How it works GraduRates lends to postgraduate students. Like Zopa and RateSetter, it reduces the risk by spreading out the money you lend to different students. For the risk-averse you can lend to A* students, whose loans are co-signed by a home owner who has a contingency fund deposited with GraduRates. All loans last for five years. For the first two years they are interest-only for the borrower, then they switch to interest and capital repayment. The company charges 1pc a year to lenders. The average loan requested is £10,000.