Ace
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Post by Ace on Jul 26, 2021 13:56:46 GMT
I'm sorry to say that I've decided to stop trying to get funds deployed on Blend. It's a shame as I like Blend's loans. The only way to get funds deployed on Blend is to use their AutoLend feature. I have no problem with that, but it requires one to have twice one's desired AutoLend amount permanently waiting on the platform and not earning any interest. IMO that makes it the worst AutoLend mechanism of all platforms I've tried, which is quite a lot. I had hoped that just having a single AutoLend amount permanently in the account would be enough, but it just doesn't work. My theory was that I would deposit an extra AutoLend amount whenever a new loan was announced to maintain my place in the queue. So, when a new loan was announced yesterday I instantly initiated a bank transfer. However, the deposit wasn't credited to my Blend account until after I was allocated a slice of today's loan, so I was removed from the AutoLend queue and would have to return to the back again. So, the only way to prevent this would be to have twice one's desired AutoLend amount permanently in cash-drag to keep one's place in the queue. Last time this happened I missed out on the next 3 loans, so the cash-drag is considerable. IMO, this is a serious flaw in Blend's mechanisms. Other platforms operate similar AutoLend mechanisms without the need to have any funds in permanent cash-drag, so why can't Blend? I've now requested the return of my deposit and won't be using Blend until they sort this out. Tagging roxanamohammadian EDIT (21/7/22): I've added the bit in brackets to the thread title. My deposits to Blend have all been credited within a couple of hours lately (during working hours). So, I now only need to have one autolend amount in the queue to keep my place in the queue. Also, the queue seems to be much shorter anyway. It was only 9 days for the latest small (£250k) loan. |
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Post by overthehill on Jul 26, 2021 16:11:19 GMT
I'm sorry to say that I've decided to stop trying to get funds deployed on Blend. It's a shame as I like Blend's loans. The only way to get funds deployed on Blend is to use their AutoLend feature. I have no problem with that, but it requires one to have twice one's desired AutoLend amount permanently waiting on the platform and not earning any interest. IMO that makes it the worst AutoLend mechanism of all platforms I've tried, which is quite a lot. I had hoped that just having a single AutoLend amount permanently in the account would be enough, but it just doesn't work. My theory was that I would deposit an extra AutoLend amount whenever a new loan was announced to maintain my place in the queue. So, when a new loan was announced yesterday I instantly initiated a bank transfer. However, the deposit wasn't credited to my Blend account until after I was allocated a slice of today's loan, so I was removed from the AutoLend queue and would have to return to the back again. So, the only way to prevent this would be to have twice one's desired AutoLend amount permanently in cash-drag to keep one's place in the queue. Last time this happened I missed out on the next 3 loans, so the cash-drag is considerable. IMO, this is a serious flaw in Blend's mechanisms. Other platforms operate similar AutoLend mechanisms without the need to have any funds in permanent cash-drag, so why can't Blend? I've now requested the return of my deposit and won't be using Blend until they sort this out. Tagging roxanamohammadian
It's biased, I stopped wasting my time a few loans ago. I believe it's strategy and geared towards low volume HNW lenders rather than pure lender growth like CP which has proved to be extremely successful for them. I'm not even criticising them as it's up them to decide on the business model.
What I'm seeing is a slightly concerning undercurrent and coercion towards autolend, hands-off , let us diversify and invest your money wisely, you sit back and earn interest. Sound just like an advert from many collapsed financial schemes ?
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Post by Penny Pincher on Jul 27, 2021 10:06:48 GMT
Ditto. I was dropped from the AutoLend queue a few loans ago when I wasn't able to top-up before my balance was depleted by a new loan. I haven't participated since and am unlikely to whilst the AutoLend operates as it does.
To be fair to Blend Network, I am sure that when the AutoLend system was devised, they didn't expect loans to be fulfilled entirely by the AutoLend queue. But since this appears to be the norm now, I'd hope that they are reviewing the system.
Personally, I don't know why it's necessary to hold cash in order to participate in a loan. I much prefer the pledge-before-funding model whereby lenders make a pledge and have say 48hrs to do some due diligence and fund the pledge, should they wish to proceed. Surely there is sufficient time between funding and drawdown for this? This approach also shows that a platform takes its lender responsibilities seriously, by giving a lender the opportunity to review their lending and skip a loan if necessary.
As AutoLend appears to be the only practical way of investing with Blend at the moment, it's possible that new investors have low diversification and inadequate due diligence.
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ton27
Member of DD Central
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Post by ton27 on Jul 31, 2021 12:43:16 GMT
Lots of justified criticism of Autolend with which I concur - it needs fixing so that one does not need to keep excess funds on the platform just to participate. To date I have done just that but the "cash drag" is considerable so please fix it soon.
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Post by overthehill on Sept 14, 2021 9:21:31 GMT
The last loan was relatively small but had a higher autolend maximum of £5000 compared to £4000 for all the previous loans. I'm not wasting any time on messages or new loans, investments have been parked. They would do well to look at the Crowdproperty model on how to grow your client base, one of the prerequisites for a P2P private equity buyout or IPO. Can't think of any other reason people would pay that amount of money for Funding Circle shares !
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Post by overthehill on Oct 15, 2021 14:42:37 GMT
Not a lot of interest in this platform as the last post was mine about a month ago, I can't say I'm surprised.
The new loan email gives 24 hours notice of funding and the money transfer takes longer than 24 hours to be credited to your account, that's genius. So if you want to invest in new loans manually or with autolend you need to deposit an appropriate amount of cash for an unknown length of time with MangoPay SA with no FSCS protection and a temporary FCA licence. But nothing to worry about, according to the FCA website you might get your money back as it is 'safeguarded', that's a relief.
The autolend maximum limit has been getting larger instead of smaller, 7k the largest ever with the exception of no limit. But Blend are listening so everything is swell. There was about 12k available for manual lending which was probably hoovered up by the autolenders as every manual lender was waiting for their account to be credited!
"We have heard your feedback. We also want to increase the number of investors who are able to participate in our loans. So, for this loan, we have added a £7,000 limit on AutoLend. This means that the maximum amount any investor will be able to lend on this loan, through AutoLend, is £7,000."
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Ace
Member of DD Central
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Post by Ace on Oct 15, 2021 14:58:49 GMT
I had some spare cash available when yesterday's new loan notification arrived, so I decided to deposit some cash to give their autolend another try. I took their comment: "The good news is that if you have turned your AutoLend ON prior to this loan being listed you should automatically be able to lend on this loan" to indicate that there might be some scope for extra lenders.
The good news is that my deposit arrived on the platform in roughly half an hour. So I immediately activated my autolend at 16:30 yesterday.
The bad news is that I didn't get an allocation, or any info as to how close I was to getting one.
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Post by overthehill on Oct 15, 2021 15:54:06 GMT
I had some spare cash available when yesterday's new loan notification arrived, so I decided to deposit some cash to give their autolend another try. I took their comment: "The good news is that if you have turned your AutoLend ON prior to this loan being listed you should automatically be able to lend on this loan" to indicate that there might be some scope for extra lenders. The good news is that my deposit arrived on the platform in roughly half an hour. So I immediately activated my autolend at 16:30 yesterday. The bad news is that I didn't get an allocation, or any info as to how close I was to getting one.
Your money must have been on the fast train. Mine is still derailed somewhere 27 hours after it left the station. Justification not to leave cash sitting with MangoPay.
It basically sums up this site, some investors are getting their maximum and some are getting nothing even if you're in queue. Although there was 12k available for manual lending so it's screwed up.
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dave4
Member of DD Central
Cynical is a hobby not a lifestyle
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Post by dave4 on Oct 15, 2021 15:59:34 GMT
I have given up. Pulled all funds, found a new home for them.
Did think maybe i should try my luck when i got yesterdays e mail,
didn't bother. Its the not knowing that annoys me most.
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Post by overthehill on Oct 15, 2021 20:03:14 GMT
OMG. The train never derailed , I got on the wrong train. You have to change the reference number every time you send money, I'm glad all the platforms don't do that. I've got better things to do with my time, honestly. Hopefully I'll be reunited with my money at some stage.
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dave4
Member of DD Central
Cynical is a hobby not a lifestyle
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Post by dave4 on Oct 18, 2021 9:54:41 GMT
From todays e mail.. Some idea of the Que/ cash drag/ waiting time....
"We have recently introduced this cap to allow more lenders to participate in each loan. At the moment we are testing a 1% cap on the loan amount for autolenders.
If you have turned your AutoLend ON prior to 22nd August 2021 you should automatically be able to lend on this loan."
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Post by overthehill on Oct 19, 2021 8:47:21 GMT
OMG. The train never derailed , I got on the wrong train. You have to change the reference number every time you send money, I'm glad all the platforms don't do that. I've got better things to do with my time, honestly. Hopefully I'll be reunited with my money at some stage.
So my money is still lost somewhere in the banking network. If MangoPay take this amount of time to sort out or refund a stray transfer when they have my name, bank account number and destination account I certainly won't be leaving any sums of money with them in case they go under, your money could be anywhere.
Has anybody come across or heard of having to change the payee reference number EVERYTIME you send money between the same two accounts ?
Needless to say I missed this morning's loan , had I decided to invest.
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Ace
Member of DD Central
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Post by Ace on Oct 19, 2021 9:17:57 GMT
OMG. The train never derailed , I got on the wrong train. You have to change the reference number every time you send money, I'm glad all the platforms don't do that. I've got better things to do with my time, honestly. Hopefully I'll be reunited with my money at some stage.
So my money is still lost somewhere in the banking network. If MangoPay take this amount of time to sort out or refund a stray transfer when they have my name, bank account number and destination account I certainly won't be leaving any sums of money with them in case they go under, your money could be anywhere.
Has anybody come across or heard of having to change the payee reference number EVERYTIME you send money between the same two accounts ?
Needless to say I missed this morning's loan , had I decided to invest.
Yes, every platform that uses ShareIn for payment handling. So: AxiaFunder, Qardus, and Shojin to name a few.
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Greenwood2
Member of DD Central
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Post by Greenwood2 on Oct 19, 2021 9:21:44 GMT
OMG. The train never derailed , I got on the wrong train. You have to change the reference number every time you send money, I'm glad all the platforms don't do that. I've got better things to do with my time, honestly. Hopefully I'll be reunited with my money at some stage.
So my money is still lost somewhere in the banking network. If MangoPay take this amount of time to sort out or refund a stray transfer when they have my name, bank account number and destination account I certainly won't be leaving any sums of money with them in case they go under, your money could be anywhere.
Has anybody come across or heard of having to change the payee reference number EVERYTIME you send money between the same two accounts ?
Needless to say I missed this morning's loan , had I decided to invest.
It defeats the object of setting up bank transfers, so you know you get it right after the first one. There was another platform that did this, I think it's a function of MangoPay. I gave up using that platform too. It's automatic to just press the go button on a bank transfer that's already set up, it's just too prone to error to bother with having to remember to change the reference every time and get it right.
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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
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Post by ilmoro on Oct 19, 2021 9:33:45 GMT
So my money is still lost somewhere in the banking network. If MangoPay take this amount of time to sort out or refund a stray transfer when they have my name, bank account number and destination account I certainly won't be leaving any sums of money with them in case they go under, your money could be anywhere.
Has anybody come across or heard of having to change the payee reference number EVERYTIME you send money between the same two accounts ?
Needless to say I missed this morning's loan , had I decided to invest.
Yes, every platform that uses ShareIn for payment handling. So: AxiaFunder, Qardus, and Shojin to name a few. Blend uses MangoPay. Its a feature of e-money providers that they utilise individual payment references. Possibly something to do with e-money rules. I assume people are aware that money held by e-money providers isnt covered by FSCS but by safeguarding. Sharein isnt an e-money provider AIUI so presumably a different reason there
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