Two review types
Every review on this site rests on an account opened on the platform. A deployed review also has the author’s own money on the platform, and an analytical review has none. 8 of the 21 reviews are deployed. Both types are scored the same way, so the type tells you how much of the evidence comes from the author’s own money, not how good the platform is.
Research and an account on the platform, without the author's own money.
- Due diligence — ownership, regulation, financial statements, loan originators and past events.
- Account test — sign-up, verification, the deposit flow, the dashboard and the app.
- Documents — terms, fees, buyback obligations and originator disclosures.
- Scoring — every dimension scored on the evidence above.
An analytical review plus the author's own money on the platform.
- Everything from the analytical review above
- Own money — invested and tracked in the author's own account.
- Recorded events — withdrawals, secondary-market sales, defaults and support contacts are recorded with their dates and count in the scores. Where none has happened, the review says so.
Rating dimensions
Each platform is scored from 1 to 5 on four dimensions. Safety weighs most, because a loss of capital outweighs any difference in yield.
Returns
What investors actually kept, measured as the median net return of real investor portfolios on P2P Dash, a portfolio tracker, excluding cashback, over the last full year and the current year. 1 at 0% or less, 5 at 15% or more. Fees count here. Where losses haven't reached balances yet, realised results are used, and a score resting only on the platform's own figures sits half a point lower.
Safety
Regulation, financials, business model, loan originators and their concentration, contract terms, and how past crises were handled. A track record counts only where independent data show investors' money coming back. Where the platform's own pages mislead you about who carries the risk or what was lost, Safety drops by 0.3.
Liquidity
How easily you get your money out, judged on the secondary market, withdrawal terms, loan terms and cash-out speed.
Usability
Dashboard, auto-invest, reporting, app, tax documents, and support when your account needs it.
How the rating is computed
The overall rating is the weighted sum of the four scores, rounded to one decimal. Below a Safety score of 2.0, the sum is multiplied by Safety ÷ 2, so a high yield or a good interface can’t rescue a structurally dangerous platform.
Mintos' rating is Returns 3.5 × 0.25 + Safety 4.3 × 0.50 + Liquidity 3.5 × 0.15 + Usability 4.5 × 0.10 = 4.0.
A rating of 3.5 or more is Recommended, 3.0–3.4 Investable, 2.0–2.9 High risk and below 2.0 Not recommended. Of the 21 platforms reviewed, 2 are rated Recommended, 7 Investable, 6 High risk and 6 Not recommended.
When a Returns score doesn’t follow the median
The Returns score normally follows the median net return of real investors on P2P Dash, without cashback. Three cases depart from it, and each review says which one applies:
- No independent figure. Where P2P Dash has no page for the platform, or too few portfolios to show what its investors kept, the score rests on the platform’s own average or its contract rates, half a point lower.
- Losses not yet written off. Where the platform carries late or frozen claims at full value, the median overstates what investors kept, so the score rests on realised results instead.
- A loss event with no published loss rate. Where a freeze or failure has cost investors an amount no figure shows, the score is held at its last level until such a figure exists.
Facts, losses and commissions
Dated checks
Platform fees, terms and regulatory status are checked against the platform's own documents or a supervisor's register, and each fact keeps the date of its last check.
Losses documented
Loss events in the author's own accounts and the platforms' past crises are stated in the reviews they concern.
Commissions
P2PPlatforms.com is in the affiliate programme of all 21 platforms it reviews, and it rates 12 of them High risk or Not recommended. Commissions are not part of the formula above.