http://blog.zopa.com Zopa blog - updates, team, news, life and more. Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:00:29 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Way back in December last year we told you about a film called UsNow that featured Zopa as one of several examples demonstrating the power of the internet to facilitate mass collaboration that can really change the way we do things and govern ourselves. We're were pleased that some of you ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/07/03/us-now-on-more4/ We've gone a bit potty this month - all this sun is definitely going to our heads. Not only are we offering any member that refers a friend who joins and successfully gets a loan during July £100, but we've also got a fab offer for the lucky borrower who ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/07/01/want-an-interest-free-loan/ Each week, we’ll be getting to the bottom of the real meaning of financial terms bandied about when you’re looking for a loan. It’s everything you ever needed to know but were too afraid to ask…and this week, we’re looking at APR. APR APR is short for Annual Percentage Rate and was ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/07/01/zopas-jargon-buster/ We stumbled across this post about us on a blog called Cyberpsychology last week. We got a pretty good write up, and particularly love they way they describe the website - 'bright colours, round bouncy writing – basically a website that you enjoy looking at'. Well we always thought so... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/06/30/cyberpsychology/ Summer holiday time is upon us and this year it’s all about the best of British. Now don’t assume that means sitting around on a dirty beach trying to get a sun tan in between the rain clouds, there are many more things to do on our little island than ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/06/18/summer-holidays/ Do you think you’re generally quite organised with your money, but can’t quite work out exactly where it all goes each month? Same here – even when we think we’re being frugal, the Starbucks habit really adds up. But never fear – there are online tools designed specifically to show you ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/06/16/budget-better-online/ No, apparently it doesn't mean the lull you get after lunch - or is that just us? Zopa feature in the recent article entitled Post-Consumerism: Emerging Needs and Market Opportunities - and they use us as one of their examples of a so called 'Collaborative Networked Business Model'. Apparently this mean ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/06/11/post-consumerism/ Ever wondered who came up with the idea of Zopa? Think on it no further, because this clip of Giles speaking at a recent event gives an insight into how Zopa was dreamed up, where the idea came from, as well as the general history of the company. http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/06/08/the-big-idea/ We clearly started a trend when we asked our members to make videos about us - now everyone is at it! Love Money have recently published this independent review about us on their website, and we're pretty pleased that we get their 'Love It' vote. Why not sign up and leave ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/06/04/love-money-love-us/ We recently ran a competition asking our members to make short videos about Zopa, and we had a fantastic response. Eagle eyed Zopanoids might have noticed that we've now put our winners on the homepage. There's one from a borrowing perspective, and one from the point of view of a ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/05/26/video-competition/ It's a sure sign that you're growing up when you get written about by publications such as The Economist, so we felt wise beyond our 4-and-a-bit years when we featured in one of their special reports last week. Here's what they said about us: 'Peer-to-peer lending platforms: These websites, through ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/05/20/the-economist/ Recently the nice folks from Communitae came to visit us, just prior to their launch of a peer-to-peer lending platform in Spain. We hope it was a useful trip for them, and we wish them the best of luck with the venture. Click here to see their video (for the ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/05/14/comunitae/ ‘In his student flat in Colchester, Jack Howe is staring intently into his computer screen. He is picking the team for Ebbsfleet United's FA Trophy Semi-Final match against Aldershot. Around the world 35,000 other fans are doing the same thing, because together, they own and manage the football club. If ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/05/11/zopas-film-debut/ You may have spotted that we were running a member competition over the last couple of months in which we asked our members to create a video explaining how Zopa works for a borrower or for a lender. We were dead impressed with the quality of the videos submitted; thanks to ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/05/08/vote-for-your-favourite/ The girls in the office were rather amused when our friends at Confused.com sent over this new piece of kit on 1st April - to compare your man against the market! It seems most of us scored a 'Close but not close enough!' (boo) while Jenny got a 'Must be love! ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/04/07/one-for-the-ladies/ Not an obvious coupling, I'll grant you. You may or may not know (depends on how much you liked Maths at school, I guess) that the Zopa logo is a Venn diagram, depicting the overlap between lenders' and borrowers' rates - the dark grey bit in the middle is the Zone ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/04/03/biscuits-and-venn-diagrams/ We were rather chuffed with this article that featured in this morning's FT: "A green shoot Which financial institution has just reported a 140 per cent rise in lending year on year? The answer is Zopa, the online "lending site" - never a bank - where the borrower and lender agree the ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/03/25/the-recovery-starts-here/ We had a phonecall this morning from one of our newest borrowers... One of our underwriters spoke to him last week to approve his loan and he rang her back just to say thanks for such a good service and that his money was in his bank account sooner than he ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/03/19/the-little-things-that-make-it-worthwhile/ Personally I've never found a decent use for the video camera on my mobile phone, but perhaps we've got just the thing... We're running a competition to find the two best video clips, one for borrowers and one for lenders, that explain how Zopa works nice and simply. To be in with ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/03/13/wanna-win-%c2%a3500/ There's a few sore heads in the office this morning after our 4th birthday party last night, which was a great success if we do say so ourselves! Thanks to everyone who came along for a natter - it was great to put some faces to names. We fully intended to ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/03/06/were-4/ This was sent in by our co-founder James' Dad and featured in an edition of Punch Magazine more than 50 years old: Q: What are banks for? A: To make money. Q: For the customers? A: For the banks. Q: Why doesn't bank advertising mention this? A: It would not be ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/02/25/punch-magazine-3rd-april-1957/ A few of us attended last night's WeB@nk event held by NESTA - and it was great to see a few of you guys there too! I shan't summarise the evening, as it's been rather well done for me by our old colleague, Simon D-J in his blog and indeed ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/01/22/webnk/ The majority of the UK's high street banks recently announced that the days of single premium PPI are numbered - until the end of the month, in fact. Having withdrawn our PPI offer several months ago and with plenty of comment from us in this blog and to other bodies, our ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/01/21/banks-vow-to-end-sales-of-ppi/ Doesn't time fly when you're having fun? Well our colleagues over in Italy have definitely been enjoying themselves as they celebrated their first birthday on Friday. In just one year, they've disbursed 4.3m Euros to become the third largest peer-to-peer lender in Europe (after Zopa UK and Smava in Germany). A very Happy ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/01/20/zopa-italy-is-1/ Oh yes indeedy! Yet more on-screen attention for Zopa, but this time focusing on two of our members, Ruby and Rob, and how they've helped each other out. Thanks to them both for taking the time to do this, we really appreciate it and so did all those watching by the ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2009/01/16/five-news/ Hot on the trail of our recent feature in the UsNow film hosted by Nesta, Zopa will again be featuring in a forthcoming event at the Nesta HQ on 21st January 2009. It's entitled WeB@nk. We and other participants in this presentation and discussion will be asking "whether the democratic and ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2008/12/22/join-the-discussion/ The sound of jingling bells is in the air and all of a sudden I'm feeling really rather festive. This got me thinking about those noises that just make you think of something nice. For example, I was cycling over some wobbly paving stones last night and the noise they made as ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2008/12/19/nice-noises/ "In a world in which information is like air, what happens to power?" That's the opening gambit for a new film, entitled Us Now, about the power of mass collaboration, government and the internet in which Zopa has featured along with others such as SlicethePie, Ebbsfleet United and Couch Surfing. The film ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2008/12/05/come-and-see/ It can be hard to get people to talk about their financial affairs, so I really didn't expect quite so much noise when I rummaged around Twitter recently. Loads of people seem to be nattering about us - come and join in too to follow our regular updates. Even better, I found ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2008/12/04/the-sound-of-twittering/ Given there’s been plenty happening recently in the world of P2P finance in the US, including our withdrawal from the US market for the moment, I thought I would share a few thoughts. We always took the view that the SEC would likely view our platform, as operated in the UK ... http://blog.zopa.com/archives/2008/11/28/the-tricky-world-of-us-regulation/