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Post by earthbound on Jun 10, 2016 9:47:00 GMT
There has been some fairly negative stuff regarding various platforms recently, so i thought it might make a change to sing the praises of the platforms where they are getting it right, and may also help newbies when making decisions as to where they may want to lend.
1. Saving stream.. I like the website and interaction via the SM , and i like the good solid 12% returns.
2. Moneything.. Again nice easy website, solid 10%+ return and comms are very very good.
3. Collateral.. New on the scene, but solid 12% return again, nice website and very good comms so far.
I have only scratched the surface on 3 i use.
All comments welcome. Pros and cons. but more pro.s if possible please.
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Post by easteregg on Jun 10, 2016 10:25:57 GMT
Speaking in a personal capacity I'm a massive fan of peer-to-peer lending. The only company that I had a significant complaint about is no longer trading, but even then they closed down in a good way. There are a number of review sites such as Smart Money People, Trustpilot and Feefo where we are publishing a summary on P2P money.
www.p2pmoney.co.uk/companies/
I would really encourage anyone with positive or negative reviews - hopefully positive - to voice them on one of the review platforms listed.
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Post by mrclondon on Jun 10, 2016 13:19:16 GMT
[mod hat off]
What do I as a lender want from a p2p platform ? Simple, a medium term return of at least 5% pa after capital losses.
Most p2p platforms have started life as micro businesses created from the vision of a small number of directors, either standalone ventures or an adjunct to an existing small scale finance operation (e.g. Montello / LendInvest).
My personal view is that the long term success of the p2p platforms we have available to us today is going to come down to the ability of the founding directors to grow the loan origination (and hence platform capability to service that) dramatically whilst keeping the ethos of the original micro business intact. The management / leadership challenges in so doing are huge, but trying to understand how the founding directors approach the day to day issues that arise today gives a pretty good insight into how they will cope with the bigger challenges to come.
The key message here is to think more about the people behind the platforms, than the platforms themselves and to try to filter out noise about loans not repaying on time, or fluctuations in the balance between supply and demand for loans on a platform.
With only one or two exceptions I think that the founding directors of p2p platforms have what it takes.
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hendragon
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Post by hendragon on Jun 10, 2016 13:21:27 GMT
Funding Empire needs an honourable mention. Very quick comms, quick to credit deposits, and I' ve been paid on time every time. 10% returns.
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james
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Post by james on Jun 10, 2016 14:24:09 GMT
It's easy enough to say that in general most P2P sites in the UK and the rest of Europe are doing a fine job and deserve much praise. After all, I'm in the process of investing something like three quarters of all my assets in P2P, so I'm most certainly an enthusiastic supporter. Including broadly even in situations where things go wrong but every effort is made to fix things. Such are inevitable for new and growing businesses.
Lots of kudos to go around.
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Post by earthbound on Jun 10, 2016 15:24:08 GMT
It's easy enough to say that in general most P2P sites in the UK and the rest of Europe are doing a fine job and deserve much praise. After all, I'm in the process of investing something like three quarters of all my assets in P2P, so I'm most certainly an enthusiastic supporter. Including broadly even in situations where things go wrong but every effort is made to fix things. Such are inevitable for new and growing businesses. Lots of kudos to go around. I am finding myself heading towards the same position, i reckon i am at 70% and a near future payout from elsewhere to come, and i am now a little worried about whether i am going to be too heavily weighted in one area. TBH if the whole p2p area was to go pop, i would lose an awful large percentage of my savings. edit i wonder how many investors feel they are over weighted in p2p?.
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shimself
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Post by shimself on Jun 10, 2016 15:35:35 GMT
[mod hat off] ...
With only one or two exceptions I think that the founding directors of p2p platforms have what it takes.
Blimey-inside the UK I think there are 5 or more platforms who I don't trust, although none I hope are down to the level of sharepushers and the like.
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Jun 10, 2016 17:25:43 GMT
[mod hat off] ...
With only one or two exceptions I think that the founding directors of p2p platforms have what it takes.
Blimey-inside the UK I think there are 5 or more platforms who I don't trust, although none I hope are down to the level of sharepushers and the like. I can't think of a single platform I'd put in the same category as some of the share-pushing scumbags. I don't even think there's much in the way of absolute incompetence. What there ARE is platforms who simply don't have critical mass, and other platforms where there's just a bit of an imbalance between lenders and borrowers.
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Post by bluechip on Jun 10, 2016 20:15:19 GMT
I was at around 75% 6 months ago, the Mrs started to worry that I was trusting too much in a new-ish sector and I suffered a couple of immediate large losses on a platform that suckered me in with its very high rates (some only making the first repayment then reneging much to my amazement). So I wound down with some of the weaker platforms and put it into stocks and some into useless bonds, so I am currently at 50% P2P, 15% S&S, 10 % Crowdfunding and 25% standard bonds/ISA's. As these bonds mature I will be revisiting P2P with those proceeds. I now can't justify 1% in a bond just for FSCS protection.
I didn't pull it out just because of the Mrs (although she thinks so), I was also worried about what ISA money would do to P2P and one of the major platforms I used made a big change which concerned me as they were jeopardising quality for quantity in my opinion. I foolishly expected a wave of ISA money to hit in April, didn't realise there would be a delay with P2P getting their ISA's out, but it doesn't worry me so much now.
I found myself checking and reading things far too frequently when at 75%, but my initial worries about being over hedged in P2P have dissipated now. I've also put a chunk into Seedrs to try and diversify further and have a bit of a punt.
So my confidence grows, especially as I have left 2-3 of the smaller platforms that work well on the surface, but don't have enough activity or longevity to be worthwhile pursuing. As mentioned one in particular left a very sour taste with how easily they have been gamed, but on the whole I'm very pleased with how the 7-10 platforms I use have worked out.
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Post by Financial Thing on Jun 10, 2016 20:47:27 GMT
Just my opinion but I think anyone willing to put an overweight chunk of their savings into P2P has some big stone bollocks and you have my respect. After I punted mid 6 figures on some property deals in late 2000's, I learnt about risk the hard way and learned never to risk too much despite how rosy the outlook. What's interesting to me is a new platform pops up, sometimes the new platforms gain trust quickly and we're happy to hand over our hard earned cash to these strangers hoping for a favourable outcome. Problem I see is some platforms aren't turning a profit and it may get worse due to heavy FCA scrutiny on things such as IT security which is very expensive. Will be interesting to see who can survive. If we were to experience an economic 2008 type downturn, they'll be many of us suffering thorough financial pains on this forum (me included). Other than that I love p2p  Disclaimer: I'm an avid fan of p2p and have a sizable sum invested across multiple platforms |
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Post by earthbound on Jun 10, 2016 21:12:38 GMT
In answer so far.. all i can say is its nice to know that im not the only one who feels overweight in p2p, but at the moment still have a feel good factor, my confidence in the platforms im involved in remains good, especially MoneyThing 1st and then savingstream and collateral who i hope longer term can follows the MT and SS route. edit... comments so far have been really great. |
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ben
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Post by ben on Jun 10, 2016 21:24:19 GMT
In answer so far.. all i can say is its nice to know that im not the only one who feels overweight in p2p, but at the moment still have a feel good factor, my confidence in the platforms im involved in remains good, especially MoneyThing 1st and then savingstream and collateral who i hope longer term can follows the MT and SS route. edit... comments so far have been really great. Im personally hoping that collateral replaces FS with pawn items as FS seems to have gone away from them.
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Post by earthbound on Jun 10, 2016 21:28:48 GMT
In answer so far.. all i can say is its nice to know that im not the only one who feels overweight in p2p, but at the moment still have a feel good factor, my confidence in the platforms im involved in remains good, especially MoneyThing 1st and then savingstream and collateral who i hope longer term can follows the MT and SS route. edit... comments so far have been really great. Im personally hoping that collateral replaces FS with pawn items as FS seems to have gone away from them. I agree that would be good, i haven't mentioned FS , who i have been with for years, for plenty of reasons I've banged on about elsewhere, but i have upped to £1k in collateral , not going to rush yet, its too early, but the signs so far are good.
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Post by earthbound on Jun 11, 2016 10:54:29 GMT
I agree that would be good, i haven't mentioned FS , who i have been with for years, for plenty of reasons I've banged on about elsewhere, but i have upped to £1k in collateral , not going to rush yet, its too early, but the signs so far are good. I too am hoping that collateral is the replacement for FS, which was one of the first platforms I used. I liked the format of pawnbroking, initially replicated by MoneyThing , and they posted detailed valuations. However as they moved into a flood of property loans I became "concerned" and after a few scares on pawn defaults, decided to run down my loans. I also like the fact that MoneyThing and collateral pay the interest monthly. I see that the new loan flow on collateral is increasing dramatically and think this will attract more lenders. I also find their interaction good as is the money transfer arrangements. Have you copied and pasted one of my post's.  I could have written this myself (not as succinctly tho) and agree with every word, even to the point of having a minor scare and deciding to run down loans. 
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ben
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Post by ben on Jun 11, 2016 11:00:27 GMT
I agree that would be good, i haven't mentioned FS , who i have been with for years, for plenty of reasons I've banged on about elsewhere, but i have upped to £1k in collateral , not going to rush yet, its too early, but the signs so far are good. I too am hoping that collateral is the replacement for FS, which was one of the first platforms I used. I liked the format of pawnbroking, initially replicated by MoneyThing , and they posted detailed valuations. However as they moved into a flood of property loans I became "concerned" and after a few scares on pawn defaults, decided to run down my loans. I also like the fact that MoneyThing and collateral pay the interest monthly. I see that the new loan flow on collateral is increasing dramatically and think this will attract more lenders. I also find their interaction good as is the money transfer arrangements. has been that many pawn defaults? all the pawn items I have been in have either recovered everything or nearly everything although I avoided the art ones
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I could have written this myself (not as succinctly tho) and agree with every word, even to the point of having a minor scare and deciding to run down loans. 