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Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2015 10:24:53 GMT
This is an update on my experience and facts surrounding the disastrous (mis)management of withdrawals by LendingCrowd.
I have been attempting to withdraw relatively modest sums from LendingCrowd since the 20th October 2015 (22 days ago as of today) and had the following difficulties:
- On the 20 October 2015 the LendingCrowd site denied me access to the withdrawal detail pages with the following error:
"Your funds have not yet been cleared by our payment provider"
(my funds were transferred in 45 days earlier so the above was clearly an UNTRUE message/system bug).
- I attempted again a few days later on the 23th October and the withdrawal section this time was accessible and asked me to introduce my bank details. I did, but after doing it, instead of being allowed to insert the amount of money I needed to withdraw, i was told that my bank details "had to be verified". I hoped it was an automatic process, but I was wrong...
- I waited almost a week, but nothing had changed and the withdrawal section still showed the same message. So, on the 30th October 2015 I contacted the LendingCrowd customer service, which basically told me they had done nothing yet and they needed a statement to verify my account (why wasn't this information asked to me immediately, or indeed why wasn't asked at all by LendingCrowd directly without waiting me complaining about it?).
- I sent the statement and the bank details were finally verified by LendingCrowd.
So on the 30th October (10 days after I first attempted) I was able to insert the sum of my 1st withdrawal request on the LendingCrowd platform!!!
- The customer support answered to my earlier complaint, saying that my withdrawal request would be dealt with as soon as possible
- On the 4th november I had additional cash available on the LendingCrowd (loan part sales) and I introduced a second withdraw request.
- No money landed on my bank account, so on the 6th November 2015 i complained again about the situation.
- The LendingCrowd support answered this:
During the period of time you mention, our Financial Controller was on holiday and the covering member of staff was unwell. When our Financial Controller returned from her holiday, some of the pending transfers were missed for a time as a result of some miscommunication during the handover. We can only apologise for this - this should not have happened.
Now, considered that immediately after any withdraw request the money formally disappears from the customer LendingCrowd account, the fact they did not notice this missing action demonstrate LendingCrowd does not have a matching/control system in place (!!!).
This means their accountancy is without control (otherwise numbers would not have matched up on the evening of the 30th october and that should have triggered an immediate alarm...). This is extremely worrying in itself to me.
- Notwithstanding the apologetic tone, more days have gone and as of today, 10 November, I still haven't received my money (22 days waiting now) and I have no idea where it is or why is LendingCrowd not capable of sending a fast transfer out!!!
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jimbob
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Post by jimbob on Nov 10, 2015 13:11:53 GMT
Have you e-mailed them (again, yes, yes I know), I've found them to be most courteous in their responses... although my intial withdrawal did take a while.
Thanks,
Jimbob
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Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2015 14:57:28 GMT
Have you e-mailed them (again, yes, yes I know), I've found them to be most courteous in their responses... although my intial withdrawal did take a while. Thanks, Jimbob yes of course I did email them repeatedly. In the period described above I have 8 messages in my outbox to their support. They are usually prompt in answering, but not in acting as requested and not even answering the questions that were asked. For example in my message last week I asked "where is my money?" and they basically answered "sorry, there was a problem (...) we will change our withdrawal procedures" (ok, I understand you intend to change procedures, but where is my money now? Why don't you answer my question? And why don't you sent it out immediately to me with a fast payment before thinking to the general procedures?). Again this morning I asked: "where is my money?" and still haven't received answers. Certainly I am not comfortable in seeing my money disappear and no real answers from a lending company! In the meantime I have inserted my third withdrawal request. Let's wait and wait and wait..
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Post by mrclondon on Nov 10, 2015 20:51:46 GMT
uncletone I thought this conversation was stopped on another thread It was for excessively emmotive language ... however the OP's post on this thread apart from 2 words which I removed earlier today reads as a well presented factual account. I have PM'd lendingcrowd a few minutes ago to suggest that answering the allegations of poor administration of lender(s) accounts directly on the forum would be sensible PR, and hence this thread will remain open to faciliate that. The original thread, whilst locked, is still readable and I'm sure I'm not the only potential lender that has been turned off by the lack of a resolution to @hor1997's withdrawal issue so long after he first reported it to LC.
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registerme
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Post by registerme on Nov 10, 2015 23:56:47 GMT
Thank you. I didn't (and don't) want to get involved in the earlier discussion about "tone", but I am very interested in the substance of the discussion, namely Lending Crowd's mechanisms for sending funds to lenders.
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james
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Post by james on Nov 11, 2015 0:53:43 GMT
hor1997 I suggest that you contact the FCA with a view to them investigating the "client money" handling practices at this provider. The FCA client money requirements include things like mandatory daily reconciliation of the amounts that are supposed to be in client money bank accounts and it seems very clear that there are defects in this area that need to be fixed and overseen. Your description should prompt concern at any regulator concerned about client money risks. I'm making this suggestion that you contact the FCA in part because it does not seem wise in this case to reply on this firm having sufficiently reliable processes in place to accurately make reports to the FCA about the complaints it has received. More generally, excessive delays in withdrawing oney can be a sign that the money is not there and can be a warning sign for anything from just poor controls to issues where new money in isn't sufficient to meet withdrawing requests because the original money isn't really there any more. While I've no idea what is happening with this provider, the sort of delays you've experienced would cause me to have reservations about the degree of risk from the provider rather than the investments involved. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2015 9:24:43 GMT
More generally, excessive delays in withdrawing oney can be a sign that the money is not there and can be a warning sign for anything from just poor controls to issues where new money in isn't sufficient to meet withdrawing requests because the original money isn't really there any more. While I've no idea what is happening with this provider, the sort of delays you've experienced would cause me to have reservations about the degree of risk from the provider rather than the investments involved. Of course I share your concerns and this is an additional reason why I am unwinding anything related to this company (and this morning I placed my 4th withdrawal request). In my message yesterday I also explicitly asked to LendingCrowd to confirm they keep segregated the client's account to their administration accounts. They replied that they do keep them separate as per FCA regulations
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2015 9:43:15 GMT
An update on this LendingCrowd withdrawal saga.
LendingCrowd answered to my latest complaint and they said that notwithstanding the explicit withdrawal instructions I inserted onsite (which listed my Lloyds account), notwithstanding all the time wasted to verify the Lloyds account, they apparently have not sent the money to this account...
They say they have now sent my money back to the debit card I used originally to fund the account (which is NOT connected the Lloyds withdrawal account they verified) and this requires further time as they use a third party to process their card requests.
Assuming this is true, to me this is a further demonstration the procedures this company uses are a total shamble.
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jimbob
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Post by jimbob on Nov 11, 2015 10:02:52 GMT
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james
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Post by james on Nov 11, 2015 12:04:16 GMT
In my message yesterday I also explicitly asked to LendingCrowd to confirm they keep segregated the client's account to their administration accounts. They replied that they do keep them separate as per FCA regulations I've no doubt that TrustBuddy customer service would have said the same thing, because they know the correct answer and would assume that their employer is following the rules. In that case, they weren't. A customer service Q&A just can't do the job of determining whether the rules are really being followed. This doesn't mean that I think they are doing what TrustBuddy did with client money but it does mean that I don't think a customer service question will find out one way or another an given your experience and reasons given to you I think that I do have reason to wonder whether the controls are as they should be.
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james
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Post by james on Nov 11, 2015 12:05:20 GMT
My first withdrawal request took 9 days to be processed. This apparently included the Bank Account verification period. Since then I have made a further 3 withdrawals with funds returned to my Bank Account within 24 hours of the request. It would be interesting to get others views on their withdrawal experiences. Anyone care to start a poll showing initial time for withdrawal and then secondary withdrawal times? I'm afraid my expertise with computers isn't good enough. One way is to do a poll that allows two selections. Top part the first question's answers, bottom part the second one, trust people to pick one from each section.
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ablender
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Post by ablender on Nov 11, 2015 13:26:36 GMT
My first withdrawal request took 9 days to be processed. This apparently included the Bank Account verification period. Since then I have made a further 3 withdrawals with funds returned to my Bank Account within 24 hours of the request. It would be interesting to get others views on their withdrawal experiences. Anyone care to start a poll showing initial time for withdrawal and then secondary withdrawal times? I'm afraid my expertise with computers isn't good enough. My Experience: After reading about problems with withdrawing money for the past few days, I decided to test the platforms I work with. I am not going to give the results for all the platforms but I think it would be good to give the ones related to LC. Please note that this was my first withdrawal. Previously I had deposited money using Bank Transfer (and possibly a debit card - but am not sure). I started the procedures for withdrawal at 10 Nov 2015 at about 11:50am. The first step is to verify the bank account. I filled in the details and proceeded. Due to what I have read here, I contacted LC by phone to check that things were OK. This was confirmed and I received an email confirming that my bank details have been verified at 11:58am, same day. I made a withdrawal request at 12:00 (noon) for £45. Today 11/11/15 - I received I checked my bank account at 13:00 (I could not do it earlier) and the money is in my bank account. This adds up to about 25hours at most.
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Post by lendingcrowd on Nov 11, 2015 18:26:21 GMT
Hi all, We truly understand that you are concerned about your funds and we take client funds very seriously. The business has a client funds account at Barclays Bank and all client funds are managed from this account. This is as required by the Financial Conduct Authority. The situation that has arisen with hor1997 is due to an internal issue which has been explained to hor1997 in direct email dialogue as it would not have been appropriate to discuss an individuals situation in a public forum. We have expressed our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused to hor1997 and have taken steps to ensure that this situation will not arise again. From the feedback we have received on this forum, we have taken additional steps to improve our internal administration, which we believe will result in a streamlined process. In terms of money transfers, we have measures in place to help reduce the risk of fraudulent transactions and hence protect our clients. This means that: - if your money is transferred to our account by debit card and you want to make a withdrawal the money will be placed back on the same card
- if your money is transferred via bank transfer the funds will be repaid to the same bank account.
We have to wait until funds have cleared to carry out our internal checks in line with our compliance, which in the past has taken up to 10 days but should from now on take up to 3 days. As a growing business we are continually evolving our processes and we welcome your feedback as it will help us to grow into a business that meets our investor needs. Many thanks, The LendingCrowd team |
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micky
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Post by micky on Nov 11, 2015 18:34:03 GMT
Thanks LC that's a great reply it demonstrates a commitment to improving customer services. Time to let it drop now.
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min
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Post by min on Nov 11, 2015 18:36:24 GMT
Started my story on previous thread but to provide balance think I ought to complete it here.
Having recently moved funds from Flatulant Chickens to Little Calculations and read the other thread I requested a £5 withdrawal on a Sunday. Got message on webpage about needing to verify bank account (all monies been paid in from same bank account).
No email confirmation.
Nothing changed by following Thursday so filled in online form.
Within a couple of hours had email.
"your bank account has been approved-thanks for sending bank statement (I hadn't)"
Next day money in bank account.
Conclusion:
Laughing Cavaliers need to improve system for withdrawal
Lampooning Comics have been a bit overwhelmed by pirates jumping ship from Financial Cowboys.
Largely Correct need to increase deal flow. (maybe should unite with Financially Keen). Both seem to be approachable.
Edit: my response written as LC replied. Delighted with their response.
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