2020 is 10.44% for investors, the net return is only 0.95%. The difference is mainly made by outstanding loans and insolvency / bankruptcies (more in the subchapter coronavirus).
The table below from pre-coronavirus 2020 showed the official figures, which divided the individual types of loans from 7% yields to 12.6% yields. The numbers are published and updated in a transparent manner. The average net annual return of 12% was indeed very good for investors, which is why Mintos has attracted many investors for five years since 2015.
This is no longer the case, and if we look at the current table, it shows us that the average net annual return of investors is around 10% (see below).
Most loans are within Short-Term Loans, Personal Loans and Car Loans. This composition has been unchanged for several years.
If you want to invest in P2P loans as safely as possible, then pay attention to the Outstanding Loans column – in the detailed table above you can see that Personal Loans have the most outstanding loans. Instead, invest in Business Loans with an expected return of 12.2%. I set out the investment strategy settings within Auto Invest below.
So if you have 100,000 crowns invested in several different loans, for example, your monthly income can be 1,000 crowns. And this can already be considered the beginning of passive income .
Financed loans
Mintos also published the numbers of loans and investment activities. We can look at financed loans over time from 2015 to 2021.
P2P loans experienced tremendous growth during this period, and Mintos was able to consolidate its position and profile itself as a secure investment platform in the European market for both loan applicants and investors.
Individual investor on Mintos
Below you can see the details of investor statistics on the Mintos platform. I enclose one picture (I guess from 2018), when the number of registered investors exceeded 150,000. The average investment of one investor was almost 5,000 EUR.
It is then interesting to monitor the further development and behavior of investors. Although Mintos states in some blog articles that investors are willing to invest in P2P loans even after the coronavirus crisis, it is clear from the statistics below that the amount of money of individual investors has decreased.
In 2021, Mintos displays statistics that show:
- Number of registered investors: more than 400 thousand
- Average investment per investor: EUR 2739
Benefits of P2P investing in Mintos
Each review should include not only a list of features and functions of the platform, but also an overview of specific advantages and disadvantages for investors. So let’s summarize the pros and cons of investing in P2P loans on the Mintos platform.
Yield in 2021 to 10% per year
In particular, it is a high average yield, which reached 12% per year, and in individual cases with a set strategy, I was able to appreciate up to 17% and 18% per year . This is relatively unprecedented in competing P2P platforms in terms of the security and operating history that Mintos has.
Currently in 2021, the average net return of investors is around 10% per year.
Redemption guarantee
Furthermore, Mintos can take a fairly frequently offered guarantee to buy out investments in which there are problems with non-payment (the so-called BuyBack guarantee). This gives investors increased protection that if the borrower fails, the money will be paid by the credit company and Mintos is committed to the process.
Free registration, no investment fees
Absence of monthly fees for account management and registration completely free of charge – these are not competitive advantages over other P2P platforms, but I would like to mention this here, because many banking investment products are set with certain fees, so that we perceive the difference.
AutoInvest, automatic investing
New Auto Invest function, which buys shares on default loans for you. Mintos strives to simplify the whole process for investors and offer safe and carefree investing.
Everything in Czech
For Czech clients, it may be crucial that Mintos is localized into Czech, so you do not need to know English to use it . Mintos is completely in Czech.
It is also a pleasant opportunity to invest in Czech loans in Czech crowns and thus avoid currency risk. If you want to invest in EUR, GEL, RUB, KZT or other currencies, you can use the Mintos exchange office.
Transparent statistics
I also like the statistics provided and their detailed view and regular updates. These are excellent resources for attentive investors and can really affect the financial results at the end of the year (I discuss in more detail below).
