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Post by debaser on May 14, 2017 18:09:16 GMT
Hello, I found this forum following the closing of the Funding Circle forum. So far I have only invested in Funding Circle, and I've been happy with it up to now. But I would feel safer if I put some money in other platforms, because I'm getting a "sinking ship" vibe from Funding Circle following the closing of the forum and the abandonment of property loans. So I think I'll leave the money in there that's already there, but give another platform a try. Besides Funding Circle I had only heard of Zopa and RateSetter, both of which seem to give about half the returns I get from Funding Cirlce, presumably because they lend to individuals rather than businesses. The higher potential returns was the original reason I chose Funding Circle last year. My questions: 1. Considering the lower returns, is lending to people any safer than lending to businesses? 2. Is it worth investing in lending to people rather than businesses? 3. What other platforms do people recommend, and why? Looking down the list of subforums I am overwhelmed. I looked at www.p2pmoney.co.uk/compare/lend.htm and it seems rebuildingsociety.com have better predicted rates than Funding Circle, are they worth a try? |
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Post by lynnanthony on May 14, 2017 18:24:06 GMT
Worth having a look at other similar threads, to avoid repetition. See just below yours, "Quick 10% Loans Platform Question" for instance.
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james21
Member of DD Central
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Post by james21 on May 14, 2017 18:25:11 GMT
forget funding circle unless you want to tie your money up for the long term without any security and without a contingency fund and invest your money in funding working capital etc that many of the borrowers have no hope of paying back. Look elsewhere IMHO
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Post by msa on May 14, 2017 19:13:45 GMT
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Liz
Member of DD Central
Posts: 2,426
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Post by Liz on May 14, 2017 20:48:55 GMT
My questions: 1. Considering the lower returns, is lending to people any safer than lending to businesses? 2. Is it worth investing in lending to people rather than businesses? 3. What other platforms do people recommend, and why? Looking down the list of subforums I am overwhelmed. I looked at www.p2pmoney.co.uk/compare/lend.htm and it seems rebuildingsociety.com have better predicted rates than Funding Circle, are they worth a try?" Welcome to the forum. # 1. That's one for the credit experts. If you are talking about zopa and Ratesetter they do have Provision Fund protection(PF) hence lower rates. 2. That has to be your decision, I prefer property and secured lending. 3. If you want property loans the popular ones are Lendy, FundingSecure(they have the IFISA) and Moneything. All 3 can be very hands on. Good luck |
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adrianc
Member of DD Central
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Post by adrianc on May 14, 2017 21:42:53 GMT
1. Considering the lower returns, is lending to people any safer than lending to businesses? It's a lot harder for individual to declare themselves dead, then reappear with a name-change the next day.
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macq
Member of DD Central
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Post by macq on May 14, 2017 22:07:11 GMT
For non property Crowd2fund seem to be improving their loan flow lately
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Post by andrewcfa on May 15, 2017 8:22:26 GMT
Hello, I found this forum following the closing of the Funding Circle forum. So far I have only invested in Funding Circle, and I've been happy with it up to now. But I would feel safer if I put some money in other platforms, because I'm getting a "sinking ship" vibe from Funding Circle following the closing of the forum and the abandonment of property loans. So I think I'll leave the money in there that's already there, but give another platform a try. Besides Funding Circle I had only heard of Zopa and RateSetter, both of which seem to give about half the returns I get from Funding Cirlce, presumably because they lend to individuals rather than businesses. The higher potential returns was the original reason I chose Funding Circle last year. My questions: 1. Considering the lower returns, is lending to people any safer than lending to businesses? 2. Is it worth investing in lending to people rather than businesses? 3. What other platforms do people recommend, and why? Looking down the list of subforums I am overwhelmed. I looked at www.p2pmoney.co.uk/compare/lend.htm and it seems rebuildingsociety.com have better predicted rates than Funding Circle, are they worth a try? Hi Debaser, In response to your questions, I would say that you need to look at the terms of any potential loan before you can answer the questions of people or businesses. For instance, if an individual is offering some sort of collateral against the loan, but the company is not, then, in that case, the loan to the individual is probably better if you are looking at security and certainty of repayment. As I understand, businesses are more likely to provide some form of security. Whereas an individual will more likely receive an unsecured loan based on credit score. As a personal investor myself (across a few platforms), I tend to focus on what security is being offered rather than the headline rate.
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am
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Post by am on May 15, 2017 14:12:54 GMT
One is commonly advised to derisk one's portfolio by diversifying, across instruments, asset classes, platforms, geographies, and so on.
Diversification doesn't come without its downsides - it's harder to actively manage a more diversified portfolio, and by reducing the risk of losses your also (in equities) reducing the chances of exceptional gains.
FC is the 500lb gorilla of P2P SME lending, so if you want to participate in that asset class, FC is an obvious port of call. (LC is a direct, but much smaller competitor; RS does a reasonable amount, but it's not transparent what you're lending to; AC does some; MT have had a few (the restaurant, the winery and some car dealers); I don't know about other platforms but I suspect that TC does them.)
FC is still my second largest platform, but I more or less stopped buying SME loans 18 months back; the information provided is my opinion inadequate for evaluating loans. (Some people here have suggested buying the market - i.e. buying shares in the tied investment trust.)
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Post by brianac on May 16, 2017 17:03:34 GMT
1. Considering the lower returns, is lending to people any safer than lending to businesses? It's a lot harder for individual to declare themselves dead, then reappear with a name-change the next day. <cough> Reggie Perrin (and John Stonehouse, that canoeist fellow etc etc) :-) Brian
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adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 10,027
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Post by adrianc on May 16, 2017 17:22:02 GMT
It's a lot harder for individual to declare themselves dead, then reappear with a name-change the next day. <cough> Reggie Perrin (and John Stonehouse, that canoeist fellow etc etc) :-) Quite. And look where he ended up, without a paddle...
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Post by gidoppp01 on May 16, 2017 17:22:14 GMT
Hello, I found this forum following the closing of the Funding Circle forum. .... My questions: 1. Considering the lower returns, is lending to people any safer than lending to businesses? 2. Is it worth investing in lending to people rather than businesses? 3. What other platforms do people recommend, and why? Looking down the list of subforums I am overwhelmed. I looked at www.p2pmoney.co.uk/compare/lend.htm and it seems rebuildingsociety.com have better predicted rates than Funding Circle, are they worth a try? 1. The safest investment for low returns are deposit guarantee from banks by FSCS. The provisional fund is only good if there are enough to cover the bad debt 2. There are always risks. There are better protection by secured loans. Having said that, in the case of defaults, it still take a long time to get money back, capital is still at risk due to valuation of the secured asset could drop in the future. I haven't seen any secured personal loan yet on p2p. 3. I prefer platforms with liquidity and flow of pipeline loans. FC is good, and slightly better Zopa classic. Zopa restricts new account registration. Assetz Capital is doing promotion for 30 day access @ 4.75%, it also offers secured loans from 5.5%. There are plenty other platforms do secured loan from 7%, liquidity varies.
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Post by df on May 17, 2017 0:27:48 GMT
Hello, I found this forum following the closing of the Funding Circle forum. So far I have only invested in Funding Circle, and I've been happy with it up to now. But I would feel safer if I put some money in other platforms, because I'm getting a "sinking ship" vibe from Funding Circle following the closing of the forum and the abandonment of property loans. So I think I'll leave the money in there that's already there, but give another platform a try. Besides Funding Circle I had only heard of Zopa and RateSetter, both of which seem to give about half the returns I get from Funding Cirlce, presumably because they lend to individuals rather than businesses. The higher potential returns was the original reason I chose Funding Circle last year. My questions: 1. Considering the lower returns, is lending to people any safer than lending to businesses? 2. Is it worth investing in lending to people rather than businesses? 3. What other platforms do people recommend, and why? Looking down the list of subforums I am overwhelmed. I looked at www.p2pmoney.co.uk/compare/lend.htm and it seems rebuildingsociety.com have better predicted rates than Funding Circle, are they worth a try? 1. No, but it is safer to lend with Zopa/Ratesetter than with FC. They have provision funds and no investors have experienced any losses (as far as I know). 2. No. 3a. Be aware that a lot of information on www.p2pmoney.co.uk/compare/lend.htm is incorrect (far out of date). 3b. ReBs has the extreme rates, but these often come with higher risk. It is very difficult for small businesses to keep up with such high repayments. Loan flow is very slow. The whole process of investing is very slow (1 week of bidding, if not fully funded it gets extension, sometimes they take the loan off their 'market place' and re-introduce it with amended security details etc., when all this is done you still wait for several days until your cash is invested). And the website is difficult to navigate (feels like you are traveled back in time). Some information there is misleading and incorrect and I don't think they are even bothered to fix it. There is very little scope for diversification. Secondary market is terrible, overall premiums are extremely high. It's not as easy going as FC :-)
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