Unbolted Review 2026

What it is

Unbolted is a British peer-to-peer lending platform that works like a pawnbroker funded by private investors. A borrower hands over a valuable item, such as gold, a watch, jewellery, a painting, a car or wine, and investors fund a short loan against it. The company behind it, Open Access Finance Ltd, was set up in London in November 2013 and began lending in 2014. Its loan statistics show about £85.0 million lent across 11,578 loans (26 October 2026). Renewed loans are counted again, so the number of different borrowers is lower.

How it works

Every loan pays lenders the same rate, 0.85% a month, whatever the item. Loans are set for six months, but borrowers often renew instead of repaying, and the platform itself warns that you are unlikely to get your money back quickly. Most investors use Auto-Lend, which shares each new loan among all users in proportion to their available cash, so you cannot pick loans by item or risk. There are three kinds of loan: consumer loans against gold, consumer loans against other items, and larger loans to wealthy individuals and businesses such as dealers. You can lend through an ordinary account or a tax-free Innovative Finance ISA.

Returns

Unbolted advertises up to 10.2% a year: 0.85% a month, before tax, with no fee for lenders (seen October 2026, undated). It publishes no figure for what lenders actually earned. The 10.2% is reached only when all your money is lent out, and investors report cash waiting to be lent because new loans are shared out among everyone. Independent tracking of an investor portfolio points to about 8.9% a year for 2025.

Losses and defaults

Defaults are fairly common, but the items sold have nearly always covered the loans. By value, 6.4% of all money lent has defaulted (£5.41 million of £85.0 million; 7.8% by number of loans, as at 26 October 2026). A loan counts as defaulted when it is 90 days overdue or when the item is sold before that. Larger loans to wealthy individuals and businesses default more often by number: 12.1%.

When the items were sold, the money they raised was short of the loan by £64,653 in total, about 0.076% of all money lent (calculated from the platform's own figures, 26 October 2026). The platform says it repaid these shortfalls itself, so lenders lost no capital, but it is not obliged to do so. Lenders did lose £135,146 of interest on defaulted loans. 57 loans worth £322,288 are still waiting for their items to be sold, and no recovery figures are published for the larger business loans.

In its yearly regulatory statement to 30 November 2025, Unbolted expected 10% of loans to default; the actual rate was 1.47% for gold loans and 8.57% for the other loans. For the non-gold loans it had been 14.96% in the year to November 2024.

What secures your money

Each loan is backed by a physical item that Unbolted keeps in its own possession for the whole loan. It lends up to 80% of the item's value for gold and as little as 40% for wine; sale-advance loans against items sent to auction are 40% to 50% of the low auction estimate. Items are stored in a secure place and insured up to their valuation, though the insurer is not named. Gold is authenticated and stored by Gold Investments Limited. A security trustee holds the legal rights over the items for lenders. If a borrower does not repay, the item is sold, usually about 14 days after the loan ends.

On the 793 consumer loans recovered so far, sales raised 118.5% of the amount due to lenders; any surplus goes back to the borrower, not to you. There is no provision fund, no buyback and no compensation scheme. In plain words: you are repaid from the sale of the item, and so far those sales have almost always been enough.

Who runs it and its licence

The platform is run by Open Access Finance Ltd (company 08778211, England and Wales), trading as Unbolted. It is authorised by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (firm reference 741896) to run a peer-to-peer lending platform, and it publishes the yearly outcomes statement the regulator requires. No regulator action against it was found. In 2019 a borrower took the company to the High Court over 42 loans. The case settled in April 2024, and in April 2025 lenders got their capital back after about six years, but not the interest built up in that time. The company keeps a separate cash reserve for an orderly wind-down, of an undisclosed size.

Fees

Lenders pay no fees to open an account, lend, hold money or withdraw, and the ISA has no fees. Unbolted earns from the interest borrowers pay. The lender terms allow a fee of up to 0.5% if you sell a loan to another lender.

Getting your money out

There is no working market to sell your loans. The terms allow sales to other lenders, but the platform itself says there is no promise you will find a buyer. Your money comes back when borrowers repay or their items are sold, and because borrowers often renew, that can take years. Cash not yet lent can be withdrawn. Uninvested money is held in a pooled, segregated client account at Barclays Bank; it is not covered by the UK compensation scheme.

Our view

Return: High — up to 10.2% a year is advertised, but nothing actually earned is published. Risk: Very Low (higher means more risk) — defaults are common (6.4% of money lent), but items sold have covered almost every defaulted loan and the small shortfall, 0.076% of lending, was made up by the platform, so money lost is very small, which on its own is the lowest level; losses could be higher if item prices fell. Risk-return: Low — held at Low because only an advertised rate is known; we cannot show the return is worth the risk.