How P2P lending works after the deposit: auto-invest, idle cash and exit settings
Deposits wait in cash until a setting or a manual pick places them. Auto-invest, idle cash and exit rules compared on six P2P platforms.
Updated: 3 October 2026
A P2P lending deposit starts earning only when a setting or a manual choice places it in a loan. Maclear's terms of 4 April 2024 require deposits to be invested within 30 days, and PeerBerry's Auto Invest can keep a chosen amount uninvested. Below, six platforms are compared on placement, waiting money and exits.
Manual selection, fixed portfolios and rule-based auto-invest on six platforms
Platforms place a deposit in four ways, and several offer more than one.
- Manual selection: Mintos Browse loans, Estateguru manual investing and the Maclear primary market. PeerBerry's Auto Invest excludes secondary-market offers, so those purchases are manual (PeerBerry, read 3 October 2026).
- A fixed-rule portfolio: Mintos Core Loans, whose criteria "are not editable" (Mintos, updated 23 April 2026).
- Preset or investor-defined strategies: Mintos Custom Loans, PeerBerry Auto Invest, Debitum Auto Invest, Estateguru Auto Invest and Maclear AutoInvest.
- A pooled product: Go & Grow, run by Bondora.
| Platform and product | What the investor sets | Rules fixed or defaulted by the platform | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mintos Core Loans | Starts or stops the portfolio; chooses how much cash to top up and which return setting applies (cash page, 19 May 2026) | Risk Score 10.0 to 3.5, buyback obligation required, late-loan exposure under 20%, no loan more than 10 days overdue, 15% under one prospectus | Criteria page, 23 April 2026 |
| Mintos Custom Loans | Risk Score range down to 2.0, late-loan exposure from 0 to 100%, lending companies, portfolio goal (set in the portfolio editor) | Default 10 pending days and 15% of Notes under one prospectus; default diversification splits the target evenly across chosen lending companies | Process page, 24 April 2026 |
| PeerBerry Auto Invest | Country, originator, loan type, rate, remaining term, maximum per loan, portfolio size, amount kept uninvested | Maximum per loan at least EUR 50; the strategy never invests over the limits set; a first-in-first-out queue | Settings page, modified 28 March 2023; Auto Invest page, read 3 October 2026 |
| Debitum Auto Invest | Expected return, term, originators, maximum per asset, minimum wallet balance; several strategies can run at once | Active strategies compete for assets under an internal priority logic based on execution order and timing | Debitum FAQ, read 3 October 2026 |
| Estateguru Auto Invest | Conservative (loan-to-value up to 67.5%, 6 to 18 months), Balanced (up to 90%, 6 to 60 months) or Custom (own criteria); EUR 50 minimum | Presets fix loan-to-value and term ranges | Estateguru strategies, read 3 October 2026 |
| Go & Grow (Bondora) | Amount invested and withdrawn | Diversification across fractions of loans happens automatically, with no settings to select or change | Go & Grow, modified 3 July 2026 |
| Maclear AutoInvest | Minimum and optional maximum per project, minimum rate, term, risk level, countries, project types; optional debt-to-equity 0.2 to 4.0, loan-to-value 40% to 200% | Applies only to projects opened after activation and runs before manual investors; minimum amount per project EUR 50 | Strategy setup FAQ, 3 August 2026; AutoInvest FAQ, 3 August 2026 |
Limits per loan, lending company, prospectus and country
Each platform caps exposure at a different layer, so a per-loan cap and a per-originator cap can both apply in one account.
Mintos words its Core Loans cap in two ways. Its criteria page states 15% of the portfolio under a single prospectus. However, the how-to-invest page of 17 August 2026 says exposure is "capped at 15% per lending company". Custom Loans shows the prospectus cap as a 15% default that the investor can change. When a lending company is added to or removed from a Custom Loans portfolio with default diversification, the targets are recalculated. Adding a fifth company to four moves each from 25% to 20% of the target, and personal percentages reset (Mintos, 4 March 2025).
The Mintos diversification page lists principles: at least 100 loan parts and no more than 20% with one lending company. Country limits are 33% in one country and a combined 50% in any three countries. Yet its chart refers to 2020 data.
A maximum-per-loan field turns into a minimum loan count. PeerBerry's Auto Invest accepts a per-loan maximum of EUR 50 at the lowest. If the full EUR 1,000 is invested under that cap, at least 20 loan positions are needed (1,000 ÷ 50). Matching supply and other filters can leave part of the balance uninvested.
Strategy overlap can duplicate exposure. Maclear's AutoInvest FAQ says overlapping strategies may create separate investments in the same project, and the strategy setup page offers a "Skip existing investments" toggle. Concentration across borrower groups is covered in the mistakes guide.
Reinvestment, payout and idle-cash rules by platform
Where waiting money sits, and for how long, differs on each platform.
| Platform | Where waiting money sits | Rule or setting | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mintos | Available cash for deposits and uninvested funds; separate portfolio cash for each automated portfolio | Deposits no longer top up Core Loans or Custom Loans automatically. Core Loans and Custom Loans offer three return settings: Reinvest all (the default), Reinvest principal and Off (return settings, 29 April 2026). Manual Loans repayments return to available cash. Uninvested money earns no return | Cash page, 19 May 2026; Mintos security page, read 3 October 2026 |
| PeerBerry | Account balance | "Keep uninvested" amount set by the investor. A strategy starts within 1 day on average after creation or editing, and speed depends on loan supply and demand | Auto Invest pages, read 3 October 2026 |
| Debitum | Wallet | A minimum wallet balance in each strategy. The FAQ lists restrictive filters, the minimum balance and no matching assets as reasons an investment does not execute | Debitum FAQ, read 3 October 2026 |
| Go & Grow | Cash reserve inside the product | Daily returns; net returns above 6% a year are kept as a risk buffer and reinvested into the reserve | Go & Grow, modified 3 July 2026 |
| Maclear | Available balance; Reserved status while a project is funding | Deposits invested within 30 days, otherwise Maclear may transfer them back. Accrued borrower payments withdrawn within 60 days or reinvested within 30 (clause 3.4). Interest accrues from Funded status, after a Prefunded stage of typically up to 10 business days | Terms, 4 April 2024; Interest FAQ, 3 August 2026 |
Mintos help of 7 May 2026 names the reasons its automated portfolios can leave cash idle. The reasons include a stopped portfolio, Custom Loans criteria that match nothing, a reached portfolio goal and a minimum investment above the balance. For private accounts, the list adds an individual MiFID II responsible-investing limit on the total in automated portfolios, calculated from the Suitability and Appropriateness assessment.
Mintos also offers Smart Cash, a money market fund (BlackRock ICS Euro Liquidity Fund). That page of 25 June 2024 calls the fund not guaranteed, and the investing page lists a minimum of EUR 1.00. Accounts with no investment, sale, deposit or withdrawal in 360 days pay EUR 4.90 a month at Mintos. Still, the fee never takes the balance below zero (Mintos, updated 2 October 2026).
Cash drag on EUR 1,000: four idle patterns at a 12% rate
Cash drag is the interest forgone while money waits, and a stylised portfolio shows how the settings above turn into euros.
Every input is invented for this example. The portfolio is EUR 1,000 at a 12% contractual rate on invested money, with simple interest over a 365-day year, no fees and no losses. In rows B to D, one twelfth of the portfolio repays each month and waits the stated number of days before it is invested again. The example is a steady-state illustration with repayments before and after the 365-day window, so each repayment waits the full stated delay inside it. Python was used to check the arithmetic.
| Pattern | Average idle balance (EUR) | Interest in 12 months (EUR) | Forgone (EUR) | Yield on EUR 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fully invested all year | 0.00 | 120.00 | 0.00 | 12.00% |
| A: EUR 50 kept uninvested all year | 50.00 | 114.00 | 6.00 | 11.40% |
| B: monthly repayments redeployed after 3 days | 8.22 | 119.01 | 0.99 | 11.90% |
| C: monthly repayments redeployed after 21 days | 57.53 | 113.10 | 6.90 | 11.31% |
| D: monthly repayments redeployed after 60 days | 164.38 | 100.27 | 19.73 | 10.03% |
Row C costs slightly more than row A, so a three-week wait on repayments loses about as much as a permanent EUR 50 reserve. Row D shows 10.03% when a restrictive filter leaves repayments unmatched for two months. The forgone amount scales with the rate, so at 6% every figure in that column halves.
Dashboard returns treat idle cash differently by platform, as crowdlending returns and yield explains.
Exit routes: maturity, secondary market, buyback and portfolio cash-out
Money that is not assigned to a loan can be withdrawn. But invested money leaves at maturity, through a sale to another investor or, on Mintos Core Loans, through a cash-out.
| Platform and product | Exit route | Conditions | Cost and limits | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mintos Core Loans | Cash-out to other Core Loans investors | Set of Notes with late exposure up to 20%, no loan more than 10 days pending or overdue. Risk Score 10.0 to 3.5, lender not suspended. The Set must still generate interest and be profitable for a buyer, and the lender must hold other qualifying investments | No fee. Cash-out depends on buyer demand, and eligibility can change while a request is open | Mintos, 25 September 2026 |
| Mintos Notes | Secondary Market sale at a discount or premium | Notes only since 1 July 2022; funds arrive once another investor buys; no trading for suspended or defaulted lenders | 0.85% of each sale | Exit page, 7 May 2026; fees, 1 October 2026 |
| PeerBerry | Secondary market (desktop only); withdrawal of unassigned funds | Sale after 180 days, discount up to 50%, offer expires after 14 days; a purchase carries its own 180-day wait | No secondary-market fee; withdrawals EUR 1 to EUR 15,000 per transaction | Secondary market; withdrawals; both read 3 October 2026 |
| Debitum | Withdrawal of wallet balance; Flow early withdrawal | Wallet balance only, typically 3 business days; Flow requests wait in a first-in-first-out queue and depend on liquidity | No withdrawal or exit fee; Flow: up to EUR 1,000 available for next-day withdrawal, further amounts in a weekly cycle with a EUR 5,000 limit | Withdrawal FAQ, 13 March 2026; Flow FAQ, read 3 October 2026 |
| Estateguru | Secondary market sale of a whole claim at a price the seller picks; withdrawal | A claim cannot be split or sold in part | 1% seller fee, EUR 3 per withdrawal | Secondary market FAQ, read 3 October 2026; fees, 14 January 2026 |
| Go & Grow (Bondora) | Withdrawal at any time | No waiting period; in rare circumstances a partial payout in daily instalments | EUR 1 per withdrawal | Timeline FAQ and overview, both 24 April 2026 |
| Bondora manual portfolios | Hold to maturity or transfer to Go & Grow | Secondary market and API closed on 30 September 2025 | Not stated on the page | Go & Grow help, 15 September 2025 |
| Maclear | Secondary market; withdrawal of Available funds | 14-day listings, discount up to 50%, minimum EUR 30; promo-code or bonus investments cannot be listed; withdrawals from EUR 50. The FAQ says a position can be listed once the project's funding round is complete. The article of 24 June 2026 (updated 3 July 2026) describes a 14-day holding period after Funded status. A position bought on the secondary market cannot be relisted for 30 days | 2.5% seller fee, no withdrawal fee | Secondary market FAQ; secondary market article; withdrawal FAQ; both 3 August 2026 |
Mintos says a lending company must buy back a loan more than 60 days late, "only as good as the company undertaking this obligation" (Mintos). PeerBerry places the originator's duty at the 60th day of delay at the latest (PeerBerry). Yet Debitum's help page of 4 December 2025 gives the partner an option to buy back a late loan in recovery. That price is the remaining principal plus interest earned to the trigger date. Who bears the cost of each exit is set out in the fee-bearer comparison, and which licence covers which platform in the European licence map.
Maclear's secondary market FAQ reports that every listing created between June 2025 and March 2026 found a buyer within the 14-day window. The median time to sell was about three hours. That figure is Maclear's own statistic. Exit routes also change over time. Alternative Credit Investor reported in January 2023 that Bondora's secondary market would stay open for existing Portfolio Manager and Portfolio Pro investors. But Bondora closed it on 30 September 2025.
P2P lending settings FAQ
Can auto-invest leave money uninvested?
Yes. Mintos lists restrictive Custom Loans criteria, a reached portfolio goal and a minimum investment above the balance as causes. Likewise, PeerBerry's Auto Invest holds back whatever the investor enters in "Keep uninvested". Maclear's AutoInvest has a global minimum balance with a EUR 50 default.
How much does idle cash cost on EUR 1,000?
Idle cash costs between EUR 0.99 and EUR 19.73 a year in the stylised example at a 12% rate. The cost depends on whether repayments wait 3 or 60 days. A permanent EUR 50 reserve costs EUR 6.00.
Does uninvested money earn interest on Mintos?
No. Uninvested money earns no returns when the investor does not reinvest, Mintos states. Smart Cash is a separate money market fund product.
Can invested money be withdrawn at any time on PeerBerry or Debitum?
No. PeerBerry limits withdrawals to funds not assigned to an active contract and allows secondary-market sales only after 180 days. Debitum's withdrawal page covers uninvested wallet funds only and says funds confirmed as invested are legally binding and cannot be withdrawn. Its Flow product offers early withdrawal through a queue that depends on liquidity. The queue position is kept while a request is processed, according to the Flow FAQ.
What is the difference between a buyback and a secondary-market sale?
A buyback is the originator's obligation once a loan is late, for example after 60 days on Mintos. By contrast, a secondary-market sale is the investor's own decision. The sale comes with a discount or premium and a fee such as 0.85% on Mintos Notes or 2.5% on Maclear.
Can new Bondora investors pick individual loans?
Alternative Credit Investor reported that Portfolio Manager and Portfolio Pro accounts would close to new investors from 27 February 2023. Bondora's help page of 15 September 2025 lists the closure of its secondary market and API on 30 September 2025. The page names Go & Grow, which has no loan-selection settings, as the destination for existing manual portfolios.