Only freedom will do

edinburgher

Nice! Shop around a bit, we got quotes ranging about 2k in price (for the same size system) and haggled £500 off the price of the installer we went with in the end.

We will try, but we may struggle as a lot of people are rushing to have new installations fitted before the end of the year in case the government consultation leads to FITs being massacred for new installations. We have been given an indicative figure of £5,500 for a 4kw system.

Just had a few payments early this month for some of the loans i took out :] on FC

Least my money is working harder for me in there

Well done LIL

I have upped our P2P dramatically since moving house and we are nearly 'full' for the moment. Unfortunately, buying so many loan parts meant that some came at a premium and it has brought down our blended yield. We will see this improve over the next few months, but I'm currently grumpy. £9,592.75 @ 5.56% after tax, a drop of c. 2%

hiddenshadow

edinburgher wrote: »

We will try, but we may struggle as a lot of people are rushing to have new installations fitted before the end of the year in case the government consultation leads to FITs being massacred for new installations. We have been given an indicative figure of £5,500 for a 4kw system.

Yeah, we installed ours 3 weeks ago and got a hard sell from some installers. That said, even with all the rhetoric of "hurry, we only have 2.3 install slots left and they'll go fast!!" they installed our system a month ahead of when they said they'd shoot for (mid-Nov), so clearly they weren't that booked up.

FWIW, we got a high quote on a fancier system, asked them for a baseline quote on a regular system, and used that to negotiate with another installer against their price. Also helped that we were fine with going with slightly less-cosmetic panels (with silver accents rather than all black) that they already had in stock.

smallholdingsister

Must read pensions board!

edinburgher

• Left Skay, (broadband speed tanked when we moved house, they're putting up our line rental)
• Joined V1rgin (reduced price bundle for 9 months, upfront line rental, £100 voucher, £80 cashback) :j
• Registered for online banking for new credit card
• Wrote to new council to update council tax details
• Recycled 4 years worth of out-of-date financial paperwork
• Updated driving licence details online
• Trying to update V5C, but can't find it, will check again as I'm usually quite careful and don't want to pay the £25 stupid tax
• Called home insurer - just as well - turns out our policy wasn't due to start until Friday! Got them to update that to today on the same terms and got them to take the Direct Debit off auto-renew
• Mrs E cancelled her old life insurance policy, we have a cheaper joint policy for the new house
• Started withdrawing cash to pay our legion of contractors :eek:

Best do some work now :rotfl:

hiddenshadow

Wow, that's a productive morning!

Hollyboll

edinburgher wrote: »

I have upped our P2P dramatically since moving house and we are nearly 'full' for the moment. Unfortunately, buying so many loan parts meant that some came at a premium and it has brought down our blended yield. We will see this improve over the next few months, but I'm currently grumpy. £9,592.75 @ 5.56% after tax, a drop of c. 2%

Ed, like so many others I'm learning many new things from your thread - had never heard of MB and barely of P2P, both of which I'm ruminating in plotting. Sorry if this is a numpty question but what makes you 'full' .... what is the limit and where does it come from?
Actually, two daft questions ... also, what makes the yield come down with many purchases ... is it simply that by diversifying you have to choose less attractive things?

edinburgher

what is the limit and where does it come from?

I have a portfolio strategy where money is invested in 5 different P2P lenders and a bond fund focused on income. Funding C1rcle is currently allowed to go as high as 50% of the total (as I like a bit of risk and am very broadly diversified). It's currently sitting at 66.46%, so no more loans until this comes down! :eek:

This means that I need to grow my positions in other lenders and unfortunately for me, FC are one of the most prolific lenders, with not far off £1 billion in loans. Other providers are a bit slower to add to their books, which is often a good thing, with better scrutinised, asset-backed loans etc.

also, what makes the yield come down with many purchases ... is it simply that by diversifying you have to choose less attractive things?

Two things (one of which I understand, one of which I *think* I do). Thing the first - paying an actual premium (say buying a 17% loan, but paying the seller 0.5% extra, so a £20 loan for £20.20. These bring down actual earnings in the short term, but you're taking a punt on a very high yield for future months. People with more time than me actually buy £20 loans just to sell on for the 20-25p profit this brings! Thing the second - I believe that when you purchase loan parts you have to pay for any accrued interest due to the seller at point of sale. This should be returned once you receive the first loan payment, so in theory your yield pops back up after a month of no new loans.

I wish jamesd was around, he is so much better versed with these things

Hollyboll

Thanks Ed - as ever you seem impressively well versed to me!

So the 'max' you mentioned is a (sensibly) self imposed risk limit rather than a government or lender limit?

And also much appreciated on the second question. Like you, I don't think enough time exists for that amount of investing, transactioning, recording etc for 25p profit. Like you I'm a bit hazy on the accrued interest point, might need to draw a picture I think But just to clarify on thing the first - you are choosing to pay a premium because of potential high yields, rather than that you have to pay a premium for any loan you ever buy?

Muchly thanks again

edinburgher

Yes, I chose to pay a premium to a) chase yield and b) diversify

The people buying loans to sell on typically buy and sell dozens of parts, all those 25ps must add up

Luckyinlife

ED that is amazing wow
I do really like FC tho its quite addictive isn't it Hehe some great safe loans to take up as well if you want to play it safeish like myself

I also just got virgin :] i hope to get the 100 voucher before x-mas haha also had my cash back straight away :]

Did it on Sunday i think and they came today to put the wire on my property and installer come in week and a bit time