‘Hints’ category

Where’s Cliff?

Posted by Dave at 10:41 am

So, despite the slightly daft heat we’re experiencing in London at the moment, many people are about to jet off to (possibly cooler) climes for their summer holiday, and I thought a few holiday money savings tips might be in order.

The first site to link to is a blog post by Zopa member rparker - on how online travel firms price discriminate based on how consumers search for holidays - fascinating stuff, and very well spotted!

If you’re pretty open minded about where to go, and just want a good deal, you could do worse than check out Kayak Buzz - this website looks at what trips other people are searching for, and what prices they find then allows you to copy them! It’s a bit haphazard, but can be fun seeing what other people are planning.

If you’ve got a clear idea about where and when you want to travel, take a look at the ITA software trip planner - not exactly a household name in online travel, but absolutely the most comprehensive database of air fares in the world. You can’t actually book anything through the site, but it’ll give you all the details you need to book the tickets either through a travel agent, or more likely, the airline itself. Particularly useful is it’s month long search - give it a route, and it’ll tell you the cheapest flights in a month long period.

Wherever you go, and however you get there, this summer - we hope you have a great time…and (Obligatory Zopa connection coming up) don’t forget you can get a great rate on a Zopa loan to pay for it! Enjoy

Oh - and if you have any travel hints - leave them in the comments. Ta.

Posted in General, Hints | 1 Comment »

Fantastic members!

Posted by Dave at 1:01 pm

If you’re not a borrower at Zopa, there is a little feature that may have escaped your notice. We think it’s great, and what some of our members do with it is even better.

We let our borrowers leave a message for their lenders as part of their borrowing application. We thought people might like to say a little bit about what they were going to use the loan for, say ‘hello’ or just - ‘thanks.’ It turns out that a really surprising number of borrowers have used it, to leave all sorts of messages.

I thought I’d share a few of the most inspiring, touching and just downright lovely ones with a wider audience - thank you to these members for letting me do this. No need for more from me, I’ll let them speak for themselves:

matchsticks

“Hello. I am really looking forward to using the money to help others. I am expanding my business to include career services and coaching so that I can guide people more effectively through their chosen field of work. Can’t wait !!”

artylawyer

“I need the loan to consolidate debts. I bought a former home with a partner, who moved out. I took over the whole of the mortgage until the place could be sold and this (because it was a mortgage designed for two but paid for by one!) led to some debt (all of which will be covered by the loan). My ex partner has no claims on me now, of course - and my mortgage on my new flat is entirely manageable (as would be the repayments on the loan). I’m far from extravagent - I just picked the wrong person to buy a first home with!”

mrevell

“I plan to consolidate existing debt so that I’m in a better position to start a business with my wife, so we can have more time together and build a better life.”

jscales1

“I have 2 personal loans at present, one with a balance of about £15k that was taken out for my car - that will remain in place. The second is for £4k which was for a new kitchen - I had no plans to change this as it was at a very good rate. However, it is with Cahoot and the rate is going to jump from 5.8 to 8.5 as it apparently was a “promotional rate” - an outrageous leap which I find offensive. The second element for the loan is to repay my overdraft - this has risen to £2k as I bought my brother a holiday that he desperately needed after a hideous break -up from his wife - he went to visit my other brother in Singapore with his kids. He is a farmer, with little money and I think he needed the break.I have been fully employed for over 20 years, have never defaulted on a payment although I may have been late in sending the odd credit card payment.If you decide to lend me the money, you will be doing me a favour and giving a poke in the eye to Cahoot.”

And a final word from berlioz….

“Thanks for supporting the other side of a cool system.”

We’re going to develop this feature over the coming weeks to see what our members use it for - and hence this is also a request for some impromptu market research. Would you be interested in talking to other Zopa members? Would you like to talk to anyone, or just people that you’ve transacted with? How much privacy / anonymity would you need? Is the whole thing a waste of time, effort and caffeine?

Please give us your opinions (as provocative as you like) in the comments, or you can always mail me directly if you’d rather do that.

Ta.

Posted in New stuff, Lenders, Borrowers, Hints, Members | 7 Comments »

Digital Marketing - Affiliates

Posted by Richard Ireland at 2:33 pm

I’m responsible for Zopa’s digital marketing and, having joined from Egg recently, I’m faced with some very new and exciting challenges. Different scale, different approaches, and a very different working environment! So, apologies for not writing sooner, but we’ve been flat out trying to get in shape for our next burst of activity.

Since the blog went live (thanks Dave and everyone else involved) we have received quite a few requests or offers from people to become an affiliate of Zopa. That is to say, they carry advertising, and in some cases comment and opinion about the product, and refer people to us. In return, we pay a commission to them for those members they introduce that go on to become borrowing or lending members.

We are currently working with a few affiliate networks, and it is not something we do directly at this stage (though we do think we have some interesting things on the way with larger partners which I hope you’ll keep an eye out for). This way we get to work with, over time, hundreds of smaller sites that want to help promote the Zopa way of borrowing and lending, and they get rewarded for their efforts too. It is also a lot easier for everyone to manage the ads we provide, and making sure we are always showing the right ones everywhere. Which means we all win as more and more people hear about and start using the Zopa exchange more often.

If you’d like to join one of the networks, then you will need to join them as an affiliate if you’re not already. Try Online Media Group or Smart Quotes.

Posted in General, Hints, Sales and marketing | No Comments »

Zopa tips (pt 1)

Posted by Dave at 12:57 pm

Now, Zopa is a pretty simple idea to grasp (and hopefully a pretty simple site to use), but some people like things a little more complicated. Here are a few things you might not know about Zopa that can help you get more out of it - if you’re that way inclined. Which is just fine.

Firstly, you’ve probably seen the market screens when you sign in - where you can see important information about the Zopa markets. But you can also download two extra files - one is a weekly update of the markets, with more detailed information about demand and supply to help you price your loans better, and the second is a spreadsheet with transaction by transaction data on the markets that you can play with as much as you like.

Second up is a little tweak on the new My Lending screens you might not have spotted - if you click on the column headings you can sort the table by that column, click it again to sort the other way. Great for looking at how your lending offers stack up, or working out where your borrowers live. Go on, see what you can find out.

Lastly for now - lenders can click on the names of their borrowers to see more information about them. Where they live, how much they borrowed and for what. Also, many borrowers have picked pictures that represent their attitudes to money (and if you leave your pointer over the pictures for a second, you should see what the picture represents) and a message to you. This last feature is particularly amazing - many recent borrowers have chosen to leave a message to you, their lenders, and they’re worth a read.

Although these tips are more for lenders than borrowers, Zopa is great for everyone, and next time, I’ll be writing more about how to get the most out of Zopa if you’re more inclined to borrower rather than lend! OK…back to really important things, like the cricket!

Posted in Lenders, Hints | No Comments »