The March 2020 monthly update is going to be very different to my usual updates. The fact is that things have changed substantially in the last month and my Peer to Peer investment strategy has switched from “income” to “capital protection & damage control”. So this month I’m not going to discuss annual returns and XIRR as usual, instead I’m going to publish my actions and thoughts with each account I invest (or used to invest) with. Also my plan for future investments with each platform.
The P2P numbers spreadsheet has not been updated as I have so much capital flying about (from withdraws and rebalancing portfolios) that I haven’t had time to track it all and update it. It may be a few weeks before I do as I have some personal stuff going on (good stuff so no worries) that frankly is more important than spending days working out figures to publish. I will get to it eventually though.
Warren Buffett (one of the richest self made men in the world with a current net worth of $70.5 Billion) has lived by two main rules throughout his investing career. Rule 1. don’t lose money. Rule 2. see rule one.
I wrote a detailed update on my COVID-19 thoughts a couple of weeks ago. My strategy is based on Warren’s 2 rules, and is still the same as I outlined in that post, namely to get capital out of lenders with unsecured business or personal loans. Put this capital in to FSCS protected bank accounts until things stabilize. It’s easy to get back in to these types of loans if things turn out to be OK, so if I’m wrong, just a bit of interest lost. If I’m correct, then capital is safe (or as safe as it can be for now), and I’ll be sticking to Warren’s 2 rules.
Capital protection and preservation is paramount and comes before anything else. If you read my monthly updates, you’ll know that most of these unsecured loans are short term. I had set these short term loans to be available to pull out of if needed, most in less than 30 days. This is not yet complete, however it’s working out mostly well for now. There are one or two unexpected issues (like Growth Street freezing funds, and Grupeer turning out to be what looks like a scam) but nothing that’s going to break the bank.
Next is to reduce exposure to other lenders based on how liquid the loans are, and how good the asset security is (LTV’s etc.). Luckily I was looking for, and expecting some kind of market crash, so I was able to start this process early as soon as I got wind of things going awry.
In my humble opinion, this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Securities markets have eased a little, but I think this is just short sellers profit taking, and longer term traders getting short for the long haul. The Fed obviously created the rally by pumping trillions in to the markets, but that won’t sustain. Just my opinion, don’t make investment decisions on it 🙂
Moving On
As mentioned previously, I haven’t added numbers this month, but I’ve explained in detail below my strategy for each lender.
Disclaimers
The information below is comprised of my opinions on current investment market conditions and my personal actions with my investments. It should not in any way be construed as financial advice. Please do your own research before making investment decisions and do not base them solely on what you read on this website. Please read my full disclaimer of more information.
Some of the links on this website are affiliate referral links. For cashback offers, you’ll generally need to use these links to qualify for the cashback. If you use these links I can sometimes receive a commission, at absolutely no cost to you. This helps me to run the website, write new platform reviews and publish monthly portfolio updates. I don’t receive commissions from all lenders, and it has no effect on my ongoing opinions on platforms, which are entirely focused on generating Income from my investments and preserving capital
Ablrate will remain in my portfolio for a few reasons. 1. All loans are asset secured & Ablrate have an excellent record of recovering defaulted loans. 2. They have been a profitable company for 3+ years & I feel like the Ablrate team know what they are doing. 3. Loans on the secondary market were selling at a 25% discount which I believe is too much based on their history. I’m not afraid enough to take a 25% haircut on Ablrate loans by panic selling. I think the worst case overall loss from any default would likely be less than that.
The secondary market has recently become a little more normalized and most loans are back to selling around where they were before. A few are still at 20% discount but I think people are realizing that Ablrate should still be here after this is all over.
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Assetz Capital are the 4th largest lender in the UK. They were the first lender to declare a “Liquidity Event” with the onset of the COVID-19 situation to stop all capital being withdrawn from their QAA (Quick Access Account), which some investors looked upon as a negative. In fact, in my opinion, they were ahead of the curve by stopping a potential “bank run” and they had protected their business for the duration at that point. Assetz Capital since implemented a “queuing system” for capital withdrawals so investors who choose to withdraw capital can do so in an orderly manner without it damaging the business. It is going very slow at this point but people in Quick Access Accounts are getting a little bit of capital back.
On March 31st, Assetz Capital sent out an email with a lot of information in it including forbearance for borrowers and letting them have a 3 to 6 month holiday from payments. Many lenders are doing this, and although it’s irritating for investors (no income), I personally don’t think foreclosing on businesses and trying to sell property at this time would be beneficial to anyone. Unfortunately, another item in the email did get everyone’s (including my) backs up; Assetz have introduced a “fee” of 0.90% per annum, not just for selling loans as many lenders have, but for all invested capital on the platform. So now investors have no choice but to pay this fee as withdrawing capital is so slow.
This was a huge mistake in my mind. I realize they have to keep their business alive somehow. However they have 120 staff, they have not reduced head count to save costs (there must be some wiggle room there as they are not writing many new loans now so it’s just maintenance of current loans). It may not be nice to say, but business is business, and if the business survives this, employees can be rehired. If the business goes bust, everyone will lose. I think by making investors alone pay the price of keeping the company in business, they will cut their nose of to spite their face in the long run. That’s just my opinion though and it has been wrong many times in the past.
I read on one of the forums that Assetz have £215m of investment capital in their Quick Access accounts (that no one can get at right now). Just from that, they will get almost £2m per year in “fees” with the new charge. Lots of investors who were behind Assetz Capital before are now saying they will be withdrawing capital as soon as they can and not returning. Which then of course puts the business in danger in the long term.
My Assetz Capital Strategy.
I did intend to leave my capital with Assetz Capital for now, I can’t get anything out anyway at the moment as half is in the 90 Day Access Account (I have triggered the 90 day queue, but 3 months is a long time considering the current state of the economy). The rest is in the Great British Business Account and getting out of that now is nigh on impossible as loans have to be sold to other investors in order to exit early, and not many seem to be buying currently. So it will likely be a wait until the end of the loan terms (assuming they all get paid back of course). Otherwise it will be going through a default situation to recover assets.
When capital does become available to withdraw, I’ll have to see how things have progressed at that time to see if I actually do withdraw or reinvest with Assetz Capital. Right now I have a bitter taste in my mouth.
CrowdProperty offer property secured development loans, all with first legal charge and reasonable LTV’s. I feel like the loans they have written are well vetted, and are some of the safer development loans available in the P2P market. In the last few weeks of the COVID-19 panic, new CrowdProperty loans have still been getting funded in a few minutes of being launched. These are large loans worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. This tells me that, even with panic and investors trying to withdraw capital from other platforms, CrowdProperty are still writing new loans and getting investment for them. This bodes well for sustainability moving forward.
My capital will be staying where it is for now with CrowdProperty. I may even add more capital as things progress if the loans continue to be filled quickly and loans continue to be paid back on time. Of course I’ll keep an eye on things and this strategy could change at any time.
My Funding Circle strategy for the COVID-19 situation is the same as it has been since July 1st 2019 – trying to sell out and get my capital back. Nothing has changed, they still have no liquidity and all I’m doing is receiving monthly loan repayments. At least I’m getting the payments so I’m not terribly upset. I would not recommend investing new capital with Funding Circle right now though.
One of the things I really liked about Growth Street when I started investing with them was the ability to just “turn off” my reinvestment settings and have capital back within 30 days. I’ve actually used that function a few months ago and it worked like a charm. When I saw the COVID-19 situation turning bad, I decided that I would withdraw all funds from unsecured lenders (Growth Street is not necessarily a fully unsecured lender, however asset security is not as clear and understandable as it is with regular fixed asset lenders like Kuflink, Loanpad, Azzetz Capital or CrowdProperty). So I switched off my reinvestment settings and over the course of a few days I was able to get about £7k out.
On March 19th, 2020, investors received the announcement from Growth Street saying that they would be freezing all withdrawals from the platform and declaring a “Liquidity Event”. This is understandable and was expected to happen with many platforms (and already had with a couple, Assetz Capital was the first). What I really didn’t expect was that they would be “resetting” our investment settings to continue reinvesting our capital into loans, even when the 30 day loans had been paid back. They decided to turn our reinvestment setting back on so repaid funds would be reinvested into loans without our permission. This was in their T&C’s (apparently) but it certainly wasn’t obvious to most folks as there was a big outcry when this happened as you can imagine. What makes it worse is that it appears that the T&C’s were changed very recently, not allowing investors who didn’t agree to get their capital back first.
I am so disappointed with the way Growth Street handled this situation that, once I get my remaining capital back (about 13k), I will likely have to consider seriously if I ever invest with them again. Probably not.
Kuflink have short to medium term (6 to 18 month) development loans with generally very reasonable LTV’s. Although the secondary (loan resale) market became very active when the COVID-19 panic first hit, they did not have any kind of liquidity problems as some other lenders did because Kuflink does not offer liquid “instant access” type accounts. Therefore lenders must wait to get their capital if they can’t sell loans on the secondary market. This turned out to be a benefit for Kuflink as they are not subject to a bank run as other lenders are. Auto-invest portfolios are coming to term normally and capital is being returned to investors (where requested). There are of course some delays in some projects but that is to be expected. I would expect payments to recommence when things calm down a bit. Investors still own the assets of course.
Kuflink is still bringing new loans to the platform, and they are still being filled quickly (although a little slower than normal). This shows that investors still trust Kuflink enough to invest with them. My feeling is that Kuflink will be one of the lenders who come out of this situation unscathed and possibly even stronger. They will likely be getting a lot of investors from Assetz Capital I imagine.
My Kuflink Strategy.
I decided to sell down just a few of the higher LTV loans on the secondary market (only 10% of total account value), just for piece of mind as we don’t know how bad this situation might get. Most of my capital is still with Kuflink though. I’ll be leaving it there for now and probably also lending into new lower LTV loans as they become available. Of course I’ll keep an eye on things and this strategy could change at any time.
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I decided to retrieve capital (where possible) from lenders who have unsecured loans to reduce my overall exposure to Peer to Peer lending. Although LendingCrowd do have some secured loans, many just have directors personal guarantees. Historically, trying to recover from just these personal guarantees has been hit and miss. So, I made an early decision to withdraw my capital. My thought is; capital can sit in a FSCS bank account where it’s safe for now, once this situation is over, it’s easy to reinvest. Worst case I lose a few months of interest, but I protect my capital. I was early to the party as I had a gut feeling this thing was going to be big, so I was able to sell out about 75% of my loans on the secondary market before it locked up and no one seemed to be buying anymore. Everything worked just fine and I’m happy with the results. I still have about 2.5k left in there and I’ll just draw that down as payments are made.
In summary, everything worked (almost) as expected with LendingCrowd and I’ll have no hesitation about investing with them again when things calm down and the economy stabilizes, but for now, I’m happy to stand on the sidelines with my capital in the bank.
Although Lending Works are suggested to be one of the safer lenders out there, their loans are still mostly unsecured so investors are reliant on their provision fund. The Lending Works provision fund is supposedly well funded, but who knows how that will look if this situation becomes long and drawn out? So, I made an early decision to withdraw my capital.
I was able to sell almost all of my loans and get out right before the liquidity run came and everyone was trying to withdraw. There was a little irritation with Lending Works that got everyone a bit upset. They had sneakily slipped in to their T&C’s back in December that people withdrawing loans early are now not only subject to a .5% fee (which I always thought was acceptable), but they are now subject to a shortfall in any loan rates. It really wasn’t clear to most people that they had done this, so when I withdrew, there was another few hundred I had to pay in order to get out. Irritating, and I will have to really contemplate if I ever want to invest with them again.
Loanpad offer property secured loans, all with very low LTV’s (all below 50%, and many between 5% and 15%). These kinds of LTV’s mean even if UK property values take a huge nosedive because of the recession, even in the event of a default, lenders would probably get their capital back. In the last few weeks of the COVID-19 panic, Loanpad, although a smaller company, have been able to survive and fulfill capital withdrawal requests even from their “Classic” instant access account without having to declare a “Liquidity Event” and suspend capital withdrawals. I have no idea how they have managed this, but they have. All I can think of is that probably investors are not panicking so much to get their capital back as they are with other, unsecured lenders.
My Loanpad Strategy.
Capital will be staying where it is for now with Loanpad (it’s in the Premium 60 Day Access Account). I may even add more capital as things progress. I’ve really liked the safety aspect of Loanpad since I started investing with them and it looks like, so far at least, I was correct with this one. Of course I’ll keep an eye on things and this strategy could change at any time.
Just as I was writing this post, this email from Loanpad just came through. They still have good liquidity and are imposing no new fees, and even better they are keeping interest rates as they usually are. This has to be one of (if not the) best lenders out there!
Click to enlarge image
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Most of my Euro loans on Mintos are short term payday loans. As I’ve decided to get out of unsecured lending until things calm down, I switched my Mintos auto-invest strategies off so loans will complete at term. Most loans in Euros were less than 30 days so I was hoping I would just be able to get my capital back. Of course just a few days ago the news that Varks Armenia (part of the Finko Group) lost it’s lending license, and guess who most of my short term loans were with 🙄 Not the end of the world though as because Varks are part of the Finko group, there is a group guarantee in place on the Mintos platform. This means that Finko will have to honor the Varks loans. Providing Finko stay in business, capital should be returned eventually. I’ve been getting small amounts each day so I’m quite confident that eventually I should get this capital back.
I also decided to sell down some of the Mogo GBP car loans just because they are finished anyway (no new GBP car loans on Mintos now), and I thought better to reduce exposure to Mintos as a whole. I manged to sell about half of the loans and the rest are already late or in default so the buyback guarantees should all kick in within 60 days.
On March 31st Mintos started charging a 0.85% fee for selling loans in the secondary market. This is not the end of the world as Mintos used to have a 1% fee for this anyway, and most other lenders have it. I would prefer they charge a bit here for people wanting to get out and keep the platform in business than risk going broke.
Although Octopus Choice has well asset secured loans, I decided to exit this account anyway for now as 4% is just not worth the risk, and there was no penalty for withdrawal. I was early in making my withdrawal request so was able to get all of my money out (except for a couple of hundred that were in late loans). My feeling is that it’s better to have the capital in a government protected bank account for now, while things calm down. It’s always easy with Octopus Choice to get back in to the loans when things settle down.
I decided to exit RateSetter for now as most of the loans are unsecured personal loans. Even though RateSetter is a big concern, and they have a well funded provision fund, I feel that the 4% annual return is just not worth the risk in this type of environment. I was early in making my withdrawal request so was able to get almost all of my money out (about £20 stuck in late loans). My feeling is that it’s better to have the capital in a government protected bank account for now, while things calm down. It’s always easy with RateSetter to get back into the loans when things settle down. All I’ll have lost is a few months (hopefully) of interest but I’ll sleep better knowing that this capital is safe.
A couple of days after I made my withdrawal, RateSetter started to have liquidity problems and now there is quite a long wait to get loans sold and capital out. I think I made the right decision.
Unbolted offer pawnshop style loans to the general public with very liquid assets. These types of assets can be sold very quickly upon default. Pawnshops typically do better in economic downturns than they do in times of prosperity as people will borrow against personal assets when they are unable to get an unsecured personal loans. LTV’s are usually very low as defaults can be high, so pawnshops need to make sure they can always recoup capital. I have been lending with Unbolted for a couple of years now, and although there have been many defaults, assets have always sold at more than the outstanding loan principle and I have always been paid back both principle and interest very quickly. Loans are short to medium term in nature so a complete exit can be had by turning off auto-invest within 3 to 12 months.
I’ll keep investing with Unbolted as normal as I expect them to be one of the most lucrative investments throughout a recession. Of course I’ll keep an eye on things and this strategy could change at any time.
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UOWN are an interesting company and off the usual Peer to Peer lender “track” for me. They are not a Peer to Peer lender but a crowdfunding platform where investors own shares in the properties.
I decided to stay fully invested with UOWN. As we actually own shares in the properties (not providing loans) there can be no defaults. The risk here is that developments might not be sold at the same value (if property prices crash), or perhaps a renter can’t always be found for rental income properties. Either way, even in the worse case scenario, I think most of my capital should be recoverable.
Due to the COVID-19 situation, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about Crowdestor with their unique loans that almost no other lender has. The nervousness is more a fear of the unknown than anything else. So far their communication to investors has been good and they seem to be trying to sure up the business to weather the storm.
First Crowdestor arranged with some borrowers to buyback loan parts (at a 20% discount) so investors who needed their capital could get some of it back, and the borrowers could get a break on the cost of the loans (good idea for both parties). Next Crowdestor made a decision to pause all repayments from borrowers (and to investors, which upset a few of them as you can imagine) for 90 days to give them breathing space while the COVID-19 is in the initial stages.
Crowdestor said they didn’t see any point in defaulting loans in this lockdown period as they wouldn’t be able to collect anyway. So it seems to me they are really trying to keep ahead of the game & stay in business as I mentioned earlier with other lenders.
As Crowdestor don’t have any option for early withdrawal (except selling some of the loans at a large 20% discount), I’ll be riding out the COVID-19 downturn in the hope they can survive. All loans are asset secured so even if they were to go out of business, hopefully I would be able to recoup at least some of the capital investment.
Envestio
In January I did a full write up on the Envestio situation (was a scam). If you missed that, you can read it here in the January update.
It appears that the class-action law suite is progressing aggressively and has already been filed and Envestio given their 10 day notice to bankruptcy, which they have not replied to, so proceedings will commence. I read they have over €10 million in claims against Envestio from a few thousand investors.
Grupeer
To my amazement, it appears that Grupeer has closed its doors. The rumors are flying that they have fired all of their staff. There is already a law suite being put together on one of the groups to try to recover capital.
It appears Grupeer could have been running a scam for a couple of months or more. The thinking is they knew they were in trouble, so they created a few fake projects and used the money to fund their business instead of just going under.
I did not see this one coming at all. If I did, I wouldn’t have left over 5k in there 🙄
On March 31st, Grupeer also released this statement (which many are saying is just stalling for time). They are not answering investors and some investors have been in touch with some Grupeer borrowers. Some say Grupeer lent them the money as indicated on their website, and there are a couple who said they discussed the possibility of a loan with Grupeer, but never actually signed a contract or received any money. Investors funded these “fake” loans, so there was obviously some potential fraud going on there.
As most of the loans on PeerBerry are unsecured, I’ve decided to switch off reinvestment for now and withdraw capital as it is paid back.
PeerBerry have actually turned out to be one of the most reliable Euro lenders so far. They are communicating and managing their loans, and the situation well. Capital has been easy to withdraw from the platform and most of it arrives in my bank account the next day. I have over half of my invested capital back already, and as loans come to term, or get bought back through Buyback Guarantees, capital is readily available to withdraw.
I’m not really concerned about PeerBerry as a company in the long run, but the loans are unsecured which are risky in normal market conditions, so right now, who knows? I just prefer to have capital sat in a government insured bank account until we see how deep this crisis is going to affect the economy. As soon as things start to pick up, I’ll have no hesitation at all in jumping back in to PeerBerry.
PeerBerry Signup & Cashback Offers
No cashback offers with PeerBerry this month, however if you would like to take a closer look at their platform, please;
As most of the loans on Robocash are unsecured, I’ve decided to switch off reinvestment for now and withdraw capital as it is paid back. Robocash has both short term and long term loans. I’ve already managed to withdraw capital from a lot of repaid short term loans. The longer term loans are up to 1 year so I’ll just withdraw that capital as it is paid back.
Robocash seem to be communicating and managing their loans well. So far capital has been easy to withdraw from the platform and most of it arrives in my bank account the next day.
I’m not really concerned about Robocash loans, I would just prefer to have capital sat in a government insured bank account until we see how deep this crisis is going to affect the economy. As soon as things start to pick up, I’ll have no hesitation at all in jumping back in to Robocash.
Most of the loans on Swaper are short term, unsecured loans. So I’ve decided to switch off reinvestment for now and withdraw capital as it is paid back. So far capital has been easy to withdraw from the platform and most of it arrives in my bank account the next day. As most loans are 30 days or less, I hope to have most of the capital back before the end of April.
I’m not concerned about Swaper as a company, but short term, unsecured payday & personal loans will be the first to default if this lockdown is sustained and people can’t work. So I’m not sure how much pressure mass defaults would put on Swaper. Either way, I would just prefer to have capital sat in a government insured bank account until we see how deep this crisis is going to affect the economy. As soon as things start to pick up, I’ll have no hesitation at all in jumping back in to Swaper.
Again, most of the loans on Viventor are unsecured, so I’ve decided to switch off reinvestment for now and withdraw capital as it is paid back. Viventor loans that I have invested in go from 30 days to 12 months, so I should be able to withdraw capital over the next year if things don’t pick up in the economy before then. I’ve already managed to withdraw some capital from repaid short term loans. With the longer term loans; I’ll just withdraw capital as it is paid back unless the economy stabilizes in the meantime (unlikely inside 12 months).
Viventor are communicating and managing their loans well. They did a webinar for investors to explain the situation and how they are handling it which was well accepted. So far capital has been easy to withdraw from the platform and most of it arrives in my bank account the next day.
Summary
What a difference a few weeks can make with investments. Just last month at this time I was still talking about increasing capital in some lenders. Now everyone’s trying to get out it seems.
Personally I think this will be a long and drawn-out ordeal that hasn’t even started to get bad yet. We are not feeling the effects of the millions of workers that have already lost their jobs, and the tens of millions that will lose them moving forward. Or the companies that have already gone out of business, and the ones that will.
I know if I can get capital from unsecured loans into government insured bank accounts for now, I’ll be able to reinvest when things calm down. All I’ve lost if some interest.
Plus there will be opportunities in the stocks & bonds markets when things finally calm down, and I’d like to have extra capital to invest there.
The most positive thing about this whole situation as far as the P2P lending space is concerned is; when we come out the other side of this situation, the lenders that are still in business will be much safer investments having been through this whole ordeal. Of course return rates will also likely go down along with the risk.
If you do decide to invest in P2P in the current environment, I suggest you stick with lenders with good asset security and low LTV’s like Kuflink, Loanpad, CrowdProperty & Unbolted. Do not take my word for it though, do your own research and make your own investment decisions. For some it will be better just to keep all of your capital in a FSCS insured bank accounts for now.
Good luck with your investments moving forward. I suggest protecting yourself as much as possible, and remember Warren Buffett’s rules; “don’t lose money”, because without capital to invest in the future, it doesn’t matter how good the investment opportunities are.
My best to you and your families. Stay safe and I’ll post an investment update again soon.
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8 thoughts on “P2P Lending Portfolio Update For March 2020”
James
Hi Mark,
Agree about Assetz Capital – I am/was a great believer of theirs, and can understand the ‘drip feed’ approach to investors withdrawing their funds preventing a ‘run’ but the new “fee” they have introduced has irked me also. Essentially cutting the interest of the 90 day 5.75% down to 4.85% pa and getting into the realms of ‘whats the point in taking the risk and tying money up for 3 months for that’. Never mind the 30 day & Quick Access. I will likely be withdrawing once things settle down if they still have it
Growth Street – sneaky, I didnt even notice they had done that. Usually I have reinvest on anyway but ‘pulling down the shutters’ quite quickly wasnt ideal. A ‘drip feed’ approach here would have been better in my opinion
Kuflink & Unbolted – same opinions, no issues here. Doing ‘exactly as it says on the tin’
Funding Circle – I have also been gradually exiting. % is still doing well for me (7.06% XIRR) but I dont like on principle those ‘investor service charges’ types as lenders make enough from the borrowers without also ‘creaming’ off the investors
Crowd Property – I also ‘threw some money in the pit’ on this one during Feb & March, but long term thinking. Stopped doing it when the coronavirus starting ‘kicking off’ as much
Albrate – same thoughts, although I dont have much in here anyway due to the ‘business loan’ nature
Mintos – I have been gradually exiting anyway due to lack of GBP loans
Grupeer: “Due to worldwide national limitations on any debt recovery procedures as well as remedies applied to borrowers, providing them with extended and postponed terms for payment obligations, the cash flow in the investment transactions has been automatically suspended. Furthermore, closing of national borders and limiting physical movement of people has caused drastic decrease of demand for goods and services of the borrower-companies, resulting in termination of agreements and forcing many borrowers to suspend or cease economic activity. Therefore, neither borrowers nor Grupeer are able to fulfil obligations towards you, our investors.”.
Yeah, I read that. It appeared a week or two after they were threatened with a law suite. No communication prior to that and all staff released. Support does not respond to anyone, as neither do management.
Most importantly does not address the fake projects issued and money taken. Potential borrowers did not sign contracts or have access to capital, but capital gone anyway.
Also does not explain why cash no longer in loans (repaid) could not be repaid to investors and has also vanished. I requested a withdrawal from my account on March 10th (or there about), it has gone from my Grupeer account but never arrived in my bank.
These statements are just trying to buy time from the law suite that will happen soon.
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Hi Mark,
Agree about Assetz Capital – I am/was a great believer of theirs, and can understand the ‘drip feed’ approach to investors withdrawing their funds preventing a ‘run’ but the new “fee” they have introduced has irked me also. Essentially cutting the interest of the 90 day 5.75% down to 4.85% pa and getting into the realms of ‘whats the point in taking the risk and tying money up for 3 months for that’. Never mind the 30 day & Quick Access. I will likely be withdrawing once things settle down if they still have it
Growth Street – sneaky, I didnt even notice they had done that. Usually I have reinvest on anyway but ‘pulling down the shutters’ quite quickly wasnt ideal. A ‘drip feed’ approach here would have been better in my opinion
Kuflink & Unbolted – same opinions, no issues here. Doing ‘exactly as it says on the tin’
Funding Circle – I have also been gradually exiting. % is still doing well for me (7.06% XIRR) but I dont like on principle those ‘investor service charges’ types as lenders make enough from the borrowers without also ‘creaming’ off the investors
Crowd Property – I also ‘threw some money in the pit’ on this one during Feb & March, but long term thinking. Stopped doing it when the coronavirus starting ‘kicking off’ as much
Albrate – same thoughts, although I dont have much in here anyway due to the ‘business loan’ nature
Mintos – I have been gradually exiting anyway due to lack of GBP loans
The rest, I cant comment, as dont use them
Grupeer: “Due to worldwide national limitations on any debt recovery procedures as well as remedies applied to borrowers, providing them with extended and postponed terms for payment obligations, the cash flow in the investment transactions has been automatically suspended. Furthermore, closing of national borders and limiting physical movement of people has caused drastic decrease of demand for goods and services of the borrower-companies, resulting in termination of agreements and forcing many borrowers to suspend or cease economic activity. Therefore, neither borrowers nor Grupeer are able to fulfil obligations towards you, our investors.”.
Oh Dear. Englisch bitte?
Convenient disclaimer in last sentence.
Yeah, I read that. It appeared a week or two after they were threatened with a law suite. No communication prior to that and all staff released. Support does not respond to anyone, as neither do management.
Most importantly does not address the fake projects issued and money taken. Potential borrowers did not sign contracts or have access to capital, but capital gone anyway.
Also does not explain why cash no longer in loans (repaid) could not be repaid to investors and has also vanished. I requested a withdrawal from my account on March 10th (or there about), it has gone from my Grupeer account but never arrived in my bank.
These statements are just trying to buy time from the law suite that will happen soon.
Now Lending Works locks up, with a 2% servicing fee on the loan book.
Yep, I just saw that. 2% service fee and no interest for 3 months!
Am I happy I got most of my capital out of there early. Still about 700 stuck in there but compared to 20k, I’m relieved.
Any thoughts on Zopa, Mark?
Hi Edward,
Only what’s in my Zopa Review
I’m not sure investments in Zopa will do great over the coming months. Defaults will likely be high & no provision fund.