PeerBerry Review Summary
PeerBerry is one of the most reliable P2P lending platforms, offering annual interest rates of up to 11%. It features auto-investment options and a 60-day buyback guarantee. We've been investing with PeerBerry since 2018, and our experience has been outstanding.
Here are the main takeaways from our PeerBerry review:
- High yield of up to 11% p.a.
- Responsive support that answers all of your questions
- Lower availability of loans due to high demand from investors
- Publicly available statistics, including financial reports
- Reliable buyback and group guarantees
Are you still not convinced? Well, how about we tell you that you can get a 0.5% PeerBerry bonus?
Our readers will get a bonus calculated from the average investment amount during the first 90 days of registration. The PeerBerry referral code will be automatically added if you sign up using our exclusive partner link.
Ready to let your money work for you?
What is PeerBerry?
PeerBerry is one of Europe's most popular P2P lending sites. Since 2017, over 90,000 users have earned over €36M in interest with no capital loss. Investors can invest in short-term loans, protected by a buyback guarantee, with interest of up to 11% per year.
Is PeerBerry a good fit for you? Read our PeerBerry review to find out!
Pros
- Reliable buyback and group guarantee
- Attractive interest rates
- Well-developed P2P lending platform
- One of the safest P2P lending sites in Europe
- Good security features
Cons
- No secondary market
- Occasional cash drag
Are you wondering how PeerBerry works? Watch our PeerBerry review and learn about our experiences with PeerBerry.
PeerBerry remains an excellent choice even in month year. Note, however, that due to the platform's popularity, the loan availability is limited, which is why some investors use suitable PeerBerry alternatives to invest their money.
While investing on PeerBerry is still lucrative, it's not as passive as in 2021. Later in this PeerBerry review, we cover some possible strategies that allow you to invest even in year.
Our Opinion Of PeerBerry
We’ve been investing with PeerBerry since 2018, giving us six years of hands-on experience. In our opinion, PeerBerry stands out as the best P2P lending platform for European investors. It has weathered numerous challenges without any capital loss for its investors.
Even during the conflict in Ukraine, which delayed some loan repayments, we stayed invested. Most of the war-affected loans have already been repaid, and PeerBerry expects to clear all remaining loans by the end of 2024.
What really sets PeerBerry apart is its success in recovering war-affected loans. Competing platforms like Twino, Debitum, and Mintos have struggled to recover debts from Russia and Ukraine, despite boasting about their “high-level risk management.”
Investing and withdrawing funds on PeerBerry has always been a smooth process, making it one of our favorite P2P platforms. With rates up to 10.5% annually, PeerBerry remains highly competitive. Our current portfolio includes exposure to countries like Ukraine, Romania, the Czech Republic, Spain, Mexico, Lithuania, and South Africa.
During our visit to PeerBerry’s office in Vilnius, we met the team and got an inside look at their tools for monitoring loan performance. PeerBerry has real-time access to the loan portfolios of Aventus Group companies and all the key performance indicators (KPIs).
No other P2P marketplace offers this level of transparency—PeerBerry’s data access provides a clearer picture of how your investments are performing.
We also maintain regular communication with the CEO, which helps us adjust our portfolio allocation based on the latest developments in the industry.
PeerBerry has consistently shown that protecting investors' funds is their top priority.
The only drawback? Loan availability is sometimes limited, so you may need to invest manually as soon as new loans hit the primary market. The demand is high, which means auto-investing tools might not always perform as expected.
At the time of writing, we have over €31,000 invested on the platform. If you’re curious how our PeerBerry stake compares to other platforms, check out our full P2P portfolio.
PeerBerry Bonus
Before we get into the in-depth PeerBerry review, let's examine some of the bonuses investors can receive.
Many P2P lending platforms offer you sign-up bonuses and referral codes. PeerBerry is also offering an exclusive reward for new and loyal investors.
PeerBerry Bonus for New Investors
Use our referral code for PeerBerry and get a 0.5% PeerBerry bonus for all your investments during the first three months after registration.
Note that you need to invest money to receive your PeerBerry bonus. This offer is only valid if you sign up on PeerBerry using our referral link.
⭐ PeerBerry Loyalty Bonus
There are three different levels of loyalty bonuses:
- Silver: This is for portfolios over €10,000, and you'll receive a 0.5% bonus
- Gold: This is for portfolios over €25,000, and you'll get a 0.75% bonus
- Platinum: This is for portfolios over €40,000, and you'll get a 1% bonus
To obtain the above rewards, sign up for PeerBerry and start investing!
The platform will only add this PeerBerry bonus to your active investments if your portfolio size meets the bonus criteria.
Ready to get your PeerBerry bonus?
Requirements
PeerBerry is one of our favorite P2P lending platforms since it's so easy to get started.
However, there are some requirements you must meet to invest in this platform.
- Be over 18 years old
- Have a European bank account in your name
- Your country of residence cannot be listed on the FATF list
Although you can deposit your money in any currency, we suggest transferring your funds in Euros to avoid potential currency exchange fees.
If you don't have a bank account, we suggest opening a free Wise account, which is further explained in our Wise card review. Alternatively, you can also read the N26 review to learn how to use the N26 bank to transfer funds to PeerBerry.
Transferring money to your PeerBerry takes less than three business days.
🧾Does PeerBerry deduct taxes?
PeerBerry doesn't withhold taxes from your earnings. In your dashboard, you can download tax statements, which you can submit to your tax authorities when you file your taxes in the country where you are a tax resident.
Risk & Return
As mentioned, PeerBerry is an excellent P2P lending platform for investors who prefer investing in high-yielding short-term loans.
As you might know, short-term investments are often perceived as riskier than long-term investments.
When investing on PeerBerry or any other P2P platform that lists short-term loans, you're investing in unsecured consumer loans.
Those loans have already been issued, so you are financing pre-funded loans.
Most P2P lending platforms don't advertise this aspect of P2P lending since those loans offer a buyback guarantee, meaning you don't need to deal with defaulted loans as they get repurchased by the loan originator.
Buyback Guarantee
PeerBerry is also one of the P2P lending platforms offering a buyback guarantee for loans delayed by more than 60 days.
In this scenario, the loan originator you've invested in would buy back the claim against the borrower. This dramatically lowers the risk of this P2P platform and means you don't have to deal with debt collection.
Watch our visit to PeerBerry's HQ in Vilnius to get exclusive insights into the platform's operations:
Late Payments
If the borrower is late with its payments, the lending company will return your investments, so you will not lose anything.
The best part about PeerBerry's buyback guarantee is that the loan originator also pays back the interest on the delayed loan.
The buyback guarantee protects you from the borrower's default.
Remember that the buyback guarantee is not the ultimate protection. Note, however, that during "black swan" events such as the war in Ukraine, loan originators cannot honor the buyback guarantee. In this scenario, PeerBerry deployed the group guarantee to cover the loan repayments. Keep reading our PeerBerry review to learn more about it.
Are you wondering how PeerBerry compares to Mintos? Check out our latest comparison PeerBerry vs Mintos.
In PeerBerry's history, none of the investors have lost money. This is mainly because PeerBerry's loan originators have never funded more than 45% of their loan books via P2P lending. Therefore, the loan originators can cover any potential buyback guarantees.
PeerBerry's business partners always have 10% of the listed portfolio on PeerBerry in cash to facilitate buyback guarantees and settle with investors.
Additional Guarantee (Group Guarantee)
PeerBerry offers an additional guarantee by the parent companies of the loan originators. Most originators offer loans in different countries, although it's worth noting that two large investment groups own them.
Most loan originators on PeerBerry are operated by - Aventus Group and Gofingo.
While the loan originators work as independent entities, the additional guarantee claims that the parent company will step in and repurchase your claims t if the loan originator cannot cover the buyback guarantee.
In our latest P2P talk with the CEO of Aventus Group, Andrejus Trofimovas, we learned that the Aventus Group is operating very sustainably, allowing it to grow its market shares and fulfill any obligations towards investors.
War-Affected-Loans
The group guarantee has been deployed to cover lenders' obligations towards investors who invested in war-affected countries. Due to the war in Ukraine and Russia, companies cannot send money outside those countries.
Other companies that operate under the Gofingo or Aventus Group trademark now cover the obligations towards investors who invested in loans from war-affected countries.
As of month year, PeerBerry's lending partners have already repaid 98.6% of the war-affected loans to investors.
Repayment System
As the war started, PeerBerry's partners first repaid the loans according to the loan schedule (oldest loans). The repayment schedule changed later as the platform began repaying all the loans in equal shares. All investors are getting a fraction of their war-affected loans back every month.
Therefore, it may happen that you didn't see the exact percentage of repaid loans in your portfolio, as PeerBerry claims on its website.
Please pay attention to the latest developments surrounding the funds from Ukraine and Russia in our news section.
Loan Originators
As mentioned above, PeerBerry collaborates with two large finance groups, Gofingo and Aventus Group, and two smaller lenders, Lithome and SIB Group. In total, you can invest in loans from 24 loan originators.
On PeerBerry's website, you will find more information about every loan originator. You can access the size of their loan portfolio, the total amount of funded loans, and information about the buyback guarantee and interest together with the financial report.
PeerBerry has also recently added information about delayed loans from individual lenders. You can now see which loan originator has the most delayed loans on PeerBerry. It's worth mentioning that the average percentage of delayed loans is between 15% and 20%, which is considerably low compared to other market players.
This is how the loan status typically looks during normal market conditions. However, any force majeure event might delay your loans.
Country Risk
When investing in lenders from various countries, you could prioritize those from regulated markets. PeerBerry is very transparent when sharing additional data about the regulatory environment in individual markets.
Remember that all PeerBerry lenders must follow local laws and regulations. The country's exposure to PeerBerry's loans can vary depending on market conditions.
We propose setting up multiple auto-invest portfolios or investing manually to control your diversification settings. If you want an equally diversified portfolio, that's the only way to achieve it.
The loan availability of specific lenders varies as PeerBerry decreases the exposure of loans issued by start-ups in developing countries.
If you suffer from cash drag, we suggest reviewing our Crowdpear review to learn more about another crowdfunding platform operated by PeerBerry's team.
When investing in loans in emerging markets, it's essential to remember that PeerBerry uses an indirect investment structure to protect investors from force majeure events. This means that before the money is sent to the loan originator, it has to go through an intermediary company.
This graph shows how the money is transferred to the borrowers. Remember that your investment's safety relies on the loan book's performance.
Is PeerBerry Safe?
Based on PeerBerry's seven-year track record in the industry and zero capital loss, many investors would agree that the platform is one of the safest options in the P2P lending industry.
The safety of your investments is further ensured by the sustainable lending practices of the companies you invest in.
We have also investigated the management behind the platform, reviewed their financial reports, and read all the terms and conditions.
Who Leads The Platform?
Arunas Lekavicius is the CEO of PeerBerry and is also responsible for its business decisions. Before Arunas joined PeerBerry, he was the Head of Leasing at the Lithuanian lender 4finance.
PeerBerry's team consists of 10 employees, while many tasks connected to IT and accounting are being outsourced.
Who Is The Owner Of The Platform?
PeerBerry is owned by three investors Andrejus Trofimovas (50%), Ivan Butov (25%), and Vytautas Olšauskas (25%)
Are There Any Suspicious Terms and Conditions?
Let's see whether we can spot some unusual clauses.
Clause 2.3 - Currency Risk
PeerBerry doesn't offer a multi-currency solution. All of the investments are made in euros.
Even though the loan originator's loans often originate in other currencies, you, as an investor, are not exposed to any currency risk.
The loan originator earns enough interest to cover potential currency fluctuation. From our talks with the CEO of PeerBerry, we learned that their business partners don't hedge against currency risk (volatility). They do consider it and adjust their cash buffer accordingly.
Clause 4.6 - Security of Your Funds
All your funds are stored in a separate bank account of Peerberry d.o.o - the operator of PeerBerry.com.
The separation of funds is a standard procedure in the P2P lending industry. To increase the safety of investors' funds, we would certainly appreciate it if PeerBerry introduced individual IBAN accounts.
Clause 7.7 - Liability
As with every P2P investment, the P2P lending platform isn't reliable for any losses if the borrower doesn't fulfill its obligations. PeerBerry's business partners are earnest about protecting your money.
Suppose the borrower is late with its payment for more than 60 days. In that case, the loan originator is responsible for repurchasing the claim from you and returning the outstanding interest and loan principal to your account.
Do Investors Have Access To Individual Assignment Agreements?
Investors can view individual assignment agreements with more details about their claims under "My Investments." Before investing in loans, you can manually review the assignment agreement.
Click the PDF icon next to the LOAN ID to download the file.
Potential Red Flags
We are unaware of potential red flags. PeerBerry remains the most trustworthy company in the P2P lending industry.
Usability
PeerBerry is made for all types of P2P investors, so whether you're just starting with P2P lending or looking for new platforms to help you lower the risk, we'd recommend you seriously consider PeerBerry.
PeerBerry's dashboard is very intuitive, and you can reach all the essential sections of the website within just a few clicks.
With their Auto Invest feature, you can view your investments, export transactions for your tax statements, and automate your investment strategy.
PeerBerry Auto Invest
The auto invest feature on PeerBerry allows you to set up essential variables such as portfolio size, maximum investment per loan, interest rate, loan period, status, countries, and loan originators. You can also reinvest all your returns.
We suggest not excluding loan originators, as loan availability changes constantly. Restricting your Auto Invest settings may result in uninvested money in your account.
PeerBerry Auto Invest Not Working? Here’s What to Do
If your PeerBerry Auto Invest isn’t working, start by reviewing your Auto Invest settings and the number of loans that fit your criteria.
If your funds aren’t being invested automatically, we recommend enabling notifications on the PeerBerry app and manually investing as soon as new loans are listed. Due to the high demand for short-term loans, the Auto Invest feature may struggle to allocate all available loans evenly among investors.
Investors with a higher loyalty tier generally get priority over those with smaller portfolios. To increase your chances of getting funds invested, consider manually investing in newly listed loans on business days between 7:30 and 9:00 AM CET. Keep in mind that 65% of the loan supply is reserved for Auto Invest, while the remaining 35% is available on the Primary Market for manual investing.
While loyal investors with larger portfolios have some priority, it doesn’t guarantee that the supply of loans will meet the demand, regardless of your loyalty tier.
After testing multiple Auto Invest strategies over the years, we haven’t found any significant impact on our investment performance. You can tweak your Auto Invest by interest rate or loan period, but don’t expect other settings to drastically improve your returns.
As of month year, we recommend investing manually as the loan availability is lower due to the high demand from investors. Watch the following short video to learn about our current investment strategy for PeerBerry in month year.
PeerBerry Auto Invest Plan
PeerBerry also offers a feature that will help you diversify your portfolio with just one click.
The main differences between individual strategies are the investment term and the loan type.
Remember that those strategies won't diversify your portfolio equally. We recommend setting up individual auto-invest portfolios or investing manually if you want to control your exposure to specific lenders or countries.
PeerBerry App
PeerBerry is also available as a mobile App.
The PeerBerry app allows you to review your portfolio quickly. You can view your available funds, invested funds, paid interest, and annualized net return.
An excellent app feature is a daily interest repayments chart.
Under the "Investments" section, you can also get an overview of your portfolio, now segmented into loan originators and types. The PeerBerry app also comes in dark mode. To be updated about your portfolio performance, we recommend turning on all notifications.
Do you enjoy this review? Invite us for a coffee ☕
Liquidity
While PeerBerry continues to expand its loan offerings for better portfolio diversification, its primary focus remains on short-term loans. These loans provide enhanced liquidity, which proved invaluable during the March 2020 COVID-19 panic when many investors withdrew their funds.
PeerBerry stood out by ensuring no loan delays, with all funds returned to investors within the typical 30-day loan period.
However, if you're seeking instant withdrawals, PeerBerry doesn’t offer that option. There is currently no secondary market, and it’s unlikely one will be introduced due to potential tax complications for investors in different countries.
Are you wondering how PeerBerry compares to Esketit? Check out our guide Esketit vs PeerBerry.
Support
We believe having a dedicated support team is crucial when trusting a P2P lending platform with your money. It’s important to know that your funds are protected and that you can rely on the platform when needed.
In our experience, PeerBerry’s support has been consistently responsive. You can also check out reviews on Trustpilot or Reddit, where hundreds of other investors share positive feedback about the platform.
The best way to reach their support team is by emailing info@peerberry.com. Most of our inquiries have been answered within a day—something that can't be said for some other platforms.
It's a smart idea to test customer support on any P2P platform before committing to it as an investor. Make sure they can handle your requests before you entrust them with your money.
Compared with even the biggest European P2P platforms like Bondora, PeerBerry's support is exceptional.
PeerBerry Alternatives
While PeerBerry is one of Europe's most reliable P2P lending platforms, the loan availability in month year is low. This means that it can be challenging to keep your money invested. Uninvested funds don't generate any interest, so you might want to consider some alternatives instead.
Esketit
Esketit is one of the best alternatives to PeerBerry. The platform has an excellent track record, no funds in recovery, and an instant exit option, which increases your liquidity. You can expect to earn between 12% and 13% interest on Esketit, slightly higher than on PeerBerry.
The platform is straightforward, making it suitable for beginners and more experienced investors. Learn more about how Esketit works in our Esketit review.
Income Marketplace
Income Marketplace offers investments of up to 15% annual interest. The platform isn't as well developed as PeerBerry, but the loan availability is higher, meaning you won't suffer much cash drag.
A buyback guarantee covers your investments on the Income Marketplace, and specific lenders even pledge their loan book as collateral. Learn more about how you can earn income in our Income Marketplace review.
Fintown
If you are looking for a suitable alternative platform that generates similar interest as PeerBerry, Fintown might be a good fit. The yield you earn is generated from rental properties from short-term rental units in the city center of Prague.
So, instead of funding payday loans in Asia or Africa, your money is used to finance rental properties in Europe. Learn more about this platform in our Fintown review.
