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Post by bellybuster on Mar 26, 2018 23:26:00 GMT
Hit the withdraw button on £200k of loans today.
The rate of defaults seems to be tending in the wrong direction to the point where bad debt has wiped out nearly all my interest since the start of the year.
Looking at the recent defaults, my observation is that loans are defaulting very early in the repayment cycle. Feels like the due diligence is lacking, and FC may be being targeted as a soft touch for hail mary loans. There's probaly some macroeconomic factors that aren't helping as well.
So I'll take my tidy profits from the last few years and seek somewhere else a little safer for my money, at least for the time being.
Might have a dabble with the other P2P providers.
Good luck!
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m2btj
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Post by m2btj on Mar 27, 2018 7:26:18 GMT
Many investors arrived at the same conclusion over the last twelve months or so & like myself have been withdrawing from the FC platform. What started as a decent P2P investment platform has turned into something quite ugly. DD & defaults are some of the worst in the industry & many loans have defaulted after just one or two repayments. A cavalier attitude to investors hard earned cash!
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ashtondav
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Post by ashtondav on Mar 27, 2018 8:27:07 GMT
DD & defaults are some of the worst in the industry. Is that factually correct? What is your source, please?
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dorset
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Post by dorset on Mar 27, 2018 8:40:08 GMT
My defaults for first quarter 2018 are my highest since starting in 2012 and with a similar number of loans over the last four years.
Stopped investing in September 2017 after the changes and will run all loans out over the remaining loan term. Given my defaults I expect to be still with FC for a number of years yet as I await the recoveries.
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m2btj
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Post by m2btj on Mar 27, 2018 9:04:30 GMT
DD & defaults are some of the worst in the industry. Is that factually correct? What is your source, please? I can only speak for my own loan parts! I'm invested across nine P2P platforms & FC is the only one where I have experienced defaults after only a few payments. Several loans made just one repayment! I have to seriously question DD in these cases! My defaults were highest when using the old Autobid & I decided not to invest any new cash when FC moved to the automated bid model. Investing in non asset backed security is also another no no for me. It makes default too easy. I see that many other forum members share the same concerns.
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cb25
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Post by cb25 on Mar 27, 2018 9:20:55 GMT
When the new style FC came in, I started to run down my (old style) FC account as I was unhappy at the idea of my money being invested in chunks of 0.5% of its portfolio value. I used to bid manually and the loans were much smaller as a percentage of portfolio size. Instead I opened another FC account operating under the new rules which I've kept under £20,000 to limit loans to £100.
In 2018, my newly opened FC account has suffered bad debt at the rate of approx £1 per £1000 invested.
In comparison, my years-old FC account (which I'm running down) has suffered bad debt at a rate in excess of £20 per £1000 invested.
Clearly something's changed, though not sure what as I've never kept historical data (e.g. loan books) that would allow me to look backward.
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Post by jackpease on Mar 27, 2018 9:23:26 GMT
>>>I see that many other forum members share the same concerns. Remember people are likely to post if they are cross than if they are happy and this forum represents a small but vocal minority. For the record FC is bumping along nicely for me with profits exceeding defaults by enough. I think there are increasingly few platforms that don't attract concerns - be very careful about jettisoning known problems of which FC has plenty, for other platforms which face unknown problems (who'd have predicted Collateral!). Also be wary of assuming 'secured' loans are in fact secure. Dodgy valuations make a mockery of the concept of security. Jack P
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ashtondav
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Post by ashtondav on Mar 27, 2018 9:36:54 GMT
Is that factually correct? What is your source, please? I can only speak for my own loan parts! I'm invested across nine P2P platforms & FC is the only one where I have experienced defaults after only a few payments. Several loans made just one repayment! I have to seriously question DD in these cases! My defaults were highest when using the old Autobid & I decided not to invest any new cash when FC moved to the automated bid model. Investing in non asset backed security is also another no no for me. It makes default too easy. I see that many other forum members share the same concerns. Quite common in Zopa+
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m2btj
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Post by m2btj on Mar 27, 2018 10:08:09 GMT
>>>I see that many other forum members share the same concerns. Remember people are likely to post if they are cross than if they are happy and this forum represents a small but vocal minority. For the record FC is bumping along nicely for me with profits exceeding defaults by enough. I think there are increasingly few platforms that don't attract concerns - be very careful about jettisoning known problems of which FC has plenty, for other platforms which face unknown problems (who'd have predicted Collateral!). Also be wary of assuming 'secured' loans are in fact secure. Dodgy valuations make a mockery of the concept of security. Jack P You make some good points Jack. I have long been a critic of inflated loan valuations & dodgy RICS reports. I can honestly say that the perfect P2P platform does not exist. I still have over 500 loan parts with FC under the old system & have no plans to sell out. I have been drawing down as loans mature but generally happy with the return over the last few years. I much preferred the self invested loans option but would not rule out investing cash into the new system in the future. I expect the next couple of years to be challenging for the P2P sector & it will be interesting to see which platforms can meet those challenges.
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maotw
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Post by maotw on Mar 27, 2018 10:08:41 GMT
I hit "sell" in January.
Thing that did it for me was one loan that was late 1st month, became late 2nd. At that point I looked on C.H. and saw that borrower (insurance brokerage) had appointed liquidators. Contacted FC who were unaware. Next day the 2nd month was paid, and the loan showed alive and healthy on FC ... so I ran away from all of it.
On the other side, we (business) get weekly letters from FC begging us to apply for funding. We don't need any, but I'm left with the impression that it wouldn't be difficult to pass CC/DD checks. I'll read the next one I get.
You've gotta wonder if registering 1/2 doz Ltd Co's - waiting for the FC to start soliciting - might be a money making venture in it's own right.
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c88dnf
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Post by c88dnf on Mar 27, 2018 14:18:04 GMT
You've gotta wonder if registering 1/2 doz Ltd Co's - waiting for the FC to start soliciting - might be a money making venture in it's own right. I suspect a London hotelier got there ahead of you with FC refusing to acknowledge its "highly experienced" staff were deficient in any respect. Like you, I hit the "leave" button last year and now have three rump loans which are over 1 year late, though - in FC's judgement - not in default. I'll still be in profit overall, but wouldn't now touch FC with a bargepole.
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Post by Ace on Mar 28, 2018 15:05:47 GMT
I'm a recent FC investor who has been considering adding more funds once the new ISA year starts. However, there seems to be quite a lot of negative sentiment around concerning FC that is making me wonder whether I'm missing something. So far I've thrown small sums at 12 different platforms to get the hang of P2P in general and to see which platforms I like. A couple of months in and I'm quite liking FC. What I'm wondering is: was bellybuster just really unlucky, or are lots of you getting poor results with FC? Looking at FC's stated stats shows that all investors with over 100 loans of up to 1% of their capital in each loan are receiving positive annualised returns, and that 98% of those are receiving at least 4% returns. Their graph shows that 90% of investors are receiving between 5 and 8% returns, with 5% of investors below this range (but still positive) and 5% above. If these stats are true then they're good enough for me. Does anyone have experience that contradicts them? Here are my current stats as reported by FC: | Account type | Sum invested | Number of loans | Late payments | Gross Rate | Annualised rate | Estimated return | | FC Classic Balanced | £2,000 | 102 | 0 | 11.4% | 10.6% | 7.5% | | FC ISA Balanced | £10,000 | 337 | 0 | 11.3% | 10.4% | 7.4% |
I've only been with FC for a couple of months, so I realize that my Annualised rate is bound to fall as defaults inevitably occur, but it seems to me going well so far. Some of the things I like about FC are: - Easy to use website.
- Very fast deposits.
- Fairly quick to get my funds deployed.
- Auto diversification seems to work well.
Things I don't like so much:
- Have to liquidate Classic loans and transfer cash out and in again to move to ISA.
- Nothing happens outside office hours.
- Seems to take loans a long time to "process" after weekends and holidays.
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Post by investor1925 on Mar 28, 2018 15:23:34 GMT
Looking at the postings regarding FC, a number of people have bailed, slagged them off, cried into their beer etc, but so far this year I've had about 7.99% ROI on the capital invested.
If you deduct defaults & add recoveries, this becomes 7.23%, which I regard as my earnings here.
My actual default amount has gone DOWN by 0.1% in value.
I'm staying for the present.
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archie
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Post by archie on Mar 28, 2018 15:26:18 GMT
I'm a recent FC investor who has been considering adding more funds once the new ISA year starts. However, there seems to be quite a lot of negative sentiment around concerning FC that is making me wonder whether I'm missing something. So far I've thrown small sums at 12 different platforms to get the hang of P2P in general and to see which platforms I like. A couple of months in and I'm quite liking FC. What I'm wondering is: was bellybuster just really unlucky, or are lots of you getting poor results with FC? If you are happy then stick with them.  FC today are a completely different platform to the one a few years back. I'd say a lot of the complaints are because lenders preferred the previous ways of working. I no longer invest here myself but I can see why it appeals to some.
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Post by investor1925 on Mar 28, 2018 15:55:35 GMT
I'm a recent FC investor who has been considering adding more funds once the new ISA year starts. However, there seems to be quite a lot of negative sentiment around concerning FC that is making me wonder whether I'm missing something. So far I've thrown small sums at 12 different platforms to get the hang of P2P in general and to see which platforms I like. A couple of months in and I'm quite liking FC. What I'm wondering is: was bellybuster just really unlucky, or are lots of you getting poor results with FC? If you are happy then stick with them. FC today are a completely different platform to the one a few years back. I'd say a lot of the complaints are because lenders preferred the previous ways of working. I no longer invest here myself but I can see why it appeals to some. I agree Archie. I was in when we were doing the auctions, had so much fun trying to preempt the bots on E rated loans to see if you could get any, and try doing a bit of flipping when they had cashback on property loans. (not worth the hassle) If, however, your're like my son & work all the hours that God sent, you just want to use it almost as a deposit account (if somewhat riskier & not guaranteed) & just put you cash in, watch it grow & get some out when you need it. Personally, I'm into 8½ P2P platforms, which are a mixture. eg FC, FS, Lendy, UB, MT ABL, AC, RS & COL (COL is the ½) Still having fun though. 
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