Monefit vs Go & Grow
Monefit SmartSaver and Bondora Go & Grow are two easy to use investment platforms for investors who do not want to select loans themselves. Bondora Go & Grow has a longer track record, but we currently prefer Monefit SmartSaver. The returns are higher, and Vaults allow you to increase them even further.
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Warning: investing through these online platforms involves risks. You may lose part or all of your investment.
Monefit vs Go & Grow
Both Monefit SmartSaver and Bondora Go & Grow are investment products offered by fintech companies. Your money is used to finance consumer loans across multiple countries.
Both products generate returns daily and do not have a fixed term, allowing you to keep your funds accessible. Monefit also offers Vaults, where you lock your funds for a fixed period in exchange for a higher return.
Investors often compare Monefit and Go & Grow with platforms such as Mintos or PeerBerry.
Looking for steady returns without active management? Discover Monefit SmartSaver, offering returns of up to 10.52 percent per year through fixed-term vaults. Recommended for its simplicity and ease of use.
Offer
On both Monefit and Go & Grow, your investment is automatically spread across an undisclosed number of loans. Investors cannot select individual loans or set portfolio preferences. In return, you receive a fixed return. Your results therefore depend on the overall performance of the loan portfolio rather than on individual loans.
Your returns do not depend on individual loans.
Go & Grow
With Go & Grow, you finance consumer loans in countries such as Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands, Spain and Latvia. These are mainly unsecured personal loans used for purchases, unexpected expenses or refinancing existing debt.
Creditstar
Monefit SmartSaver uses investor funds to finance the lending activities of Creditstar Group. Creditstar provides consumer loans in Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, Spain, Denmark and the United Kingdom. Here too, investors mainly finance unsecured personal loans.
Returns
Both platforms offer a fixed return on your investment. Monefit SmartSaver currently provides higher returns than Go & Grow. Flexible balances earn 7.5 percent per year. In addition, investors can use Vaults, where returns increase to as much as 10.52 percent with a 24 month term.
Bondora Go & Grow currently offers up to 6 percent per year. Both platforms describe these returns as expected returns rather than guarantees. Actual performance depends on the underlying loan portfolio and the financial strength of the company behind the product.
Monefit offers 7.5 percent per year on flexible balances and up to 10.52 percent with a 24 month term.
Ease of use
Both Monefit SmartSaver and Bondora Go & Grow are among the simplest P2P products on the market. You do not need to select loans, configure auto invest settings or build a portfolio. Once you deposit funds, your money is invested automatically.
Go & Grow revolves around a single product. It has long targeted investors who want exposure to P2P lending without needing detailed knowledge of the market. The interface is straightforward and new users can get started within minutes.
Monefit SmartSaver follows a similar approach, although investors can also choose Vaults with a fixed term. In practice, we find both platforms easier to use than most traditional P2P lending platforms. For investors who mainly value simplicity, the differences are limited.
Withdrawals
Both Monefit SmartSaver and Go & Grow are designed for investors who do not want to lock up their money for long periods. Bondora has a slight advantage here. Funds in Go & Grow are generally withdrawn directly, for a fee of 1 euro per transaction.
Monefit SmartSaver does not charge withdrawal fees, but only the first 1,000 euro per month can be withdrawn instantly. Amounts above that are paid out after a 10 day delay, allowing the platform to process withdrawals through loan repayments. Funds held in Vaults cannot be withdrawn before the selected term ends.
For investors who prioritize liquidity, Bondora therefore has a small advantage. Both platforms state in their terms that withdrawals may be delayed or restricted temporarily if market conditions require it.
Bondora allows faster access to your money.
Reliability and regulation
Go & Grow and Monefit are both based in Estonia, a country that has produced many European P2P lending platforms. Both focus on consumer lending. Regulation mainly takes place through the countries in which the loans are issued.
Neither platform falls under the European ECSP crowdfunding framework, making their structures somewhat harder to compare. However, both companies publish annual reports and financial statements. These show that both Bondora and Creditstar have been profitable in recent years.
Bondora was founded in 2008 and has attracted more than one million investors. It has built a strong track record, including during periods of economic uncertainty and rising interest rates.
Monefit SmartSaver has a shorter history as a product, but it is backed by Creditstar Group, which has been issuing consumer loans across Europe for many years. Creditstar was founded in 2006, even before Bondora, and employs more than 150 people with total assets exceeding 500 million euro.
Looking for steady returns without active management? Discover Monefit SmartSaver, offering returns of up to 10.52 percent per year through fixed-term vaults. Recommended for its simplicity and ease of use.
Risks
Both platforms involve risk because you invest indirectly in consumer loans. Returns depend on the performance of the underlying loan portfolio and the financial position of Bondora or Creditstar. If either company experiences financial difficulties, investors could be affected.
Due to the lower returns and Bondora’s focus on relatively stable credit markets such as the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark, the underlying loans may appear less risky. However, when we could still select individual loans on Bondora, loans of 20 percent were not uncommon and the platform experienced a significant number of defaults. In our view, the lower returns offered today do not automatically mean that the actual risk is lower.
Individual late payments or defaults are already factored into the platform’s model and generally have no impact on investor returns. However, if a large number of borrowers stop repaying their loans, many investors withdraw their money at the same time, or other significant problems arise, you could lose (part of) your investment.
Our preference: Monefit SmartSaver
Monefit SmartSaver and Bondora’s Go & Grow are two accessible ways to invest in P2P loans. We currently prefer SmartSaver because of its higher returns. The Vaults also offer an attractive alternative to investing directly in individual loans and waiting for those loans to mature.
For investors allocating larger amounts who want to reduce their exposure to Creditstar, Bondora can still be a useful addition. It remained one of our favorite platforms for many years, and we still rate its reliability and ease of use highly. However, returns have declined enough in recent years that it is no longer among our top choices.
