aju
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Post by aju on Sept 22, 2017 8:55:25 GMT
you are giving it away, do yourself a favour research platforms that pay the investor a fair return, anything unsecured and paying less than 8% over no more than 1 yr is not worth bothering with Hi james21 Was this one for me...? What are you thinking, ThinCats, Lendy, ArchOver, Proplend and the sort? Appreciate the suggestions! Cheers Obviously James can answer for himself but I did wonder what he meant then realised its probably an answer to the title question - "Am I investing or just giving it away" Good luck to anyone who can get 8% and still sleep at night. My own slant on this is that I'm using Zopa, and have done for over 10 years now, as a final investment point not a primary one. Whilst I agree that if I could guarantee the return I would jump at it but I don't believe I can so I will try to get the best way I can on this platform. I haven't the time or need to work with another platform or research them, I am retired but to be honest when I retired I started to wonder how I ever had time to work let alone run this stuff as a business. I have my money spread across all the safe zones that get me interest - current accounts no savings except for ISA's. I have share investments that I use for Dividend returns rather than moving around. Mrs Aju is hell bent on spending a lot before we leave it too late too. I still feel I am investing as on a yearly basis I am in the black. I'm sure I could get better but to be honest if it aint broke don't fix it is my motto. I'm off to play my guitar - oops Mrsw Aju has just informed me we are going out to the shops again ;-)
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aju
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Post by aju on Sept 22, 2017 8:57:45 GMT
As long as it's about zopa i'll probably read it - I'm a one woman platform guy ;-)
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Post by jordan on Sept 22, 2017 9:16:23 GMT
Ah understood, the perils of forum messaging - never quite know who's talking to who sometimes! A one platform kinda guy, that's some serious commitment, mrs Aju will be pleased Has the turbulence in the consumer market given you cause for concern regards Zopa at all? Or are you confident in your platform of choice, so to speak? (not intentionally diverting the conversation)
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Post by portlandbill on Sept 22, 2017 10:07:55 GMT
Good luck to anyone who can get 8% and still sleep at night. Can you sleep at night if you're getting less than 8%?
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robski
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Post by robski on Sept 22, 2017 10:46:51 GMT
Can you sleep at night if you're getting less than 8%? If your getting more than 8% at night you can either a) sleep because you are unaware of the risk or, b) cant sleep because your aware of the risk If you getting under 8% at night you cant sleep because your not getting enough return summary, only those in high interest investments who dont under stand the risk are sleeping Personally I dont invest in ZOPA bar winding down my account. Rates are too low even at the start, once you start winding down your rate drops as the higher rate loans default or repay, leaving the long term 5 year loans paying something like 1.5%. Lots of people probably don't see this as they keep reinvesting
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Post by portlandbill on Sept 22, 2017 10:57:20 GMT
I'm afraid that now that Zopa are paying rates that barely cover inflation, I'm winding down too and putting it elsewhere with carefully selected 8 - 12% returns (with security - if you can believe the valuation reports). I'm comfortable with those risk:return rates.
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aju
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Post by aju on Sept 22, 2017 13:07:45 GMT
Ah understood, the perils of forum messaging - never quite know who's talking to who sometimes! A one platform kinda guy, that's some serious commitment, mrs Aju will be pleased Has the turbulence in the consumer market given you cause for concern regards Zopa at all? Or are you confident in your platform of choice, so to speak? (not intentionally diverting the conversation) I'm just a happy smiley person, where's that damned emoji button again ;-) Mrs Aju is not really that bothered she just said set it up and bu*g*r the consequences, so we compromised and I just make sure I get her to relend in £1000 blocks so we get £10 loans across the piece. This is a recent technique that is unproven as yet. We have lent out on the Classic over the last 2/3 years in much larger blocks but obviously it didn't matter about defaults and still doesn't to degree. I recently became a little more bothered, especially since Zopa added the default date field, and its clear that the defaults on SG are quite a bit more than I was expecting. Its difficult to gauge how much they might have lost if they had not been guarded, in the real world of my current defaults half has been returned, but its clear that defaults may be more of an issue than was at first thought. The cynic in me thinks Zopa realised that SG may not be sustainable going forward and thats the reason I feel they dropped the SG not the HMRC resolutions smoke screen they used but what do I know.(IMHO of course) When you say consumer market do you mean the worries recently that lending is getting out of hand or do you mean the consumer part of zopa in particular. To be honest I'm definitely not convinced that the car loans on Zopa are touched by the current time bombed contract loan system that sells new cars these days - unless some of the loans I have are those real loans offloaded into Zopa and we are unaware. I have a real concern for the mortgage market if rates increase quickly having personally been in a mortgage in the late 80's when the rate more than doubled to 15% almost overnight. At the time I had just moved from a good job with endless overtime available to salaried management and it was a tough 2-3 years not being able to supplement with overtime. My main worry now though is that my daughter has a mortgage that if it were doubled today might be a much bigger issue for her. (BOMAD will kicking in no doubt) Oh well now I've fully wiped that happy smile off my face just thinking about her issues and the many many unfortunate people who probably don't have the luxury of history there could be carnage if its not managed well. I'm not sure that was your question but hey a rant a day works for me ....
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aju
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Post by aju on Sept 22, 2017 13:22:24 GMT
I'm afraid that now that Zopa are paying rates that barely cover inflation, I'm winding down too and putting it elsewhere with carefully selected 8 - 12% returns (with security - if you can believe the valuation reports). I'm comfortable with those risk:return rates. I like the proviso there about the V. Reports. I guess its bit like backing up my PC I only can be sure it will recover fully when its too late if it doesn't. Risk return rates I guess thats sort of the point - being retired we can't afford to lose money - I'd like to be able maintain a place to save the money and if I get a return that is better than inflation then I'm not suffering from the dreaded inflation tax. If I can make a bit more on top to cover tax in my case whilst keeping tax to a minimum using ISA where possible. Then we are happy. I've had to do quite a bit of restructuring in my shares side of investments ( move some to Mrs Aju) to combat the ever increasing wheeze of dividend tax. Just a few thoughts.
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ashtondav
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Post by ashtondav on Sept 22, 2017 13:28:41 GMT
anything unsecured and paying less than 8% over no more than 1 yr is not worth bothering with So which platform do you recommend, and at what rates - after defaults?
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james21
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Post by james21 on Sept 22, 2017 14:24:40 GMT
Bit of a daft question that one, as you have posted quite a bit on this board you will know the answer
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james21
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Post by james21 on Sept 22, 2017 14:32:37 GMT
anything unsecured and paying less than 8% over no more than 1 yr is not worth bothering with So which platform do you recommend, and at what rates - after defaults? I use 11 platforms actively average return 10% on total investment. Plus 2 asset backed property bonds paying 8% each (3 and 5 yr). Plus 3 more "lemon" platforms; Ratesetter, Funding Circle and Zopa, all of which I am gradually exiting. The only defaults have been in FC, but I do have 3 unredeemed in FS but I expect a good recovery % from them
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jcb208
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Post by jcb208 on Nov 3, 2017 21:08:04 GMT
Looking at my monthly statement for October my bad debt works out at nearly 43% looks like Zopa recoveries are going to be very busy
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Post by newlender on Nov 4, 2017 5:46:21 GMT
On the Investing side in October I had interest of £79 and defaults were £53. My fault for piling into (old-style) Z+ in the past. I think we all accept that this was not a good investment and to their credit Zopa have reduced exposure to D/E loans in the new product. My ISA is mainly in Core though so I'm expecting better times ahead. I've put a few £K in Z+ ISA just for the hell of it to see if the new product has fewer defaults and therefore boosts my returns. It's good to see the ISA summary account increasing daily knowing that Mr HMRC can't touch it.
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Post by BrianC on Nov 4, 2017 9:20:54 GMT
Your October’s look good compared to mine...
Interest earned: £103.10 New defaults: £125.37
My problem is that 79% of my invested money in Zopa is in Plus (old plus 💩). I gambled that Plus returns would be nearer the gross lent at figure and not the expected returns figure. In reality I’m doing much worse than both.
Interest from my classic and access and my early adopter bonus all being more than wiped out by Plus losses 😕 And Zopa want to charge me to get out of this disaster too.
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Post by newlender on Nov 4, 2017 10:10:05 GMT
Yes, it does seem hard that we can make a bad investment (our fault, I admit) but are then charged if we want to get out. I have actually paid the withdrawal fee on £2k from Z+ (Investing) to put into Premium bonds as my ISA is fully funded. I shall stay with £5k in Z+ Investing (gradually drawing down) and £3k in Z+ISA (re-investing) and see what happens. They do say that the defaults begin to level off and go down after a couple of years, so let's see.
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