Am I investing or just giving it away?

Anyone who has time to spare can download the public loanbook and examine the figures yourself. There are 4 categories: Active / Completed / Late / Defaulted :-)

In my all time loan book, I had about 30% D/E loans before I started selling off the entire portfolio. Zopa just blends a basket of loans to give a Plus blend. People said the blending changed from 30% to 15% for D/E. 

I haven't used any complex excel equations. Just =sum(), =if()

If that's net return on entire loan book then where are Z getting their average % earned from?

The thing that worries me is this is in relatively benign economic environment. Most of my loans are still covered by the old provision fund but this does not look good for the long term outlook. I am going to keep a close eye on the monthly lending figures.

Ok, the title says am I investing or giving it away.

I've been active in this thread for a while, both reading and contributing, but I'd like to make a different slant on this. I have recently been investing more funds (ISA) I still believe there is enough scope for profit on my terms which are simply to find a location for my retirement funds where I can make sure that inflation tax is not hitting my fund and at the same time not lose my shirt. I used current accounts for a while but that ship has pretty much sailed and its not really viable for me anyway since Tescos stomped on their savings account funding removing the ability to use DD's to fund it (£1 each and so on etc). It lasted a good while but couple with that fact and the banks reducing rates etc.

So recently I started moving more funds into the ISA proposition last year and defaults are increasing but still so far my returns are beating inflation quite well, I do have the added assistance of early adopter as well. Lately I transferred an old fixed rate ISA into Zopa and am in the process of lending that out in small £10 blocks etc to increase the diversification and hopefully mitigate defaults better but it seems slower than the past.

I have taken quite a hit in defaults recently but am confident that after 12 months on the ISA product I am in the region of 4.5-5.0% return (12 months rolling, this has reduced though over the last 12 months though).

So here's the rub, I am happy that my money is lending out, albeit very much slower than it did last year when the so called ISA flurry started on Zopa. I wonder though if there is still not enough people actually, as many above are indicating, that are actually bailing out. I have never withdrawn any of my funds since day 1 for me in Dec 2006. I have been fortunate if the above is anything to go by and I have no doubt the comments are fully justified at some level, but my real concern is that many people above are comparing their accounts that have been seriously unfunded (withdrawn), with many sounding like they are just defaults left languishing, and comparing these against a fully funded relending prospect is IMHO is a bit like comparing apples with oranges.

That said above I understand people fears etc and a 5 year product which is where the majority of zopa loans work best cannot really be compared with a short term funding and removal in the same way. Having said that I still don't really like it when a borrower decides to pay off their loan but that's the nature of this environment as well.

One thing I thing clear to me is that unless there are more people bailing, less people lending my rate of lending will not speed up that much. However one of the dangers of lending money all at once it seems to me is that defaults appear to increase more at the same time. Once the fund is settled into full relend mode things do seem to be more eb and flow and defaults settle down nearer to the Zopa's figures I feel. (Lets hope I have the same view in 2 years time ;-)

I've written that on the hoof so if it makes no sense and I'm off the point sorry, but breakfast beckons and I must go and check if my funding level needs topping up still a lot of money to filter in at <2000 a time - oh and MrsAju mentioned something about shopping and that spending reduces inflation tax too ;-). I knew I shouldn't have clued her in.   

Sadly this whole thing is bit like the new state pension I think there will be winners and there will be losers - its never nice and sometimes very uncomfortable if you are on the losing side where financial matters are concerned.

I was on the losing side of the pensions changes in that my work pensions was contracted out for as many years as I was in it, almost. When they changed the rules on who paid the uplifts for parts of the company pensions (GMP if you are interested is a good search item) the government scrapped huge sections of my potential pension after I reach SPA (State Pension Age) they have recently resolved it for age group but the government placed the burdon firmly back on my company for ares it previously was responsible for.

I'm back on the winning side of that one for the moment! until the next great wheeze from the political camps.

I agree, except I would switch places for RS & FC

Zopa has been over for me for quite a while now, although still have a few hundred left in with repayments being returned to holding account.

Followed by FC from last September when I ceased any new lending there too and withdrew an amount equal to my original capital invesment, leaving earnings to date invested but running down and withdrawing on an ad-hoc basis.

I've still not taken a penny out of RS yet but they have already made a few changes not to mention errors I'm not happy about so am monitoring the situation there very closely.

I predict P2P in the UK will be over within another 3-5 years.