http://blog.zopa.com Zopa blog - updates, team, news, life and more. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:24:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It seems like hardly any time ago at all that we were blogging about being four, but it' that time of year again and we've hit half a decade! If Zopa were a person, we'd be off to school in September. Instead, we're busy not-quite-but-nearly winning Boldness in Business Awards ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2010/03/10/its-our-birthday/ Had a very grown up evening last night at the FT ArcelorMittal 'Boldness in Business' awards at the Tate Modern. We were up for the 'Most Promising Newcomer' award for the company that has broken through in the last 12 months and has the potential to grow into a ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2010/02/26/boldness-in-business-awards/ So a few days since the last update where it was all looking a bit gloomy on the GB medals front - no longer! Ok, so we may only have one medal - but it's a gold one. On Saturday Amy Williams took gold in the skeleton, beating British favourite Shelley ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2010/02/25/were-in-the-medals/ Day 6 of the Olympics and still not a sniff of a medal for Team GB – well it’s the taking part that matters, surely? The men’s curling team put in a more convincing performance yesterday with a fairly straightforward victory over France, while the women were defeated by Sweden. Still, ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2010/02/18/winter-olympics-day-6/ So, despite the hype, GB managed to lose 4-6 to Sweden in the curling last night. There was better news in the women’s snowboard cross, with Zoe Gillings finishing 8th, but as yet we’re yet to get on the medals table! The women’s curling team are in action this evening ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2010/02/17/winter-olympic-update/ The Winter Olympics opened at the weekend with a sombre tone, following the tragic death of Georgian luge contender Nodar Kumaritashvili. However, the show must go on and the games are well underway – and at the beginning of Day 4, no medals for Team GB just yet. Alpine skier Ed ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2010/02/16/zopas-winter-olympic-watch/ This Saturday, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games will begin in Vancouver. We’ll be behind Team GB all the way, with all the latest news and our special Zopa medal tally, so make sure you bookmark our blog for all the updates! Our most successful ever Winter Olympics was in Chamonix ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2010/02/11/winter-olympics-watch/ In January, we disbursed £3.81 million to our borrowers, making it our biggest month ever. We're pretty chuffed with this, so thanks to all our members for making it possible. And with our table-topping A* rates, we hope to have an even better February! http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2010/02/04/record-january/ A good review and discussion of P2P lending and the performance of various of the players in the global market here. Please do add your thoughts to Giles' comments on it too! http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2010/01/21/more-p2p-debate/ We spotted an interesting post here from Rajesh who was CTO of Zopa in the US and is an excellent technologist with a great understanding of the lending business. http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2010/01/20/ex-zopa-us-cto-blogs/ Our friends at P2P-Banking.com have posted an interesting review of P2P lending here and I thought I would give a personal opinion on the questions they ask: 1. Will there be more competition from new entrants in countries where there is a P2P lender and why isn’t there a competitor to Zopa ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2010/01/15/394/ Well, 2009 has certainly been a great year for Zopa and our members; collectively you've lent and borrowed more than £32m over the last 12 months - compare that to a total lent of £30m over the preceeding 44 months! Seems that our growth has been spotted elsewhere too. So we ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/12/29/what-a-year/ Yep, we got an early Christmas present this week when we found out that we’d been nominated for the Newcomer Award at the Boldness in Business Awards, which is run by the Financial Times and ArcelorMittal. The results will be announced in February, so we’ll be getting our gladrags on and ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/12/18/weve-been-nominated-for-an-award/ However good the APR looks on a loan, it's always worth checking what happens if you want to pay back your loan early. There's no point being saddled with debt longer than you need to be - but you can face a hefty fee if you repay before the term ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/12/03/zopas-jargon-buster-early-repayment-fees/ Instead of moaning about the banks, the bonuses and the profit margins, why not do something about it? Tom Hodgkinson, editor of Idler magazine, wrote this article in The Ecologist about the options if you want to take your business elsewhere. Let us know what you think! http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/12/03/teach-the-banks-a-lesson-pull-your-money-out/ November has already flown by and the countdown to Christmas is imminent. With less than month to go it seems the perfect time to discuss how we’ll all be getting our shopping sorted this year. I for one did decide to get everything done early however since I haven’t bought ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/11/26/29-shopping-days-left-until-christmas/ A Credit Reference Agency is an organisation that is licensed under the Consumer Credit Act to hold information about individuals that is available to lenders when an application for credit is made. When you apply for a loan, the company which you apply to with will buy a credit report ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/10/28/zopas-jargon-buster-credit-reference-agency/ Hot on the heels of websites such as Kiva, summer 2009 saw the launch of United Prosperity, where your donations can help people in the poorest parts of the world set up or improve their own businesses. Not only that, but you’ll get your money back at the end of ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/10/23/united-prosperity/ You'll see that something of a lively debate is taking place on this BBC blog. Earlier today I responded to earlier comments on the thread that mentioned Zopa, to say that a simple change to the tax laws would make Zopa lending a much stronger competitor to the banks. As I ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/10/21/add-your-voice-to-our-tax-campaign/ With the ongoing fall-out from MP’s expenses, these days it seems being mates with George Bush might be more fashionable than being popular in Westminster. But popular Zopa is. The body politic has not only noticed Zopa’s pioneering efforts in the ‘peer to peer space’ and the rapid growth it ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/10/19/fans-in-westminster/ This month, we're shamelessly stealing ideas from US savings website Smartypig and will be holding our very own competition on Twitter. We've got £25 worth of Vin Vino vouchers up for grabs, and you can win them with a single Tweet! At 11am on Friday 16th Oct, we'll be posing a ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/10/14/enter-our-twitter-competition/ It's our new guest blog spot! Every week or so, Zopa will be inviting a guest to write a blog for us. To get us started, Jasmine Birtles of Money Magpie shares her top tips to make a bit of cash on the side. As a Zopa lender myself I’m ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/09/22/five-fun-ways-to-make-money-on-the-side/ I met Tom Watson when he was a Cabinet Minister, as part of our lobbying efforts on the tax treatment of lenders’ losses and Zopa’s eligibility as an asset class for ISAs. He was an enthusiastic supporter and it’s great to see he still is in his blog on Friday. ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/08/24/tom-watsons-zopa-blog/ Little did I realise that when I posted my first entry on the Zopa blog (“Why the Banks need Zopa", August 7th) , I was firing the starting gun on the great Zopa v Banks debate... And it is already very interesting, entertaining and more than a little heated! In the ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/08/20/zopa-v-banks-the-debate-is-on/ 'Don't just howl with rage - try an idea that does away with banks altogether.' Well quite. The Guardian's Jonathan Freedland published this article about Zopa and the bonus culture today, saying 'If our leaders won't curb bankers' megabucks, an old progressive scheme updated for the web era could bypass their greed'. Have ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/08/19/try-an-idea-that-does-away-with-banks-altogether/ When you're looking for an unsecured loan, the term 'flexible loan' is one you will hear frequently. But be aware, because a flexible loan can mean that the APR you are offered is liable to change. Generally, if you are offered a flexible loan, it means it works a little ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/08/18/zopas-jargon-buster-flexible-loans/ As an external adviser who has worked closely with Zopa for many years now, this may seem an odd title for my first Blog on the site. But the events of this week serve to underline this fact more than ever before. As Barclays and HSBC post ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/08/07/why-the-banks-need-zopa/ A credit report is a report compiled on every person that contains detailed information on a person’s current and historic credit. This will include loans, mortgages, HP agreements, current accounts and credit cards, as well as some mail order accounts and mobile phone contracts. They show information such as the ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/08/06/zopas-jargon-buster-credit-report/ We're pleased as punch for a couple of reasons. Firstly, our lenders have hit a huge benchmark because they've now lent a total of £50m to Zopa borrowers since Zopa first launched! And secondly, that hefty figure has scored us a mention in yesterday's FT Alphaville Blog. The blog is ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/08/06/a-mention-in-the-ft-alphaville-blog/ That's right - yesterday we recruited our 300,000th Zopa member, which officially makes us bigger than Belfast! Not only that, but we are more populated than Plymouth, more whopping than Wolverhampton, more sizeable than Stoke on Trent, and heftier than Huddersfield! We've a way to go until we're larger than London ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/07/29/bigger-than-belfast/