Mintos Vs Twino: Which One is Better?

In this article, we will make a comparison of two of the oldest and largest p2p lending platforms in Europe. In this Mintos Vs Twino post, we will take a look into rates, transparency, promotional offers, liquidity, and a couple of other factors that you should examine when picking a p2p lending platform to invest.

Rates

Let’s start with the rates offered by these two platforms since it’s one of the most obvious 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 12-13% during periods when loan volumes are low. Usually during summers. On Twino, the rates fluctuate with the upper end being at 11% and normal being 8%. Rates on Mintos start at 6% while rates on Twino start at 8%. 

Mintos is a clear winner here and has always offered higher rates than Twino. 

Loans

Mintos has a wide range of loans listed on its marketplace, some examples are mortgages, auto, and personal loans, invoice financing, agriculture, etc. Twino has mainly consumer loans with some business loans periodically appearing. I think that gives an edge to Mintos since it provides unparalleled diversification.

Statistics

First of all, the amount of funded loans. Mintos has funded about 4.8 billion, and Twino has around 650 million. Twino is the oldest of the two, it was launched in 2009 in Latvia as a loan originator and in 2015 as an investment platform. 

Mintos has over 250,000 investors, while Twino has only about 18,700. 

Also, Mintos has an average rate of 11.84%. And on Twino, while they don’t publish it, their average rate is around 9-10%.

Transparency

This is a chapter that Mintos excels at, and this is something very important when choosing a p2p platform. It provides a detailed loan book 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 trust in Mintos. 

Twino also has a statistics page, but it is not as complete as Mintos’. They only provide the number of Cumulative investments, Cumulative interest paid to investors, Cumulative number of investors, Investments by initial loan duration, Average interest rate by initial loan duration, and Outstanding principal by loan performance. 

Overall, Twino is not very transparent about the overall financial condition and structure of their group. However, they do publish the group’s financial report annually, and they are a profitable company.

Loan Liquidity

Both Mintos and Twino have plenty of loans for you to invest in. Sometimes loans on Twino do run out, and that causes cash drag, but they add new loans daily. 

Unfortunately, Twino doesn’t have an early option system available. The advantage of Mintos here is the existence of a secondary market. This does not only provide liquidity for your investments in case you want to exit your investments, but it also provides a large number of loans you can purchase. 

Buyback Guarantee

Twino provides two types of investor protection schemes – BuyBack Guarantee and Payment Guarantee. Under the BuyBack Guarantee investor protection scheme, Twino will compensate the investors both the invested principal amount and interest, as well as pay the accrued interest in case a borrower is late with the repayment for over 60 days.

Under the Payment Guarantee investor protection scheme, Twino will compensate both the invested principal amount and earned interest as per the original loan repayment schedule, even if the borrower is late with the repayment. The Payment Guarantee applies to the whole duration of the loan. Some loans are not covered by the BuyBack or Payment Guarantee.

On Mintos, almost all loans come with BuyBack Guarantee. However, not all loan 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 while you wait for the buyback to kick in. 

Loan Performance

According to their statistics page, Mintos has 73.2%, and Twino has 69.8% current loans. Mintos has a slight advantage, but both numbers could be a little better. Keep in mind that these are mostly short-term personal loans, so a high percentage of delayed loans is to be expected. 

Cashback Offers

Mintos offers a 1% cashback offer to new investors that register through my affiliate link, Twino offers a 1% cashback too. Mintos also has periodic cashback campaigns for old investors when they purchase loans from particular originators. 

Mintos just informed me that from 24.03.2020, the signup bonus for new investors will be stopped due to the coronavirus pandemic and an effort to cut costs. This affects all referral links from all websites. And when that comes into effect, Twino will have a better offer.

Mintos Vs Twino – Conclusion

With all of the above points in mind, and after taking a close look at both platforms, I believe that Mintos is the clear winner. It offers higher rates, a higher level of transparency, it also has a secondary market that you can both sell and buy from. 

These are the reasons why Mintos is No.1 on my list of the best p2p lending platforms in Europe. 

You can also check my Mintos Review here.