With a Whimper?

Presumably, until any users who've agreed to the CURRENT autobid behaviour log on and agree to the NEW terms and conditions, FC will not legally be able to have those users autobids do anything else...

So, autobid users would fall into 3 groups:
1. Those who have already agreed to the new T&Cs (an initial group that will start at zero but should rapidly increase) and who have thus accepted the new autobid behaviour.
2. Those whose autobid rates were already below the new fixed rates can continue unfettered, as the new behaviour is within the T&Cs they agreed to (but FC then need to be careful if/when they lower the fixed rates).
3. Those whose autobid rates were above the new fixed rates - FC do not have authorisation from such users to bid on the new fixed rate auctions, as they have neither agreed to the new T&Cs nor selected a rate low enough to allow bidding at the new fixed rates.
[4. Those who don't use autobid...]


It will be interesting to see how FC actually handle the launch - in particular what they do with users in group 3 (respect their existing instructions, so that by implication they CANNOT bid on the new fixed-rate auctions on the primary market, or make bids that those users have not authorised and hope those users don't mind and/or don't complain to the regulator).

sl75: I got this email from Faintly Comic today. Does it answer your Group 3 issue?
"We're planning to introduce fixed interest rate loans on Monday 28 September, which means Autobid will lend at fixed rates on your behalf.

What do I need to do?
From next week, your Autobid will automatically bid on the risk bands you have selected at the gross interest rates below. These rates may be different to your current settings so it's worth reviewing what they are to make sure you're happy with them:  (Table omitted)

Currently, one or more of the interest rates you have saved in your current Autobid settings is set above the new fixed interest rates. This means that you will buy loan parts on the secondary market at these rates, but place bids on new loans at the interest rates shown above. Your actual return may be higher or lower as your capital is at risk.

If you want to change your Autobid settings, in order to buy loan parts on the secondary market at different rates, you can update them by logging into your account and navigating to Autobid. You'll need to turn Autobid off, change your settings and turn it back on.

If you're happy with your current rates and are happy to lend at the fixed interest rates shown in this email, you don't need to take any action."

Presumably when you switch on Autobid you are deemed to Autoaccept any changes in the terms and conditions (which must have been done before) and the new terms and conditions will specify the new Autobid behaviour. Otherwise, whenever the T&C's change in any way Autobid would have to cease all bidding and only start for each client once that client has positively accepted the new T&Cs. That would not work well, and Autobid users would be unhappy to return from whatever to find that their money had not been lent because they had not ticked a new box as a result of an email.

Agreed.  Why would anybody commit significant funds to a very different regime until they have some idea how it's going to play out?  

FC causes their own liquidity crunch.

So "ended" means "the auction has ended but the loan hasn't been drawn down yet".  You can interpret this in positive ways, for instance "I got a good rate", or you can interpret this in negative ways "it's not been drawn down yet and I'm not earning interest, and in fact it may be rejected by the borrower".  Your mileage may vary but.... don't draw too many conclusions until you have more information and experience to draw on.  You could do an awful lot worse than read through some of the threads here.  

Also note that everything changes next week.

"Processing" (like other FC status labels) is... vague.  To me Processing means "not late".  Late means "not in default yet".  There can be entirely innocent reasons for things being in a status of "Processing", like bank holidays, Saturdays, first payments requiring manual intervention / set up etc.  But it's vague, yes.

Just to add to your confusion, just because something is processing (ie not late according to my interpretation) it doesn't mean that it will go late.  And just because something is late doesn't mean that it will default.

Think of it this way, if a payment is due on date x and isn't paid, it is probably in "processing".  If it's in processing it will probably be paid.  If it isn't it will probably end up being late, and may be paid.  If it isn't paid it will end up in default and you will get some (guess, dependent on risk rating?) of it back.

Actually 'retry' is the status that happens after (failed) 'processing', and before 'late'.