Swaper Review

Swaper Review

Swaper is an Estonian Peer to Peer (P2P) lending platform that lists pre-funded unsecured consumer loans originated by the Wandoo Finance Group, which is the parent company of Swaper. Swaper offers a 30-day buyback guarantee as well as an Auto Invest feature. The downside of this platform is, however, the small availability of loans.
Find out more about whether this is the P2P lending platform for you in our Swaper review.

Swaper in Numbers

Let’s dive right in and have a look at Swaper’s statistics. Fortunately, Swaper gives you the option to view relevant statistics right on their website. You, therefore, don’t need to trawl the internet to find basic information about the total loan value as well as earned interest.

Unfortunately, the only publicly available financial statement related to Swaper was the 2017 financial report of the Wandoo Finance Group. Swaper itself does not publicly share financial reports with their investors.

As an investor you want to invest on platforms that are transparent with their data. At the end of the day they manage your investments and you have the right to know how they operate.

Swaper’s New User Requirements

In order to sign up on Swaper you need to be over 18 years old and reside within the European Economic Area. You also need to have a bank account from the country of your residence that is listed in your name. You can also open a business account with Swaper if that’s something that interests you.

In order to verify your account with Swaper, you need to upload a copy of your passport or ID as well as a utility bill or bank statement with proof of your address. The verification process with Swaper is very fast: we received all notifications via email and it didn’t take us more than one day to be verified.

Transferring money to Swaper is equally quick and easy; it only took us one day to transfer our money from our N26 bank account using a SEPA transfer.

Risk and Return

When investing in P2P lending you should be aware of the risks that come with it. Swaper has a very similar business model to Bondora and Fellow Finance. Both platforms list their own loans on the marketplace rather than working with other loan originators. The main way that Swaper differs from Bondora and Fellow Finance is that it offers a buyback guarantee.

Swaper’s Buyback Guarantee

In cases where the borrower is late for their loan repayment by more than 30 days, the loan originator (Swaper) will repurchase the claim that you (the investor) has with the borrower. This includes the invested principal and accrued interest.

Swaper’s buyback guarantee is basically the same protection scheme that Robocash offers, which follows the same business model but offers loans from different countries.

Usability

In terms of usability, Swaper did a great job. The platform is aesthetically pleasing, with a modern look and all the basic features you’d expect. The navigation is very intuitive and you can find everything you need within just a few clicks.

The sign-up process is fairly easy when compared to competitor platforms like Crowdestate or Fellow Finance, where you need to provide a full financial overview before being accepted as an investor.

Auto Invest

Swaper, similarly to many other P2P lending platforms, gives you the opportunity to automate your investments. Setting up your Swaper Auto Invest feature takes no more than one minute. You can choose the following diversification options:

• Portfolio size
• Investment period
• Interest
• Investment amount per loan
• Minimum account balance
• Countries (Poland, Georgia, Denmark, Spain, Russia)
• Loan characteristics

You can also choose whether to reinvest your returns. After you have defined your preferences, simply save your settings and let Swaper do the rest.

Swaper App

If you prefer to use native apps for Android and iOS, you can download the Swaper mobile app and manage your investments from anywhere. Swaper and Twino are two of the only P2P lending platforms that offer an intuitive mobile app for their investors.

Liquidity Rates

When it comes to P2P lending, many investors aim for the highest returns on platforms and end up choosing the likes of Crowdestorand Monethera, where you can earn up to 20% in interest each year. Many investors, however, don’t take into account the liquidity rates of these platforms. High yield investments are usually not known for high liquidity.

Secondary Market

Swaper makes withdrawing your money easy. You can simply sell your investments on the secondary market if you wish to withdraw your money before the end of the loan period. Note, however, that trading on the secondary market isn’t something that you should be practiced on a regular basis as often you’ll be selling your claims for a discounted price.

Swaper's Customer Support

Swaper’s customer support is very responsive. When we contacted the team, they got back to us within one hour.

The best way to contact Swaper’s customer support team is via the live chat on their website browser or by sending them an email on info@swaper.com. If you prefer to chat over the phone, give them a call from Monday through to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm.

Swaper vs. Mintos

Swaper is most often compared to Mintos, however, when we look at the details, it becomes clear that the platforms are fundamentally quite different.

• With over 220,000 active users, Mintos is one of the largest P2P lending platforms in Europe.
• The Mintos buyback guarantee doesn’t often cover the loss of accrued interests and it doesn’t get activated before the loan repayment is delayed for more than 60 days.
• Mintos also lists loans from over 60 loan originators compared to Swaper which originates its own loans.

See the below table to compare the main differences between Swaper and Mintos:

While you can compare certain key differentiators, at the end of the day it comes down to two metrics: the availability and yield for the currently listed loans.

The historical average interest doesn’t mean anything as the supply of new loans as well as their interest varies regularly.

Swaper Review Summary

Our Swaper review should give you a good idea whether Swaper is the right P2P lending platform for you. Here is a brief summary of important points, that you should be aware when investing on Swaper.

Ease of Use

Overall, we really enjoy using Swaper. The platform is very easy to use, especially when compared with Fellow Finance or Mintos, and it won’t take you long to become familiar with the features.

Cash Drag

There is, however, one major downside - cash drag. Similar to many other P2P lending platforms, Swaper suffers from cash drag. At the moment, the only platform we haven’t experienced cash drag on is PeerBerry.

If there aren’t enough available loans that match your investment criteria, your money will remain uninvested on your Swaper account. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do about this other than wait or invest elsewhere.

At the time we created this Swaper review, there were no loans available, meaning you’re unable to invest on the platform. We hope that the cash drag problems will be resolved soon, and if they are then we’ll be sure to update this review.

High Yields

Swaper is one of the leading P2P lending platforms when it comes to generating the highest yields for short term loans. This is especially true when you receive an additional loyalty bonus of 2% and it’s the reason why the average portfolio size of most Swaper is above €5,000.

Does Swaper sound like your kind of platform?