Getting decent rates becoming more difficult

I have noticed the same. If I can't get 8% after expected bad debt and fees I don't invest. As a result they haven't had any of my cash since before Xmas. My personal theory is people with Xmas bonus to invest and fewer loans because of Xmas have led to the lower rates for lenders in the past few weeks. However I have kept my eye open and reckon that this weeks loans are looking more likely to be able give 8%. Stay patient I reckon and don't invest for the sake of it. You can get 6.1% on rate setter with virtually no risk so I'm not going to accept 7% with FC and more risk.  

There's always a big drop off in the number of new loans available over the Christmas period, which in turn has a knock on effect to rates in the secondary market. Hopefully rates will rise in the next couple of weeks.

Yep, as discussed in other threads (and on the FC forum too, IIRC) the two Xmas weeks were each about 1/4 of the borrower requests of the peak November months, while repayments continue to arrive (and new capital) resulting in a big bulge of money chasing few opportunities. Same happened last year - a month later FC were offering cashback to attract new lenders. Just leave your hands in your pockets and waitabit (to quote EF Russell). You can have an A+ at 6%-ish now, or probably one at 8 or 9% in a few weeks time - you pick. Meantime the Ratesetter monthly market is at 3%, so that's a reasonable parking lot.

I initially put the problem of low rates down to the Christmas break but there is a far bigger issue in the shape of a new user who is putting massive amounts of relatively high value bids in at quite low rates early on in the life of an auction which immediately drops the rate down. She normally comes in at a net 8.5 rate and can put anything from £20k up to over £40k in blocks of either £200s or £400s. I'm not even sure what her strategy is, if she's a trader then the amounts seem fairly high for 'selling on' but if not then why isn't she putting in bids of £2000. The other thing is, I don't think she comes back in when her bids are undercut instead she just moves on to the next auction and kills the rate on that and so on. The 'T' man has always been a bit of an annoyance but the 'G' woman is becoming a real problem.  

Perhaps you would like all other bidders to be excluded so you are free to bid at 15% (You still wont get any loans accepted). Actually I would rather like people to stop outbidding me on ebay when I can get a nice car for 99p if I get a free run.

FC is a market. People can bid what they like how they like using any strategy they like.

Normal rules apply, richer people can bid more. those happy to accept lower rates win. Other homes for spare cash are available. As with all markets, when enough people go elsewhere the rates should rise. And if there is an influx of institutional cash lowering rates for some time then expectations need to be adjusted.

There is huge growth potential in this business. The current £500k loan is just the start, although you will need to get used to seeing these at fixed rates like the property loans, I suspect fixed rate loans will become very significant over the next year.

My biggest grumble about Fractious Cobblers is that so many loans are not shown to "small" investors any more. This MUST decrease the quality of what we are offered; big boys are not going to choose inferior whole loans, are they? That, together with the unsecured nature of nearly all FC loans means I am even more grumpy than I was. Answer? Asset secured loans elsewhere, with equal or higher rates, in which I may place four figure sums in fewer loans, rather than two or three figure sums in lots of loans (and a lot more work for me).

Unsecured loans should fetch higher rates than secured loans, but often they don't. Now, I wonder why that is.

Ah, so that's what the Ratesetter Manipulators do on their day off!