Is Bondora Go & Grow 2025 worth it? My review and analysis
Bondora Go & Grow plays a special role in the world of P2P lending: a fixed 6.75 % interest rate, which is paid out daily, and high liquidity make the offer interesting for many investors. I have also been invested with the online broker for years, but what actually happens to your capital? How secure is Bondora Go & Grow and will it still be worth investing in 2025? I have answered these and other questions for you!
In brief
- Bondora’s Go & Grow programme is a P2P investment with a fixed interest rate of 6.75% and high liquidity
- Many investors find the mix of return, flexibility and risk ideal and use the offer for a long-term investment or as an alternative to a call money account
- Bondora is one of the oldest P2P providers, enjoys an excellent reputation and is highly successful with Go & Grow and other financial products
- Despite the success story so far, there is always a risk, as there is no deposit protection! In the event of a real crisis, an investment can be lost
What is Bondora Go & Grow
Bondora is an Estonian company that has been very successful for years with Go & Grow and three other investment vehicles in the P2P lending sector. The company, which has been active since 2009, has something on offer for almost all investors and their requirements (risk, return, diversification, etc.).
As is usual with personal loans, the Estonian online broker grants loans to private individuals. These borrowers usually have no better alternative (e.g. due to time pressure, collateral not recognised, too high risk…) and are therefore prepared to pay higher interest rates than is usual with banks.
Private investors can invest their capital to finance such lending. P2P platforms manage and facilitate such investments and in return collect part of the interest income. The rest is paid out to the investors.
Bondora has already financed more than half a billion euros in lending with Go & Grow and its other forms of investment. This makes it one of the largest and best-known providers, which is also reflected in the impressive number of over 226,600 private investors.
The way the programme works is similar to other P2P lending platforms: Loans with high interest rates are granted to private individuals from Estonia, Spain and Finland and the required capital is provided by private investors.
However, unlike our competitors from Mintos and the like, we don’t have to manually select individual loans. Bondora automatically invests the money from our Go & Grow account and grants us 6.75 per cent interest.
Bondora Go & Grow plays a special role
With the Go & Grow concept, Bondora has deviated somewhat from the tried-and-tested formula for personal loans: Here, investors no longer invest in different lending products, but are offered a single financial product with a fixed interest rate.
P2P lending works as usual in the background. As investors, however, we no longer invest in individual loans, but are directly rewarded with attractive interest rates: those who invest in the product receive a return of 6.75 per cent.
The provider thus created the first offer of its kind. And success was not long in coming! In addition to the attractive interest rates, Go & Grow offers another clear advantage: we can access our invested money very quickly. This high level of liquidity allows us to use it in a similar way to an overnight deposit account.
Until then, quick access to capital was often a problem when investing in personal loans: depending on the term of the respective loans, our money was always tied up for between one month and several years.
In the past, anyone who wanted to access their capital had to sell their current lending. Many P2P platforms offer a secondary market for this purpose, where an investment can be sold on significantly less favourable terms in an emergency.
However, such offers can hardly be compared with the high liquidity of the programme, as the desired amount can usually be withdrawn within 24 hours. So it’s no wonder that other providers have already tried to copy the successful model of .
The most important data at a glance:
What do you need to know about the company?
Bondora is now a well-known company that offers very successful financial products. Founder Pärtel Tomberg came up with this project in 2008, when the financial crisis revealed a great demand for non-bank lending.
Since then, it has become a permanent fixture and the most popular company on the P2P market, lending almost 12 million euros per month! The company itself earns through the interest and fees that borrowers have to pay. And it does so in several places:
- Accounting for just under 40 per cent of income, administration fees one of the most important items. 4 per cent of the total lending amount is due each year and generated almost EUR 12 million in 2020.
- A commission of 5.95 per cent is charged to the borrower when a loan is taken out and generated a profit of seven million euros in 2020, which corresponds to a share of just under 24 per cent.
- Bondora is also remunerated by borrowers for debt management. Around €6.5 million was earned in this way in 2020, which represents almost 22 per cent of total revenue.
- Other fees, such as for flexible adjustment of repayment instalments, also generated profits: Bondora received €3.7 million in this way in 2020.
Good to know:
As an investor, there is only one fee when using Bondora Go & Grow: withdrawing capital costs €1 per transaction. Otherwise, the service is completely free!
What is the risk with Bondora Go & Grow?
Personal loans are a risky form of investment as the providers have no deposit protection. This distinguishes them from traditional banks, for example, where your capital is protected up to a maximum limit. You will also look in vain for collateral for the loans granted.
This risk can very quickly become very real, for example if a serious crisis hits the market or a provider gets into financial difficulties for other reasons. If a large number of borrowers can no longer repay their loans, your money may be permanently lost.
Even the buyback guarantees offered by some P2P platforms cannot help in the event of the company’s insolvency.
Although the provider is investing in less risky personal loans with its well-known programme, these risks remain. During the coronavirus crisis, for example, a monthly deposit limit of 1,000 euros was introduced to curb additional growth and thus guarantee the security of the existing business.
While these measures demonstrate on the one hand that the online broker can act prudently and overcome crises, they also show that the dangers in the P2P sector are quite real.
If you still want to invest in P2P lending, you should do the necessary research in advance and make sure that your own portfolio is sufficiently diversified. If in doubt, you should consult a financial advisor.
Good to know:
Capital that is in your Bondora ‘wallet’ (credited to your account but not actively invested with Go & Grow) is secured by the Swedish SEB Bank up to 100,000 euros and can be reclaimed even in the event of Bondora’s insolvency.
The provider generally acts very conservatively and is always focused on security. For example, additional profits from the company are channelled into an interest reserve, which would enable the promised return of 6.75% to be paid out even in difficult times. Although the exact amount of this reserve is not disclosed, it is said that it could cover the interest for all current investors over the course of a year.
Daily liquidity is also secured: Bondora holds 15 % of the capital in cash to ensure disbursement if necessary. Only when this sum is used up could there be problems with availability.
If you would also like to benefit from the 6.75 % interest rate, sign up now via the link and take advantage of my Bondora bonus.
Advantages and disadvantages of Bondora Go & Grow at a glance
Anyone who decides to invest in Bondora’s Go & Grow programme benefits from a number of advantages.
These include in particular
- High return of 6.75 % per year.
- High liquidity, as you can withdraw or deposit your money as required within a very short time.
- No costs for investors, with the exception of a fee of 1 euro when money is withdrawn.
- The investment works automatically and does not need to be actively managed – you can sit back and watch your money grow.
- The interest is paid out daily, which increases the compound interest effect.
- It is one of the oldest and most stable providers in the P2P sector and has been highly successful not only since the introduction of Go & Grow.
- All details about the company itself are presented transparently and can be viewed at any time. The annual reports are of course also public and audited by KPMG.
- The platform is regulated by the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority and is therefore also subject to EU law, which provides additional security.
- With the Go & Grow offer, the risks are lower than with other P2P products, as investments are made in less ‘dangerous’ lending. This lowers interest rates compared to the competition, but means less risk for our investment.
- Taxes are only due when you have your profits paid out. This means you can utilise the compound interest effect undisturbed without slowing down your capital growth through taxes.
Of course, Bondora Go & Grow is not a perfect offer either.
The problems facing investors include, for example:
- There is no deposit protection and the lending is unsecured. In the event of a dramatic crisis, your entire capital could be at risk.
- The interest rate is well below the P2P average of 10.5%. In addition, the 6.75% offered is not guaranteed and could be reduced at any time.
- Although the provider has always kept its return promises, P2P lending remains a risky investment: with Bondora’s other financial products (not Go & Grow), one in seven investors even achieves a negative return!
- The security and return on our capital depend on the performance of the loan portfolio. Despite attempts at broad diversification, we invest in a relatively small field and are at the mercy of external influences, crises, etc.
- A fee of €1 is charged for withdrawals, which can quickly add up for very active investors.
- We cannot choose for ourselves which lending we want to invest in. The Go & Grow programme is therefore only suitable for diversifying our portfolio to a limited extent.
- Of the loans that could no longer be serviced, the provider was still able to recover around 46%. This value is very good, but can deteriorate at any time.
Alternatives to Bondora Go & Grow
If you are still unsure whether Go & Grow is the right product for you, you should take a look at the many alternatives on the P2P market. There are dozens of providers with different focuses.
As an example, I would like to mention Mintos, the market leader in personal loans. As with other providers, you also invest in private consumer loans there, but via a platform model. This means that we can invest in loans from different lenders and thus achieve excellent diversification.
The interest rate is around 9.5%, but – unlike Bondora Go & Grow – is not fixed, but depends on the investor’s settings. Mintos had to struggle with significantly greater difficulties during the coronavirus crisis.
In my subjective opinion, Mintos is therefore somewhat riskier, but also offers slightly better interest rates.
Another alternative with significantly higher interest rates is Robocash. The Russian provider issues the loans itself and rewards investors with 11% returns. In terms of transparency, however, there is still a lot to learn from the Estonian online broker!
Both Mintos and Robocash only offer limited opportunities to withdraw your own capital quickly. Short terms and selling on the secondary market would be the only opportunities – but you can’t compete with daily availability here!
For a different sectoral investment experience, we also recommend exploring our review of Ventus Energy.
Conclusion: My experience with Bondora Go & Grow
With Go & Grow, Bondora has created an offer that enjoys unbroken popularity in the P2P world. And in my opinion, quite rightly so! Thanks to its simplicity, flexibility and stable performance, it has carved out a very attractive niche for itself.
As there is no minimum term – unlike with other P2P offers – our capital can be withdrawn at any time. This also makes the programme an ideal ‘stopover’ for money that needs to be stored temporarily.
Of course, vital financial resources should not be invested in this way! Because although the performance itself has always been excellent, a general residual risk remains. Our deposits are not secured in the event of a real crisis, insolvency, etc.!
Other P2P offerings may offer higher interest rates, but for me the mix of risk, liquidity and return with Go & Grow is ideal. Over the past few years, I have therefore continued to increase my investment and am already receiving a return of more than 1 euro per day.
My experience so far has been consistently positive: interest has always been credited on time, even during the coronavirus crisis, and payouts have always been made within one day, as promised.
So far, I’ve only had one personal problem: the investment limit of 400 euros per month introduced in December 2020 has significantly slowed down my plans.
However, other investors had more difficulties during the coronavirus crisis: In March 2020, the rush to pay out was so great that a staggered payout over two to three weeks was introduced. Since then, however, things have long since returned to normal.
Of course, only you can decide whether the concept is right for you and your personal financial strategy. Bondora’s Go & Grow programme is currently the most popular offer among P2P investors – and I’m definitely one of them!
How to get started with Go & Grow
1. Create account
Bondora makes it very easy for you to sign up! Many of the questions during registration, such as how much and how long you want to invest, are flexible and have no real impact. They only serve to illustrate your potential profits and are intended to motivate you to complete the registration process.
Attention:
As is usual with such investments, you will also need an identity document to verify your identity with Bondora Go & Grow!
2. Deposit money
Depositing is also made as easy as possible: you will find the ‘Invest’ button prominently at the end of the menu on the left-hand side. There is also a ‘Deposit’ button in the header of the website.
One click will take you to the account information. You must send the desired amount to this address by bank transfer. Pay particular attention to the correct subject line to ensure that your money arrives quickly and without any problems!
3. Payments
If you want to withdraw your money, you should first click on ‘Withdraw money’ in the menu bar on the left. You can choose whether the withdrawal should be made to your bank account or to your ‘wallet’.
Only bank accounts from which you have already made a deposit are available for selection. The wallet is an area where your money remains in the portfolio but is not actively invested in the Go & Grow programme.
Attention:
Bondora reserves the right to send amounts in instalments. This may be the case for very large sums or in times of crisis. Therefore, check in good time how long a payout will take!
FAQ – frequently asked questions about Bondora Go & Grow
