‘News’ category

Surprise Surprise

Posted by Luke at 3:46 pm

My, it’s been quiet around here lately. Let me just clean out some of these cobwebs…

Ahem.

Much better.

Ya’ll are in luck, because we’ve been cooking up something special for all you lovely Zopa-ites: a contest! Who doesn’t love contests? (especially ones that are ridiculously easy to win?)

It’s gonna be a chance for you to save a bunch of money on your monthly loan repayments, and earn some money to boot. You might call it, a “save and earn” plan. Ole Ben Franklin would be proud – the more you save the more you earn.

We’ll post more promotion details soon, but in the mean time, I suggest you start thinking about all the people you know who might be in the mood for a Zopa CD – a solid investment with a smiley face.

And check back soon for details because you could find yourself about $1,000 richer in no time.

Posted in News, Fun | 4 Comments »

And the Webby goes to…

Posted by Luke at 4:37 pm

Zopa has just been awarded the Webby for Best Financial Services website!

This is the second year in a row that we’ve won a Webby, and all I can say is…it rocks. Seriously. I could get used to this.

For all you Webby fanatics, here’s a dramatic reenactment of how it all happened:

Webby Presenter: (opening e-envelope) …and the winner of the award for Best Financial Services Site of the Year is…Zopa.com!

Zopa: (e-sobbing with e-delight) Thank you! We’d like to thank the webcademy and our fellow nominees, as well as our developers, designers, and staff. We’d like to thank our mothers, our great-aunts, and all the bloggers who covered us. And above all, we’d like to thank our beautiful, passionate users. It’s been an amazing ride, and we would never be here…

*Webby Orchestra begins playing Webby theme-music*

Zopa: …if it weren’t for all our wonderful users. Users like AiflGrad, mraugust, and SuzCllns…

*Webby theme-music crescendos as Webby presenter shuffles Zopa off the stage*

Aaaaand scene.

Well. I guess they don’t call it the “Oscars of the Internet” for nothing.

Anyway, thanks to all of you lovely users, as well as everyone who voted for us. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Posted in News, Fun | No Comments »

Zopa = Best in Show!

Posted by Luke at 12:11 pm

So, a week ago I was telling all ya’ll about how we’ve been nominated for that most sacred of internet prizes — the Webby (actually, 2 Webbies, even sacred-er). But while the judges are deliberating over that contest, we have some more awards-show news: (drum roll, please….) Zopa was just voted Best in Show at Finovate!

For those of you who aren’t already familiar with Finovate, it’s a conference that “showcases dozens of the startups that are innovating at the intersection of finance and technology to an audience of hundreds of press, bloggers, analysts, VCs, industry leaders and banking executives.” Phew! Makes me nervous just thinking about it!

But not only did Zopa weather the scrutiny — we came out on top! Personally, I think all those great profiles you charmers put up had something to do with it. In fact I know it did, because during the presentation Doug (our CEO) pulled up two of his favorites to show how Zopa is working for TinaM and Anomie666. So thanks everyone — this award’s for you!

Posted in News | 3 Comments »

The internet likes Zopa

Posted by Luke at 12:53 pm

(and Zopa likes the internet, too)

Here we are minding our own business, doing our darndest to create a safe, friendly place to borrow and invest, and what happens? We get nominated for not one, but TWO Webby awards! Who woulda thunk?

To be honest, this isn’t the first time Zopa’s had a brush with Webby greatness (last year we snatched the Banking/Bill Paying award away from that dinosaur Bank of America). But that doesn’t make this nomination any less sweet. This year we’re not only up for the Banking/Bill Paying award, but the Financial Services award too. That’s what I call progress.

Since election fever is sweeping the nation, we can’t resist posting this link to the Webby People’s Voice voting site, where you can weigh in on who should be president of the internet. Check it out, sign up (it’s quick and easy), and get your vote on. Why let Pennsylvanians have all the fun?

Cast Your Vote

Posted in News | No Comments »

How low can you go?

Posted by Luke at 8:18 am

Hi everyone, just thought I’d post a quick note about some recent changes to our site.

As you can probably tell, we’ve gussied up our homepage a bit. Now you can keep up on what your Zopa friends are doing with the new “On Zopa Now” ticker, or search for them directly using the Borrower Search tool. Right now it searches for borrowers only, but soon you’ll be able to search for your other Zopa pals too.

The coolest change to the homepage (imho) is the “New Zopa Rate.” You can hold your mouse over one of those orange “New Zopa Rates” on the homepage to see what it’s all about, but here’s a summary: because Zopa borrowers often receive Help with their monthly loan payments, their effective interest rate is sometimes lower than the one they originally signed up for. For example, wlaffin may have borrowed at 12.99%, but because he’s receiving so much Help right now, his effective interest rate is actually below 0%. Not only does that mean he’s paying no interest on his loan, he’s actually paying back less money than he borrowed in the first place! How about that!

(Not to brag or anything, but this is what really sets Zopa apart: only at Zopa can you take control of your interest rate and wrestle it to the ground. Pretty sweet deal, right? Ok, that was bragging.)

We’ve also made several changes to your profile pages (here’s a rundown on those), and added a new “Summary” feature that tells investors why you’re on Zopa. To edit your Summary, sign in to Zopa and click on the “Edit Profile” link. Whatever you enter in the “Summary” field will be displayed to Zopa CD buyers, so don’t be shy — tell your story and drive that interest rate down!

Posted in News, Technology | No Comments »

Changes Comin’ to Profiles

Posted by wade at 9:34 am

We’re a little obsessed here with making things better, and we have some ideas about how to tune up profiles. The mock below (click to blow it up) highlights with a blue arrow a set of changes we’d like to make on profiles.

• A new text section that’s limited to something like 15 words. This section would take text only and it’s what we’d show in list view for your profile all around the site–i.e., search results pages, featured borrowers section on home page, etc. (Right now, it’s hard to edit that). We’ve been calling this section “The Blurb”. If you can think of a better name, let us know! We’re stumped.
• A Help Me Now badge that shows help received and how far along you are toward getting your entire monthly payment supported by Help from other people.
• Expanded financial info about your loan (if you have one) in the About Me section. This info can be hidden if you like by editing your account settings. This info also includes a new idea we call Net Rate, which is the effective interest rate of a loan that reflects any Help you’re receiving. It’s closer to the true cost of borrowing than the just the stated rate on your loan. Note, we’re not making corresponding changes for investors.
• More info about your connections. We show who’s helping you, who you’re helping, and how much.
• New urls for your profiles. We’ll be giving everybody easier urls to use for their profiles, urls that are based on your screenname.

What do you think?

Posted in News | 3 Comments »

Zopa turns 3–and Japanese–on the same day!

Posted by Shane at 5:45 pm

We’ve crossed countless rivers. Climbed many mountains. And now, finally, we are three years old.

That’s right, it’s our third birthday today (it’s already March 7, Greenwich Mean Time!). It seems like it was only yesterday that we were but a twinkle in our founders’ eyes. And look at us now. Brits, Italians, and Americans all working together to make the wonders of social finance a reality for more people in more places.

But we’re not stopping here. Social finance and our 200,000 global members are way too big to be held on only two continents. Today not only marks our third birthday, but also the official announcement of the formation and upcoming launch of Zopa Japan.

Tatsuya Kuboi, the Managing Director of Zopa Japan, was in town last week for some face-to-face time with the US team and let me tell you, Zopa Japan is poised for great things. If you want to read more, check out this article at Forbes. And we’ve also compiled a few handy links for those who want to brush up on your Japanese:

• Guide to sound effects in Japanese comic books
• All about Japanese coffee tables
• What they’re wearing in Tokyo

The social finance revolution is really picking up momentum now. Which is exactly what it should do. After all, that’s what good ideas do. They grow.

And they only get better with age.

Posted in News | No Comments »

Start Your Search Engines

Posted by Luke at 1:21 pm

Or, an Ode to Wyoming, the Equality State
Last night our tireless development team released some great new features into the Zopa jungle, and we’d like to tell you a little about them here.

One new feature is called Help I’m Giving. This feature allows Zopa investors to adjust the amount of help they’re giving to individual borrowers, and to select new borrowers they’d like to help with their Zopa CD’s. Investors can find this feature by signing in to My Zopa and clicking the “My Help” link.

And since investors can now add new borrowers to their Zopa CD’s, we’ve made it easier to find the borrowers they’d really like to help by adding a Search feature. Now you can find borrowers based on various criteria: age, location, loan purpose, help needed, credit union, and keyword. Give it a spin — you may meet a borrower who really strikes a chord. (To keep things easy, we’ve limited search results to 50, which is 5 pages’ worth.)

In addition to the goodies mentioned above, we also fixed over 100 bugs. The biggest head-slapper was a silly omission: on several pages, we were not listing Wyoming as a valid Driver’s License-issuing state (on the other hand, we had Guam and the Federated Islands of Micronesia covered).

O Wyoming! We feel plum terrible about this, and would like to apologize to you all for our unintended slight. To demonstrate our good feelings for the Equality State, we’ve written a short poem in praise of Wyoming’s natural beauty:

Ode to Wyoming

From the top of the Grand Tetons
To the depths of the Snake River
Wyoming has great natural beauty,
And buffaloes. Woah!

Chief Joseph Pass, Wyoming. source: wikipedia

The only thing we can say in defense of this mistake is that it literally took a rocket scientist (aptly named Rocketman) to find the problem. Thanks Rocketman — Zopa and Wyoming are forever indebted to you.

Posted in News | No Comments »

Fed Mysteries…Explained!

Posted by Scott at 3:54 pm

As you’ve probably noticed, there has been a lot of talk lately about the US economy going into recession, mortgage foreclosures, and Wall Street shenanigans. In an effort to soften the blow to the economy, the US Federal Reserve lowered its key Federal Funds rate (the rate at which banks lend money to each other at the Federal Reserve) by 1.25% over the past few weeks. But why should this affect Zopa members?

Well, changes in the Fed Funds rate ripple through the economy in a lot of different ways. In general, the Fed is currently lowering the rate to make capital cheaper and stimulate investment by companies and individuals. That’s great, unless you are the one holding the capital. Savings rates on deposit products move with the market for capital so when the Fed lowers rates, savings rates are sure to follow. (The chart at right comes from an awfully detailed Federal Reserve article that discusses all this.)

So, within limits, the Zopa CD rate will move with the Fed Funds rate moves, particularly the larger ones. As a result, the Zopa CD rate has changed to 4.25% APY today - that’s as high as the second-highest 1-year CD out there (according to Bankrate.com today).

But what won’t fluctuate is our philosophy. The Zopa CD is meant to be a great deal AND a great way to help other people at the same time. No ifs, ands, or buts. Our opera-singing member mavenhaven said it all, when she quoted the late Sen. Paul Wellstone: “we all do better, when we all do better.”

Posted in News, Editorial | 2 Comments »

Bug-squashin’

Posted by Luke at 4:27 pm

Sorry for not posting sooner–we’ve been squashin’ bugs! This post comes to you from the depths of the QA department at Zopa–er, which would be me.

On Sunday we released a new version of the site into the wild, and it fixes a grand total of 114 bugs. Bugs medium and small have fallen before the awesome might of our developers, and many of these pesky little buggers were spotted by you folks, so a tip of the hat and a pat on the back to you too.

Hands down, the most serious bug we had was one that has been plaguing users applying for Loans and Zopa CD’s since before I can remember. In the old, antiquated version of the site, the application status listed on My Zopa was almost always “application incomplete”. No matter what the state of your application was, it said “application incomplete”. Not only was this confusing, it actually prevented people from completing their applications. Definitely a downer. But now fixed! Those of you who are in the process of applying for a loan or a Zopa CD can log in to My Zopa and be greeted by a smiling status message that tells you where you are in the process, what needs to be done next, and how to do it. Now that’s progress.

Some other improvements include the “Promote your Profile” email feature, which allows borrowers to send an email to anyone who might be interested in purchasing a Zopa CD to help with their monthly payments; a fix to the discouraging “Age” bug that listed some folks as 2 years older than they actually are (we prefer to think of it as 2 years wiser), and many more.

Finding and squashing bugs is an ongoing process, and we won’t be resting on our laurels any time soon. But it’s users like you who are truly on the front line, so we welcome all of your tips, suggestions, or gripes about the site. If something doesn’t seem right to you, it probably isn’t. Join the fight against bugs and let us know what you see — Zopa users everywhere will thank you.

Posted in News, Team | No Comments »