I have been stalling. I have said I would try all the P2P lending platforms available to me and up until reading the esteemed bamalucky (I bought a Zopa CD today) I hadn’t pulled the trigger on my Zopa investment. While I suspect our reasons for wanting a Zopa CD are different. Bama’s reasoning behind today being the day to buy your CD makes perfect sense — the Federal Reserve cut the rate 75 basis points. With a 75 basis point cut to the fed funds rate, the 5.1% offered by Zopa US is looking attractive. Inspired by bama, I made my purchase.
Now that I have tried it I can say it was easy enough to sign up and complete the transaction… I selected Provident Credit Union as my credit union, filled in my information, and I was done.
I am still not sure why a CD is p2p lending, but apparently I did help someone in San Mateo County California. (You are required to choose at least 1 person to “help”.) However, since it is FDIC insured I can say with certainty my $500 will be worth $525.50 in 1 year (Zopa CD has a 1 year term).
I can say this with confidence, if they lower the rate I will not accept the CD (see the picture above, but “Your CD may take up to 24 hours to create”).
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11 comments ↓
too bad after inflation that $500 will be worth ~$489 in REAL dollars
@sal
good point… I hope it is not the case… But my reasons for buying the CD are slightly different than “normal”… As the p2p lending blogger with the longest tenure in the blogosphere I needed to try the CD to maintain street cred. Now was better than tomorrow in that sense.
As you said, “I am still not sure why a CD is p2p lending.” With that being the case, there’s no problem potential hard to your “street cred” if you ignored it.
It sure does sound tempting recently, but it’s a little difficult for me to get excited about a 5.1% CD. (the drop in the market seems a little tempting actually (and obviously more exiting (i.e. dangerous)))
Let us know how your zopa “help” impacts your return there…
@LC
I agree the Stock market is going to get very tempting soon… I think there is a little more downside, but soon enough my money will be going to stocks. However, this is not a blog about stocks.
The help is figured into the 5.1%. If I chose to help others or help my person more my return would have been reduced.
I agree that Zopa is not peer lending anything like Lending Club or Prosper. However, if your purchase of a 12 month CD at 5.1% goes through, you got a fantastic deal today.
I do not plan on trying it Zopa. Same with Kiva (they weren’t even paying interest until recently), but I might try Kiva for fun.
I have to admit that Zopa now has an attractive market:
http://bankrate.com/brm/rate/high_ratehome.asp?web=brm&prodtype=invest&product=15&sort=2
[...] Rate Ladder P2P Lending Blog, Strategy, Rate Analysis and Personal Finance « Fed Cuts Rate 75 Basis Points — I bought a Zopa US CD at 5.1% [...]
[...] national cd rate at 5.1% after the federal reserve cut the fed funds rate by 75 basis points. RateLadder locked in the 5.1% rate with a 1 year $500 [...]
[...] the regualr reads this may be a bit of a rehash (Fed Cuts Rate 75 Basis Points — I bought a Zopa US CD at 5.1%), but the fed cut rates again today… If you have been considering buying a CD now is the time [...]
[...] funds rate 75 basis points, but you can still get a great CD rate from zopa US. The blogger got 5.1%http://www.rateladder.com/2008/01/22/fed-cuts-rate-75-basis-points-i-bought-a-zopa-us-cd-at-51/Book results for zopaDear Lama Zopa: Radical Solutions for … [...]
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