Nomad
Member of DD Central
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Post by Nomad on Aug 17, 2019 7:39:41 GMT
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Post by gravitykillz on Aug 17, 2019 7:56:21 GMT
Doesn't look too safe for me personally. I would rather buy a emerging markets tracker if I wanted to invest in this region. Also reviews can be fake.'I'm out'
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benaj
Member of DD Central
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Post by benaj on Aug 17, 2019 9:38:29 GMT
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pom
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Post by pom on Aug 17, 2019 11:21:26 GMT
I invested in 7 different projects last year (when they were calling themselves lendahand - there was another thread somewhere here but not much). All are on target with payments etc, although I would say that some of the payments have perhaps taken several days longer to reach my account than I might have expected, but that's no biggie, and not entirely surprising given its Africa. I have perhaps wondered about the repeated projects from the same companies (possibility that later bonds might be funding repayments on earlier) but not got involved enough to worry too much, and simply made sure I wasn't investing too much per company. The reason I'm not investing any more with them - and would urge caution to others if this applies to you - is their tax reporting. Although all the Ts&Cs say full tax certificates will be provided in reality all you get is an email for each payment detailing what tax (if any) has been deducted. The problem is there is no clear statement anywhere as to WHERE it has been paid.The dashboard helpfully lists UK vs overseas tax, but as for which country the overseas has been paid in?? Presumably the country the bond is registered in, but no confirmation of this. I asked for proper tax documentation at the turn of the tax year, was told it had been referred to a specialist and further attempts to chase are being ignored (time to chase again) Now if you're a UK taxpayer with only a small amount of foreign income/tax this probably won't be an issue at all. But in my case I have sufficient other foreign income that I already have to do detailed foreign income reporting by country. And whilst I can be reasonably confident I'm reporting the income against the right countries I don't feel I have sufficient proof of tax paid to request foreign tax credit relief (assuming its even applicable in these countries I haven't yet checked as the amount is such that I don't yet consider it worth being on hold to HMRC for ages to find out) soooo will be paying tax twice. The answer might be to only use them for IFISA money, but personally if they're finding it this difficult to provide proof of tax paid I'm not sure I'd trust them to keep HMRC happy and maintain their IFISA status. Update - after sending in a formal complaint on Sat I finally got a response on the Monday (after a holding response on Sat!) saying there's now full tax certificates available on the account pages (beneath all the IFISA info so who knows when it got added as I have no need to scroll down that far). Shame they couldn't have just replied and told me previously (so perhaps its very recent). On the plus side their complaints process is VERY efficient
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Post by gravitykillz on Aug 17, 2019 11:46:18 GMT
Sometimes i wonder if Pom is really Deborah Meaden in disguise.
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Post by failedtheturingtest on Mar 10, 2020 10:36:30 GMT
pom How has it been going with Energise Africa since you last posted? What you wrote last year sounded quite promising... I'm looking for other 'green' investment opportunities and some international diversification, and this ticks the boxes. How often do they release new bonds? I also have some investments in Abundance which seem to have been mostly ok although this coming year will be the real test as some of my investments there mature and we'll see what happens at that point...
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pom
Member of DD Central
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Post by pom on Mar 14, 2020 17:54:31 GMT
pom How has it been going with Energise Africa since you last posted? What you wrote last year sounded quite promising... I'm looking for other 'green' investment opportunities and some international diversification, and this ticks the boxes. How often do they release new bonds? I also have some investments in Abundance which seem to have been mostly ok although this coming year will be the real test as some of my investments there mature and we'll see what happens at that point... Everything is performing well, but new listings are mostly further bond issues for the same companies (which doesn't entirely fill me with confidence), so that plus a need to rebalance anyway means I'm winding down
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