Help and frequently asked questions

What is Income?

Income is the first platform to offer secured loan investments with an annual yield of up to 15%. With Income, you can invest in loans originated by non-bank lenders globally. Both retail and institutional investors can invest in small fractions of the listed loans and earn competitive yields.

Loan Originators provide alternative financing to individuals and businesses and make the issued loans available for investors on the Income platform. The Income platform is an intermediary connecting investors, borrowers, and Loan Originators (non-bank lenders) via an investment platform and providing additional intermediary services. Based on the Assignment Agreement, investors can purchase a claim right arising from the Loan Agreement and receive interest following the terms and conditions of the Assignment Agreement.

Read more: https://getincome.com/blog/how-to-invest-in-loans-and-earn-up-to-12-p-a/

Investing in loans can be very rewarding as the returns are high even during periods of high inflation. Their performance also does not generally correlate with other established assets such as stocks or crypto, making investing in loans a great alternative when the rest of the market seems overvalued. Loans also provide a monthly cash flow. As the loans get repaid, so does the investment. The repayments and earned interest can then be easily re-invested or withdrawn if other investment opportunities arise. This cashflow element of loans makes them an excellent option to keep excess cash in an asset that is independent of other markets.

Income offers investing in assets secured by the loan originators’ listed portfolios. Our unique security features, Buyback Obligation and Cashflow Buffer, safeguard your investments in case of a borrower or a Loan Originator defaults. Before we onboard a loan originator (LO) and allow them to place loans on the marketplace, we investigate their loan book and loan origination quality. Based on our findings, we set a “safety margin” or “junior share” at a level where we believe investors are safe even if the LO should default on its obligations.

The “safety margin” means that if the LO defaults, all the junior share of LOs and their revenue items (Interests and fees) will first be used to pay investors’ principal and interest, and only once all investor funds have been recovered is the remaining cash paid to the LO. For example, if 1000 loans by LO are funded on the marketplace, and 800 of them will perform perfectly, all LO junior shares and all excess earnings from those 800 loans will benefit the 200 non-performing loans in case of LO default.

Investing on the Income platform is free for you. We earn on the fees we charge the loan originators when their loans get invested in by investors.

Income is not the platform for the highest peer-to-peer yield. We value sustainability and increased security. We require more security from loan originators (LO) than other platforms. This limits their leverage for the benefit of our investors. Very high-interest offers are often also very risky.

A normal funding cost in the market (how much prime LOs pay for the money from investors) is between 7-15%. We know this level is sustainable with the terms we offer them and that an investor return in that range can be solid and long-term.

Income is available in English, Estonian, German and Spanish. You can change the language of the platform at the bottom of the page.

Income is currently not licensed by any financial authority. Income operates in Estonia, and Estonian legislatlation does not currently offer a license we could apply for.

You can contact Income in many ways. Chat, hello@getincome.com or by calling us:+44 116 464 9956, +372 660 0353

Income does not issue loans or provide funding. It is a platform where investors can invest in financial instruments backed by loans issued by lending companies from around the world. If you want to apply for a loan, please contact a lending company in your area directly.

Yes, please send us an email to hello@getincome.com. Describe the problem and include the screenshots of the issue, if possible. We often issue bonuses for reporting bugs. You can read the rules here https://getincome.com/blog/the-income-bug-hunt-2-0/

What do I need to do to become an investor?
  1. Create an account with your email address
  2. Verify your identity in a few easy steps
  3. Deposit funds to your Income account
  4. Start investing by manually choosing loans or using auto invest.

If anything is unclear we will be happy to help you.

The marketplace is open to both individuals and companies. To register as an investor, you have to:

  • Have a bank account in one of the countries of the European Economic Area (European Union, Norway, Iceland, UK, Switzerland and Liechtenstein);
  • EEA country issued passport, ID card, or residence permit;
    Be at least 18 years old;
  • Provide a copy of your identification documents to Income Company.

Family trusts, partnerships, limited liability companies, and other organizations must have a bank account and be registered in the European Economic Area (European Union, Norway, Iceland, UK, Switzerland and Liechtenstein). The individual registering the company must have the legal right to represent the company.

Yes

In order to comply with European laws and regulations, we are asking you to go through the verification process. We are committed to providing a safe marketplace, so you providing your information helps us to comply with regulations and to protect your money and account.

To make sure it’s really you creating an account, we are asking you to use Veriff to verify your identity. Veriff is a global, full-service identity verification solution that is compliant with GDPR, CCPA, SOC2 type II, and WCAG Accessibility Guidelines. Your privacy and data are protected.

Before you start the verification process, please ensure you have a stable Internet connection and you have your identification document ready. Your ID shouldn’t be expired or damaged in any way.

We currently accept the following documents:

  • Passport
  • National identification card

Please note that we don’t accept driving licences or residence permits as identification documents.

To verify your account, click on Get verified button in the Identity section and then follow the instructions.

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

If you are experiencing any difficulties with getting your account verified, please read the following tips on how to avoid possible mistakes and contact our Support team at hello@getincome.com!

No. You will still be earning interest on already made investment, as well as be able to withdraw funds. Adding money to your account and making new investments will be frozen until the new ID is provided.

A month before your ID expiration, the system will ask you to upload a new ID. Please do so once you have it in order to avoid the account freeze.

You can find the deposit details in your account under “Deposit/Withdraw”. The minimum first deposit is 10€ and must be transferred from an investor’s personal bank account operating within the European Economic Area. 

We only accept SEPA transfers and payments in euro; please ensure you have selected the euro currency before making the transfer. Also, please make sure to add your account’s reference number. 

Your deposit will be processed as soon as it is received. Please note that it may take up to two business days.

The issue must be that you’re not indicating the reference number. All transfers should contain investor’s reference number for the system to be able to identify the account in the system. If no reference number is included, the system automatically bounces the transfer back.

It takes up to 3 business days for us to receive your transfer and allocate it to your Income marketplace account. If 3 business days have passed, please contact us at hello@getincome.com and we’ll investigate the issue.

​The system will capture new bank account information automatically, once you make your first transfer from that new bank account.

Each borrower makes monthly payments according to their loan agreements, which can consist of principal, interest and late payment fees, or any combination of the above.

Your share of the payment, which is calculated based on your investment in any particular loan, will be added to your Income account after the payment has been processed. You can then choose to invest the funds in more loans or withdraw them to your IBAN bank account.

Each individual or legal entity is only allowed to have one Income account. If you create multiple Income accounts, we’ll be required to limit and close all your duplicate accounts.

To change your password, please log out and then click on Reset password. You’ll get an automated email with the password reset link.

Log in method should be the same as your registration method. For example, if you registered with your Apple account, you can only log in with Apple log in method.

What is the minimum amount that can be invested?

The minimum investment amount in one loan is 0.01 EUR. However, please note that due to mathematical rounding, the interest you earn may not always appear in your account statement if it is less than 1 cent after rounding.

For example, if you invest 0.01 EUR in a loan with an annual interest rate of 15%, the unrounded annual interest would be 0.0015 EUR. Since our system uses mathematical rounding to two decimal points (€0.01 precision), amounts below 0.005 EUR are rounded down to 0 and will not be credited to your account statement.

To avoid losing potential interest due to rounding, we recommend investing at least 10 EUR in a single loan. This ensures that the interest earned is more likely to meet the minimum threshold for rounding and display accurately in your account.

The loans are listed in EUR.

To invest, you must have available funds in your Income account. You can choose to invest either manually or by using the auto-invest function:

Manual Investment:

You can manually browse, filter, and invest in listed loans. By investing manually, you can compare the details of each loan, such as term, interest rate, loan purpose, and borrower information. Rather than funding an entire loan, investors can purchase a piece of a certain loan.

Auto invest:

Automated investments are performed by an auto-invest tool. You must create an auto-invest portfolio (strategy) to start using auto-invest. This is done by setting what type of loans you want to invest in continuously (term and type of the loan, country of issuance, loan originator, etc.). The system will then automatically invest in loans that match your criteria. When you have set a maximum euro amount for your auto investment portfolio, the tool will re-invest loan repayments to loans matching your set criteria and ensure that all your capital is earning interest and is efficiently deployed.

Once the investment has been made, it is transferred to the Loan Originator. Your principal is repaid to you as the repayments of the underlying loans instalments, at their respective payment schedule, gets paid to the LO. In case a loan has missed a repayment for over 60 days, then the Loan Originator has the obligation to buy the loan back immediately and the funds will be transferred to the investor after recieving them from the LO. Interests will be accrued for all the funds for all the days they are invested.

Every investment comes with an electronically concluded Assignment Agreement once the investment has been made. You can find the assignment agreement in your account statement.

There is no limit on the number of loans you want to invest in as long as you have funds available on your Income account.

Interest is calculated on a daily basis on the outstanding balance of your made investments. The formula for calculating interest is as follows: Invested amount * Amount of days * Interest rate/365.

  1. Interest is always calculated based on the total principal from the beginning of the investment without intermediate rounding.
  2. At the end of each period, the total interest is updated by adding the current period’s calculated interest to the previous total.
  3. Already paid-out interest is deducted from the total, and the remaining interest is then rounded to two decimal points.

For example:

  • Month 1: If the calculated interest is €0.0044, it is rounded to 0 and not paid.
  • Month 2: The new interest is calculated (e.g., €0.0092). Adding this to the previous €0.0044 results in a total of €0.0136. After deducting the previous payment (€0), the amount is rounded to €0.01, and this 1 cent is paid out.
  • Month 3: Interest is calculated again (e.g., €0.0077), added to the total (€0.0044 + €0.0092 + €0.0077 = €0.0213), minus the 1 cent already paid, leaving €0.0113, which is rounded to €0.01 and paid.

By combining all months’ interest before rounding and payout, our system ensures that even small amounts are eventually accounted for once they meet the 1 cent threshold.

Auto invest is an advanced feature that allows investors to create an investment portfolio based on custom sets of criteria (loan term, type, interest, investment amount, loan originator, and country).

After setting up auto-invest, the system automatically filters and invests in loans meeting the requirements. Auto invest allows investors to save time and ensures efficient allocation of funds.

There are several loan statuses you can see on our platform.

“Current” means that everything is going according to the schedule and the borrower is paying regularly.

1-15d – means that the borrower is 1-15 days late with the repayment. Sometimes loans also fall into this category when the Loan Originator has already sent us the transer, but we haven’t gotten it yet. We are working on implementing a separate status for such cases.

16-30 d – means that the borrower is 16-30 days late with the repayment.

31-60 d – means that the borrower is 31-60 days late with the repayment.​If the borrower is late for 60 days, according to the security measures of our platform, Loan Originator is obliged to buy the loan back from you. You are earning interest the whole time the money is invested, even when the borrower is late.

To better serve Loan Originators (LO) with longer-term loans, Income introduced a feature called “Early Buyback.” With this feature, when listing the loans, the LO can define when the system triggers the normal buyback process. This feature will help to spread buyback events evenly and provide better demand for LO with longer-term loans. The payment schedule and investors’ payments follow the original installment schedule until the loan is bought back on the set date. Interest is accrued on a daily basis as before. More info here: https://getincome.com/blog/early-buyback-incomes-new-feature/

Please check the Buyback date of the mentioned loans (click on the loan’s number and you’ll be directed to the loan page with additional info) – we have the new feature called Early buyback where the Loan Originator voluntarily performs the buyback earlier than the close date of the loan. This may be the case why it looks like the Auto Invest invested in longer loans, while in fact they will be bought back by the Loan Originator earlier. More info here: https://getincome.com/blog/early-buyback-incomes-new-feature/

One of LOs in the strategy doesn’t have loans anymore that would match your filters. Since you have Diversification ON, the autoinvest stopped investing at all to make sure the portfolio balance is respected and not shifted towards other LOs.

You will need to wait for the loans to reach maturity.

All investments on the platform are final. Please wait until the maturity date and once you’ve withdrawn all money, contact us for the account closure procedure.

Income from investments is usually taxed as capital gains, based on your country of residence. The investor is responsible for declaring their income and if you are not sure how this is done we recommend you to consult with your local authorities or advisers. Investors can download their account statement for tax purposes from their investor account at any time.

You can withdraw funds from your account by choosing “Deposit/Withdraw” from the menu and following the instructions. Your withdrawal will be processed as soon as you enter it. Please note that the actual payment transfer may take up to two business days. We only send funds to the account you have made deposits from.

What happens if a borrower defaults on their payments?

In the event that a borrower does not make a payment according to schedule, the loan originator is obligated to buy back the loan from you once it has become 60 days overdue. This function called a “Buyback Obligation” and covers principal and all accrued interest.

Yes, different Loan Originators on the platform can offer extensions on their loans. You can see if the loan is allowed to have extensions in the loan view on the platform.

In the event that a loan originator (LO) cannot service its obligations (this event is called a “default”) the LO ́s “junior share” as well as profits from its performing loans placed on the Income Marketplace will act as security for investors. The borrower payments to all of these loans will be collected by Income and used to service the loans until all investor claims have been satisfied.

Income prioritizes the security of Investors’ investments. Through our partnership with Verifo (https://verifo.com/), we utilize segregated B2C accounts to keep your funds separate and protected. Segregated accounts mean Investors’ funds are kept entirely separate from Income’s operational capital.

Any investment is a risk. The interest paid to the investors is the compensation for their risk. Please consider carefully how much risk you can tolerate before making an investment.

What is a Loan Originator (LO)?

Loan originators (LO) are financial companies offering credit services. Further information about each LO on Income Marketplace can be found on the “Loan Originators” part of our website.

Loans can be issued to borrowers for different purposes, including business needs, home improvement, vehicle purchases, other major purchases, and many other reasons. The purpose of the loan is noted under each listing and is dependent on the borrower and loan originator. More info here: https://getincome.com/blog/all-about-the-loans-you-invest-in-loan-types/

Investors are able to see a certain amount of information about borrowers on our marketplace, including how much they have borrowed and for what purpose. For security reasons and to comply with data protection laws, we do not reveal the full names or addresses of borrowers.

Please refer to our “Loan Originators” page where we include more detailed information about the loan originators currently on our marketplace.

How does Refer-a-friend program work?

Each investor receives their own unique referral code when signing up on Income that they can copy and paste from the Refer a Friend page and send to friends, colleagues, family, etc. When new investors register on Income using your unique referral code and verify their account, they get added to your referral list. Your friend needs to complete the identity verification for them to count as a referral. After registering and verifying, your friend must make their first investment within 30 days for you both to receive bonuses.

When you register on Income, you automatically get a unique referral code that you can share with anyone. Every investor who shares their code successfully automatically becomes eligible for the referral bonus.

You can refer an indefinite amount of people – the more, the better. And the more friends invest, the bigger your bonus; however, per each referral, your minimum bonus is 10EUR and maximum bonus is 500 EUR.

The refer-a-friend bonus is paid onto your Income account 40 days after your friend’s account has been approved and they have been verified.

The current bonus calculation is built up on the weighted average of the outstanding investment at the end of each day for the first 30 days. This means that the bonus is calculated as 1% of the amount you or your friend invested at the end of each day, divided by the number of days. But not less than 10 Euros and not more than 500 Euros.