Bondora review: €3,300 invested | 6% interest
No other P2P provider has undergone such dramatic changes: Bondora has completely transformed itself! Who is the P2P pioneer’s new direction suitable for, and what can investors expect in the future? I have summarised my experiences from the last few years and put together some important tips for you!
In brief:
- Bondora has been successful in P2P lending for over 17 years and is one of the largest and best-known providers.
- The company has moved away from ‘normal’ P2P lending to a call money concept: you receive a stable 6% interest rate without having to invest manually.
- You can withdraw your money at any time. In my review, this flexibility is one of the main advantages of Bondora.
- It is a very good alternative to regular overnight money. However, P2P investors looking for high interest rates will be disappointed.
P2P pioneer Bondora: 17 years of reviews
When it comes to P2P lending, two names immediately spring to mind for most people: Mintos, the largest marketplace for personal loans, and Bondora. The Estonian company was founded in 2008 and has been highly successful ever since!
- Bondora was founded by Pärtel Tomberg at a time when the financial crisis had the world firmly in its grip.
- The company used lessons learned from the crisis to become one of the first providers to enable investments in personal loans.
- For the first 10 years, it operated as a ‘normal’ P2P platform, comparable to Mintos, Swaper or other providers from my P2P lending ranking.
- In 2018, a new product was introduced: Bondora Go & Grow. It offers fixed interest rates and daily availability of the invested capital.
- The new offering took the market by storm and became an alternative to instant access savings accounts for many investors.
The success of Go & Grow was so overwhelming that the classic P2P products ‘Portfolio Manager’ and ‘Portfolio Pro’ quickly faded into the background. In 2023, the logical next step was therefore taken and these offerings were discontinued completely.
So Bondora now offers only one form of P2P investment: Go & Grow. Here you get 6% interest per year, payments are made daily and you can withdraw your money at any time.
Before we look at whether this is really worthwhile, let’s take a look at the company itself:
What is Bondora?
Bondora is a financial company based in Estonia. The company grants loans to private individuals who pay high interest rates in return. These loans are financed by investors like you and me. In return, we receive a share of the interest income.
This business model is beneficial for everyone involved:
- Borrowers receive money quickly and easily, which they can use for urgent purchases or emergencies.
- Bondora generates high profits, which recently amounted to more than €1.3 million per year.
- We investors receive 6% interest per annum on our money, allowing us to easily build up a passive income.
It is therefore no surprise that investors have had good experiences with Bondora and that the business is growing steadily! Almost half a million investors are now active on the platform.
| Foundation | 2008 |
| Company headquarters: | Tallinn, Estonia |
| Management: | CEO Pärtel Tomberg (founder) |
| Financed credit volume: | 1.58 billion EUR |
| Regulated: | Fully regulated |
| Annual report: | Audited annual report available; profit of €1.3 million |
| Investors: | 476,000 users |
| Returns: | 6 % |
| Buy-back guarantee: | Not applicable |
| Minimum investment amount: | 1 EUR |
| Auto-Invest: | Yes |
| Secondary market: | No – not applicable |
| Tax certificate: | Yes |
| Bonus programmes: | €5 sign-up bonus via my link |
Who is behind Bondora?
The P2P platform Bondora was conceived and founded by Pärtel Tomberg. And the success of recent years clearly shows that it was a very good idea!
Here are the most important facts about the founder and owner:
- Born and raised in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, where Bondora is now based.
- Studied in England and the USA and holds a degree in International Business Management.
- He studied at a university in Oxford, but not the world-famous University of Oxford.
- Before founding Bondora and during its start-up phase, he held various management positions, mainly at large online mail order companies.
Tomberg now holds 51% of Bondora, giving him decision-making authority over the company. This is very good news for us investors: we have a man with years of experience in the business world and in his own company at the helm.
Around a quarter of the shares are held by an investor from Portugal. The remaining shares are held by Global Founders Fund (formerly European Founders Fund GmbH & Co. Beteiligungs KG).
This is the investment fund of the Samwer brothers, who gained fame through their investments in companies such as Zalando, Delivery Hero and HelloFresh. Older readers will also be familiar with their ringtone company Jamba.
Her fund also made a good decision with Bondora, investing early in the successful P2P platform.
How Bondora’s business model works
A glance at my P2P lending ranking shows that the P2P market is already very large and continues to grow rapidly. How has Bondora managed to become the second largest provider in this sector? The answer is simple: simplicity!
Bondora is very easy to use. You don’t need any specialist knowledge, nor do you need to invest any time or energy. As soon as you deposit money into your Bondora account, your interest will be credited to your account – giving you passive income every day thanks to P2P!
This clearly sets them apart from most of their competitors in the industry:
| Bondora | Other P2P providers | |
| Lending | Selected by Bondora. | Selected by the investor |
| default risk | Already factored into the interest rate. | Can reduce your interest rates. |
| payout interval | Daily interest payments. | Interest is paid at the end of the loan term or at fixed intervals. |
| Liquidity | Money can be withdrawn at any time. | Payment only after repayment of loans or sale via the secondary market. |
| Interest | Maximum 6% | Very high interest rates possible – at Ventus Energy, for example, up to 24%. |
| Risk | Manageable, as Bondora has substantial reserves. | Default risk of individual loans + risk of bankruptcy of the P2P provider. |
Bondora has created its own niche with its offering: it presents itself as an alternative to instant access savings accounts and less as a direct competitor to Mintos, Debitum and the like.
The banks clearly have the advantage of significantly higher interest rates. In return, however, you have to make concessions in terms of security: your money is exposed to risks with Bondora. You can find out how big these risks are here:
Risks with Bondora
As an investor, you entrust your capital directly to Bondora. The P2P company uses your money to finance consumer loans for private individuals. In simple terms, this means the following:
- If Bondora is successful and profitable, your investment and interest are secure.
- If borrowers are unable to repay their lendings or do so late (e.g. due to an economic crisis), this results in waiting times or losses for the company.
- Bondora has sufficient reserves to compensate for such problems for a while.
- In extreme cases, payment defaults could exceed Bondora’s reserves.
- It could even lead to complete bankruptcy. Your capital would then be lost.
In my opinion, the risk of such a collapse is very low. Bondora has already experienced difficult times and has shown during the COVID crisis that it can manage such phases well.
For me, the high interest rates (compared to instant access accounts) and excellent availability are well worth the small risk.
Sign up and secure your bonus
Are you interested in joining Bondora and gaining your own experience? Nothing could be easier: registration only takes a few minutes.
You will need:
- Passport, identity card or residence permit.
- Smartphone with internet connection.
- Mobile phone number that can receive text messages.
- Email address.
- Bank account in the EU, Switzerland or the United Kingdom, which you can use to deposit money later (online banks such as Wise, Revolut, N26, etc. are not permitted).
Here’s how to proceed:
1. Enter data
First, click on my registration link to receive an additional €5 in capital at Bondora. You will be redirected to the registration page. There you will find the ‘Register’ button in the top right corner.
If you are using your mobile phone, you must first select the menu in the top right corner and then click on ‘Register’ at the bottom:
The next step is the same for all systems: you must enter an email address, your first and last name, and a phone number.
Once you have done this, you should confirm the privacy policy, terms of use and risk disclosure in the following window. The fourth box is for receiving advertising and does not need to be clicked. Once you have confirmed your selection, you are registered!
2. Complete your profile and confirm your identity
You are now on the Bondora overview page. However, your account has not yet been fully activated, as you still need to verify your identity.
If you have already reviewed P2P lending or online brokers such as Freedom24, you know the drill: the provider has to make sure that you are who you say you are!
The service provider Onfido is used for this purpose. In my experience, your identity is confirmed in a matter of seconds. In my case, this worked fully automatically, without any contact with a service representative.
Once this is done, you can make your first transfer from your bank account to Bondora. This will also verify your bank account and allow you to make withdrawals later.
As a final step, you will need to answer a few questions. The entire process takes about 5 minutes.
How the investment works: No further steps necessary!
The next step is particularly easy, because you don’t have to do anything at all. Your deposited money will start earning interest immediately. You will now receive interest every day – a total of 6% per year.
This puts Bondora in stark contrast to providers such as Ventus Energy or EstateGuru, where we have to carefully review and manually select individual loans.
You can find more information about these two P2P companies in my posts on Ventus Energy reviews.
Many investors appreciate this difference:
- Bondora is ideal for anyone who doesn’t want to worry about investment strategies, portfolio rebalancing and similar issues.
- But active investors with more experience can also benefit. Bondora plays an important role in my Northern Finance portfolio of over €370,000, for example!
My Bondora review: How I achieve a 6% return
Since Bondora does not offer any options to adjust settings or influence investments, my own portfolio is rather unspectacular: like every other user, I simply deposit money and receive interest.
However, I have been using Bondora for many years and was there from the start when you could still select loans manually. But I don’t really miss these options:
- At that time, P2P lending was comparable to the offerings of Swaper, Debitum and many other platforms.
- Since there are so many alternatives, the loss was not really painful.
- With Go & Grow, however, the company created a product that was unique at the time, thereby filling a major gap in the market.
- It is only in recent years that other providers, led by Monefit Smartsaver, have copied this business model.
One aspect I find lacking in the current offering: Back then, you could earn significantly higher interest rates with Bondora! With the manual investments offered by ‘Portfolio Manager’ and ‘Portfolio Pro,’ double-digit returns were possible.
The 6% currently available cannot compete with this. In return, however, we receive other advantages, in particular greater security and excellent liquidity.
Over the years, I have earned a total of €2,150 in interest, so Bondora has been very worthwhile for me! Currently, my account is ‘only’ worth around €3,300 because I have made some withdrawals. However, I will increase this amount again in the near future.
Taxes at Bondora
The core of Bondora’s business model is its extremely simple operation. This concept also applies to taxes: the provider does not deduct any taxes from your profits.
You must declare your income yourself in your tax return and, of course, know how much you have earned via the platform. This is done via a tax report:
- Log in to the web interface or the Bondora app and select ‘Account statements’ from the menu.
- In the following window, you can create a tax report.
- Enter the appropriate start and end dates (usually from 1 January to 31 December of a year) and click on ‘Create report’.
Pros and cons
Based on my extensive experience with Bondora Go & Grow, I can identify the following advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
- Highest liquidity: You can withdraw your money at any time! In my personal experience, the payout is often in your bank account within a few seconds.
- Good security: Compared to other P2P providers, Bondora is particularly crisis-proof. The company operates profitably and has substantial reserves that will enable it to weather even difficult times.
- Daily payouts: Your capital earns interest every day. This creates an additional snowball effect and your assets grow faster than with monthly payouts, for example.
- Easy to use: Bondora requires no specialist knowledge, previous experience, time or attention. Simply deposit money to start earning interest.
- Transparency: The company is applying for a banking licence. This entails, among other things, complete transparency regarding all business figures. As investors, we therefore have excellent insight!
- Alternative to call money: Instead of being just one of many very similar P2P platforms, it positions itself as a better-interest-bearing alternative to typical instant access savings accounts.
- Useful extras: In my review, customer service was quick and reliable. There is also a good English translation of all functions, a tax report and a practical app.
- No further deductions: There are no costs for investors, with the exception of a fee of €1 for payouts.
Disadvantages:
- Low interest rates for P2P lending: The interest rates of only 6% cannot compete with other P2P providers.
- Lack of diversification: Although Bondora grants loans in different countries, there is no real way to diversify your investment – you are completely dependent on one company.
- Interest rate cuts: Interest rates recently fell from 6.75% to just 6%. As the company is seeking a banking licence, further cuts are conceivable in the future.
- P2P risk: In my review, Bondora is one of the safest P2P providers, but a residual risk remains. Our interest rates depend on repayments from borrowers. In the event of a serious crisis, these could fail to materialise, resulting in high losses or complete collapse.
Alternatives to Bondora
Bondora focuses entirely on its Go & Grow offering with 6% interest and maximum availability. Typical P2P platforms such as CrowdedHero, Lande and Loanch pursue a completely different concept and are therefore not real competitors.
Only one P2P company currently offers a comparable product: Monefit Smartsaver! Both platforms offer quick access to your money and interest rates well above what you would get with a call money account.
Bondora is pursuing a slightly different strategy and wants to become an official bank with additional collateral. Monefit, on the other hand, is sticking to its previous approach:
- At Monefit, interest rates are an attractive 7.25% with daily payouts. Alternatively, you can increase this amount to up to 10.52% if you can do without your money for a longer period of time.
- You won’t find any additional security here. You have to trust the Creditstar Group behind the platform.
- In a direct comparison between Monefit and Bondora, both providers are fundamentally risky, flexible and offer average interest rates (for P2P lending). However, there are differences in the details.
- To minimise your risk, you could also register with both providers and split your capital.
Community reviews on Bondora
The interest rate cuts were not well received by many investors. The members of the Northern Finance Community are no exception! For many investors, the tipping point has been reached where Bondora is no longer worthwhile.
On the other hand, many welcome the changes and the steps towards greater security. These measures will enable Bondora to set itself apart from the competition and create or further expand its own attractive niche in the P2P market.
It therefore remains exciting to see how business will develop for the P2P giant in the future. In any case, I will be increasing my investment again.
Conclusion of my Bondora review: P2P pioneer breaking new ground
Among the many P2P platforms, Bondora is clearly unique: it has completely abandoned manual investments and now only offers ‘Go & Grow’. Although you receive less interest than with competitors at 6%, you get additional security and your money is available at any time.
This positions the P2P company as an attractive alternative to normal instant access savings accounts. However, it has less and less in common with its previous competitors such as Mintos, Ventus and Debitum. Monefit Smartsaver is currently the only other company offering a similar product on the European market.
If you are looking for a good alternative to instant access savings accounts – for example, to park your emergency fund – the P2P pioneer from Estonia could be just right for you!
However, Bondora is clearly not the right place for investors who want to grow their money with very high interest rates. In this case, I recommend taking a look at my P2P lending ranking. There you will find providers with significantly higher interest rates, but also greater risk.
FAQ – Frequently asked questions
