Downing Crowd - p2p bonds (IFISA eligible)

terry89 · 8 April 2018 at 11:58AM

Hi all

I am looking at Downing Crowd - they are a crowdfunding platform offering a range of asset-backed bonds, and where appropriate they will endeavour to make these available in the IFISA.

After searching the web, I wasn't able to find reviews about them - has any of you invested with them and what was the experience like? How safe and reliable it is? How does it compare to a similar platform, Abundance?

If you could share your experience or perhaps a link with some reviews that will be very helpful.

Many thanks all

dunstonh · 8 April 2018 at 12:32PM

How safe and reliable it is?

100% loss of capital potential.
No FSCS protection.
Only formed in 2011 and never been through a recession or depression.
Illiquid assets.

terry89 · 8 April 2018 at 1:22PM

Thanks - I guess what I meant by safe and reliable is the bad debt rate/defaults experienced by investors. On the website I see this is 0% so far and I was interested in first-hand experience by fellow investors (as I don't seem to find any reviews on the likes of Trustpilot etc)

dunstonh · 8 April 2018 at 1:49PM

I guess what I meant by safe and reliable is the bad debt rate/defaults experienced by investors.

Nobody can tell in a period where there hasnt been a recession/depression. Defaults always increase when those occur. So, until they happen, you are largely in the dark.

(as I don't seem to find any reviews on the likes of Trustpilot etc)

Trustpilot is useless. We have seen scams with 5 star reviews. It is a system of reviews written by clueless people for the benefit of clueless people. It is also open to manipulation.

richardharry · 27 September 2018 at 10:46AM

Hi Terry,
I've also been looking at buying a Downing Crowd Bond and found your question when looking...
Did you buy in to a Downing product? If so, what was your experience?
I've found a website where the cost is the same as buying via Downing directly but they will provide a 0.2% rebate off their marketing 'commission' - when a Downing Crowd product is purchased.
This makes it the best price I've found when looking at ways of buying the product.
I called them to understand the way they work and the purchase journey is relatively easy...- which is a 'must' for me! lol
I was told that a further range of products, from other sources will shortly be available also.

Can i ask where you bought from?
The website that i'm planning to use is bestpricefs
I've bought a couple of insurance products from bestpricefs previously and they have always offered really good value and the journey is made simple.

if you did purchased the crowd bond please share your views.

Natalie8104 · 27 September 2018 at 12:04PM

I am also looking at buying a Downing Crowd Bond, The power Bond, so thanks for the info Richard.
terry89, did you find the buying journey simple, if you did buy?
https://www.bestpricefs.co.uk/
clearly offer an easy way to buy at what seems to be the best price available. It was explained to me that best pricefs receive a marketing commission of 0.5% and will rebate 0.2% for Downing Crowd Bonds, as they do their best to offer products at the best price!
More details on the best ways to buy products are needed on this site. Its hard work to find the best value when buying many products.
Help MSE

bowlhead99 · 27 September 2018 at 1:17PM

Natalie8104 wrote: »

I am also looking at buying a Downing Crowd Bond, The power Bond, so thanks for the info Richard.
terry89, did you find the buying journey simple, if you did buy?
[link]
clearly offer an easy way to buy at what seems to be the best price available. It was explained to me that best pricefs receive a marketing commission of 0.5% and will rebate 0.2% for Downing Crowd Bonds, as they do their best to offer products at the best price!
More details on the best ways to buy products are needed on this site. Its hard work to find the best value when buying many products.
Help MSE

Some people might think that the incremental 0.2% as a one-off on top of the 2.25 years of 7.6% is not a lot of sweetener for a high risk investment and it is not worth getting a third party intermediary involved (which implicitly adds an extra layer of counterparty risk).

I have used discount brokers in some other areas (such as Clubfinance, now Wealth Club, for VCTs) where the commissions and therefore the available kickbacks are higher. It can make sense to use an intermediary if the direct route doesn't offer any commission or an online application.

As an aside, I'm curious on whether you are really a sophisticated investor looking for the best access to crowdfunding bonds, or really just promoting 'best price fs' as a shill. I noticed the only other thread you posted started off with you asking about the merits of buying motor legal protection insurance as an add-on with your insurance, and after a few posts you were saying you had bought a standalone policy with best price fs at a much lower price, and pointed out that Mr Lewis was not a proper moneysaving expert because he didn't tell us about the deal.

And here you are again mentioning best price fs and saying this MSE site needs more info about finding products..

I mention the past thread just because I am naturally sceptical of people with low post counts showing up to talk about relatively unknown financial intermediaries especially if doing it on multiple threads (main savings and investments board and this existing Downing ISA thread).

That is not to say there is anything bad about using this particular intermediary to invest into Downing's products, though the relatively small potential earning enhancement spread over quite a long period of return, doesn't make it massively compelling.