I first heard about Mintos.com peer to peer lending platform at the start of 2016, later that year I decided to give it a try, as I was looking for investment opportunities especially in Georgia.
Back at these days Mintos operated already in Georgian lending market. I even made an article later that year, see: Invest in Georgia - Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending - Mintos.com
Both individuals and entities can invest through Mintos. Individual investors must be at least 18 years old, have a bank account in the European Union or third countries currently considered to have AML/CFT systems equivalent to the EU, and have their identity successfully verified by Mintos. At the moment, US citizens or taxpayers cannot register as investors at Mintos.
Affiliate link here: Signup to Mintos.com here. By using this affiliate link for registration both you and I will receive — 1% of our average daily balance which should be paid in 3 installments for the first 90 days.
Unfortunately, or for good, it took me some 8 more months before actually starting investing in peer to peer using their platform. The kick start was kind of New Year's resolution to invest money wisely for the next 29 years, or until I will turn 60 and to retire with a million dollars in bank account. see: Road To Million Dollars in Saving Account
Now, after financially successful year of 2016 I just returned to ideas I had thought in past, and yes, Mintos was still a top of them. My overall goal for 2017 is to invest about $8,561 throughout the year in several batches. Not mandatory all money I'm looking to invest in Mintos, I'm still looking on other types of investment - kind of stocks and mutual funds. But some amount will go to Mintos this year for sure.
At start I wanted to deposit USD 966.00 in January, but as I have been located in Georgia, for such bank transfer and money exchange, in bank commissions I would loose about EUR 65 for 1000 EUR. Which is not nice. I contacted Mintos help desk, and got advice to use transferwise system to save some money on international transfers. Unfortunately it turned out Georgia is not supported by transferwise (you can receive, but not send money from Georgia).
For the second I thought - It would be really hard and expensive for me to invest in Mintos from Georgia, with Georgian bank account (see: Opening Bank Account in Georgia - Bank of Georgia), but then I remembered I've seen an article about Opportunities to invest in Georgian lari on the Mintos marketplace, transferring funds within Georgia and saving on costly international transfers:
...investors will have the opportunity to invest in loans denominated in Georgian lari (GEL) on the Mintos marketplace. The loan originator Creamfinance is offering investment opportunities in Georgian lari.
...
By facilitating investments in multiple currencies, Mintos is helping investors and loan originators eliminate one of the most significant financial risks – currency risk.
I contacted help desk again and wandered could I probably split my initial payment into two parts, like fund half of my account here in Georgia (avoiding international bank transfer fees) and transfer second part to Latvia (Mintos Head Office and bank account is located there)
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I noticed you have started to issue loans in GEL, and I could transfer fund to Liberty bank here in Tbilisi but again, as I understand that money will be in GEL and just for Georgian loans. Which, in fact, is perfectly fine for me,as I'm mostly interested in Georgian market, just I'm concerned about currency (in this case GEL) fluctuations against both USD and EUR (as a passive investor in past I have lost more than 20% of my assets in GEL).
As I'm just looking to give it a try for Mintos and peer to peer lending I decided to split my initial USD 1000 investment into two parts, half I will transfer to Liberty bank in GEL here in Georgia, and the second part I will transfer to Latvia using wire transfer in EUR to give it a try for Baltic market.
Is that correct or I'm not getting something?
I sent this question on Friday evening just shortly after 6:00PM, and had to wait until Monday morning for the reply, but it was worth of waiting, as I was told, that I can transfer all funds in Goergian lari (GEL) here in Georgia, and it can be exchanged on Mintos Marketplace for market price without additional fee:
Actually we could offer you a different and a cheaper way, how to do it. You can transfer funds in GEL to our account in GEL currency and then we can exchange funds to any other currency, which is supported in our platform. Conversion rate usually is mid-market rate and we don't deduct any fees for the exchange. This means that you will be able to invest in several currencies.
Sounds good.
Anyhow, I still decided to play safe and decided to transfer to my Mintos account using Georgian bank just half of the amount I initially planned to make sure there is no catch or something. Get some overview. I still had to exchange USD to GEL (which in fact I don't love to do) for USD 500 I got GEL 1,317 (as on January 23) and transferred GEL 1300 to my Mintos account using Liberty bank. I hope money to arrive soon on my Mintos account and I will have a chance actually to start investing in Georgian loans soon. Anyway I'm still looking to add additional USD 500 to my account this month or next month, to complete my goal of investing 29% of my income I made in 2014 (It's actually USD 966.00)
I will keep updated about how it goes after around month. For now I have invested USD 500 or 0.05% from my goal - 1 million dollars.
How about you? Are you investing in peer to peer? Can you leave your thoughts? Readers and me would love to hear.