happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397 
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Feb 5, 2018 13:20:33 GMT
Smoke and Mirrors. You can tell there's something not quite right at AC now they have formally withdrawn from this forum. Engaging with customers is usually an indication of positive times. Intentionally not engaging with the most informed segment of your market is neither clever nor good business. Actually AC disengaged from this forum in any official or even semi-official way many months ago and since then we have seen only a few brief visits from Chris and Stuart but Andrew has not been here for some time. IMHO this withdrawal by AC was precipitated by a number of particularly savage attacks by a few posters with some agendas beyond simply wanting to discuss, share and understand. I see the same thing happening again here now and it devalues the worth of this forum greatly. Sadly I spend less and less time here now as I am quite simply fed up of crawling through other peoples emotional venting to find anything of use or worthy of a reply. Please grow up, show some respect to others and stop putting this forum to shame. EDIT: and that comment was not meant to be aimed at you ashtondav by the way
|
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Feb 1, 2018 22:06:55 GMT
Inflation, pah, I remember 15%, coal strikes, running machine tools using icecream trucks for power and doing homework by candle light :-) Really or apocryphal? Tell us more. Now that is a word that doesn't come round very often Sarahcount.........apocryphal, of dubious or unproven authenticity but considered by many to be true. Very nice!
|
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Jan 31, 2018 7:06:47 GMT
GBBA2 is based on the old GBBA1 and therefore has the old algorithm until the new comes out next month. A max of 3% allocation is not bad in that case, I got 20% each in 4 loans with my little trial investment!
|
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Jan 26, 2018 13:03:29 GMT
I signed up January 2015 and got the invite earlier this week. -can't decide whether to dump the remains of this years isa allowance in here , shove it all in my stocks and shares ISA or try and find another cash ISA (already up to the protection limit on my existing cash isa once this years interest goes in). Interestingly when you first open the page (https://www.fundingcircle.com/uk/innovative-finance-isa/) for more information The big header says estimated returns of 7.5% - until the page finishes loading when it drops to 7.2% - doesn't exactly inspire confidence. So it is tracking your return in real time then! 
|
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Jan 22, 2018 15:38:09 GMT
Is this not another case of "alternative facts" I see here? #388 & #389 suspended pending result of a lender vote on loan term extension with good DSC coverage, a plan to reduce overall indebtedness, perfectly reasonable approach and loan should be tradable again in a few days. #336 not currently suspended and is tradable although it was suspended for a lender vote a while ago. Exit of loan has in truth been difficult but unlikely to result in much if any capital loss even if there more trouble ahead. #227 this is suspended but accruing interest. Exit route is still unclear here so it is a concern however likelihood of significant capital loss very small. Interest should be paid to holders via the GBBA once updates roll out in February. So only 10% of your GBBA will actually be suspended shortly after the 388/389 vote concludes tomorrow, then you could sell up to 90% of it, subject to market demand so you reduce your exposure to the GBBA by 90% pretty quickly. Not quite so bad a picture as you painted with your post. I like your optimistic slant I don't think there has been a good allocation in either the old or new GBBA .I hold my hands up that I went into this without having done enough of my own DD. I have already initiated a sell as I was rather peeved to see the lack of diversification and quality of loans in my holding having been alerted by the OP. The return over 12 months struggling to reach 5%. I will hang around the QAA and 30 Dayer for now, but will go back to RS as and when their 5 yr market is attractive. Sounds fair enough, glad you appreciate my positive outlook on things though Personally I think investments in AC will out-perform the likes of RS and Zopa in the long run especially in the downward phase of the economic cycle when you factor in the assets backing of the loans and the 3x expected losses PF for GBBA etc. If you compare ACs asset backed loans and their PF to the current 115% expected debt coverage of the RS PF in relatively benign times that is covering mainly unsecured lending I feel that your chances of not taking a capital loss or at least a significant interest rate haircut over the next 5 years with RS are fairly small. BTW I also invest in RS, Zopa and other platforms as part of my platform diversification but only with a PF. Never went near Z+ and never will. Happy Hunting.
|
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Jan 22, 2018 13:55:35 GMT
So in my GBBA 1..the losers and percentages held #389 5% Suspended #388 6% Suspended #227 10% Suspended #336 20.85% "monitoring event"..not looking hopeful ( I find it hard to believe the purpose of this loan was even considered but heyho ) 42% of my GBBA1 in trouble, not really acceptable Is this not another case of "alternative facts" I see here? #388 & #389 suspended pending result of a lender vote on loan term extension with good DSC coverage, a plan to reduce overall indebtedness, perfectly reasonable approach and loan should be tradable again in a few days. #336 not currently suspended and is tradable although it was suspended for a lender vote a while ago. Exit of loan has in truth been difficult but unlikely to result in much if any capital loss even if there more trouble ahead. #227 this is suspended but accruing interest. Exit route is still unclear here so it is a concern however likelihood of significant capital loss very small. Interest should be paid to holders via the GBBA once updates roll out in February. So only 10% of your GBBA will actually be suspended shortly after the 388/389 vote concludes tomorrow, then you could sell up to 90% of it, subject to market demand so you reduce your exposure to the GBBA by 90% pretty quickly. Not quite so bad a picture as you painted with your post.
|
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Jan 21, 2018 9:11:21 GMT
Information provided by Assetz Capital on this said it was due to ring-fencing of client funds and that both codes will work for the next 12 months so not so urgent. I imagine RS will let everyone know in due course.
|
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Jan 19, 2018 18:26:33 GMT
Just put £1000 into GBBA2, got allocated fairly quickly with £200 each in 4 loans and the remaining £200 across another 16 loans, the biggest being £40. So the 20% rule was followed unlike my previous recent trial investment in PSA. Now I will wait to see how the new diversification algorithm stirs the pots for everyone. Hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised and this will encorage me to make more use of the automated accounts.
|
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Jan 13, 2018 8:49:06 GMT
After spending most of the eveving hours processing the many interest and capital repayments due it got back to buying and selling in a few more loans for me in the early hours of the morning so the system is definately working but perhaps just a bit overloaded getting through the Xmas backlog and new IFISA activity.
|
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Jan 6, 2018 19:13:05 GMT
Absolutely “spot on analysis” and with regard to westonkev, I initially thought he was a very clever concept of an official/non-official Ratesetter mouthpiece but soon realised he truly was just an employee who had the spherical anatomy to make useful comment and squash some of the conspiracy theory. I bet his superiors were a bit nervous of his presence on this forum. Shame he didn’t persuade someone to take up his place here when he left, or Ratesetter weren’t shrewd enough to fill the gap. One of the reasons I invested with Ratesetter was because I valued his presence here.Here, Here!! I would think I almost trippled my per-site limit with RS as a direct result of the confidence westonkev gave me in RS. Now I am down to about 25% of my peak. Tells a story I'm sure.
|
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Jan 6, 2018 19:04:37 GMT
I have reduced my quite large RS investment by about 75% over the last 12-18months mainly by withdrawing interest and repayments and now only invest in the Rolling market until I need the money (typically kids education) or find somewhere else to invest it. Likewise my Zopa repayments all get withdrawn and get spent or invested elsewhere.
I have been slowly adding to LendingWorks for over 2 years now and really like the platform. I feel comfortable with their growth and risk profile, certainly feels more conservative than RS or Zopa have been in recent years. Have got a similar investment with Landbay, lower returns but asset backed and risk profile also low.
Also I have built a highly diversified, secured, low LTV portfolio (+350 loans, average <50% LTV) with mainly AC and a few other sites that I feel very comfortable with. This is aimed at lower capital-loss risk (more focus on underlying assets than headline return), currently returns around 8% with almost no losses or defaults/suspensions in 3 years. However I avoided almost all of the 12%+ loans/sites as the amount of DD required to be comfortable with these loans is simply not worth it when investing a few hundred/thousands per loan.
It takes daily management to monitor this kind of portfolio and IMO unless you have real-world experience in loan origination/property valuation etc. you need to focus on those sites that do good DD and provide proper loan details, management and updates, overall AC currently seem to set the standard here. If you dont want to do the hard yards of managing your own portfolio then ACs automated GBBA2 account is not a bad choice in terms of ease of use and risk/return, with 6.25%, asset backed, PF protected and, soon to be released, fully automated diversification algorithm there is probably not anything else like it in P2P right now. Their site can seem a bit quirky but it is easy once you get used to it and there are some planned UI improvements to improve things on the way fairly soon I believe. Definately worth a look or giving their CS a call to discuss.
|
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Jan 6, 2018 18:19:23 GMT
may I ask where you have found homes for your money? I don't think I could give you a useful answer as I'm currently invested in over 20 platforms, perhaps a quarter of which I'm actively trying/waiting to get out of, a few new(ish) that I'm happy to grow as & when and most of them ebbing/flowing as deals/rates change, some of which I may end up actively leaving if my investments drop too much. And at the time I actively chose to leave Lendy my investment was already over 60% down on my peak due to reduced deal flow, aging loans etc. If I compare my holdings in detail over time I might be able to work out where it went, but really it was all just easily absorbed, not least as I had a tax bill and expensive holiday to pay for around the same time of my final (near) exit. Sorry! So in a word that will be a No then?
|
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Jan 6, 2018 18:07:46 GMT
just tried moving some cash around and it all went super fast so looking good so far. Thanks for effort you put into porting this into the current codeline chris, much appreciated. |
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Jan 6, 2018 17:58:00 GMT
Just curious. Has anyone tried to withdraw a sum from the newer 'Property Secured Account'? I cant see anything on the AC site that explains how withdrawals from this account are managed. Not currently subscribed to this or any of the other automated investment accounts, thus unable to test, but I'd imagine by either reducing your overall investment target or selling off your individual holdings via the... ...button would complete the task. Please don't go to the loan page and issue sell orders as this will try to sell any holdings you may or may not have in the MLA not the PSA. You cannot sell out of a specific loan held in any of the automated accounts (GBBA, GEA, PSA, QAA, 30DAY), you can only invest or withdraw using the appropriate buttons on the dashboard for each account. The system decides somehow what to buy into or sell out of on your behalf. I think a system improvement should be logged to mask out the invest and sell buttons on the loan pages when accessed from an automated account loans list chris to stop this confusion as this has come up here a number of times before
|
|
happy
Member of DD Central
Posts: 397
Likes: 497
|
Post by happy on Jan 2, 2018 21:35:05 GMT
As I understand the rules we have the choice to choose not to offset any losses against gains at the point the loss could be considered as a loss for tax purposes and then claim that loss in a subsequent year. I would expect that HMRC would consider it a case of tax avoidance if this was done purely to avoid tax without some reason or done on a justifiable basis but it is very likely that waiting until any loss has benefited from all likely recoveries before offsetting it would be considered reasonable in their view.
My view is that if you are going to declare something other that the figures used by the platforms it would be best to provide a supporting commentary in your return, keep full records and be prepared to justify your figures should they question them.
Usual Caveat follows........I am not a tax expert and this is my personal view based on the research I have conducted to assist me in completing my return. You must either make your own judgement based on your own situation or seek professional advice.
|
|
