Investment Performance - targeting 7.0%+ p.a.

But you would be paying tax on the 6% anyway (if fees were deducted first) then the return would be 6% - 2.4% = 3.6%. So 0.6% worse off due to the fees being taxable or 0.3% at 20% tax. Bad enough though.

Hi ashtondav, if you have a 5 figure sum invested, you don't pay 1.5% on the whole lot. Above £25K, the fees reduce to 1.25%, then to just 1% above £100K. If you're a 40% taxpayer, you have to pay tax wherever your interest comes from, unless you invest through a SIPP.

The answer is in your own post: it costs £12 to set up a company and about 5mins work. This opens a raft of tax planning opportunities (beyond just the fee deduction).

Although if you're a Basic Rate taxpayer or unfamiliar with tax structuring, then investing in your personal name is probably easiest.

Our current product is probably more like 'BondMason Pro' - for the educated investor that understands risks and returns, and may want to further structure their return in a tax efficient way through a personal investment company, but wants to access a highly diversified portfolio in a passive way.

Our upcoming Bonds will likely be more for the casual fixed-income investor, looking for even greater certainty over their return and in a tax efficient wrapper; all accessed simply and with low maintenance. Probably best for those wanting to allocate up to £20k-40k pa. (using an ISA allowance or two).

Remember: our ethos is to seek to enable clients to get a better return than any savings account, by taking on a bit more risk. We are not looking (or encouraging) people to chase 9-12%+ pa; you can attempt this elsewhere.

We don't give tax advice.

6% is broadly correct in your first 12 months (assuming you have less than £25k invested).

8% gross less 1.5% fee and 30-40bps for cash drag in first months or so.

Yes, it is still the case. You pay tax on the gross amount, 7% or 8%. So for a tax payer you need to form a company to make BM competitive with any other platform. A shame.

Out of curiosity - with the dearth of high-rate loans recently, how is Bondmason corner these days for existing investors? This forum seems very quiet about them, and there seems to have been only one trustpilot review about them in the last 8 months.

From their front page, it looks like they're very much more focused on direct lending these days. What sort of loans has that resulted in, do we know?

After much thought I have just liquidated my holdings, though I still have about 16% of my total investment tied up in Recovery (19 loans), Watchlist (9 loans) and Write offs (1 loan). I am hoping most of these come good in the fullness of time, but there will probably be a few more write offs and that will rapidly dent the returns to the point where there are better offerings elsewhere. The fees at 1.5%, and not tax deductible meaning a "real" fee of 1.875%, makes a very big hole in the returns too.

The Collateral problems constitute 7 of the 19 loans in recovery, a ridiculously high percentage, and accounting for roughly half the amount of money in recovery too.

Oh well.