Peer-to-peer lending sites: MSE guide discussion

mr._prude

masonic wrote: »

You could transfer your IF ISA to another provider and continue to pay into it. You could not close it and then pay into another elsewhere in the same tax year.

Thanks, did not know you could do that.
Are ISA not covered by a 14 day cooling of peroid?

masonic

mr._prude wrote: »

Thanks, did not know you could do that.
Are ISA not covered by a 14 day cooling of peroid?

There may be a cooling off period. You'd need to check the T&Cs and follow the required process. IIRC, FundingSecure has one. I can't comment on others.

munnymug

nxdmsandkaskdjaqd wrote: »

I am still learning about P2P and have just opened accounts with Lendy and Moneything. One key difference I have already noticed between these 2 providers is that Lendy have some 50 loans available, but Moneything have none. Is there a specific reason for this stark difference?

There are many reasons for this. Lendy historically has also had a very liquid secondary market, with a similar dearth of loans available, similar to that of Moneything today. Only recently has this changed, and it may just be a temporary situation. However, Lendy has recently been undergoing changes, and also has far more loans on their books, and it could well be that the dynamics of their secondary market is changing. Moneything is presently very popular, has had no defaults so far, and is a much smaller platform. Both platforms are continuously evolving, and only time will tell whether they diverge or converge in platform dynamics.

elephantrosie

masonic wrote: »

You could transfer your IF ISA to another provider and continue to pay into it. You could not close it and then pay into another elsewhere in the same tax year.

if i transfer a small percentage of my cash ISA from previous years to s+s ISA, do I still have the full 20k pounds allowance for this year ISA?

jamesd

mr._prude wrote: »

Say you opened an IF ISA with small amount but did not invest in any loans as u realised the platform was keak. Can you close it down and open another IF ISA in the same year with a different provider?

Yes.

Except for lifetime, help to buy and junior ISAs you can open as many ISAs as you like each year. There is one substantial restriction: money that you have newly subscribed (paid in for the first time) during the tax year can only be held with one provider of each type of ISA (help to buy counts as a cash ISA for this rule), but in any number of different accounts.

With the occasional exception that doesn't apply to this discussion, if you pay money in then withdraw it, it still counts against your ISA allowance for the year. So it would be counted a second time if you just withdrew and then paid the money in somewhere else. You are allowed to open another one. To get around that you can open an ISA with the new place and ask them to transfer the money over. Then it won't count a second time. The new one doesn't have to be IF, it can be cash or stocks and shares instead if you like. Or some to each if you wanted to do that.

Just subscribe the minimum amount so that even if you decide to just withdraw it, the effect on the allowance doesn't matter much.

jamesd

donerkebab wrote: »

I am interesting in transferring previous ISAs in - of the IFISAs available are
a) none protected by FCFS at all?

Not quite none at all, but close.

Uninvested money is normally held on deposit in client bank accounts. Those bank accounts normally do have FSCS protection. So this bit probably applies to them all.

Beyond that, the FSCS doesn't cover P2P at all, whoever the P2P provider is. That means no protection if loans go bad and no protection if an employee or owner of a P2P platform steals your money or just gets tricked by a criminal into giving it to them. And none even if the platform tells you outright lies about how your money is invested. The platform ends up liable in that case but once it runs out of money to pay all of the claims the FSCS doesn't step in to pay the rest.

One exception: if a regulated adviser gave you regulated advice to make those investments and they were inappropriate for you, the FSCS cover of the adviser applies and provides you some protection. In this case if the adviser goes bankrupt the FSCS will take over the paying of the claims if a liability insurer isn't already handling it.

IF ISAs aren't limited to just P2P and there are some nuances in cover for the other permitted things as well, but still broadly no cover.

jamesd

elephantrosie wrote: »

if i transfer a small percentage of my cash ISA from previous years to s+s ISA, do I still have the full 20k pounds allowance for this year ISA?

Yes, no effect. You can transfer as much as you like, as often as you like, between as many places as you like and it has no effect.

badger09

jamesd wrote: »

Yes, no effect. You can transfer as much as you like, as often as you like, between as many places as you like and it has no effect.

Providing you use the new ISA provider's transfer process:cool:

nxdmsandkaskdjaqd

In general, is there any difference in the risk profile between long and short term loans?

TheShape

Any current user experiences for Assetz Capital?

Still early days in p2p having only opened my first account back in February. I've got approx £8.5k in p2p across 5 platforms but not particularly evenly spread.

Ablrate approx £3.5k
Collateral approx £1.5k
Moneything approx £1.5k
Lending Works (IFISA) approx £1.5k
Funding Secure < £500

I will be investing more in Collateral and Moneything as loans become available but relatively few new loans have been available and it's been more difficult to invest through the SM than with Ablrate. Funding Secure is a platform that I just haven't got a real grasp of yet. I expect that with interest paid on loan maturity I haven't got used to any interest, let alone capital repayments yet. With the IFISA available I need to look a little more closely at using the platform effectively.

I'm thinking that another platform would be useful for diversification. LendingWorks requires little/no ongoing management and I'm thinking five actively managed platforms will be around the right number for me to manage. AC also has five different accounts to invest in. I'd be interested in anyone's experience of these various accounts.