RateSetter ends cash incentive for new customers
RATESETTER has wound down its £100 ‘welcome bonus’ following an internal review.
The cashback scheme was available to any new customer who invested £1,000 or more on the platform and would be added to their account after a year. It was the only P2P platform to run such a scheme, although several high street banks offer similar cash incentives to new customers who open current accounts.
However, new customers can still get a £100 bonus if they are referred by an existing RateSetter investor, under the platform’s referral scheme, while a similar referral bonus is also offered by Zopa and Funding Circle.
RateSetter would not comment on its reason for winding down its cashback incentive scheme, but the decision comes after an influx of new investors into the platform.
In September, chief executive Rhydian Lewis told Peer-to-Peer Finance News that new account queries had doubled in the aftermath of the base rate cut, and the platform’s variable interest rates have fallen slightly over the same period of time.
At the beginning of August, the firm was offering investors 3.8 per cent on a one-year loan, 4.2 per cent on a two-year term and 5.8 per cent over five years. By the start of October, one-year loans were at 3 per cent, three year loans were at 3.7 per cent, and five year loans were at 5.1 per cent.
A RateSetter spokesperson said that the firm could reintroduce the inventive at some point in the future, adding that “we keep all these things under regular review.”