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Post by stevefindlay on Jul 18, 2016 10:15:29 GMT
We have been very lucky to receive some great feedback from customers so far, which has helped improve BondMason for all of our Clients. We are keen to hear any ideas you may have to improve the service, communications, product etc. Looking forward to hearing from you! Please note: we are a relatively small company (15 people at the time of writing) and we are working hard to deliver the best possible service that we can. I.e. we don't have the resources of Tesco, Vodafone etc...so please bear this in mind when writing your posts - please treat us politely, and we'll do the same in return! |
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dermot
Member of DD Central
Posts: 863 
Likes: 517
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Post by dermot on Jul 19, 2016 19:29:02 GMT
As I just mentioned in a more general post, I'd quite like to see an auto-withdraw facility on a regular basis (interest only, though some might prefer capital as well) to my registered bank account.
This would make BM a very useful adjunct for supplementing retirement income, since it is already very much a 'fire and forget' system, requiring little in the way of day to day input from lenders.
DD
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guff
Posts: 730
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Post by guff on Jul 19, 2016 20:19:23 GMT
Steve, fed up waiting for someone to sort out the IFISAs, I decided to try you anyway and went through registration. I have a couple of comments which I hope you will find useful:
1. I got to the "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY CREATED YOUR BONDMASON ACCOUNT." splash screen and the payee reference is given as <Forename>%20<Surname> whereas on the previous page it was NNN-<Forename><Surname> where NNN appears to be my user number.
2. I was not asked for my bank account name and the box is blank on the bank details tab, but I must contact you to change details. There is also a Save button which is rather superfluous.
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Post by stevefindlay on Jul 20, 2016 13:19:51 GMT
Steve, fed up waiting for someone to sort out the IFISAs, I decided to try you anyway and went through registration. I have a couple of comments which I hope you will find useful: 1. I got to the "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY CREATED YOUR BONDMASON ACCOUNT." splash screen and the payee reference is given as <Forename>%20<Surname> whereas on the previous page it was NNN-<Forename><Surname> where NNN appears to be my user number. 2. I was not asked for my bank account name and the box is blank on the bank details tab, but I must contact you to change details. There is also a Save button which is rather superfluous. (1) How annoying. We removed the "-" as this was causing issues with various banks in their reference field. It seems we replaced a small problem with a global error. We're on this now. Thank you for pointing out. (2) That's correct - you need to contact us to amend bank details (or add them, if you didn't add them during sign up). The Save button is for other parts of this "User details" form, but I agree - it is redundant on this tab. IFISA - I feel your pain on that one...you're not alone...
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Post by stevefindlay on Jul 20, 2016 13:41:10 GMT
PS: The Payee reference is fixed again; it should display as "NNN<first name><surname>"
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guff
Posts: 730
Likes: 707
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Post by guff on Jul 20, 2016 13:42:33 GMT
Steve, fed up waiting for someone to sort out the IFISAs, I decided to try you anyway and went through registration. I have a couple of comments which I hope you will find useful: 1. I got to the "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY CREATED YOUR BONDMASON ACCOUNT." splash screen and the payee reference is given as <Forename>%20<Surname> whereas on the previous page it was NNN-<Forename><Surname> where NNN appears to be my user number. 2. I was not asked for my bank account name and the box is blank on the bank details tab, but I must contact you to change details. There is also a Save button which is rather superfluous. (1) How annoying. We removed the "-" as this was causing issues with various banks in their reference field. It seems we replaced a small problem with a global error. We're on this now. Thank you for pointing out. (2) That's correct - you need to contact us to amend bank details (or add them, if you didn't add them during sign up). The Save button is for other parts of this "User details" form, but I agree - it is redundant on this tab. IFISA - I feel your pain on that one...you're not alone... No problem stevefindlay. I entered sort code and account number during sign up but I'm pretty sure I wasn't asked for the name on my bank account so maybe an oversight by your bit-bashers. If you want to let me know when they have updated it, I will run through it again and report back as @mrsguff wants an account as well.
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Post by stevefindlay on Jul 20, 2016 15:18:02 GMT
I'd like the ability to be able to run a (tax) report between arbitrary dates instantly on the web site. I understand this facility is currently available but only on request via email. Every client gets an automated tax statement at the tax year end. This appear on their dashboard as soon as the tax year is finished. If you've invested through a Corporate (and need different tax periods) then we currently do this for clients on an ad-hoc (request driven) basis. I like the self-service approach you've suggest. We'll add it to the list. Thanks
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Post by bluechip on Jul 20, 2016 23:44:25 GMT
Got to say I am very happy so far, although very early days. - Customer service has been top notch, (I hope this continues as the platform grows)
- 50% of my few K has been lent out in a week
- As much info as I feel is personally necessary for a leave and forget platform, although if I start getting up to the higher levels of investment I would like to see more info
A couple of points that you may wish to consider and will mean I put more money your way if you address them:
I am heavily invested in several P2P platforms (some I am selling up for one reason or another), it would be very useful to know which ones I am exposed to with BondMason and having the choice to downsize with those platforms or untick a box with BondMason so you don't put more of my money into the same platforms if I don't want you to. I appreciate you don't want to do this yet for various reasons including deal flow and admin costs associated, but it will be something that I feel needs to be introduced if you want people to start trusting/relying on you with more of their wealth. For example I feel comfortable investing £10k-£20k with you and letting the chips fall, but £100k-£200k would mean I would need to know more about the P2P platforms (and others) you invest my money with - will this be something you plan to introduce once you have built up a solid customer base? I appreciate doing this too soon could hamper the business, but ultimately the need for transparency in this area is going to be very important if you are to expand and build loyal customers. Another pet hate of mine and why I pulled a lot of money out of Funding Circle is the simplistic percentage allocation. This is fine for me with £10k-£20k invested, but if I start getting into the £30k+ range I don't want to be allocating £300 to any one loan if there is more diversity available with other BondMason loans or on other platforms (I'd much rather have £150 in two loans if available, than £300 with one). Using the FC autobid system was no longer feasible for me as I never wanted to put more than a few hundred quid in any one loan. For example today I spread £5k across 200 loans on FC manually which is a pain but meant I was incredibly well diversified (albeit with one platform that I am very cautious with now). Ideally when BondMason gets more and more loan exposure this option will be rolled out automatically, will you be looking at introducing something like this in an automated way? Short term can BondMason look at adding a financial cap option for any one loan that is more specific than an arbitrary 1-2% figure of total platform investment? Something like "maximum £ to be invested in any one loan", eventually you could incorporate this feature for any given P2P platform as well, which would be ideal. This will allow people to mitigate risk and ensure they are not over exposed with any one sector, platform or loan. I appreciate this will mean a slowdown in allocation, but I would rather have my money spread as widely as possible long term, than clumped together in a small percentage of the total loans brought to market. I acknowledge that it will take ages to be invested in some cases, but I would rather be nominally in every loan than heavily in a random few. For example if you work with say, Money Thing, Saving Stream and Funding Secure (you may not), it would be useful for me to say £10k in MT, £20k in SS and £20k in FS, with a maximum of £200 in any one loan. That would take a few minutes for me to set-up in my settings and then I can sleep easy knowing I am not going to have too much with any one platform or in any one loan. At the minute that £50k could be split into 100, £500 clumps, which makes me uncomfortable. In summary, I appreciate that early days this isn't a problem for most, but eventually if the platform takes off and big hitters/more cautious people get involved it will put some of them off. I don't like the idea that I may have just invested £200 in a loan with one of my usual platforms and BondMason could be doubling down for me (without me knowing). For now I can live with it as the figures in question I am comfortable with, but it will stop me from putting more money your way if these changes aren't introduced and ideally I would like to put a lot more your way as you offer platform diversity in an automated way, which is perfect in theory but I imagine very difficult to perfect short term. I hope this all makes sense and it is of some help. |
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Post by stevefindlay on Jul 22, 2016 11:24:51 GMT
bluechip Firstly, thank you. With detailed feedback like this, we will be able to build a better and better service for all clients. Thank you for taking your time - it means a lot to us. To comment on your suggestions: 1. List of platforms we use: we've resisted this for many reasons to date, but I think we have to do something here given the repeated feedback on this point. It is likely we will add something in the coming week or so. 2. Dashboard for setting more detailed investment parameters: it is unlikely that this will be forthcoming any time soon. Our service is more of a fire-and-forget type service, we aren't looking to create a supermarket-type model. It is most suited to those that want a P2P Lending-level of return without the hassle. We expect that many of our clients will only invest through BondMason (or BondMason + 1-2 others), comforted by the fact that we are the only investment platform fully aligned to their interest - without the conflict of interest of having to manage borrower relationships as well. I also understand greater control may provide more comfort. We hope that our responsiveness and willingness to interact and respond to clients will provide a similar level of comfort. Our biggest retail clients have £250k-500k each with us, up from a few thousand pounds when they first signed up. We would prefer to build trust over time, by delivering a consistently good experience - rather than add more investment features / levers. 3. Set absolute investment threshold: I think this is a very good point. We are already working toward smaller percentage holdings i.e. 0.5% as you invest more; but being able to set an absolute number (e.g. £500 per loan) is a good idea. We will add this to the list. 4. Over exposure to platforms and loan types: we manage this on a global level - i.e. we seek to ensure that investments are well distributed by volume and value across loan types and platforms ( see statistics). There are some seasonal variations to this - e.g. Invoice Discounting is busy during December, March and July, so the split towards this ticks up a little during this time - but overall each client has a similar construct to the analysis per the statistics page at any time. 5. Pace of investment having set absolute investment level (following on from 3 above): there is a split amongst our Client base here - some want to be invested as quickly as possible, and then diversify down; others (like you) want to be allocated loans steadily but on a diversified basis from the outset. I can see why both appeal. We are working on something that delivers both...being tested now and hoping for release in c.2 weeks... 6. Doubling down: as per point 2 and 1, we anticipate this shouldn't be an issue for most clients, as they are not likely to be managing accounts with separate platforms. But your point is absolutely fair. Thank you again for taking the time to write a detailed post, it is very helpful, I hope I've picked up on all your key points, please let me know if not.
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locutus
Member of DD Central
Posts: 1,059
Likes: 1,622
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Post by locutus on Jul 22, 2016 11:31:28 GMT
BM would be better if...
the fee you charged was applied before tax rather than after. FYI, Market Invoice recently made this change to their own platform so it must be possible.
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Post by bluechip on Jul 22, 2016 12:38:58 GMT
Thank you Steve, this all makes good sense to me and I appreciate the feedback.
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Post by stevefindlay on Jul 22, 2016 16:25:31 GMT
BM would be better if... the fee you charged was applied before tax rather than after. FYI, Market Invoice recently made this change to their own platform so it must be possible. I know! This is a real pain for us. We wrote to HMRC back in December, but essentially, because we add an additional step in the process and we offer receivables, the fee isn't deductible. However, it is good news that MI are able to deduct the fee (as they also offer receivables, like us). We will recontact HMRC to see if their thinking has moved on. I have to believe that in time it will become deductible, as there is little substance to suggest it shouldn't be - i.e. we will pay corporate tax on the fee, so it feels like HMRC are getting the tax benefit twice: once from our Client's income tax and then again from our corporation tax. Thanks
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Post by bluechip on Jul 22, 2016 17:20:50 GMT
Small thing. I just transferred in more money, it is showing in my account already (good work), but the third box on the summary page "Your Investments", is almost fully coloured in still, I was almost fully invested before transferring more in today. I assume this box is to see quickly how much of your money has been invested, so whilst this was accurate before I put more money in, it hasn't updated to take into consideration my new balance. I assume the Your Balance-Your Investment boxes are meant to talk to each other, but there is a delay so you might want to look into that.
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fp
Posts: 1,008
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Post by fp on Jul 22, 2016 18:15:26 GMT
Small thing. I just transferred in more money, it is showing in my account already (good work), but the third box on the summary page "Your Investments", is almost fully coloured in still, I was almost fully invested before transferring more in today. I assume this box is to see quickly how much of your money has been invested, so whilst this was accurate before I put more money in, it hasn't updated to take into consideration my new balance. I assume the Your Balance-Your Investment boxes are meant to talk to each other, but there is a delay so you might want to look into that. I get the impression its more to show how well diversified your portfolio is, but I could be wrong, the target being a minimum of 50 loans.
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Post by stevefindlay on Jul 25, 2016 16:37:59 GMT
bluechip - fp is correct; it shows the level of diversification - i.e. if you have 50+ loans. I'm sure we can tweak it to also consider your invested-proportion, as per your original interpretation. Leave that with us...
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