Is there any P2P lending left.. ??

HHarry

macman said:

It's ironic really. When Ratesetter halved the return back in May 2020, I started to pull money out (the return then was 3.1% on Access, but in an IF ISA, so effectively 3.7%). I figured that 1.5% net was a poor return on a product without any FCSC protection. It's taken nearly 10 months to extract the entire investment, and meanwhile, one or two year fixed rate savings bond rates are now below 1% and only going further south. And of course I've lost the tax free status forever.

I shall look back on this as not one of my better investment decisions...

 I did the same, but I’m quite happy with my decision.  I really didn’t like the 50% haircut - I’d signed up for 5%+ and felt like I was bailing out RS for their poor management of the provision fund.

Apricota

Hi Aceace, two of the ones you mentioned Proplend and Crowd Property.

Appreciate this type isn't for all but with a spread and 1st charge works for me. I don't need the money fast. So even if say 2 years after expected payback still is ok. 

Albermarle

HHarry said:

macman said:

It's ironic really. When Ratesetter halved the return back in May 2020, I started to pull money out (the return then was 3.1% on Access, but in an IF ISA, so effectively 3.7%). I figured that 1.5% net was a poor return on a product without any FCSC protection. It's taken nearly 10 months to extract the entire investment, and meanwhile, one or two year fixed rate savings bond rates are now below 1% and only going further south. And of course I've lost the tax free status forever.

I shall look back on this as not one of my better investment decisions...

 I did the same, but I’m quite happy with my decision.  I really didn’t like the 50% haircut - I’d signed up for 5%+ and felt like I was bailing out RS for their poor management of the provision fund.

I am in Lending Works ( similar to Ratesetter) and they implemented various complicated cuts of the interest rate . Many people on the P2P forums were furious with them but in the end it meant they have survived, and at least ones capital is still intact and still making a bit of interest, which can be withdrawn no problem.
Same at Assetz Capital - people were fuming they could not get all their money out quickly from the Access accounts, although it had always been very clear that easy access was dependent on normal market conditions. Again Assetz made some unpopular decisions but have also survived and still paying interest .
In both cases could have been a worse outcome, although it will be a long time before full normality returns and we really see what the end result is.

Aceace

Albermarle said:

HHarry said:

macman said:

It's ironic really. When Ratesetter halved the return back in May 2020, I started to pull money out (the return then was 3.1% on Access, but in an IF ISA, so effectively 3.7%). I figured that 1.5% net was a poor return on a product without any FCSC protection. It's taken nearly 10 months to extract the entire investment, and meanwhile, one or two year fixed rate savings bond rates are now below 1% and only going further south. And of course I've lost the tax free status forever.

I shall look back on this as not one of my better investment decisions...

 I did the same, but I’m quite happy with my decision.  I really didn’t like the 50% haircut - I’d signed up for 5%+ and felt like I was bailing out RS for their poor management of the provision fund.

I am in Lending Works ( similar to Ratesetter) and they implemented various complicated cuts of the interest rate . Many people on the P2P forums were furious with them but in the end it meant they have survived, and at least ones capital is still intact and still making a bit of interest, which can be withdrawn no problem.
Same at Assetz Capital - people were fuming they could not get all their money out quickly from the Access accounts, although it had always been very clear that easy access was dependent on normal market conditions. Again Assetz made some unpopular decisions but have also survived and still paying interest .
In both cases could have been a worse outcome, although it will be a long time before full normality returns and we really see what the end result is.

My bold. That's a bit of a controversial statement. They are currently paying a negative interest rate. They claim that they are not eating into your capital, but that simply doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Their position is that they will only take back previously paid interest. Most right thinking people would argue that once interest is paid, and you decided to reinvest it, it becomes capital. They are currently removing interest from up to 4 years ago. So, my capital balance is reducing each month. 
I'm not saying that there is a better solution in the circumstances, but their choice of words is pure obfuscation in my view. Looking at their trustpilot reviews, I'm not the only one. 

Albermarle

I did say that the cuts were complicated and your use of the word obfuscation is maybe an even better description.
I will reword my comments to say ' they are still operating and Capital is almost intact and the site is reopening to new investment which is probably a good sign '
A better outcome than it could have been - see Lendy etc .

quirkydeptless

verybigchris said:

Imagine a perfect market for P2P, where fair platforms match honest borrowers with rational lenders. In that scenario, risk matches reward perfectly and it's a sound investment.

Now add to the mix:

• naive investors who are frustrated at low savings rates and are happy to throw their money into P2P without doing any proper due diligence
• shady platforms performing all kinds of shenanigans to maximise their cut
• fraudulent borrowers giving false info to get loans
  

All those things will suppress the rates available to lenders and/or increase the risks of investing. By definition, it's simply not possible for P2P returns to match the risk as long as any of those three factors exist.

Well speaking as one of those naïve investors, I wasn't entirely without due diligence as I only invested for sign up bonuses. Did £1000 in Ratesetter for a year, got my bonus, thought I'd try a bit more P2P, did £500 in Kuflink and getting more confident, put £2000 in Growth street, all with sign up bonuses equivalent to +10%, and then getting more drawn in, was thinking of putting £5000 into Assetz Capital with a mere +5%, consulted this forum and was persuaded out of it. Good job! Got out of Kuflink with my bonus just before the Covid crisis hit P2P, but got caught in Growth Street with just 1 month to go   

Thought that was it. Anticipated big loss and no bonus, but bonus still got paid on time, and fortunately Growth Street unwound their loan book gracefully and I got 100% monies back. So easy to see how retail punters can get drawn in. This might be fine for those who do the leg work and can take the risks, but it's not for me.

pp556677

I have subscribed my IFISA to Kuflink and they seem to do well

Aceace

In case anyone missed it. Ratesetter are returning to full interest from tomorrow.

Given that they're running down the loanbook, and the fact that there is currently £6m queued for investment at 3% or less, its not worth trying to invest there, but it's looking better than it did for those that don't monitor their accounts. 

pp556677

I wonder if Kuflink is good

Aceace

pp556677 said:

I wonder if Kuflink is good

I've been with Kuflink for nearly 3 years now. I think they're an honest and trustworthy platform. I've recently been adding to my relatively small investment there (now a low 5 figure sum). Their current advantage over similar platforms is that it's much easier to get ones funds deployed into loans there, so less cash drag. As with all things P2P, see the p2pindependentforum for more coverage.