Finbee

Finbee Review

I started using Finbee in March 2018. Interest rates are really attractive (up to 28%), but without a Buyback guarantee, so I’ve been a little more cautious investing than with other platforms. As of today, I can say that although there are many defaults, these are compensated by the higher profitability offered. At the end I am getting higher returns than P2P platforms with Buyback, although with greater uncertainty …. In terms of strategy, as they do not have Buyback, I invest only in loans with interest rates higher than 18% (which is what I could get on other platforms with Buyback) and always the minimum amount (5 EUR).

During 2018, Finbee lent over 8 million EUR to Lithuanian residents and businesses, earning 1.4 million EUR for investors. Moreover, Finbee successfully passed the yearly inspection of Bank of Lithuania and established themselves as the only P2P finance company providing loans for small and medium business. Also, FinBee has announced that they have been working since early 2018 on DESICO, a collective financing platform for companies around the world to issue and market their titles converted to tokens.

• Platform Type: Crowdlending to individuals (P2P).
• Start: 2015, Lithuania.
• Modalities: Loans to mostly to individuals and a few to companies. Loans usually around several thousand Euro.
• Geographic focus: Lithuania.
• Currencies: EUR.
• Return rates: From 14% to 28%. An average of over 20%, according to the platform.
• Investment flow / Cash Drag: There are always loans available.
• Minimum investment (per loan): From 5 EUR.
• Payment modality: Interest get paid every month, along with the proportional percentage of the principal.
• Duration of loans: Between 12 and 60 months.
• Defaults: About 10% in my case (keeping in mind that I only invest in the most risky loans). I have been informed that there are no historical statistics on the recovery rate, because Finbee is still working with each defaulted loan. The “Bad debt principal” is the principal part of all late monthly installments for more than 61 days, but this “Bad debt principal ” is not considered as your loss or that this amount won’t be recovered. It might take several years. So, “Bad debt principal” is only counted to notify investor about his portfolio quality. There is only one case when we can exactly count non recoverable amount and it is when the borrower goes bankrupt. Right now, Finbee has no borrowers yet who started they bankruptcy procedure.
• Buyback: It does not exist.
• AutoInvest: Yes, there is a really detailed AutoInvest function that allows you select depending on virtually every conceivable criteria, although the interface is somewhat confusing. It also has a really detailed manual option.
• Secondary market: It exist, with many loans and options to select loans according to various criteria.
• Interface / Tools: New interface since August 2019, which considerably improves the previous version, which was really confusing.
• Taxes: The exception, because it does withhold taxes (15%).
• Customer Support: I have contacted them several times (by email) and always received replies within 24 hours.
• Languages: Only in English and Lithuanian.
• Welcome promotion: None for the moment.