Peer-to-peer lending sites: MSE guide discussion

masonic

bluenun said:

I do find the first paragraph confusing.

It is confusingly written, but it means that you are still in the withdrawal queue. The money was never in your holding account. It might have been repaid by a borrower, but it has been lent out again because they are still nowhere near processing your sellout request.

drphila

bluenun said:

That is what I thought would happen to the funds too.
I am not sure about any settings but did e-mail Ratesetter with this question, the reply makes me think that there are no settings for me to change.

"I started the Withdrawal process on March 22nd but see it is still pending 5 days later.

My funds are being reinvested which I do not want to happen, can you assist please?"

This was the response I received,
"As your funds are invested in the Access product, capital and interest will always reinvest even if you have requested a sell out. There is not a way you can switch off the reinvestment. Once the funds are released then of course the funds will become available to you. 

Given the context of the wider investments environment and the current circumstances, we have received a spike in requests to release invested money. This has meant that we have not been able to process requests as quickly as usual.

We are continuing to process ‘release investment’ requests as quickly as possible, however, we are unable to guarantee a time-frame as to when your funds will be released. We have taken the decision to reduce new lending so that we are able to focus on delivering for our investors whilst ensuring fair outcomes for our borrowers."

I do find the first paragraph confusing.

Here's the way to have your repayments funnelled into your holding account:

http://www.financialthing.com/ratesetter-review/ 

"Manually set reinvestment rates much higher than the Going Rate to prevent money from being reinvested and then you can cancel the order which would return funds to your Holding Account."

masonic

drphila said:

bluenun said:

That is what I thought would happen to the funds too.
I am not sure about any settings but did e-mail Ratesetter with this question, the reply makes me think that there are no settings for me to change.

"I started the Withdrawal process on March 22nd but see it is still pending 5 days later.

My funds are being reinvested which I do not want to happen, can you assist please?"

This was the response I received,
"As your funds are invested in the Access product, capital and interest will always reinvest even if you have requested a sell out. There is not a way you can switch off the reinvestment. Once the funds are released then of course the funds will become available to you. 

Given the context of the wider investments environment and the current circumstances, we have received a spike in requests to release invested money. This has meant that we have not been able to process requests as quickly as usual.

We are continuing to process ‘release investment’ requests as quickly as possible, however, we are unable to guarantee a time-frame as to when your funds will be released. We have taken the decision to reduce new lending so that we are able to focus on delivering for our investors whilst ensuring fair outcomes for our borrowers."

I do find the first paragraph confusing.

Here's the way to have your repayments funnelled into your holding account:

http://www.financialthing.com/ratesetter-review/ 

"Manually set reinvestment rates much higher than the Going Rate to prevent money from being reinvested and then you can cancel the order which would return funds to your Holding Account."

That would be an amazing loophole, but I rather suspect RS has thought of that and closed it while withdrawals are being restricted. No harm in trying though.

soulsaver

What rates are your funds invested at? 
I suspect they mean they can't get any investor to take on the loans - lowest lender offer appears just now at 3.9%. If they can't move your loans to a new lender you're stuck until it's paid off or until a lender comes along willing to invest at your lent rate. 

masonic

soulsaver said:

What rates are your funds invested at? 
I suspect they mean they can't get any investor to take on the loans - lowest lender offer appears just now at 3.9%. If they can't move your loans to a new lender you're stuck until it's paid off or until a lender comes along willing to invest at your lent rate. 

I'm currently selling loans in the 5 year market paying 6.6-6.8%. According to the market data there is £364k waiting to be matched at rates of 6.5% and below. I've been checking the market data periodically since I put in my sellout request just over 2 weeks ago and it hasn't changed much over that time period.

For some time now RS has been manipulating the market to deliver lower rates for borrowers, and rather than matching so called "sellouts" like me with other investors who would take on my loans at a lower rate, they'd prefer to ensure those lenders went without in the hope they will revise their offers closer to what RS consider suitable. I can't really blame them in this instance, if they operated a straightforward market all of the money coming into the platform would be matched with money going out and there would be nothing left with which to write new loans.

Looking at the Access market, there is currently about £700k offer at rates that won't ever be matched to a borrower (>5%). These lenders won't be earning any interest on their unmatched funds.

vermania

Is anyone else having trouble logging into Zopa this morning? I have been getting an interminable "please wait" message for the past hour or so, and in two browsers.

gowgowuk

vermania said:

Is anyone else having trouble logging into Zopa this morning? I have been getting an interminable "please wait" message for the past hour or so, and in two browsers.

working fine here...

soulsaver

masonic said:

soulsaver said:

What rates are your funds invested at? 
I suspect they mean they can't get any investor to take on the loans - lowest lender offer appears just now at 3.9%. If they can't move your loans to a new lender you're stuck until it's paid off or until a lender comes along willing to invest at your lent rate. 

I'm currently selling loans in the 5 year market paying 6.6-6.8%. According to the market data there is £364k waiting to be matched at rates of 6.5% and below. I've been checking the market data periodically since I put in my sellout request just over 2 weeks ago and it hasn't changed much over that time period.

For some time now RS has been manipulating the market to deliver lower rates for borrowers, and rather than matching so called "sellouts" like me with other investors who would take on my loans at a lower rate, they'd prefer to ensure those lenders went without in the hope they will revise their offers closer to what RS consider suitable. I can't really blame them in this instance, if they operated a straightforward market all of the money coming into the platform would be matched with money going out and there would be nothing left with which to write new loans.

Looking at the Access market, there is currently about £700k offer at rates that won't ever be matched to a borrower (>5%). These lenders won't be earning any interest on their unmatched funds.

bluenun's hiatus now seems clear, but still frustrating for them, as there is no lender offer low enough to move on 3.2%, best is still 3.9% and as such re-lending (to the same borrower) is within RS terms.
And indeed there maybe more in front of them in the queue if offers do become available.

Yours makes no sense to me, but I admit I lost grasp (& bailed) when they introduced the access - max as the terms then read like gobbledygook & their attempt at explanations seemed designed to bamboozle. 
Still, if I really wanted out, I'd be shouting at them in your position.

masonic

soulsaver said:

masonic said:

soulsaver said:

What rates are your funds invested at? 
I suspect they mean they can't get any investor to take on the loans - lowest lender offer appears just now at 3.9%. If they can't move your loans to a new lender you're stuck until it's paid off or until a lender comes along willing to invest at your lent rate. 

I'm currently selling loans in the 5 year market paying 6.6-6.8%. According to the market data there is £364k waiting to be matched at rates of 6.5% and below. I've been checking the market data periodically since I put in my sellout request just over 2 weeks ago and it hasn't changed much over that time period.

For some time now RS has been manipulating the market to deliver lower rates for borrowers, and rather than matching so called "sellouts" like me with other investors who would take on my loans at a lower rate, they'd prefer to ensure those lenders went without in the hope they will revise their offers closer to what RS consider suitable. I can't really blame them in this instance, if they operated a straightforward market all of the money coming into the platform would be matched with money going out and there would be nothing left with which to write new loans.

Looking at the Access market, there is currently about £700k offer at rates that won't ever be matched to a borrower (>5%). These lenders won't be earning any interest on their unmatched funds.

bluenun's hiatus now seems clear, but still frustrating for them, as there is no lender offer low enough to move on 3.2%, best is still 3.9% and as such re-lending (to the same borrower) is within RS terms.
And indeed there maybe more in front of them in the queue if offers do become available.

That's not how it works though. Sellout requests are being queued and processed in chronological order (there are three separate queues, one for Access/Plus/Max, one for 1 Year, and one for 5 Year). People who happen to have invested at higher rates won't be able to get their money faster than those like bluenun, who have lent at below the current "going rate" (Edit: Access now has >£29k queued for lending at 3.0%).

If Lender A requests the release of their Access funds lent at 2.9% on Monday, and Lender B requests the release of their Access funds lent at 3.4% on Tuesday, there are no circumstances in which Lender B will receive their money ahead of Lender A.

soulsaver said:

Yours makes no sense to me, but I admit I lost grasp (& bailed) when they introduced the access - max as the terms then read like gobbledygook & their attempt at explanations seemed designed to bamboozle. 
Still, if I really wanted out, I'd be shouting at them in your position.

It makes perfect sense if you've been following Ratesetter's long term project to manipulate rates downward. If they allow matching of outgoing investors at higher rates, then that's new money that will be tied up and won't be available for new loans written at the "going rate". They are throttling sellouts to protect their interests in the future.

I'm fairly relaxed about the situation, being in a more favourable position than bluenun in that I am only invested in the legacy markets so am free to withdraw my monthly repayments, and I've never deluded myself about the liquidity situation, this is better than the outcome I was expecting. Currently, requests on the Access market are being processed from 10th March, while they've got as far as 12th March for requests on the 5 year market, so liquidity on the 5 year market is higher than Access.

drphila

masonic said:

drphila said:

bluenun said:

That is what I thought would happen to the funds too.
I am not sure about any settings but did e-mail Ratesetter with this question, the reply makes me think that there are no settings for me to change.

"I started the Withdrawal process on March 22nd but see it is still pending 5 days later.

My funds are being reinvested which I do not want to happen, can you assist please?"

This was the response I received,
"As your funds are invested in the Access product, capital and interest will always reinvest even if you have requested a sell out. There is not a way you can switch off the reinvestment. Once the funds are released then of course the funds will become available to you. 

Given the context of the wider investments environment and the current circumstances, we have received a spike in requests to release invested money. This has meant that we have not been able to process requests as quickly as usual.

We are continuing to process ‘release investment’ requests as quickly as possible, however, we are unable to guarantee a time-frame as to when your funds will be released. We have taken the decision to reduce new lending so that we are able to focus on delivering for our investors whilst ensuring fair outcomes for our borrowers."

I do find the first paragraph confusing.

Here's the way to have your repayments funnelled into your holding account:

http://www.financialthing.com/ratesetter-review/ 

"Manually set reinvestment rates much higher than the Going Rate to prevent money from being reinvested and then you can cancel the order which would return funds to your Holding Account."

That would be an amazing loophole, but I rather suspect RS has thought of that and closed it while withdrawals are being restricted. No harm in trying though.

No,still works. Cancelled an 8 % request a couple of hours ago and now in holding account.