oldgrumpy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 5,087 
Likes: 3,233
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Post by oldgrumpy on Aug 5, 2014 16:35:09 GMT
Sucking eggs?...Missing bits?...... As you were, ladies....I'm going back to sleep.  |
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Post by robberbaron on Aug 6, 2014 9:27:54 GMT
I had some boaty loans so prepayment is not the issue. I contacted them yesterday but got no response. I hope I won't have to contact the FInancial Ombudsman about this. At the risk of teaching my grandmother to suck eggs - you aren't expecting monthly interest from the boaty loans are you? Only the PBLs pay monthly, and the boaty loans pay all the interest at the end. Again, aplogies if you already knew that. Just that you only mentioned the boats.............. Edit: crossed posts with veronica! Edit2: meant to add that I'd be really surprised if the Ombudsman were necessary - SS are usually really good at sorting out errors when they occur. Good catch! I wasn't aware PBL and boaty loans were treated differently interest wise
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ramblin rose
Member of DD Central
“Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.” — Alphonse Karr
Posts: 1,370
Likes: 857
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Post by ramblin rose on Aug 6, 2014 10:40:46 GMT
Great - thanks for letting us know - I was starting to get curious  The 'norm' at SS is for interest to be paid at the end (see their FAQ 'How long is my money tied up for'). If there's any difference to that norm, it's mentioned in the specific loan, as in the case of the PBLs. robberbaron, what I'm about to write below is not meant as a personal dig at you, but more a general comment of perplexity. It's something I've noticed from quite a lot of regular posters in fact when they are new to any given site.... I'm always surprised at how many people are happy to invest their money into new and risky ventures without having taken the care to read up about what they are putting their money into. A site's FAQs would seem to be the minimum level of research to me. To be fair to SS newbies, once you are logged in their FAQs and all other general information pages are well and truly hidden - you have to go to the home page, which not everybody would necessarily work out was by clicking on the 'SavingStream' logo top left. Personally I'd have read it all before even signing up and logging in, but I know others are likely to sign-up and log in for a proper look around first. So, to avoid potential annoyance from lenders who feel they weren't given the opportunity to easily read up about the system, perhaps savingstream could consider making the home page (and hence its associated general information pages) and in particular FAQs available via a more obvious link somewhere once you are logged in. Even one of the links at the bottom would be a step forward - I would naturally go to look at footer links for that sort of information. |
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ilmoro
Member of DD Central
'Wondering which of the bu***rs to blame, and watching for pigs on the wing.' - Pink Floyd
Posts: 11,330
Likes: 11,549
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Post by ilmoro on Aug 6, 2014 11:35:56 GMT
Agree with ramblin rose that they need make FAQs more easily accessible. First month Id actually managed to get any boaty bits, so I had to double check about boat interest just to make sure - given all the issues with interest payments. Still waiting for a response from savingstream about the negative balance. Guess they are all mucking about in boats at Cowes still  |
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Post by robberbaron on Aug 6, 2014 12:50:02 GMT
ramblin rose, I have read the FAQ and the Terms. The FAQ does not explicitely says that interest are paid at maturity. In the financial world the interests are usually paid according to a predefined frequency and not at maturity. Since boaty loans are following a non standard convention it should be put in the loan prospectus as a reminder. Although for such short term loans the compounding effect does not really matter.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2014 14:25:05 GMT
Funny thing about my first monthly interest payments, when I checked my account on or just after 31 July I had my interest payments in there ready for withdrawal to my bank or investment in the SM, but when I checked back a day later my total interest had gone down by about £4. I didnt do the maths myself but I assume the first figures were incorrect for some reason and after re-running it, the figures were recalculated slightly.
So far I'm quite happy with SS and how it all works so I'm being tempted to invest a bit more to get the 12% return. I like to spread my eggs but I have invested a little more ££ in SS than I originally intended because I find it very user friendly and easy to understand.
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ramblin rose
Member of DD Central
“Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.” — Alphonse Karr
Posts: 1,370
Likes: 857
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Post by ramblin rose on Aug 6, 2014 15:08:20 GMT
ramblin rose, I have read the FAQ and the Terms. The FAQ does not explicitely says that interest are paid at maturity. In the financial world the interests are usually paid according to a predefined frequency and not at maturity. Since boaty loans are following a non standard convention it should be put in the loan prospectus as a reminder. Although for such short term loans the compounding effect does not really matter. Well, fair enough, if it wasn't obvious to you, then maybe they need to be more explicit. The words " When a loan is repaid, any allocated investor funds + interest are returned to their available balance", did seem to imply that to me, but everyone has their own interpretation. The 'What return can I expect' FAQ just above it does, in my opinion, make it explicit though: " Any funds that you deposit and then allocate to an available loan will start earning you 12%pa from the moment you click the 'Fund loan' button. This is calculated at a daily rate of 12%/365. You will earn this daily rate of interest for the life of the loan until it is repaid at which point the capital plus interest may be withdrawn or used to fund other available loans. " If your suggestion of putting some sort of statement to that effect on the loan pages were followed it would leave no room for doubt.
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