10 Things We Checked Before Investing in Lendermarket (2026)

Our Lendermarket Checklist at a Glance

The Ten Points on Video

We walk through the same ten points on camera, in the same order as this checklist.

1. Look Up the Licence in the Irish Register

Start with the licence, because the rest of this checklist builds on it. Lendermarket Limited, registered in Dublin, is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland as a European Crowdfunding Service Provider under Regulation (EU) 2020/1503. Checking that yourself is straightforward.

Open the Central Bank of Ireland register entry and look at four fields. The reference number is C513967. The registration date is 17 December 2024. The withdrawal date field is empty, so the registration has not been withdrawn. Under services provided, the entry names "the facilitation of granting of loans", which is the regulated Crowdfunding Service from point two.

One thing to flag is passporting, a word that is easy to misread. It is a right of the provider: Lendermarket may offer its regulated service in other EU member states without a separate licence in each. It says nothing about your passport or nationality. Whether you can sign up depends on your age, bank account and tax residency, all covered in point eight.

2. Two Services, Two Rulebooks

Lendermarket runs two services side by side, and each follows its own rules.

The first of them, the Crowdfunding Service, falls under Regulation (EU) 2020/1503. On this side you lend to the loan originator under a Limited Recourse Loan or Limited Purpose Loan agreement, and every project comes with a Key Investment Information Sheet. In the screenshot, a note beneath the heading of the regulated listing page cites the Central Bank of Ireland authorisation.

The Claims Assignment Service sits outside that regulation, and its listing page says so. Instead of lending, you acquire claims through an assignment agreement. Lendermarket's how-it-works page also names different supervision: the Irish central bank for the first service and Lendermarket Internal Compliance for the second.

Labelling is well-structured, since each listing displays its service. You also pick between the regulated and unregulated services during onboarding and can review that choice in your account settings at any time. Auto Invest then asks again in a step called Service type. Decide on purpose at both levels, the account setting and the Auto Invest step.

3. The Cashback Is Decided at Registration

Point three is about timing rather than risk. Register through our link as a new investor, and you get 1.5% cashback on your net invested funds during the first 90 days after your account is validated. The cashback is credited to your Lendermarket account within 5 business days after those 90 days end. There is no code to type in, because the link stores the referral in the background.

The 90 days start once your identity check is complete. An account you already hold does not qualify, so the sensible order is to decide before you sign up. Our guide to the Lendermarket cashback covers the conditions in detail.

4. Check Who Owes You the Money

Whichever service a loan sits in, your repayment depends on the company that originated it, not on Lendermarket. The platform lists 14 such loan originators, seven on each side:

• •Regulated: RapiCredit (Colombia), RapiCredit Iberica (Spain), Dineo (Spain), Gatelink (Estonia), Flowpay (Czech Republic), OK Credit (Moldova) and Best Credit (Romania)
• •Unregulated: Credifiel (Mexico) and six Creditstar lines, namely Spain, Finland, Denmark, Czech, Sweden and Monefit (Estonia)

What stands out is the weight of one group. Those six lines all name Creditstar Group AS as their legal entity and carry its group buyback guarantee. The 2025 annual reports of Lendermarket and Creditstar Group lead to a shared parent, SA Financial Investments OÜ, which owns 100% of Creditstar Group AS and is Lendermarket Limited's parent company. The Monefit entry is a lending line, not the Monefit SmartSaver investment product.

Gatelink deserves a second look. On paper it is an independent Estonian lender with its own licence and no group guarantee, yet its borrowers include Creditstar companies. In the screenshot under point two, its regulated loans even carry the identifier Creditstar Finland. Legally it stands apart, while economically it remains exposed to that group.

The roster also shifts over time: OK Credit and Best Credit joined in August 2026. Look at the loan originators page before you commit money. Auto Invest can filter by originator, so how much Creditstar exposure you carry is your call. Our safety check of Lendermarket traces the ownership links in more depth.

5. The Buyback Clock Starts Later Than You Think

Lendermarket's homepage sums up the buyback in one line: "if a loan is overdue by 60 days, the loan originator repays your principal plus accrued interest." The official extensions page gives the full rule: "The Buyback Guarantee activates 60 days after the final scheduled or extended maturity date." Due dates can move within each originator's extension policy, which Lendermarket shows under every loan, and every extension pushes that date back.

So the maximum number of late days is the extension period plus 60. For the six Creditstar lines and Credifiel, that adds up to 240 days, almost eight months. Dineo comes to 120 days. RapiCredit, RapiCredit Iberica, Gatelink and Flowpay allow no extensions, so their chain ends at 60 days. The extension table leaves out OK Credit and Best Credit.

The same logic explains the 0% default rate Lendermarket reports. A late loan that the originator later buys back does not count as a default, so the figure says nothing about how long your money waits. If timing matters to you, the deciding factor is the originator, not the interest rate.

6. No Deposit Guarantee, No Compensation Scheme

Lendermarket's risk disclosure statement puts it plainly: this is not a savings product. Your investment is not covered by the deposit guarantee schemes under Directive 2014/49/EU. Nor do the investor compensation schemes under Directive 97/9/EC cover it. Holding a licence changes nothing here, and the platform's own warning names the risk of partial or entire loss of the money invested.

What remains is the buyback from point five, whose limit Lendermarket spells out: "A Buyback Guarantee is a contractual obligation of the Loan Originator and is dependent on their financial capacity." For the six Creditstar lines, the group guarantee is only as strong as Creditstar Group AS itself. If an originator runs out of cash, so does the protection its buyback offers.

No setting on the platform removes that exposure, and it applies to every euro you commit.

7. Almost No Fees, and No Tax Withheld

On costs, Lendermarket holds up well. Registration, investing and portfolio management are free, and so are SEPA bank deposits. SWIFT transfers are not accepted, so pay in by SEPA.

A few charges remain around payments. Each bank withdrawal after the first one in a calendar month costs €2. Card deposits and card withdrawals may carry a processing fee, which for card withdrawals is shown before you confirm. Leaving Auto Invest FLEX early costs 3.5% of the amount you take out, as point nine explains.

The one caveat is where the €2 rule appears. Lendermarket's fee page lists bank withdrawals as free with an asterisk, while the Help Centre spells out the charge. The practical fix is simple: bundle your withdrawals into one per calendar month.

On tax, Lendermarket deducts nothing at source. Repayments reach your bank account "without any deduction or withholding" for tax. You can download a tax report from your account and declare the income under the rules of your country of tax residence.

8. Ten Euros In, Fifty Euros Out

The entry ticket is low. The minimum is €10 per loan with no maximum, so €1,000 can already be spread across up to 100 loans. The way out has a higher floor: withdrawals start at €50. Below that, you can only withdraw your full balance. Bank withdrawals usually arrive within 3 business days.

Eligibility comes down to four conditions. You must be at least 18, hold a bank account in the EEA or Switzerland and be tax resident in the EU or Switzerland. You also verify your identity through Sumsub, for a private or a business account. The platform accepts euros only, a minor drawback if your income arrives in another currency. On top of that, switch on the two-factor authentication Lendermarket recommends.

The panel above shows Lendermarket's own five-step start: deposit by card or bank transfer, then amount, period, service type and the activation of Auto Invest. Step four is the choice from point two, so settle it before step five.

9. No Secondary Market, Only a Conditional Exit

Lendermarket does not offer a secondary market, so you cannot list a loan for another investor to buy. Money in ordinary loans comes back as they are repaid or bought back. The early exit feature belongs to Auto Invest FLEX, a portfolio type that Lendermarket markets with target returns of up to 10.5%, a target rather than a promise.

FLEX works as a request to leave, not as a sale. From a FLEX portfolio, you can ask to exit 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of your current value and pay 3.5% of the exited amount. In Lendermarket's own example, taking out €500 costs €17.50. Processing takes up to 10 calendar days under the FLEX terms. It only goes through if replacement funding is found; otherwise, the request lapses at no cost and your investment keeps running. Lendermarket calls the feature "conditional only" and says it "does not constitute a guaranteed right to liquidity".

Beyond that, reinvestment into that portfolio pauses for 10 business days after an approved exit. And because loans are bought back in whole units, the amount actually executed can come out slightly higher than the percentage you picked.

The cards above are an example of how FLEX portfolios are presented, with the service type on each card. The trade-off is clear: you pay for a way out, not for certainty about timing. Treating FLEX like instant access is one of the five Lendermarket beginner mistakes we cover separately.

10. Lendermarket 1.0 Is History, and 2.0 Is Young

Lendermarket was established in 2018. Its own statistics show almost €690 million invested since launch and more than 31,000 registered investors. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

The first version went through a hard stretch. From 2022 to 2024, investors faced payment delays, known as pending payments. Lendermarket's About page addresses them head-on: "The payment delays were a difficult period, but we resolved all obligations in full with interest." Lendermarket 2.0 launched in April 2024, and the 1.0 platform closed on 31 December 2025.

That said, reviews are split. On Trustpilot, Lendermarket holds 4.1 out of 5 from 744 reviews, with 45% five-star and 32% one-star ratings, and it replies to negative reviews. The platform company itself lost €1,123,349 in 2025, and its auditors flagged a material uncertainty related to going concern; our Lendermarket safety analysis explains what that means for you.

Before You Deposit: Our Take

We worked through these ten points before our own first deposit. We started with a smaller amount, now hold a four-figure sum and plan to add to it step by step. So far, our experience has been positive.

Overall, the pros and cons point to a clear profile. Lendermarket fits you if you already understand P2P lending, can leave money untouched for months and want to pick the service type and originators yourself. You benefit from low fees, a licence you can check in a public register and extension rules published for twelve of the fourteen originators.

Money you might need soon belongs somewhere else. A late loan can wait up to 240 days, and FLEX exits depend on replacement funding. The same goes if you need deposit-style protection or want to limit your exposure to one lending group. Lendermarket's own risk statement advises against putting more than 10% of your net worth into crowdfunding projects. None of this is investment advice, and we are not financial advisers.

Our Lendermarket review gives the full verdict, including the platform numbers. If Monefit SmartSaver is also on your list, our Lendermarket vs Monefit comparison sets the two side by side.