Bondster Review

Bondster is a peer-to-peer lending platform that helps investors invest in consumer loans. Bondster is based in the Czech Republic and investors from all over the world can invest in it. You can invest a minimum of 5 euros and get an average annual return of 13%. The Bondster marketplace has investment features such as a secondary market, buyback guarantee and automatic investment features. We explore all the information in our Bondster review.

Bondster gives you the opportunity to provide financing to individuals, business owners, developers and crypto asset holders by investing in personal loans, business loans, installment loans, real estate loans, crypto asset loans and car loans. Bondster only serves lenders, so you cannot apply for a loan directly on the platform.

Founded in 2017, Bondster P2P has invested 114 million euros since 2022 and paid out 4.4 million euros in interest to investors. Bondster has 15 thousand of investors so far.

With its focus on low-traffic markets in other platforms such as Bulgaria or the Czech Republic, a good mix of assets with different types of loans to invest in, competitive redemption yields and a solid portfolio with more than a dozen originators, Bondster is the investment site to very suitable to consider to complement a well-diversified crowdlending portfolio.

How stable is Bondster?

Bondster Marketplace s.r.o. is owned by CEP Invest Private Equity SE – a larger investment company that has more than 5 companies in its portfolio.

The fact that Bondster is part of an experienced investment company gives us confidence that it is in a very solid position.

However, even though it seems to be a great company, unforeseen risks can still manifest themselves, which we will mention in today’s review.

Who can invest in Bondster

Both individuals and companies can invest in Bondster. To invest in Bondster as an individual, you must meet the following minimum requirements:

• Be over 18 years old

• Have a European bank account

• Comply with anti-money laundering regulations

If you want to invest with your company, you can also do so on Bondster. All you need to do to create an account for your business is to select the “Legal Person” option during registration.

How Bondster works

Bondster is a peer-to-peer lending platform that works with a number of lenders. A borrower applies for a loan with a lender and Bondster conducts due diligence to verify the loan application submitted by the lender. If the application is approved, the loan is accepted.

Bondster will list the loan on its platform and investors who are willing to lend money to the borrower can invest in it. The money is provided to the borrower. The borrower then starts repaying the loan money based on the loan agreement. The investor will earn passive income through an interest rate of 13% per annum.

How to register on Bondster

This is how you can invest in Bondster and earn an average annual interest of 13%.

• Sign up. The first step to investing in Bondster is to create an account. Creating an account is free and required to start investing.

• Registration to this Czech crowdlending platform takes place in a standard way, similar to other platforms, in the form of an initial questionnaire and the first transfer of funds from a bank account.

• Create an account. Once you’ve created it, you’ll proceed to the next step, funding your account. You can deposit as little as €5 via bank transfer.

• Choose your investment method. You have to choose an investment method, either manual or automatic investment. Using the auto-invest function saves you time and finds suitable loans to invest based on your parameters.

• Revenue generation. Once you invest and activate your strategy, you will start earning money on the platform. On average, Bondster pays an average annual interest rate of 13%.

How to invest in Bondster

At Bondster we have 2 main methods of investing. In the following chapters we will describe each of them:

• Manual investments from just 5 euros per loan.

• Automatic investing through the Autoinvest function.

Below we will discuss some of the most important parameters that define the individual operations published in the Bondster tool.

State

At Bondster we have operations from 4 different countries for diversification, namely: Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Bulgaria.

Originator

Bondster has at least 14 originators or lending institutions on its market and is one of the most comprehensive crowdlending platforms in this respect.

Loan type

If we had to say what further makes Bondster stand out, then it is the wide and varied type of operations that it offers us to invest in: on its marketplace, we can find from P2P loans to P2B loans, agricultural loans, mortgage-backed loans, etc. up to a total of 13 different types.

Minimum term

This parameter is related to the duration of the loan, but with a certain nuance: for loans with an exit door (icon c in the previous section), there is a minimum time for which we must hold the loan before we can leave it.

Also, if a number (percentage) appears under the number of days or months of the deadline, this is the percentage of the penalty that we have to pay in case we leave the operation early.

Interest rate

At Bondster you can achieve a return of up to 13.50% with Buyback, although it is always good to diversify and include more loan types and providers in our portfolios.

Filters

At the top of the loan list, we will have access to filters that will allow us to view only the operations that match our investment style or what we are currently looking for. In DETAILED FILTERS, we will also have a complete list of parameters available to define precisely the operations we are looking for.

Specify the amount you want to invest

In the pop-up side window, we enter the amount we want to invest in the selected operation, from 5 euros per transaction.

Mark and confirm

The final step will be to check the box confirming that we have read the related documentation and press the INVEST button … voila! We have already invested in our first loan. This information was about manual investments. Now let’s take a closer look at auto investing.

Bondster Auto-invest

By investing in Bondster, you can put your investments on auto-pilot. You can invest without having to manually select the loans you want to invest in. Bondster’s auto-invest feature allows you to diversify your portfolio by investing in different loans. It also saves you money because you don’t have to constantly look for loans to invest in.

Bondster’s auto-invest feature can be a little confusing for newcomers to the platform, partly because it gives us too many configuration options, and sometimes touching a parameter that isn’t really necessary can cause Autoinvest NOT to work as we expect it to have no loan available for investment.

In the following steps, we will show how we configured it and what problems can arise by enabling some optional parameters.

• The first step in defining Autoinvest is to enter the system on how much “free” money we want to have in the account without investing after performing Autoinvest. In many cases, if we do not want to invest “manually” or plan to withdraw the money in the short term, we will enter “0” here.

• In the second step, we simply name our self-investment portfolio (we can have several active at the same time, so this name must be unique).

• The third step is very important, but by checking this information we can see if everything is fine with our Autoinvest configuration: FOUND LOANS are the loans that match our configuration so far… If at some point we see that it is “0”, it means, that we are probably not doing something right.

• The asset percentage is the % of our assets in Bondster that we want to allocate to this Autoinvest portfolio (in Bondster we can have several Autoinvert configurations at once, so for example we can configure two different Autoinvests and tell the system that we want each of them to manage 50% of our capital … or one 75% and the other 25%). If we don’t want to complicate our lives and will use only one Autoinvest, we will state 100% here.

• We will then determine the amount that needs to be invested in each operation, from 5 euros per loan.

• After completing the configuration of Autoinvest, it is very important to check that it is ACTIVE and not suspended (if Autoinvest is suspended, it will be suspended and will not accept new loans to our portfolio).

• Other parameters we can see are STATE, ORIGINATOR and LOAN TYPE.

• In the next step, we define the type of interest we are willing to accept. At this point, we set a minimum value of 10%.

• Regarding the maturity period, we can specify, if we want – we do not, for the sake of greater diversification – the minimum and maximum duration of the operations in which we want to invest. Be careful not to put at least “1” because any loans that last days instead of months (of which there are few) would be out of this Autoinvest. You can set the maximum and leave the minimum empty so that even loans with a duration of less than one month get into our basket.

• Collateral and LTV refer to guarantees and sureties that are often used in mortgage loans and other types of secured loans. If you do not know what you are doing and are not clear about it, be very careful to mark something in these fields, because then all loans without guarantees (but with a buyout) or non-mortgage loans will not enter Autoinvest. If in doubt, don’t do anything, in the next step we will show you how to define only loans with Buyback…

• We can also specify that we want to invest ONLY in buyback loans by checking YES here (the vast majority of operations in the Bondster tool have a buyback guarantee, but it never hurts to make sure and check this option).

• The investment withdrawal fee and the maximum exit fee apply to loans that allow for an early exit (i.e. they do NOT block the capital until the operation is completed) and the penalty we are willing to pay. Marking or not marking something here depends on each of them, but if we choose any of these options, the available credits will be radically reduced. Unless we are absolutely clear that it is very likely that we are short of liquidity, it is probably best to leave it without choosing anything.

• In the Loan Status item, we consider it important to select only MANDATORY PAID, so as not to enter loans that are already overdue.

• In all the parameters that follow (frequency of installments, method of amortization, penalties and date of inclusion on the website), it is best not to select anything, unless we are looking for something very specific. These are mostly secondary parameters, but they can significantly change the number of loans available in our Autoinvest portfolio.

• Finally, we’ll hit the SAVE button and check that it’s in ACTIVE status, so it’s ready to buy credits for us.

Cashback Bonus Bondster (Promo Code)

If you look at the Bondster registration form, you will see a field called Bondster Promo Code. You don’t need any promo code to take advantage of the best promo code available right now.

During the first 3 months, you will get 1% of everything you invest, the best new user bonus currently available at Bondster.

Possible risks with Bondster

Risk of lack of liquidity

Liquidity is always a factor to consider in crowdlending, given that usually our capital is – at least partially – blocked until the end of the operation in which we invest.

On the Bondster platform, the average loan maturity varies from less than a month to more than a year, but it is usually a platform with a relatively short time horizon compared to other websites, with an average of around 6 months.

Although it does not have a secondary market, some Bondster operations (commodities with the exit door symbol) allow early exit by selling our shares to the platform, and others (marked with the ticket symbol) allows us to obtain liquidity at any time by paying a small penalty – usually 1% -.

Risk of loan default by borrowers

One of the relatively common risks that crowdlending generally faces is default by borrowers on the loans we invest in.

To combat this problem, the vast majority of transactions that Bondster publishes on its marketplace are backed by a buyback guarantee (the shield symbol).

The buyback is usually activated after 30 or 60 days – depending on the originator – and returns to us the capital invested and the interest payable in the given operation.

Risk of bankruptcy of one of the originators

Although this is a very unlikely eventuality, any investor in crowdlending must at least consider the possible bankruptcy of one of the originators or lending institutions that publish their loans on Bondster, which could affect the buyback guarantee or the loan held by that originator.

Bondster emphasizes in its FAQs that it selects only the most reputable credit issuers, which ensures that the likelihood of a material event occurring to any of these Originators is very low. In the event of a problem, Bondster will take over the Originator’s loans posted on its platform and manage payments to investors.

In any case, it is always good practice for us as investors to diversify our capital among as many Originators as possible.

Bondster Fees:

Bondster has no investment fees on the platform if you work in EUR. However, if you operate in the local currency and specifically in the Czech crown, you will pay a certain fee. Here is an overview of the fees from the Bondster website:

Originators of Bondster Crowfunding

Bondster is a very complete loan marketplace that already has more than a dozen lenders, including:

ACEMA

ACEMA Credit Czech is one of the most important credit institutions in the Czech Republic, which has been operating since 2000 and has been fully regulated by the Czech Central Bank since 2018.

BANK METER

Bankometr is a Czech entity that specializes in long-term business loans, it was founded in 2013 and usually secures its activities with real estate, etc.

KVIKU

Kviku is a registered trademark of the parent company AirLoans LLC, a Russian lender that was founded in 2013 and has seen rapid growth in recent years focusing on consumer loans in Russia, Kazakhstan and Spain.

YARIS

Yaris s.r.o. is a credit institution in the Czech Republic with almost twenty years of experience in the field of loans (founded in 1999), which specializes in secured loans.

How to add funds to a Bondster account

On Bondster, we can make deposits in euros and Czech crowns by bank transfer to the relevant account, which will be communicated to us by Komerční banks, as (the Czech online bank with which this platform cooperates).

It is important to indicate in the transfer the concept or purpose of payment indicated by the platform so that the funds are allocated to our account without delay. Usually within one to two working days, the balance will appear in our investor account.

Read also: overview of brokers with the best reviews

Cash withdrawals in the Bondster system

Bondster allows you to withdraw the available balance on our account at any time, from one euro cent and without any cost to us. Usually, the order is processed very quickly and we have the money back in our bank account within one to two business days.

Bondster – Contact information and customer service

Bondster is based in Prague (Czech Republic) and offers a contact phone number (+420283061555) and e-mail (info@bondster.com).

In our experience, all inquiries and incidents are dealt with quickly and efficiently, which represents a very good level of customer service.

Bondster web interface

Bondster has a modern, friendly and easy-to-use website where information is presented clearly and important actions are easy to find and perform. The website is translated into 3 languages, namely Czech, English and German.

You don’t have to do extensive research to find the information you need. A big advantage is that you will find a lot of useful information in the Blog section, which is updated frequently.

If we do a study on how many clicks it takes to perform some of the most basic actions in the platform, we get the following results:

★★★★ 3 clicks to invest in one of the loans.

★★ 2 clicks to find out the status of one of the projects we have invested in.

★★★ 3 clicks to withdraw money.

By the way, Bondster has active social media accounts.

Conclusion of our Bondster review

Bondster is a good P2P platform with good results. And in a market where most platforms are born in the Baltics, Bondster allows you to diversify part of your P2P investment portfolio to the Czech Republic.

While the return is not very high if you invest in Czech crowns, the expected return is on par with other platforms if you invest in loans in euros.

Bondster has a high level of integrity when it comes to selecting lenders. All lenders are carefully selected and monitored as already mentioned in this Bondster review.

When it comes to the auto-invest feature, you actually have some really cool options that set Bondster apart from most.

Deposits and withdrawals are easy to make on Bondster.

Some more useful information

To make your decision about Bondster easier, we have tried to describe the main benefits for investors. So let’s get started:

• The biggest advantage is definitely the high return on loans. In addition, these loans are either secured (by real estate or movable property) or are offered with a repurchase guarantee (in case of the borrower defaults on the loan, the provider must buy it back from the investor), which eliminates the risk for investors. Imagine that your money is sitting in a bank account and you are actually losing money every day because the rate of inflation is higher than the nominal interest rate on your bank deposits. On Bondster, investors can earn an average of more than 13% on investments in euros. Do you know a bank that could offer you such a return?

• Bondster also offers loans with unique features such as exit from investment or liquidity guarantee. This is especially popular with investors who are more risk-averse and prefer more liquid investments. Exit from the investment means that the investor can, for a pre-determined fee, get back the unpaid principal at pre-determined points in time after the investment is realized (after a week, a month, half a year, etc.). The liquidity guarantee allows investors to withdraw the invested amount (outstanding principal) at any time for a predetermined fee.

• The providers that Bondster works with are always either well-established companies in the local markets with a very good history, or younger companies but with huge potential and experienced people with a strong professional background in management.

Advantages of Bondster – strengths

• Income from loans with a buyback guarantee of up to 13.5%.

• Wide diversification with more than a dozen originators to choose from.

• Minimum investment from 5 euros per operation, which is less than most crowdlending platforms.

• It is safe to say that investors have had a good experience with Bondster.

Disadvantages of Bondster – weakness

• Bondster offers a wide variety of loans but focuses on personal loans.

• Investing in CZK is not worth it in comparison

The review is also available in other languages on partner websites:

• Slovak – Bondster broker review
• Czech- Review of Bondster broker

Our Rating: