Mintos Review – All About Investing on Mintos.com

Last updated on 22nd July 2021

Mintos Experiences – What You need to know about the P2P Platform

On this page I’m sharing my in-depth review of Mintos.

The provider from Latvia has been through a lot in the years since its founding and is now one of the 5 largest and most relevant P2P marketplaces worldwide. On this page you will learn everything you need to know about the Latvian platform for your start.

Disclaimer
Please note my disclaimer. I do not provide any investment advice and do not make any recommendations. On all P2P platforms I report about, I am invested myself. All information is without guarantee. Past developments are no indicator for future developments!

What is Mintos

Unlike Bondora or Twino (for both of which you can find detailed reviews under the links), Mintos is a so-called P2P marketplace. This means that Mintos does not grant loans itself, but lenders who in turn grant the loans. Mintos simply connects the investors to the lenders, often called loan originators.

Many of the lenders also offer the popular buy-back guarantee, where the lender buys back the loan if the borrower is late in his loan payments. As an investor here you can invest globally and make returns, however a marketplace also has its pitfalls and as your portfolio grows you will need to spend some time here to build a secure portfolio.

All Important Data at a Glance

Before we get into the details for investing with Mintos, here is the most important data for you in one place.

How Mintos Works

After signing up for Mintos, you generally have 3 ways to invest your money.

• Via the automated Mintos strategies.
• You can build your own Mintos Auto Invest.
• Or you can invest completely manually on the primary or secondary market.
• After many Mintos experiences, here I exclusively use the Mintos Auto Invest, for which there is also a separate guide on my blog, which is updated annually. The Auto Invest is a complex instrument, which would go beyond the scope here. So let’s take a look at the other two options here.

Automated Mintos Strategies

With the automated strategies you have the choice between 3 pre-built portfolios to invest in P2P loans.

Each strategy has its own opportunities and risks. Here is a brief summary of the most important facts:

• Diversified: Invests in all lenders on the marketplace with a Mintos score of 10 to 2.
  Conservative: This is a more safety-oriented investment. Only lenders with a Mintos Score of 10 to 7 are included in the portfolio.
• High Yield: Here, too, investments are made in all lenders, but the focus is on a high yield.
  In all strategies, a maximum of 15% of your portfolio is invested in one lender.

Manual Investing

If you invest manually in P2P loans, you need the primary or secondary market of Mintos. Here you can handpick your loans and see all the details of the loan. You can also find bargains on the secondary market.

Signup for Investors

Signing up on the P2P platform is not particularly complicated. Besides your name and email address, your address is also required. Another identity verification will take place later on. After registration and deposit you are ready to invest in P2P loans here. By the way, always pay attention to bonus promotions of the platforms to get advantages. You can find a constantly updated list of all bonuses in my P2P platform comparison.

Payment Transactions on Mintos

How to deposit Money

Depositing money is, as always, the easiest step in investing money. In your account you will see a button “Deposit / Withdraw / FX”. Pressing this and then “Deposit”, after selecting the desired currency, you will be shown the transfer details that you can use. For example, I have created an order template for this at my house bank. Please note that the first transfer must come from a personal bank account. This will also be verified for later payouts.

By the way, you can deposit more than 7+ different currencies on Mintos. If you don’t want to use the bank transfer, you also have the possibility to deposit with the payment solution “Trustly” to get your first interest.

How to withdraw Money

If you want to withdraw capital or excess interest from the P2P platform, you can use the “Withdraw money” button also in the upper section in the “Deposit / Withdraw / FX” area. At the latest here you will also have to verify yourself, if not done before. You will not be charged a fee for withdrawing funds. The funds can be withdrawn only to the bank account from which the deposit was made. If you wish to register a new account for withdrawal, you will need to make a new deposit from a new personal account.

Duration of the Deposit Process

According to my Mintos experience so far, the deposit is received in your investor account within 1 – 2 business days. However, if you use Revolut, for example, the transfer is sometimes already there in a few hours.

Can you deposit and withdraw funds by credit card?

At the moment you can not use credit cards for deposits and withdrawals. These must be made with a bank account. The deposit via a bank account serves among other things also your identification.

What exactly is the tax situation on Mintos?

If you are invested in credits on Mintos, you have to deal with the topic “taxes”. Here there are generally two ways, which have their own instructions:

• Regular taxation of P2P loans
• Alternative taxation of P2P loans

Investing on Mintos

Let’s move on to the questions about investing on the Latvian lending platform. I can answer many questions directly from my previous Mintos experience.

From which countries can you invest?

On Mintos you have the widest P2P loan portfolio you can possibly have. At the moment you can invest in over 30 countries around the world. However, many loan originators come from the Eastern European region. But there are also investments from Asia, Africa and Central America.

Which loans can you invest in on Mintos?

If you invest in P2P loans here, you earn your return from a colorful bouquet of different types of loans. Currently, the following loan types are available:

• Agricultural loans
• Car loans
• Factoring
• Forward Flow (a proprietary product of Mintos, see below)
• Business loans
• Mortgage loans
• Short-term loans
• Pawn loans
• and consumer loans

What are Forward Flow Loans?

Very quickly, with Forward Flow you commit yourself to invest in a pre-determined number of loans at a later date. The interest rate and also the term of these loans are already fixed before your investment. During a term of a Forward Flow contract you will receive weekly interest payments. However, the main amount from the beginning is refunded only after the end of the contract.

The Forward Flow is an instrument that Mintos makes available to its lenders so that they can acquire additional funds. The advantages for you as an investor are usually higher interest rates and a longer fixed interest rate.

Is there an Auto Invest?

There is. And you can even invest more than one. You can tell Mintos’ automatic portfolio builder exactly which countries & interest rates you want to invest in.

Since the Auto Invest of Mintos is extremely complex, there is a separate post for it as already mentioned above, which only deals with it.

Mintos potential growth example ©mintos.com

What is the Mintos Risk Score?

The Mintos Risk Score replaces the old Mintos Rating. Here, the P2P platform tries to rate the loan providers and thus their borrowers who are available on the marketplace. This should make it easier for us as investors to separate high-risk from low-risk companies. The evaluation is based on four partial evaluations, which are weighted differently. The results are displayed with numerical values, which are divided into three risk categories:

• low risk (10-8)
• medium risk (7-5)
• high risk (4-1)

As an investor, based on my Mintos experience, you should not rely entirely on the Risk Score, but it does provide some initial guidance. However, always remember that you are solely responsible for your investments. The score is updated regularly. You can see any changes on the dedicated info page.

What are the costs on Mintos?

There are no fees for investors to invest on the primary or secondary market. Likewise, there are no costs for other actions on the platform. However, since April 2020, a small fee of 0.85% is charged for selling loans on the secondary market.

What is the return on investment on Mintos?

The return you can earn on Mintos is individual for each investor. Historically, Mintos states 11.89%. My personal portfolio is just under 12% return after portfolio start in 2015.

Do I also receive interest on late loans?

This varies from lender to lender. However, you can find an overview of who offers this feature on the lender overview page.

What is the minimum investment amount on Mintos?

You have to spend 10 EUR per loan to be able to invest.

Does Mintos offer a buyback guarantee?

As a rule, yes. But again, you have to check with each lender individually whether they offer it or not, or set the appropriate option in Auto Invest. Also the rules when a loan is repurchased can vary from lender to lender. Generally, though, you won’t have any problems finding enough offers here.

Is there an app for Mintos?

Yes, there is a smartphone app for Mintos. From my Mintos experience, it is also the best P2P app of all P2P platforms (as of today).

Is there a secondary market?

Yes, Mintos has a secondary market with the possibility of discounts and premiums. For you as an investor, this means that you can also find bargains if you buy on the secondary market. By the way, this can also be done automatically! On the other hand, you can also give higher markdowns on your own loans to get out of your investment extremely fast.

Can you invest money in other currencies?

You can. On Mintos you can invest your money in 11 different currencies. This includes major currencies such as USD and GBP.

Is there a tax certificate on Mintos?

Yes, there is. You can get a tax certificate at any time by clicking on your profile.

Mintos Risk

From my previous Mintos experience, the Latvian P2P marketplace is an exciting but not entirely passive investment in my portfolio. I’ve been invested here since 2015, so I’ve seen quite a bit.

How does Mintos make money?

Unlike many traditional P2P platforms, Mintos doesn’t make money on the spread between the loans shown to the investor and the actual interest charged to the borrower. Mintos is a marketplace, which means that lenders pay a corresponding fee to Mintos in the background for placing loans on the marketplace. In addition to this fee model, which is the main source of revenue, there are many other “side shows” such as the secondary market fee and other little things that add money to the coffers every now and then.

What happens if Mintos slips into insolvency?

In the event that the P2P platform runs into financial difficulties or has to file for insolvency, the company will be wound up by a third party as planned. Existing loans from lenders will continue. According to Mintos, all investors will receive complete information from the Mintos database about all transactions executed within the portal.

A liquidator or insolvency administrator will take care of the transfer of all investments as well as loan servicing through an appropriate administrator. In addition, Mintos has a guarantee contract with the legal firm FORT, which will oversee this process.

Does Mintos work profitably?

Mintos does not operate profitably. It is heavily geared towards growth and accordingly has been operating in the negative for years. The money is rather put into growth & development, which is perfectly fine though. The annual reports of Mintos are also audited by an external body.

How reputable is Mintos?

Mintos is purely by the number of investors with over 300,000 investors the largest platform on which I invest. It is also the fifth largest P2P platform in the world. Ever since I’ve been aware of the platform, there have been controversies around it from time to time. For example, the largest shareholder of Mintos (Aigars Kesenfels) often also owns shares in lenders, which regularly leads to discussions. Nevertheless, Mintos can be described as a reputable company.

How secure is Mintos?

Like all P2P platforms, Mintos is as safe as your diversification. This is also the key to your success. Make sure your portfolio is clean and diversified into mostly good lenders, and you’ll have a lot of fun here.

Are there any defaults on Mintos?

There are regular defaults on the P2P platform, it would be weird if there weren’t. However, the defaults of individual P2P loans are usually covered by the repurchase guarantee. If a lender defaults (which can happen), the repurchase guarantee also defaults. Then the only hope is that Mintos can recover as much of your money as possible. In order to minimize such failures, you need to ensure a good and solid diversification within the platform.

Is there any deposit insurance on Mintos?

No, definitely not. Mintos is not a bank and therefore does not fall under any European deposit insurance. All funds you invest on the platform are exposed to a high risk of default.

Mintos in the Covid-19 Crisis

The Latvian flagship platform was one of the hardest hit by the Covid-19 crisis and you can still feel the aftermath today.

How did Mintos fare during the crisis?

Mintos was like a ship in a storm during the crisis. They tried to hold together as much as possible. Poorly rated lenders were defaulting by the dozen in the wake of the shutdown crash and global lockdowns, and Mintos could more or less just stand by and watch. They did the only thing that made sense. Keep investors informed all the time.

Is Mintos crisis-proof?

As far as the platform goes, I would say yes based on my Mintos experience. However, you have to realize that with a marketplace with over 60 affiliated lenders, you can expect more turmoil than with, say, Twino, a classic P2P platform. During the crisis, many investors became painfully aware that a marketplace also has its pitfalls. I have kept a detailed record of what was going on in my portfolio over time.

Mintos Help & Customer Support

Mintos customers of course have to possibility to get help directly through email requests. But all common questions are already answered in the help center². Also, the Mintos community³ is very supportive and customers can ask questions there at any time.

Mintos Crowdfunding

When the initial storm was weathered, the decision was made later in 2020 to sell shares in the company and carry out crowdfunding. With this, Mintos aims to drive growth, expand its offering and also introduce new investment products. In addition to a new Mintos debit card and the Mintos IBAN accounts, even an ETF is to be tradable in the future. Mintos ended the crowdfunding campaign with 7.2 million euros, the highest amount ever raised in continental Europe via a crowdfunding platform. I myself did not invest here, by the way.

Is there a bonus or refer a friend program to start on Mintos?

You can refer friends on Mintos, however there are no benefits here for the starter in gaining Mintos experience. All benefits have been put on hold for now in the wake of the Corona Pandemic. Statistically, by the way, over 30% of all new investors come to the P2P platform via referrals. You can read all the terms and conditions of the refer-a-friend program on the corresponding website. However, this is only accessible if you are a registered investor on Mintos.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Mintos

Before we come to a final conclusion of the P2P platform, here is a summary of my pros and cons based on my Mintos experience.

Disadvantages ➖

• If you really want to be successful on Mintos, you have to deal with the lenders a bit.
• As a marketplace, Mintos is often more affected in economic downturns than traditional P2P platforms.
• You’re investing through Mintos in many different jurisdictions where recovering losses can be difficult.
• Always lots of controversy and rumors that can make you feel insecure as an investor.
• The platform is quite complex and features like auto invest, can slay you a bit at first.

Advantages ➕

• With over 60 lenders, the Mintos marketplace is next to Bondora Go & Grow, the product with the second largest spread in the P2P market.
• Even though you have to deal with lenders, Mintos is pretty low maintenance once you get the hang of it.
• Passive income virtually from day one.
• If something goes wrong with a lender, Mintos will represent investors’ interests.
• Many lenders offer a buyback guarantee.

Conclusion about Mintos.com

Mintos is the second largest P2P platform in my portfolio and I am an investor from the very beginning. For this reason, the crisis hit me much milder than many other investors, as I already had a few years head start in terms of interest rates. Many investors fled the platform because there were many critical voices and of course losses. But that is part of the game, so I have never turned my back on the P2P platform until now, which was not a bad decision at all.

Monthly, the platform brings me a nice amount, which I could also pay out. However, the build-up of the portfolio there is far from complete, so I will continue to invest diligently to get to a similar level as my Bondora account in the long term.

Links & Sources:

1) https://assets.mintos.com/B478D93F-1927-34C0-FD85-C00C28AF928B.pdf
2) https://help.mintos.com/hc/en-us
3) https://help.mintos.com/hc/en-us/community/topics

Find Mintos on:
LinkedIn: https://lv.linkedin.com/company/mintos
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/mintos/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mintos?lang=en