PeerBerry Review – All About Investing on PeerBerry.com

Last updated on 26th July 2021

What is PeerBerry?

PeerBerry is a P2P marketplace from Latvia. Similar to Mintos, it offers loans from third parties for investment. So the platform itself just acts as a kind of “man-in-the-middle” and transfers your investments to the right places.

Unlike Mintos, however, a single major lender supports the platform immensely. Namely, the Aventus Group, which, by the way, used to be a lender on Mintos years ago. It works closely with the platform. So one is only apparently a marketplace, but about 80% of the loans are granted by the Aventus Group behind it.

PeerBerry is owned by two private investors, Igoris Trofimovas (also a member of the board) and Ivan Butov, though they have no active roles in the company. On PeerBerry you can invest in short term consumer loans, real estate loans, business and leasing loans.

From my experience with PeerBerry so far, I can say that they also place a very high value on having only lenders on board who don’t pull the plug at the first rough economic breeze.

PeerBerry currently has about 10 employees, operates from the Lithuanian heart Vilnius (not from Latvia where it is incorporated) and offers loans from (currently) 9 different countries for P2P investments through its lenders.

PeerBerry Review: All important data at a glance

Before we get into the details for investing with PeerBerry, here’s the most important data for you in one place.

After registering on the platform, you can start investing in loans. You can do this both manually and automatically.

As an advocate of passive income, I naturally focus on the automated investments. We’ll get to the Auto Invest later on.

Registration for investors

Signing up on the platform is not particularly complicated. You can register as a private investor or as a company.

After registration you are ready to invest in P2P loans on the platform, provided that you have made the first deposit and identified yourself. To verify your identity, you need your identity card or passport.

By the way, before you sign up, 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 PeerBerry

How do I deposit money?

Depositing money is, as always, the easiest step when investing on P2P platforms. In your account you will see a menu item “Deposit / Withdrawal” at the top. If you click on it, you will be shown transfer details that you can use.

For example, you can create an order template at your house bank. I have done the same with many other platforms. Please note that the first transfer must come from a personal bank account. The used bank account will then be verified for the later payouts.

How do I withdraw money?

If you want to withdraw capital or excess interest from the P2P platform, you can use the same button as for depositing, but then switch to the “Withdraw” section. You will not be charged a fee for withdrawing funds.

Investors can withdraw funds only to the bank account from which the deposit was made. If you want to register a new account for withdrawal, you need to make a new deposit from a new personal account. You can also use several accounts in parallel for withdrawal, but you will have to register them once.

How long does the deposit take?

The deposit to the platform account takes about 1 – 2 days from my previous PeerBerry experience. However, if you use services like Revolut, for example, the transfer is often faster (sometimes within a few minutes or hours), but without guarantee.

Can I deposit and withdraw funds with a credit card?

At the moment you cannot use credit cards for deposits and withdrawals. These must be made with a bank account. Depositing via a bank account also serves to identify you.

How exactly does PeerBerry handle taxes?

If you are invested in P2P loans on PeerBerry, 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 PeerBerry

Let’s move on to the questions about investing on the P2P lending platform from Latvia with Lithuanian roots. I can answer many questions directly from my previous PeerBerry experience, because I have been serving the lenders and borrowers of the platform with my hard-earned money for several years now.

In which countries can you invest?

Currently, loans from nine different countries are offered on the platform. In detail, these are Poland, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Czech Republic and
Lithuania.

I am sure that we will see more opportunities on the marketplace in the future.

What loans can you invest in on Peerberry?

If you are invested in P2P loans here, about 75% of your return is generated by short-term consumer loans. The rest is made up of long-term loans, leasing loans, real estate loans and business loans. So you’re mostly in the “consumer” space.

Is there an Auto Invest?

There is. You can tell PeerBerry’s automatic portfolio builder exactly which countries & interest rates you want to invest in and it’s very simple to configure. In principle it works very similar to the Mintos Auto Invest, but it is a bit easier to configure.

What are the costs on PeerBerry?

There are no fees for investors on the investment or other actions on the platform.

What is the rate of return on PeerBerry?

The return you can earn on the platform is 11.66%, which is absolutely competitive with platforms like Bondora or Mintos.

At the time of writing this post, my own achieved return is 13.53%, which is significantly higher than the average. You can always see current values on the right side of my website.

Do I also receive the interest on late loans?

Yes, you also get the full interest for late projects. Unlike Mintos, however, here completely independent of the lender.

What is the minimum investment amount on PeerBerry?

You only have to spend 10 EUR per loan on the platform to be able to invest. This is within the usual range of consumer credit platforms. You can also invest 10 EUR on Mintos, Twino and Viainvest.

Does PeeBerry offer a buyback guarantee?

Yes, the P2P platform offers a repurchase guarantee for all loans. What is amazing here is that even real estate loans are covered with the guarantee. In addition, PeerBerry also offers group guarantees. So if, for example, a lender in the Aventus Group defaults, it will stand in for it. At least that is the theory.

Personally, I don’t think much of the group guarantee, as it hasn’t worked for other P2P platforms in the event of a default anyway, because the group itself went bankrupt. However, that can be different with PeerBerry, should it come to that.

Is there an app for PeerBerry?

Yes, PeerBerry has a smartphone app for both iOS and Android. In my eyes, it is one of the best P2P smartphone apps on the market today.

Is there a secondary market?

No, PeerBerry does not offer a secondary market at this time.

Is there a tax certificate on PeerBerry?

Yes, PeerBerry offers a proper tax certificate as a download that you can generate yourself. The certificate is provided as a PDF and contains all important data for the tax office. You can find it in the “Account statement” section.

Can I invest money in other currencies?

No, here you always invest in euros.

PeerBerry Risk

From my PeerBerry experience, the Latvian platform has been very investor-oriented in recent years. Especially in the crisis year 2020, they did a great job and continued to grow strongly despite the crisis.

However, earning interest can be over sooner than one would like. We already know this from other platforms. So a loss can never be ruled out!

How does PeerBerry earn money?

PeerBerry’s only income is the commission earned from lenders. The amount of the commission fee is variable and depends on the product, the country and the size of the lender’s company. According to research, the amount of the commission fee varies from 1% to 5%.

What happens if PeerBerry slips into bankruptcy?

If PeerBerry were to cease operations it is not publicly defined what would happen. However, shutting down the platform itself would have no impact on current loans.

By the way, there is also a group guarantee on PeerBerry. So if, for example, one of the lenders that work under the Aventus Group goes bust, the group itself will step in. To my knowledge, however, there has never been such a case.

Is PeerBerry profitable?

According to the company’s own statements, it operates profitably. However, the platform itself does not have any audited annual report. However, some of the lenders in the background have audited annual reports, which is often a prerequisite for operating in the respective countries. With the upcoming regulation in Latvia, it will also be mandatory for Peerberry to have an audited annual report.

How serious is PeerBerry?

Due to the strong structure of the Aventus Group in the background and the very constant and transparent communication towards the investors, we can assume that PeerBerry is a good and serious P2P platform.

Through my contacts over the years with the P2P platform, I have been able to gain many insights and certain employees are extremely involved in Telegram groups to explain issues to investors.

How secure is PeerBerry?

I think the P2P platform is safe as long as Aventus Group is doing well. Moreover, they are pursuing obtaining the IBF license in Latvia and thus have to meet quite high legal requirements.

However, you must never forget that investing in P2P loans is generally high risk! Therefore, as always, it is advisable to invest only money that you are not dependent on in case of doubt.

Is there any deposit insurance on PeerBerry?

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

Are there any defaults on PeerBerry?

On every P2P platform there are usually failures and so certainly here. However, the default rate is not publicly visible and due to the repurchase guarantee concept, you as an investor will not be aware of it. The platform advertises that it has never lost a loan.

PeerBerry in the Covid-19 crisis

The P2P platform had its first test, like many others, in 2020, when Corona swept across the world.

How did PeerBerry fare during the crisis?

PeerBerry did not have any significant problems during the crisis. So those who were invested here could happily continue to generate passive income. Although, as with most platforms, the volume of new P2P loans dropped in the early 2020s and people wanted to withdraw their funds, the volume normalized a few months later.

Advantages and Disadvantages of PeerBerry

Before we get to a final conclusion of the platform, here is a summary of my pros and cons.

Disadvantages ➖

• Investors often think that PeerBerry is a broadly diversified marketplace because of its structure. But they are very attached to the success of Aventus Group.
• There is no audited annual report of the platform itself and thus no easy and quick way to check the company’s financial situation.
• The company is unregulated so far, even though the application for the license in Latvia is underway.
• As a marketplace, one is always dependent on a party that cannot be entirely controlled, namely the lenders.
• There are almost only consumer loans with very short terms on the platform.

Advantages ➕

• Stable profits and no cashdrag since inception.
• Most loans have the repurchase guarantee.
• Marketplace concept allows you to spread your investment across multiple countries and companies.
• Passive income via full automation is possible.
• No problems with lenders so far and therefore no capital loss (not even in the Covid-19 crisis).

Evaluation of my PeerBerry Experience

PeerBerry is one of the winners of the Corona crisis. However, favored by the situation that so far there have never been any known problems on the P2P platform. However, as we all know, these can come faster than you think. So despite all the euphoria, investors should still be careful with their investments.

For many investors from our community, everything seems too good to be true and, as we all know, this is when you should be particularly careful with your money. However, there is nothing to be said against building up a portfolio position with PeerBerry and observing and continuously improving it.

By the way, my personal contact with the company has always been outstanding. They always take time when there are questions from the community and are not afraid to answer all questions of the investors personally and to hang around in the communities themselves.

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

You can refer friends to PeerBerry. You and your friend will be credited 1% of their investment for the first 30 days when 500 EUR is invested (that would be equal to 10 EUR). The bonus goes up to 1,000 EUR for both parties.

Links & Sources:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/peerberry
https://www.reddit.com/r/PeerBerry/
https://twitter.com/peerberry?lang=en