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garrettod

sceach16 wrote: »

I have given up on Linked. :mad:

Hi,

While I can appreciate why you might feel like that, I have to say (with the very best of intentions) that it's the wrong approach.

As long as your money is invested through them, you are entitled to put pressure on them to do the right thing ... in fact, you are obligated to put pressure on them, given you need to protect your money as best you can.

I know you may think to yourself that it doesn't matter, because you are not investing in this new loan offer ... but if we all act every time that we see something wrong, then we are looking out for each other, alongside ourselves. If none of us act, and LF mess up big time, they'll be gone out of business and then who is going to administer our existing loans, or ensure we get our money back as the various loans are repaid ?

Doing nothing is just what Linked Finance want you to do when they screw up, or exclude important information etc.... but doing nothing is not in our best interest


.

scheister

LinkedFinance have gotten €50m in Funding from some online bank

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2018/0621/972092-linked-finance-deal/

Cute Hoor

Big test for LF now on the immediate horizon, going after the Farm Food guarantor who I presume is the owner. From what I can see he has form so it will be interesting to see how LF get on. If unsuccessful then the 'Personal Guarante' will have been proven to be not worth the paper it's written on.

Active Recovery - Our legal partners have confirmed the guarantor pertaining to this Loan Agreement has failed to respond to the service of proceedings. We have instructed our solicitors to proceed to judgement on this case . As required under these legal proceedings a final letter has been issued to the client today advising of our intentions to apply for judgement providing a further 14 days to the guarantor to file for appearance or defence. Upon the expiry of this document we expect to publish a further update to all lenders .

garrettod

No Balance Sheet / Capital Account for Tim Lyons ....

https://linkedfinance.com/loan/2018/06/tim-lyons-engineering

It hasn't stopped the auto bid system from quickly hovering up a sizeable amount of money from investors and while it's quite possibly a decent business and borrower, the financial information needs to be provided.

I can't help but notice that there's a sizeable amount of loan interest being paid each year, so there's obviously associated debt. It would also be nice to know what sort of assets and capital are backing the business.

Very disappointing that LF don't have proper measures in place to stop this kind of omission from occurring.

garrettod

Hi,

Irish Bio-fuels update:

The borrower has failed to make the latest installment on the revised payment arrangement . We have been in contact with this borrower who has advised there has been some unauthorised activity on the bank accounts leaving this business unable to make any payments, this has now been reported to the authorities. . We have requested confirmation of same and an expected resolution date from the local authorities/bank which we will communicate to lenders accordingly. We expect this update within the next 5 working days .

That doesn't sound good ... but tbf, isn't related to the quality of Linked Finance's services.

bohsman

garrettod wrote: »

No Balance Sheet / Capital Account for Tim Lyons ....

https://linkedfinance.com/loan/2018/06/tim-lyons-engineering

It hasn't stopped the auto bid system from quickly hovering up a sizeable amount of money from investors and while it's quite possibly a decent business and borrower, the financial information needs to be provided.

I can't help but notice that there's a sizeable amount of loan interest being paid each year, so there's obviously associated debt.  It would also be nice to know what sort of assets and capital are backing the business.

Very disappointing that LF don't have proper measures in place to stop this kind of omission from occurring.

They are on repayment 24/36 on a previous loan with no issues so far which is something at least.

Leedsfan123

garrettod wrote: »

No Balance Sheet / Capital Account for Tim Lyons ....

https://linkedfinance.com/loan/2018/06/tim-lyons-engineering

It hasn't stopped the auto bid system from quickly hovering up a sizeable amount of money from investors and while it's quite possibly a decent business and borrower, the financial information needs to be provided.

I can't help but notice that there's a sizeable amount of loan interest being paid each year, so there's obviously associated debt. It would also be nice to know what sort of assets and capital are backing the business.

Very disappointing that LF don't have proper measures in place to stop this kind of omission from occurring.

While I agree a balance sheet would be nice, I'm pretty sure they never really show a balance sheet for Soletraders. Or am I mistaken?

sceach16

Leedsfan123 wrote: »

While I agree a balance sheet would be nice, I'm pretty sure they never really show a balance sheet for Soletraders. Or am I mistaken?

Generally, Linked do not show a balance sheet for sole traders although I recall some "efforts" being shown.


The problem with any loan to a sole trader is that it could go to pay the mortgage or for beer or for the business. a sole trader is not as far as I know any way different from the individual....the business has no legal personality and is part of the individuals own personality.


I stopped lending to sole traders well before I stopped any lending on Linked.

sceach16

Just took a look at Tim Lyons data and Q/A



"The business profile says the company employs 8 full-time staff yet staff costs in the accounts provided amount to €33.5k. This does not add up."


Linked response


"With regard to the staff costs there is approx €245k Wages & Salaries included in the Cost of Sales.
There is also a figure of €14k for subcontracting costs also included in the CoS."

The Linked Finance Tea

mickmac76

Hi everyone

I wanted to post a final post about my own experience with linked finance. I first heard of LF in 2014 and made my first deposit and loan with them in October of the year. In total I lodged €4150 with them and loaned money to a total of 27 companies. I stopped lending on LF in July 2015 25 of these have now finished repaying and the other 2 are in default and I think it's unlikely I will ever see repayments from those 2.

My loans ranged from €50 to €500 with most of them around €250. I tended to lend to manufacturing companies and avoid shops and restaurants for the most part as I believed they could run into trouble quicker in a competitive market with low start up costs. My average loan rates according to LF was 10.3% and I never loaned money out at below 8%

The two defaults were pure green juice Ltd and A and D cleaning services. I loaned pure green juices €200 and they defaulted after 17 repayments but in fairness LF have gotten some of the money back from one director of the company. I was left owed €65 by the company and don't honestly expect to get any of this. The cleaning company was unusual in that they made 35 of their 36 repayments before closing and owe me only €6 which I also don't expect to be repaid.

My total repayments have totaled €4820 before taxes and if I had been told in October of 2014 that my original investment with LF would result in that return with only two defaults I would have been quite happy. Overall I like the idea of peer to peer lending and would recommend it to people who are financially savvy and like the idea of higher returns than offered by traditional bank savings accounts but I would no longer recommend linked finance to them.

Mick

Kuva

mickmac76 wrote: »

Hi everyone

I wanted to post a final post about my own experience with linked finance. I first heard of LF in 2014 and made my first deposit and loan with them in October of the year. In total I lodged €4150 with them and loaned money to a total of 27 companies. I stopped lending on LF in July 2015 25 of these have now finished repaying and the other 2 are in default and I think it's unlikely I will ever see repayments from those 2.

My loans ranged from €50 to €500 with most of them around €250. I tended to lend to manufacturing companies and avoid shops and restaurants for the most part as I believed they could run into trouble quicker in a competitive market with low start up costs. My average loan rates according to LF was 10.3% and I never loaned money out at below 8%

The two defaults were pure green juice Ltd and A and D cleaning services. I loaned pure green juices €200 and they defaulted after 17 repayments but in fairness LF have gotten some of the money back from one director of the company. I was left owed €65 by the company and don't honestly expect to get any of this. The cleaning company was unusual in that they made 35 of their 36 repayments before closing and owe me only €6 which I also don't expect to be repaid.

My total repayments have totaled €4820 before taxes and if I had been told in October of 2014 that my original investment with LF would result in that return with only two defaults I would have been quite happy. Overall I like the idea of peer to peer lending and would recommend it to people who are financially savvy and like the idea of higher returns than offered by traditional bank savings accounts but I would no longer recommend linked finance to them.

Mick

Ehh, why?

FinanceDublin

Kuva wrote: »

Ehh, why?

Virtual inability to do what he did (parse loans by sector, avoid restaurants and embrace manufacturing, therefore keeping defaults down), I would guess.

He likes peer to peer but doesn’t like LF as it is now. I’d be 100% the same. But they’re flying. Clearly a small gap in the market for a competitor incidentally.

mickmac76

FinanceDublin wrote: »

Virtual inability to do what he did (parse loans by sector, avoid restaurants and embrace manufacturing, therefore keeping defaults down), I would guess.

He likes peer to peer but doesn’t like LF as it is now. I’d be 100% the same. But they’re flying. Clearly a small gap in the market for a competitor incidentally.

Agree with this 100%. But I was also diagnosed with motor neuron disease in July 2015. People with MND are generally told that your life expectancy is 3 to 5 years and although the disease progression in my case is very slow and I expect at least another 4 or 5 years it means I won't invest in anything that I can't withdraw from at short notice if things take a sudden turn for the worst. If I were to pass away today and was still investing in LF or similar sites my family would be waiting up to 3 years to withdraw my money. This isn't something that should put off anyone else though. The chances of getting caught like that are small and if you worry about things like that happening to you then you will never invest in anything.

what?

mickmac76 wrote: »

Agree with this 100%. But I was also diagnosed with motor neuron disease in July 2015. People with MND are generally told that your life expectancy is 3 to 5 years and although the disease progression in my case is very slow and I expect at least another 4 or 5 years it means I won't invest in anything that I can't withdraw from at short notice if things take a sudden turn for the worst. If I were to pass away today and was still investing in LF or similar sites my family would be waiting up to 3 years to withdraw my money. This isn't something that should put off anyone else though. The chances of getting caught like that are small and if you worry about things like that happening to you then you will never invest in anything.

unrelated to LF, but hope you are allowed make the best of your time.

fd932

West Start Autoelectrical Distribution

This company just had a loan fully funded on flender.ie.
Purpose: West Start will use the Flender funds to expand and make warehouse improvements to its Athlone headquarters in order to facilitate its growing business.

This afternoon they have a new Linkedfinance loan for 122,000
Purpose: As they continue their impressive growth, West Start would like to carry out refurbishments on their Athlone and Cork premises and purchase new stock.

sceach16

fd932 wrote: »

West Start Autoelectrical Distribution

This company just had a loan fully funded on flender.ie.
Purpose: West Start will use the Flender funds to expand and make warehouse improvements to its Athlone headquarters in order to facilitate its growing business.

This afternoon they have a new Linkedfinance loan for 122,000
Purpose: As they continue their impressive growth, West Start would like to carry out refurbishments on their Athlone and Cork premises and purchase new stock.

Premier Irish golf tours and Tilehaven also appear on the Flender list of loans.

scheister

sceach16 wrote: »

Premier Irish golf tours and Tilehaven also appear on the Flender list of loans.

Premier Irish golf tours have appeared on at least 3 platforms. I have seen them on flender Linkedfinance and grid finance. Are they using P2P rather than a bank overdraft. On flender we have loans in Feb and June this year

CeilingFly

One big problem for Linked Finance is that banks are very willing to lend and at very good rates.

Usually at this time of year I look for a stock loan for Christmas, and last Thursday I sent application in for a 50k facility to have it as back up if certain deals come available to me.

Have been told this morning that it has been approved at a rate of 5.75% and is available for drawdown whenever I require it - so that's quicker than LF system

We're a small business, we've had our issues in the recession and only in the last 2 years have we gone back into the black, we'd probably be a grade B on LinkedFinance.

So 5.75% & no arrangement fee versus circa 10% + circa €2,000 arrangement fee?

ballyb64

Hillcrest Agencies - owned by Deon Harmse - trading 18 years - Grade B
This is my experience of my first loan where the personal guarantee was used.  I was expecting a better outcome as it was a Limited Company with Shareholder funds/Net Assets = +173,808 and also had a personal guarantee.   Also dont think it should have been a Grade B.

---

Loan added to Linkedfinance:  22/12/2016
Grade B, Limited company with a personal guarantee - Deon Harmse, owner of Hillcrest Agencies
Shareholder funds/Net Assets = +173,808
Turnover = 271,785     Stock = 313,164

5 repayments received out of 36
a final 2 repayments made now, a year later (received total of 7 repayments out of 36)
Amount lent: 100
Amount principle repaid:  17.15
Internet Received:  4.85
Amount recorded as bad debt by Linkedfinance:  82.85

Unanswered Lender Question:
Financials for 2015 do not present a pretty picture (no balance sheet provided for July 2016 so comments relate to latest balance sheet provided i.e. August 2015). Can you comment on the following: Debtors of €99k on a turnover €272k of suggests that customers are taking (on average) over 4 months to pay for good supplied. How much of the €99k in not collectable i.e. bad debts not recognized Trade Creditors shown as - €2k indicates that cash flow is not being managed effectively - are creditor not prepared to provide credit to the business - if so, why not? Latest accounts are as at August 2015. Why are accounts (even management accounts) not available for the year to August 2016? Sales decreased by 20% between 2015 and 2015. Why? Stock (at August 2015) represents 115% of 2015 turnover. Why is stock level so high? What portion of stock is obsolete ? Other Liabilities are quoted as €256k. What does this relate to?
Ballyboughal Man

---

Linkedfinance updates:
5-July-2017
We have not received the most recent repayment for this loan. Unfortunately the company has gone into liquidation, we are in contact with the borrower and will provide more information once we have it.

24-Jul-2017
Active Recovery - Case being handled by third party collections agency. As the company has been liquidated and the borrower is now facing personal insolvency we have decided the best chance of securing funds is to move this to our third party collections agency.  Last payment received: 05/06/2017

17-Apr-2018
Active Recovery - Case being handled by third party collections agency. The guarantor pertaining to this agreement has entered personal insolvency , we have lodged our interest with the practitioner and await notification of any dividend prospects

23-Jul-2018
Lenders, today we have credited 2 payments to your account for this loan . Unfortunately these are the final amounts to be credited for this borrower. The company entered liquidation in July of last year and following the liquidators analysis there were insufficient funds to pay unsecured creditors . We then pursued the guarantor for the balance outstanding on this loan agreement who subsequently entered personal insolvency , a claim was lodged to the personal insolvency practitioner for the total remaining balance on behalf of all lenders. The payments lodged today represent a final dividend payment which has now been credited to your account . As per the finalisation of the liquidation and personal insolvency there are no further prospects of recovery for this loan agreement and the balance outstanding will require a write off. This loss will be recorded as a bad debt in your lender dashboard .

---

Business Profile
Tell us about your business and your plans for the future?
Hello my name is Deon Harmse, owner of Hillcrest Agencies. We import, distribute, and wholesale various types of lighting and electrical goods, specialising in energy efficient bulbs and energy saving products.

After nearly two decades spent working in the industry, I decided the time was right to start-up my own business, and in 1998 I established Hillcrest Agencies. Since that time we have largely operated out of our Dublin warehouse, but just last year we expanded our operations, and now we also operate out of a warehouse in Monaghan.

Over the years I have built up a lot of contacts and a large customer base. We serve businesses of all shapes and sizes, from pubs, hotels, hospitals, farms, and even supply products for domestic use. We have great working relationships with county councils which sees us with a sustained amount of work.

Our new warehouse has given us a strong presence in the North of the country and has further increased our customer base. This expansion is something we are keen to improve on. At the moment we would only sell the odd bits here and there outside of Ireland, so in the future we would like to sell more into the UK and mainland Europe, but for now we would like to strengthen our position domestically.

With the demand for our products growing, we can now turn our attention to larger stock purchases. We are now in a position to dramatically increase our economies of scale by making bulk purchases from countries like China, where the cost per unit is significantly lower.

With this, we will greatly increase our profit margin and will be in a better position to pass on some of the benefits to our clients. It’s a win-win really. To make this happen, and to really elevate us to the next level, we need your help in raising a loan of €30,000.

Why are you safe to lend to?
We are a long established business that has grown steadily throughout the years. We are now in a position to really take the business forward and we don’t look like we will be slowing down anytime soon.

We are a profitable company with very consistent turnover. 2016 has been a great year for the company as we continue to grow. As verified by our bank statements, in the last 6 months we have generated over €320,000 in turnover. This should give you an idea of how well the company is performing. To give you a better insight, below you will see our 2016 management accounts up to July 2016:

Category    11 Months Man. Account
Accounts Ending Date    31/07/2016
Turnover    €458,916
Cost of Sales    €244,404
Gross Profit    €214,512
Staff Costs    €53,888
Other Costs    €147.561
Profit before Income before tax and interest    €13,063
Interest paid    €4.359
Interest received    €0
Tax Paid    €1.088
Dividends    €0
Net Profit    €7.616


Over time, we have built an excellent reputation within the industry and service a mix of both commercial and residential clients. Many of these have been with us for a long time which speaks to our focus on providing top quality customer service and value.

Linked Finance have thoroughly assessed our bank statements and we have exhibited capacity to repay this loan. As above, this facility will help us to further improve our profit margins and will have a direct impact on the business.

How will this loan make a difference to your business?
We will use this loan to purchase products in bulk from China which should lower our cost-per-unit and significantly increase our profit-margin.


€30,000
Fixed Rate at 10.2%
165 bidders
Location    Co. Dublin
Term    36 months
Grade    B
Trading    18 years
Security    Personal Guarantee
Industry    Wholesale/Retail Trade and Repairs
Legal type    Limited Company
Loan ID    2886
CRO No.    292280

Peter File

Irish Biofuels are now in default

casside

scheister wrote: »

sceach16 wrote: »

Premier Irish golf tours and Tilehaven also appear on the Flender list of loans.

Premier Irish golf tours have appeared on at least 3 platforms. I have seen them on flender Linkedfinance and grid finance. Are they using P2P rather than a bank overdraft. On flender we have loans in Feb and June this year

They have now ceased trading, one of there new loans has just received 1 repayment (100,000 loan)

CeilingFly

On Hillcrest Agencies, the figures just did not make sense and you'd have to question why it was permitted to go up. Also its obvious many lenders don't know how to read financial figures, but LF should be deciphering the figures themselves.

What stands out is stock valuation of €313,000
Turnover is 458,000 (11 months management accounts) - I never belive management accounts but even if you did believe them, cost of sales were 244,000, thus suggesting that a stock holding of 313,000 equates to about 16 months stock. And THAT's a problem.

For any reseller business, stock should be at a very max 6 months worth and a lean reseller would have less than 4 months stock. And remember to build in the gross margin on stock levels. - in above, the 313,000 stock at cost should realise about €600,000 of sales or 16 months! A LF checks and balances fail imo.

Peter File

Alana creations are not paying their loan either. 9 months into a 12 month loan. A kitchen manufacturer should be very busy with the economy booming

sceach16

Strange...I do not appear to be on linked mailing liast for new loans. I wonder why?

sceach16

Linked have stopped sending emails concerning updates on problem loans. They do update my loans list but have stopped advising me that they have done so.

annelimerick

Does that mean in general that only very desperate companies would take a loan from LF? I still have a few loans going there but haven't bid on anything recently. I've had a few defaults and the recent system whereby loans are filled in seconds don't fill me with any faith in the concept. I'm thinking of just withdrawing my money 4 times a year (= free) until it's all gone... or is there still a reason to keep lending with LF?

FinanceDublin

annelimerick wrote: »

Does that mean in general that only very desperate companies would take a loan from LF? I still have a few loans going there but haven't bid on anything recently. I've had a few defaults and the recent system whereby loans are filled in seconds don't fill me with any faith in the concept. I'm thinking of just withdrawing my money 4 times a year (= free) until it's all gone... or is there still a reason to keep lending with LF?

Frankly don't see much of any reason in all honesty. Mintos a more attractive proposition to me now. LF seem more interested in institutional investors rather than individual punters now.

sceach16

annelimerick wrote: »

Does that mean in general that only very desperate companies would take a loan from LF? I still have a few loans going there but haven't bid on anything recently. I've had a few defaults and the recent system whereby loans are filled in seconds don't fill me with any faith in the concept. I'm thinking of just withdrawing my money 4 times a year (= free) until it's all gone... or is there still a reason to keep lending with LF?

I decided some time ago to stop lending and am doing as you are thinking.

benjamin d

Rant incoming... Linked has gone utterly to the dogs now. They've just withdrawn a loan they mistakenly offered over 12 months when it was supposed to be 24 (Prestige Autos) - not the first time that's happened.

Leech Paper are late or very late paying every single month bar maybe 2 so far.

Premier Irish Golf Tours made precisely one repayment before going under - where was the due diligence?

I've had an account for 3 years now and in that time have made just about 5.5% p/a return. Now that Premier have gone under so early a good chunk of that return is wiped out. If/when I pay tax on that, what's the point?
I got away without any bad loans for a long time but it seems that the quality of the checks has been going steadily downhill. There is now no option but to use the autobid system as there is just no time to evaluate a loan before it's full - any loan that doesn't fill early is usually a terrible deal for the lender.
In fairness to Linked they've struck on a licence to print money by 1) offering loans that lenders can't realistically evaluate themselves and 2) having no personal exposure to loans as they just cream off the top. It's becoming increasingly ill advised to use them at all. If you're not in yet - avoid.

CeilingFly

What I like is that a recent loan is at 6.5%

That's a rate that will compete with the banks and will attract a better class of loan.