marka
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Post by marka on Aug 17, 2017 9:23:12 GMT
I've only been on unbolted for a couple of months or so but have noticed a change in that time. When I first signed up, I would see a "New loan put on sale" email, head over to the website and usually be in time to buy a chunk of it. Over the last week or two though, these loans are ALWAYS fully subscribed by the time I try . I have the "Buy Loans" page open and minimised, and refresh it as soon as the email arrives, so there's no time lost at my end. Is my email taking longer to arrive for some reason (and only from unbolted), or are some lenders running a bot to constantly refresh the Buy Loans page and grab a slice of anything that comes up? (...or is there some other reason I haven't thought of?)
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archie
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Post by archie on Aug 17, 2017 9:43:29 GMT
I've only been on unbolted for a couple of months or so but have noticed a change in that time. When I first signed up, I would see a "New loan put on sale" email, head over to the website and usually be in time to buy a chunk of it. Over the last week or two though, these loans are ALWAYS fully subscribed by the time I try . I have the "Buy Loans" page open and minimised, and refresh it as soon as the email arrives, so there's no time lost at my end. Is my email taking longer to arrive for some reason (and only from unbolted), or are some lenders running a bot to constantly refresh the Buy Loans page and grab a slice of anything that comes up? (...or is there some other reason I haven't thought of?) I'm not on Unbolted. If you look at the time stamps on the 'Received' lines of the email header you may be able to determine if it's being held up anywhere.
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marka
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Post by marka on Aug 17, 2017 9:54:51 GMT
Thanks archie. Allowing for slight variance between clocks on the intermediate servers that's not my problem then.
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applets
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Post by applets on Aug 17, 2017 10:16:51 GMT
There have been a number of smaller loans over the last few weeks and this may be contributing to the problems you are having. It is also possible that there are now more lenders on the platform chasing these loans.
One of the advantages of Unbolted is the auto lend facility. I appreciate that this eliminates the freedom of choice for which loans to purchase and the amount, but you do end up getting a slice of all loans over about £1000. It also means that you do not have to keep checking your emails every few minutes!
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liso
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Post by liso on Aug 17, 2017 10:24:22 GMT
It's hard to know - a couple of times recently I've been lucky and logged into the site just as the buy instruction went live. Both times I bought successfully and the email alerting me didn't arrive till 10 minutes or so after I had bought. By then one loan was all gone, but the other time there was still some available. My impression is there is a gradual increase in investor numbers on the site, so it may simply be more people competing for loans. As for bots, it's always possible.
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marka
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Post by marka on Aug 17, 2017 11:10:16 GMT
Thanks for the replies.
I use auto-lend, but as a new lender trying to get some cash into the site more quickly, I was also buying parts of the smaller non-auto ones where I could.
I assume my problem is either more "lucky logins" as per liso, or perhaps speculative page reloads (or bots).
As email appears to be arriving late for others too perhaps there is some issue at unbolted whereby the emails don't get sent until some time after the loan goes live, which puts us all at a similar disadvantage.
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greatmarko
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Post by greatmarko on Aug 17, 2017 11:53:22 GMT
The "New Loan put on sale" emails that Unbolted send out are usually only for: 1) Very small loans, or 2) Non-standard loans (i.e. those with rates other than 0.65/0.85% and/or not covered by provision trust)
In most cases where the notifications relate to very small loans, they can quickly disappear - not through the actions of "bots", but just because of the very small loan size.
For instance, a loan for £200 with a bid limit of £10 would only allow 20 investors to invest - so you have to be quick!!
In most cases, I've not had an issue logging in within a minute or two of receiving a "New loan put on sale" email and be able to grab my £10 worth.
However, email delivery in general isn't an "instant" means of communication, and there are numerous factors (outside of Unbolted's control) that can delay the receipt of emails, so if you're not right in front of your email constantly, or there are delays in receiving these emails, you'll likely miss out on being able to grab your £10 worth of tiny loans.
If the loans were bigger there wouldn't be an issue (bigger loans tend to go to auto-bid anyway, but even if they didn't, with £10/£25 bid limits you'd be more likely to grab a share) - but it tends to be the nature of pawn loans that they're for relatively small amounts.
So in answer to the original question "bots or slow email?' - I'd say it's a combination of email delivery speed coupled with small loan sizes
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