Grupeer vs Mintos: Which One is Better?

In this article, we will make a comparison of two of the best p2p lending platforms in Europe. In the Grupeer vs Mintos post, we will take a look into rates, transparency, promotional offers, liquidity, and a couple of other factors that you should consider when choosing a p2p lending platform to invest.

I no longer recommend investing with Grupeer (at least for now) as too many red flags have popped. Mintos is a much better platform overall and

Rates

Let’s start with the rates offered by the two platforms since it’s one of the most natural things to compare. Rates on Mintos have historically fluctuated quite a bit with the upper end being as high as 16% during periods of high loan volumes and as high as 12/13% during periods when loan volumes are low. Usually during summer. On Grupeer, rates have remained consistent throughout my experience with them with the upper end being at 14%. Rates on Mintos start at 6% while rates on Grupeer begin at 10%. 

As you can see, rates are pretty similar in both platforms and there is no real edge between the two in that regard. 

Loans

Mintos has a wide variety of loans listed on its marketplace, some examples are mortgages, auto and personal loans, invoice financing, agriculture, etc. Grupeer focuses more on development projects and business loans. Personally, I think that gives an edge to Grupeer since all of the loans on the platform are secured by tangible assets. Of course, Mintos gives you move diversification opportunities, and this is something to note. 

Transparency

This is a chapter that Mintos comes way ahead of Grupeer, and this is something very significant in my book. It provides a detailed statistics page, loan originators financial reports as well as its own financial report (audited by Ernst & Young). This provides a high level of transparency and inspires confidence in Mintos. I wish I could say the same about Grupeer that unfortunately doesn’t provide any of that. I have it in proper authority that they are actively working in that direction, and I will update this article once they fulfill their promise.

Statistics

As I said above, Grupeer doesn’t provide a detailed statistics page, but I will compare the numbers that the two platforms have both published. First of all, the amount of funded loans, Mintos has funded about 3.2 billion and Grupeer has around 55 million. Mintos is the oldest of the two, but the difference is quite staggering nonetheless. 

Mintos has over 177,000 investors, while Grupeer has only about 14,500. 

One thing that Grupeer comes ahead is the average interest on the platform. Mintos currently comes at 12.22% while Grupeer at 13.41%. This is probably because of the lower interest loans listed on Mintos that brings down the average. 

Mintos Statistics Page:

Grupeer Statistics Page:

As you can see as far as numbers go there is a massive difference between the two. 

Loan Liquidity

Both of the platforms are pretty liquid, and you shouldn’t have a problem investing any amount you want in neither. Of course, the number of loans on Mintos is extremely higher but so is the number of investors competing for the same loans so it balances out to about the same. One important thing to note here is the lack of a secondary market on Grupeer or an early exit option. That makes it impossible for an investor to sell exit the loan or the platform before the maturity of the loan that he purchased. Grupeer has promised to create a secondary market, and again, I will change this as soon as they publish it. 

Mintos has a very liquid secondary market as well should you wish to exit your loan prematurely. Especially if you are willing to sell it at a small discount to the face value. I am talking about something along the lines of a 0.1% discount or around three days worth of interest, which is extremely minimal. 

Buyback Guarantee

On Grupeer all loans come with Buyback Guarantee that covers both principal and interest of the period you held the loan. Most loans on Grupeer have a 60-day period before the buyback kicks in, but some others have a shorter buyback period. Almost all loans on Mintos have a buyback guarantee, but not all originators pay interest on delayed payments and the buyback period is always 60 days. This means that you might be stuck with a loan in your portfolio that doesn’t pay interest for two months, and there is nothing you can really do about it. The only thing you can do it protect your self from that is to visit the loan originators page after you open an account to see what originators pay interest on delayed loans and only invest in them. 

Overall Loan Performance

I must say that I have been pretty impressed with the loan performance on Grupeer. They do not provide a detailed page that you can see the status of your loans in your portfolio, but after checking manually, all loans have been paid diligently on time. On the other hand, my Mintos portfolio is always between 75% and 80% current. Not a bad percentage considering that most of the loans have high rates for borrowers that make it more difficult for them to make the payments on time. This evidence is, of course, anecdotal and you cannot have a complete view of Grupeers loan book without a detailed statistics page.

Cashback Offers

Mintos offers a 1% cashback offer to new investors that register through my affiliate link, Grupeer doesn’t have such an offer. However, both platforms have periodic cashback campaigns for old investors when they purchase loans from particular originators. Grupeer’s offers are more common, and they also pay the cashback reward momentarily while with Mintos you usually have to wait for around 5 business days.

Mintos just informed me that from 18.11.2019 the signup bonus for new investors will 0.5% instead of 1%. This affects all referral links from all websites.

Grupeer vs Mintos – Conclusion

With all of the above points in mind, I must conclude that Mintos is overall a better platform. I especially appreciate the high level of transparency that they offer as well as the existence of a secondary market. These are very important to me because you can notice irregularities and exit your investments if you see fit.

I would suggest opening one with Mintos. That is the reason why Mintos is No.1 on my blog post about the best p2p lending platforms in Europe.

You can also check the individual Mintos and Grupeer reviews here.

I hope you enjoyed the read and don’t forget to comment on your thoughts and share the article,
Peter