LinkedFinance - new website

Scottie99

manonboard wrote: »

Interesting how we interpret aggressive so differently

I consider yours quite aggressive.

mine:

Indeed you could be right..
Many of my loans are from a few years ago when rates were higher. Regarding my autobid, I’m spreading thinner and much of my loans are over 12/24 months. I maybe wrong, I feel that a company paying over the shorter time is more attractive and safe...
I try and stay away from restaurants, unless established.

coa000

There was a recent loan, even though there was a net loss in the most recent financial statement, net assets increased. eg 50,000 loss for year ended 31/12/2017 but net assets increased by 60,000 at 31/12/2017

Explanation given by LF:
This position is impacted by the movement in working capital over the performance period. Total Assets have reduced YOY by c.€xxk which accounts for the depreciation charge on fixed assets, this same depreciation charge is driving the net loss position for 2017. Total Liabilities have reduced by c.€xxk YoY which ultimately results in an increase in the underlying net asset position of the company despite the net loss observed in the income statement.

Does this explanation seem correct?

Figures posted above as just an example, email below received from Linkedfinance:

"With regards to posting your question/answers on boards.ie we would refer you to the Linked Finance terms of service and would request you to ensure anything posted on boards is generic and does not contain specific details relating to this loan or figures contained within the Financial Info provided on the site. To post confidential information of a borrower on a public forum would constitute a breach of confidentiality and could result in a Lenders account being suspended."

sceach16

coa000 wrote: »

email below received from Linkedfinance:
"With regards to posting your question/answers on boards.ie we would refer you to the Linked Finance terms of service and would request you to ensure anything posted on boards is generic and does not contain specific details relating to this loan or figures contained within the Financial Info provided on the site. To post confidential information of a borrower on a public forum would constitute a breach of confidentiality and could result in a Lenders account being suspended."

Linked always told me they were too busy to look at Boards!

garrettod

sceach16 wrote: »

Linked always told me they were too busy to look at Boards!

That seems rather silly, in the absence of hosting their own open method of communicating with their lenders, you would think they would be interested in feedback or at least trying to learn how they can make more money !

Perhaps their policy has changed recently, given the arrival of a new head of credit ?

sceach16

garrettod wrote: »

That seems rather silly, in the absence of hosting their own open method of communicating with their lenders, you would think they would be interested in feedback or at least trying to learn how they can make more money !

Perhaps their policy has changed recently, given the arrival of a new head of credit ?

It was very silly. They are very silly. More seriously, this is an attempt by linked to prevent discussion on loans . This forum was established because lenders were unhappy with Linked communications, particularly the failure to answer valid questions regarding loans.It does not seem anything has changed.

bohsman

garrettod wrote: »

sceach16 wrote: »

Linked always told me they were too busy to look at Boards!

That seems rather silly, in the absence of hosting their own open method of communicating with their lenders, you would think they would be interested in feedback or at least trying to learn how they can make more money !

Perhaps their policy has changed recently, given the arrival of a new head of credit ?

They are, were and will continue to monitor boards and any other forum they are regularly mentioned in but it makes sense that they wont comment on that publicly, they dont need to take too much interest as long as they are auto filling loans in seconds.

sceach16

Loan Book report Q1/2018

COB 17 April still waiting.........

sceach16

Linked have posted updates on many of my (and I presume other) non performing loans.....progress?

No emails sent which they normally do for updates.

Cute Hoor

sceach16 wrote: »

Linked have posted updates on many of my (and I presume other) non performing loans.....progress?

No emails sent which they normally do for updates.

This is a very significant improvement imo, I just hope that they now continue on with their informative updates and follow up with their proposed actions.

lad6w

I wonder how much of the increased communication has been due to minds being focused  by whatever is in their unpublished Q1 Loan report (as trend on % of loans in difficulty has been an accelerating negative trend) and how much by people deciding to stop investing. Maybe both,
I will wait and see the outcome over the coming weeks of my non-performing loans - but if the communication continues and I see more evidence of borrowers being brought back to  their original, or a new, repayment plan then I may reverse decision to exit the platform and start  bidding again. The jury is still out for me.

Bubbaclaus

Just as an FYI...I requested a withdrawal of funds this morning at approximately 11am. It's already after hitting my bank account.

I was both surprised and impressed.

garrettod

Bubbaclaus wrote: »

Just as an FYI...I requested a withdrawal of funds this morning at approximately 11am. It's already after hitting my bank account.

I was both surprised and impressed.

Assuming that you had provided them with ID, correct bank details etc. and cash was available to withdraw, then I think that's reasonable but nothing to set the world on fire.

It only takes a couple of minutes to set up an electronic payment tbf

garrettod

lad6w wrote: »

....I will wait and see the outcome over the coming weeks of my non-performing loans - but if the communication continues and I see more evidence of borrowers being brought back to  their original, or a new, repayment plan then I may reverse decision to exit the platform and start  bidding again. The jury is still out for me.

Hi,

Have you seen arrears cases (more than one payment down) being brought back up to date, or restructured ?

sceach16

garrettod wrote: »

Hi,

Have you seen arrears cases (more than one payment down) being brought back up to date, or restructured ?

I have not in my 33 months on Linked.

lad6w

garrettod wrote: »

lad6w wrote: »

....I will wait and see the outcome over the coming weeks of my non-performing loans - but if the communication continues and I see more evidence of borrowers being brought back to  their original, or a new, repayment plan then I may reverse decision to exit the platform and start  bidding again. The jury is still out for me.

Hi,

Have you seen arrears cases (more than one payment down) being brought back up to date, or restructured ?

Hi, yes I have seen numerous cases where a loan was late, by a few months even and  come back on track and I remember at least one (but can't remember the name) that was rescheduled and is now on track. However, once  a loan goes into default I have yet to see any recover in any way or see any return. Having said that it appears to me that many (for me I would put this at least 15% of my loans)  borrowers treat the monthly linked repayment as optional in timing and frequency. I remain sceptical at the pricing Linked applies to loans and have several 12 and 24 month loans in categories A-C that are late, several after just 1-3 payments being made, at least one of which is now in default. I am currently letting my cash balance grow and withdrawing money once a quarter as for now the after tax return (especially as losses are not deductible) is not attractive, and the downside too great. For me if loan performance in a benign economic environment is challenged then any hiccup to the economy would see an unacceptable deterioration in loan performance potentially leading to outright losses after tax (again as losses not tax deductible).  If I see improvement in collection execution and enforcement I may change my mind. Jury is out and will be for at least 2 more quarters for me.

garrettod

lad6w wrote: »

Hi, yes I have seen numerous cases where a loan was late, by a few months even and  come back on track and I remember at least one (but can't remember the name) that was rescheduled and is now on track. However, once  a loan goes into default I have yet to see any recover in any way or see any return. Having said that it appears to me that many (for me I would put this at least 15% of my loans)  borrowers treat the monthly linked repayment as optional in timing and frequency. I remain sceptical at the pricing Linked applies to loans and have several 12 and 24 month loans in categories A-C that are late, several after just 1-3 payments being made, at least one of which is now in default. I am currently letting my cash balance grow and withdrawing money once a quarter as for now the after tax return (especially as losses are not deductible) is not attractive, and the downside too great. For me if loan performance in a benign economic environment is challenged then any hiccup to the economy would see an unacceptable deterioration in loan performance potentially leading to outright losses after tax (again as losses not tax deductible).  If I see improvement in collection execution and enforcement I may change my mind. Jury is out and will be for at least 2 more quarters for me.

Hi,

I'm actually pleased to read about them having rescheduled a loan, or managed to get loans that were a few months in arrears back up to date, as they are positives and not something I'd seen or heard about from LF before now.

You are preaching to the converted when it comes to how LF are pricing their loans, they are way off the mark. They are not correctly reflecting the risk in their pricing, but instead trying to appear competitive with the Banks from a borrower's perspective - which is wrong, as it's not comparing like for like (Banks have more security, often have visibility (and even control) over day to day transactions in the current account etc.). Obviously, this problem incorporated in their auto-bid system, has the potential to lose a lot of people (lenders) a lot of money.

I have found that I'm getting a more appropriate return on my loans through Grid Finance (have also mentioned this before). The main reason is because you can set the rate you are prepared to lend at and while it does not guarantee that your loan will ultimately proceed, it does mean that you dictate the price, not the borrower and not the P2P Platform. Competition from other lenders is what ultimately influences the price, with more attractive loans obviously encouraging lenders to offer money at lower rates, or revise their rates downwards if they find that their initial offer is no longer competitive etc.

lad6w

garrettod wrote: »

lad6w wrote: »

Hi, yes I have seen numerous cases where a loan was late, by a few months even and  come back on track and I remember at least one (but can't remember the name) that was rescheduled and is now on track. However, once  a loan goes into default I have yet to see any recover in any way or see any return. Having said that it appears to me that many (for me I would put this at least 15% of my loans)  borrowers treat the monthly linked repayment as optional in timing and frequency. I remain sceptical at the pricing Linked applies to loans and have several 12 and 24 month loans in categories A-C that are late, several after just 1-3 payments being made, at least one of which is now in default. I am currently letting my cash balance grow and withdrawing money once a quarter as for now the after tax return (especially as losses are not deductible) is not attractive, and the downside too great. For me if loan performance in a benign economic environment is challenged then any hiccup to the economy would see an unacceptable deterioration in loan performance potentially leading to outright losses after tax (again as losses not tax deductible).  If I see improvement in collection execution and enforcement I may change my mind. Jury is out and will be for at least 2 more quarters for me.

Hi,

I'm actually pleased to read about them having rescheduled a loan, or managed to get loans that were a few months in arrears back up to date, as they are positives and not something I'd seen or heard about from LF before now.

You are preaching to the converted when it comes to how LF are pricing their loans, they are way off the mark.  They are not correctly reflecting the risk in their pricing, but instead trying to appear competitive with the Banks from a borrower's perspective - which is wrong, as it's not comparing like for like (Banks have more security, often have visibility (and even control) over day to day transactions in the current account etc.).  Obviously, this problem incorporated in their auto-bid system, has the potential to lose a lot of people (lenders) a lot of money.

I have found that I'm getting a more appropriate return on my loans through Grid Finance (have also mentioned this before).  The main reason is because you can set the rate you are prepared to lend at and while it does not guarantee that your loan will ultimately proceed, it does mean that you dictate the price, not the borrower and not the P2P Platform.  Competition from other lenders is what ultimately influences the price, with more attractive loans obviously encouraging lenders to offer money at lower rates, or revise their rates downwards if they find that their initial offer is no longer competitive etc.

One additional point I would make is that given the historic lack of communication from Linked , hopefully now improving based on posts on prior page, then my perception of loans that have missed payments and then returned on track is that this is down more to the character of the individual borrower than the collection effectiveness of Linked - and that there is a material minority of borrowers (in the context of seriously impacting our after tax returns) who seem to view Linked (and by extension us!) as a soft touch. I would be very happy to be proven wrong as I like the platform and want it, and others in the same space, to succeed.

Wheety

I'm also withdrawing every quarter. Have 2 in default, although I didn't have as large a number of loans as some on here.

Nearly time to make another withdrawal. Might squirrel it over to Mintos where I'm only investing in shortish term loans with buy back guarantee.

Kuva

Heard and on radio for linked their.

lad6w

Q1 Loan Book Report posted https://blog.linkedfinance.com/loan-book-report-q1-2018
I ignore the default rate and look at all loans that are in any arrears and I think has improved since Q4 slightly.
It also states they have hired somebody full time to manage non performing loans - looks like they have started to make a difference based on the updates posted on (I think) 17 april to most if not all loans with payment issues. Hopefully another small encouraging sign.

Cute Hoor

"Amanda Germaine is another new member of the team. Amanda has joined as Debt Manager and will be responsible for managing non-performing loans. As our loan book has grown, it has become apparent that managing missed payments and defaults requires a dedicated resource. Amanda's appointment will ensure that we can dedicate the time required managing missed payments and recoveries. In a few short weeks, Amanda has already had a very positive impact on our ability to communicate with both lenders and borrowers effected by non-performing loans."

Welcome on board Amanda, and you appear to be having an immediate positive impact in your new role, informative timely updates on non-performing loans, legal proceedings initiated against a defaulter, Artisan Gourmet Food Company, and LF's legal partners being instructed to begin proceedings on a number of other cases including Farm Food Emporium (Farm Restaurants), other pre-legal proceedings being taken against a number of other defaulters. The most positive aspect of this imo is that businesses that may have had a laissez faire attitude to loan repayments might now be forced to reconsider their position.

garrettod

Good to see.

Looks like this lady has some relevant experience with debt collection / debt management. Fingers crossed she'll get stuck in to the problem cases and perhaps more importantly, I hope that she won't be impended from taking appropriate action by those focused on sales in LF.

garrettod

lad6w wrote: »

Q1 Loan Book Report posted https://blog.linkedfinance.com/loan-book-report-q1-2018 ......

Thanks for the heads up.

There's a useful section down at the bottom of that link, where you can submit questions or suggestions (hint hint, nudge nudge, everyone )

manafana

Judging by updates they didn't follow know to handle bad debts before, updates on almost all the bad loans in my books, older ones have even had updates, this women does her job well.

garrettod

Saw a great post over on AskAboutMoney, which I can only echo here....

If the arrears are so low on Linked Finance, why did they need to hire in a new person to deal with the arrears ?

lad6w

Updates on the platform to almost all my loans that are in default or overdue. Each update is informative and displays action on behalf of Linked to ensure borrowers comply with their commitments. Continued progress in this area - I remain hopeful this addresses one of my concerns that has led to me pausing (at least) my Autobids.

garrettod

lad6w wrote: »

Updates on the platform to almost all my loans that are in default or overdue. Each update is informative and displays action on behalf of Linked to ensure borrowers comply with their commitments. Continued progress in this area - I remain hopeful this addresses one of my concerns that has led to me pausing (at least) my Autobids.

Agree 100% that LF evidencing regular proactive actions to deal with their arrears is a good thing.

However, I'd still be careful with the auto-bid system, given the credit ratings being applied to borrowers continue to be far too generous on regular occasion. It's all well and good wanting to get involved in a lot more loans, but only if they are all being priced correctly !

Cute Hoor

More positive news today with one of the loans in default being settled in full

NellyJelly

>The borrower has settled the arrears and balance outstanding on this loan , we have credited payment to your account and closed this loan agreement .

Definitely, good to see that the recent improvement in updates is being accompanied by some real results.

Makes me a lot more positive about the other couple of non-payers I have that I’d more or less given up hope on.

Credit where it is due.

manafana

NellyJelly wrote: »

>The borrower has settled the arrears and balance outstanding on this loan , we have credited payment to your account and closed this loan agreement .

Definitely, good to see that the recent improvement in updates is being accompanied by some real results.

Makes me a lot more positive about the other couple of non-payers I have that I’d more or less given up hope on.

Credit where it is due.

says it all about the old process that this business wasn't interacting with them, yet now manages to pay in full. She has probably paid for herself already with these improvements