Debitum Review – Regulated and more than 13% interest?

Registration for investors

Registering on the platform is not particularly complicated. You can register both as a private investor and as a company.

Once you have registered, you are ready to invest in P2P loans on the platform, provided you have made the first deposit and identified yourself. You will need your identity card or passport to verify your identity.

In addition to verification, there are also other levels of identification, depending on how much you invest. A questionnaire must also be completed to confirm that you understand what you are investing in.

At Debitum, you as an investor go through various stages of verification.

By the way, 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.

How do I deposit money?

Depositing money is, as always, the easiest step when investing. You will see a “Deposit” button in your account. If you click on this, you will be shown transfer details that you can use.

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

Deposit to Debitum

How do I withdraw money?

If you want to withdraw capital or excess interest from the P2P platform, you can use the “Withdraw” button under “Overview” at the bottom. You will not be charged a fee for withdrawing funds.

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

How long does the deposit take?

From my previous Debitum experience, it takes around 1 – 2 days to make a deposit to the platform’s account. However, if you use services such as Revolut*, the transfer is often faster, but without guarantee.

Can I make deposits and withdrawals by credit card?

Yes, you can also deposit to your Debitum account using a credit card (Visa & Mastercard) as well as Google and Apple Pay. However, please note that a 1% service fee will be charged. For example, if you deposit EUR 1,000, EUR 1,010 will be debited from your credit card.

How does Debitum work?

After registering on the platform, you can start placing your investments. You can do this both manually and automatically. As an advocate of passive income, I focus on the automated investments.

The primary market on Debitum

The Debitum Auto Invest

You can tell Debitum’s automatic portfolio builder exactly which countries & interest rates you want to invest in and it is very easy to configure.

Auto Invest Debitum

You can set the following things:

• Name of the portfolio
• Sum of the portfolio
• Exclusion of already invested ABS
• Interest rate
• Maturity
• Maximum amount per ABS
• Loan originator
• Minimum amount that should remain uninvested.

However, the highlight is probably the “Auto withdrawal” feature, which allows you to withdraw interest earned on a monthly basis. This takes your investment even further in the direction of “passive income”. But you can only use this feature once you have invested at least EUR 10,000.

In which countries can you invest?

Debitum currently offers loans from 4 different countries, in detail these are

• Latvia
• Great Britain
• Estonia
• and Poland

In my opinion, the UK in particular makes the platform very attractive, as it is rare to invest from the Baltic States. You can find a current list of all lenders on Debitum itself here.

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

Which loans can you invest in on Debitum?

Those who invest in P2P loans here generate their returns exclusively with business loans. This is the area in which the platform specializes and we won’t see anything else here in the future.

It should be noted that you are investing in asset-backed securities (ABS) on Debitum due to regulation. These are basically several loans combined into a loan bundle with corresponding information documents that are specified by the regulation. If you would like to know more about asset-backed securities, you can delve deeper at Debitum.

This is how asset-backed securities work.

In addition to ABS, there are also bonds (notes). The difference to ABS is that the buyback obligation is no longer carried by the lender, but by the issuer’s shareholders.

Debitum’s loan originator page provides comprehensive information on lenders and their instruments and should always be checked for the latest information.

How high is the return on Debitum?

The return you can earn on the platform was initially between 8 and 10%, which was not comparable to the “possible” returns on platforms like Mintos. But in recent years, the return has increased significantly and you can now find ABS with up to 15% on the platform.

You can always see the exact monthly returns in the table at the beginning of this article. My own historical return can be viewed via the statistics (in German).

Will I also receive interest on late loans?

Yes, in some cases you will also receive interest on late payments. You can see whether and how much default interest the different lenders pay in the respective loan itself.

What is the minimum investment amount on Debitum?

You must invest EUR 10 per loan on the platform in order to be able to invest.

Does Debitum offer a buyback guarantee?

Yes, the P2P platform and its lenders offer a buyback guarantee or commitment. However, since we are trading on a marketplace here, the buyback guarantee is only as good as the lender’s finances

So keep an eye on the lenders! Unfortunately, this is not so easy with Debitum, as most lenders do not publish any financial reports.

In general, all ABS assets are secured by collateral from the companies that make up the underlying pool. Depending on the sector, this can be

• Invoices
• receivables from companies
• future income

You can find out how the individual ABS are structured for each lender.

Is there an app for Debitum?

No, the P2P platform does not offer an app to manage the loans in your own portfolio.

Can you invest money in other currencies?

No, here you always invest in euros.

Is there a tax statement on Debitum?

There is no real tax statement, but you can create an account statement that contains the most important information. You can do this by creating the desired filter under “My balance” on the right-hand side. You can then easily download the document.

Filtering and downloading the account statement is very simple.

Debitum risk

From my Debitum experience, the Latvian P2P platform is extremely stable. This is mainly due to its very careful selection of lenders, which I have already reported on.

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

How does Debitum earn money?

The P2P platform’s income comes from the brokerage commissions for the loans brokered by the connected lenders. In addition, the lenders also pay a fee for being allowed to be on the marketplace at all.

Similar to Mintos, you are the “man in the middle” here and earn money from the marketplace model.

What happens if Debitum becomes insolvent?

Should Debitum become insolvent, the rights of investors to their claims and bonds would continue to exist regardless of the status of the Debitum platform.

Due to Debitum’s license, the insolvency proceedings would be regulated and supervised by the Latvian Central Bank. The appointed liquidator or administrator would assume the duties of the board of directors.

In addition, uninvested investor funds are protected, allowing small investors to receive compensation of 90% of the permanent loss, up to a maximum of EUR 20,000. However, nobody knows whether and how the whole thing works in practice, as there has never been a case like this.

Is Debitum profitable?

According to official information, the company is not (yet) operating profitably, but has of course planned to do so. The last report (2023) looked quite good and showed impressive growth for the platform, which is probably due not least to the high return on investment.

A look at the 2023 annual report.

How reputable is Debitum?

I personally rate them as reputable. They have done a good job in the past and answer many questions in direct contact and the team is always approachable. However, there are still some scam allegations regarding the launch of the platform with an ICO (Initial Coin Offering).

The main issue here is that a lot of money was collected and the coin used (the DEB) has hardly any value today. Since nobody knows the 100% truth about this story, I don’t want to give a general assessment, but it’s something to bear in mind.

I don’t know what happened back then, but I do know that they have a different business model today than they did at the time of the ICO and that the current management no longer has any points of contact with it. I therefore consider this point to be uncritical for my own investment.

In addition, Debitum Investments has held an investment brokerage license issued by the Latvian Central Bank since September 2021. This means that the platform is also subject to the requirements of the MiFID II Financial Markets Directive, among others. This can be seen as a strong sign of a reputable platform.

How secure is Debitum?

I consider the P2P platform to be safe due to its concept. They have high requirements for loan originators and investors and since receiving the IBF license in Latvia, they have to meet even higher legal requirements.

However, you must never forget that investing in P2P loans is generally associated with a high level of risk! As always, it is therefore advisable to only invest money that you are not reliant on in case of doubt.

Is there deposit protection on Debitum?

No, certainly not. Debitum is not a bank and is therefore not covered by any European deposit protection scheme. All funds that you invest on the platform are exposed to a high risk of default.

Advantages and disadvantages of Debitum

Before we come to a final conclusion about my Debitum review, here is a summary of my pros and cons.

Disadvantages ➖

• There are still scam allegations against the platform. This is always unpleasant for investors.
• You know very little about the affiliated lenders. You can only dream of proper financial reports.
• As a marketplace, you are always dependent on a party that you cannot fully control, namely the lenders.
• The platform has very few lenders, which could have disadvantages in terms of proper diversification.

Advantages ➕

• We invest in corporate loans here, not consumer loans. In most cases, these also have real collateral.
• The loans have a repurchase obligation.
• The marketplace concept allows you to spread your investment across many different countries and companies via a single access point.
• Passive income via full automation is possible.
• So far no problems with lenders and therefore no loss of capital (apart from the Ukraine war, which was not Debitum’s fault).
• Debitum is a regulated P2P platform with audited financial reports.

Conclusion of my Debitum review

When I saw the P2P platform for the first time, I wasn’t really enthusiastic about it. My goal is to generate passive income with as little effort as possible. However, the company was initially very complicated with its own cryptocurrency and the investment was also extremely difficult to use. When the course change came in 2019 and a new interface was introduced, I took the plunge and invested a little more money.

It hasn’t been a bad decision to date. Even though these are not classic P2P loans, such as Bondora, but corporate loans. Since receiving the license in 2022, things have gone up another notch in my perception. A windy crypto startup has become a regulated financial institution with a solid performance.

You also have to consider the risk aspect here. The platform ran completely smoothly even during the Covid-19 crisis. The selection of lenders on Debitum is one of the best in the industry. They were only unlucky with Ukraine, but they could probably do very little about that themselves.

Is there a Debitum forum where you can exchange ideas?

There are various places where you can exchange ideas with other investors and gain Debitum experience. The first address for this is the international Debitum Telegram Community.

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

You can refer friends on Debitum. You and your friend can be credited up to EUR 1,000, depending on the amount invested. My code is “0F5EM” (without quotation marks) if you want to use it.

Calculation for the Refer a Friend program.

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