I thought I'd comment in this thread as I am an active Money & Co lender (the site is a distant third for me after RS and AC).
I joined Money & Co in mid January. Deal flow was extremely slow, with only two auctions taking place from mid Jan to March.
From April, we've had four further auctions. One has been funded and completed (I was bid out of this auction by others offering lower rates), one has just fully funded and I take it is awaiting the borrower to accept the rate (I made a successful bid), and one auction is ongoing within the normal offer period. The fourth auction was not funded during the normal offer period, and the auction has been extended ( I had my bid removed after the initial period, in order to use the funds in another auction before coming back to this one later).
I have also bought five older loans on the aftermarket.
The rates I am receiving, after Money & Co's fee, range between 7.06 and 10.9.
My experience is:
-Loan quality is very high. All loans are to well established businesses making consistent profits. There have been no defaults to date. (The downside of this is that I have no idea how successfully any default may be managed, and security is often limited).
-The aftermarket is very liquid. All loans are tradable and are picked up within a few hours at most, with the exception of some cases where the seller has requested a substantial premium that may not be justified. If you want to buy on the aftermarket, it's necessary to be patient and check it frequently.
-Customer service was very good the one time anything went wrong. The system on one occasion double registered a bid: I phoned, and got a call back within a few minutes to confirm they'd investigated and removed the bid.
My concern is that auctions are running out of steam and that more lender support is required: platform risk is an issue here.
In the early M&Co days, I was able to get through several bids between 60 & 100%.
However M&Co have caught on now. Either the auction is extended or more usually £50-100K drops in just before closing time. This wipes out all speculative bids. The golden goose has been killed.
You should be aware that M&Co's money withdrawal process in poor. It takes up to 8 days to get your money back.
Although most borrowers do appear to be of good quality. I do currently have one loan that is 11 days late after 6 repayments. M&Co appear to have no process to communicate what is happening to investors.
Yes, I've noticed some sky high bids went through in the past and that it's no longer possible. You can though be left hoping till right before auction close, with bids at 150% still live 10 minutes before close, before being knocked down to maximum 10% or 12%.
With regard to the large bids jumping in, you sometimes have to be watching at the right time to see what's happening . With M..K…2, I saw one £250K bid go on, half the loan size. More recently, I've seen multiple bids for very similar amounts in the low thousands go on one after the other in the space of minutes, for exactly the same rate, where an auction had previously been dead for days.
I'm in the middle of making my first withdrawal. Made the request on 21 May. The withdrawal finally showed up on my M&CO statement on 27 Feb but I'm still waiting for the funds.
I've also just experienced my first real issue with a borrower: the third monthly payment on the loan to a firm of bailiffs is 12 days late. I have received an email from M&Co stating the payment has been promised for tomorrow. It appears there is nowhere on the site for this type of information to be recorded or updates provided. It also appears that information on the borrowers (accounts etc.) is never updated after the auction, although the loan may run for years.
Re Iren 'I'm in the middle of making my first withdrawal. Made the request on 21 May. The withdrawal finally showed up on my M&CO statement on 27 Feb but I'm still waiting for the funds.'
iren - It would help if you also complained strongly about M&Co's poor withdrawal process. State that you want your complaint to be addressed by the responsible director.
I am also being hurt by the Bailiff Co. I have complained twice about the lack of communication. Interesting that I haven't received an email - obviously I am being punished for being a whinger.
As a minor point. You can no longer bid >99.9%, although this is a moot point as all speculative bids are being wiped out anyway.
Unfortunately, [redacted] has failed to make the scheduled monthly repayment due on the 16th of this month. Our credit team is in contact with the company, and a payment has been promised for 29th May.
We understand that this delay is unwelcome. We are monitoring this situation closely, and are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible.
If you wish to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Unfortunately, [redacted] has failed to make the scheduled monthly repayment due on the 16th of this month. Our credit team is in contact with the company, and a payment has been promised for 29th May.
We understand that this delay is unwelcome. We are monitoring this situation closely, and are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible.
If you wish to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
Head of Content and Communications
Money&Co."
This is the same contents as an email I received following my chase on the 21st May.
My 2nd chase got a similar reply on 27th May
'Our credit team are in communication with the borrower and are ascertaining the exact reason for the failed payment, when this reason has been clearly determined we will communicate this to all lenders involved in the loan. '
So I am not holding my breath for payment on the 29th
I was wrong. It appears that the tardy Bailiff has made its repayment 13 days late. It would have been embarrassing for them if M&Co had to send in another Bailiff Company to get hold of the debenture assets.
Email from M&Co 'Thank you for lending with Money&Co. xxxxxxxx has today paid the scheduled monthly repayment that was originally due on the 16th of this month. Our credit team remains in close contact with the company and we are continuing to monitor this situation closely.'
On the withdrawals front - things look a little better.
After making an official complaint to the responsible Director, I had a 'will do better reply'
On Thursday evening this week I requested a withdrawal, it was in my bank Saturday. Proves they can do it.
Like you the Bailiff repayment has not yet been credited to my account. Historically it has taken at least one working day from receipt to appearing in my account (compares with Fumbling Cash's 5 days from DD request to crediting)