LinkedFinance - new website

manafana

CeilingFly wrote: »

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.

think issue is how big the LF cut is, its killing being competitive, on larger loans it should be capped, a 100k loan should not take LF more work than 50k loan so should have near same LF fee

CeilingFly

manafana wrote: »

think issue is how big the LF cut is, its killing being competitive, on larger loans it should be capped, a 100k loan should not take LF more work than 50k loan so should have near same LF fee

Didn't realise it was 5%! Was it always that high?

That effectively adds 3.5% to the effective interest rate - so a headline rate of 8.5% is in reality a 12% apr when you add in the LF fee.

No wonder the banks are not overly concerned with the competition

katkatdub

CeilingFly wrote: »

Didn't realise it was 5%! Was it always that high?

That effectively adds 3.5% to the effective interest rate - so a headline rate of 8.5% is in reality a 12% apr when you add in the LF fee.

No wonder the banks are not overly concerned with the competition

I expected the effective rate would be higher (more than double), but maybe depends on the loan duration

eg
100,000 over 12 months @ 8.5%

Total Interest
4,663.74 (3,998.13 to lenders, 665.62 to LF)

5% upfront fee
5,000.00



100,000 over 12 months @ 6.5%

Total Interest
3,555.70 (2,894.03 to lenders, 661.67 to LF)

5% upfront fee
5,000.00

katkatdub

Kiddies Kloset

Angela Connolly here, welcome to Kiddies Kloset, a kids clothing and accessories shop based in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

Location Tipperary
Term 24 months
Grade C
Trading 2 years
Security Personal Guarantee
Industry Wholesale/Retail Trade and Repairs
Legal type Sole Trader
Loan ID 4168

7 August 2018
The borrower pertaining to this loan agreement has failed to co-operate with Linked Finance despite our strong efforts.A final letter was issued to the borrower on August 2nd providing a final 7 days to resolve the arrears position and avoid further action . An update will be communicated to lenders next week regarding the strategy going forward or sooner if a resolution is met .

13 August 2018
Despite our efforts the borrower has failed to respond to Linked Finance regarding the arrears pertaining to this loan agreement . <removed by OP as it describes what action is now being taken>. A further update will be posted shortly .

katkatdub

Evandale Farms

Hello, my name is Paudie White, owner of Evandale Farm. We’re agri-contractors based in South-Tipperary.

Location Tipperary
Term 36 months
Grade C
Trading 4 years
Security Personal Guarantee
Industry Agriculture/Primary Industries
Legal type Limited Company
Loan ID 4419

7 August 2018
A final demand letter was issued to this borrower on August 2nd , we continue efforts to contact the borrower to resolve the arrears however no response has been received to date . Failing resolution by the end of the week this case will be passed to our legal partners . All updates will be communicated to lenders accordingly .

13 August 2018
Despite our efforts the borrower has failed to respond to Linked Finance regarding the arrears pertaining to this loan agreement . <these lines removed by OP as it describes what action is now being taken>. A further update will be posted shortly .

CeilingFly

Kiddies Closet, store closed since May as they were "moving online" - https://www.facebook.com/kiddiesklosetnenagh/

Online store not operating anymore
Online is a very very very tough marketplace and requires a lot of hard work over a period of year before you see a return.
I reckon you can write that one off.

Evandale Farms - agri has had a very difficult period, but with weather now more normalised, work will come back on stream for contractors, so I'd reckon this may end up being OK unless there are other underlying issues. If the borrower communicated it would be a lot better.

vivian tiles

Guys we have borrowed from LF 5 times, 1st loan fully repaid with no payment missed. Next 3 loans all being repaid on time, no payment missed. Yes on loan 5 we missed the first payments, which i apologies for but it was a simple human error, the direct debit was not set up and we were away when the payment was missed. It is fully up to date now and performing as it should be.
As for our stock figures, we carry a lot of stock as we both wholesale and retail and we also expanding into selling wood flooring (which we borrowed for ) and then Bathroom Ware (which we again borrowed for ) . We have had a rapid growth in our business which requires funding and we appreciate the funds we received from you all through LF. We also now have an excellent website due to the funds we received
Again apologies for the late payments and all the best...

manafana

vivian tiles wrote: »

Guys we have borrowed from LF 5 times, 1st loan fully repaid with no payment missed. Next 3 loans all being repaid on time, no payment missed. Yes on loan 5 we missed the first payments, which i apologies for but it was a simple human error, the direct debit was not set up and we were away when the payment was missed. It is fully up to date now and performing as it should be.
As for our stock figures, we carry a lot of stock as we both wholesale and retail and we also expanding into selling wood flooring (which we borrowed for ) and then Bathroom Ware (which we again borrowed for ) . We have had a rapid growth in our business which requires funding and we appreciate the funds we received from you all through LF. We also now have an excellent website due to the funds we received
Again apologies for the late payments and all the best...

Think most on here understand that the odd time repayments can be missed, along as its quickly sorted, or your responsive.

For our understanding you have had 5 loans, given the improved banking climate, why are you now not going to bank who have low rates or is it catch 22 and they wont loan now you have this linked loans on your books?

chris2000

Hey guys,

Just checking when filing your tax return do you compute the tax liability based on the net amount of interest received from linkedfinance or on the gross amount before LF fee?

Be interested to see if there is a common approach here?

Cheers
Chris

Bradlin

casside wrote: »

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

How does a company like Premier Irish Golf Tours go into liquidation? Seriously?

They would hold no stock, require no fixed assets, could operate from a back bedroom and get paid upfront.

It's a remarkable achievement to go bust in a bad economy, but in this economy??!!

A nine-year old could do a due diligence on a business like that.

Wheety

chris2000 wrote: »

Hey guys,

Just checking when filing your tax return do you compute the tax liability based on the net amount of interest received from linkedfinance or on the gross amount before LF fee?

Be interested to see if there is a common approach here?

Cheers
Chris

I do net amount as it's what I have received. But you can't write off bad loans against it.

Pussyhands

How do I get in on this? I viewed and signed up but I have a few questions.

1. How do I actually loan a company money on the website? All I can see are closed loans.

2. Are the rates and terms fixed? By who?

3. Can I loan them a portion of the money they want? (for example if they wanted 20k, could I lend 200 euro etc.)

4. What happens if the company doesn't pay?

bohsman

Pussyhands wrote: »

How do I get in on this? I viewed and signed up but I have a few questions.

1. How do I actually loan a company money on the website? All I can see are closed loans.

Live loans section, might not be any available now. 

2. Are the rates and terms fixed? By who?

Yes, by linkedfinance. Theres a graph of % depending on loan grading and length of loan.

3. Can I loan them a portion of the money they want? (for example if they wanted 20k, could I lend 200 euro etc.)

Yes, 50 minimum on LF.

4. What happens if the company doesn't pay?

Read this thread, they attempt to get money same way a bank would with varying results.

.

tomennis324

I had a new missed payment today but the borrower was refunded the July payment, I didn't know that was possible. I don't like how linkedfinance show this on my account, the July repayment just disappears like it never happened and my balance adjusted.

If this was a bank or credit union, they just dont delete transactions, the correction would be shown. eg +10 and -10 at a later date so you can see a trail of all transactions.

"Under the BPFI SEPA Consumer Rights regulations this borrower has claimed back both July and August repayments moving this loan agreement into arrears and recalling the repayment distributed on July 30th"

sceach16

4 loans of mine newly missed payments in August....is this a record? it is for me. :eek:

Pussyhands

So just to confirm there aren't that many loans sought on the website?

How many would there be a week?

Wheety

Pussyhands wrote: »

So just to confirm there aren't that many loans sought on the website?

How many would there be a week?

I haven't looked at live loans in a long time. Since they all started getting snapped up with autobids and you didn't get a chance to read about the company first. I can't just go in throwing money blindly at some of these companies.

There used to be at least 1 a day going up. not sure when the last one was.

FinanceDublin

Wheety wrote: »

I haven't looked at live loans in a long time. Since they all started getting snapped up with autobids and you didn't get a chance to read about the company first. I can't just go in throwing money blindly at some of these companies.

There used to be at least 1 a day going up. not sure when the last one was.

As I said from the outset, the homogenised rates, which funnelled people into Autobid, was the beginning of the end for LinkedFinance from the average punter perspective. I have no doubt they’re breaking records for now but, as illustrated by Sceach above and frankly the last six months: the improved economy means only edge cases will be going to LinkedFinance for funding. They will by default be riskier. You will by default be their most expensive possible lender or their only possible lender. In 2014, plenty of viable businesses couldn’t get a lender. Less so now. You’re hunting for dregs.

Worse still, you can’t even parse these dregs yourself. You have to autobid. As such, a lot of rational people have pulled their money or are in the process of drawing down, myself included.

The final thing to note which often goes unsaid. There was an incentive for a business in the early days of LF that was unseen. The sell was more or less:

1. You might get credit here but not elsewhere.
2. Yes, the credit might be higher rate
3. Because people bid directly on your business and actively choose to lend to you, they’re “invested” in your success rather literally and will likely in the case of bars restaurants cafes or FMCG buy from you or recommend others do so.

That element is now also completely lost with the autobid setup.

LF will survive and thrive but I can’t see many normal people sticking around.

garrettod

No doubt about it, these guys are struggling now ....

For the last six - nine months, they've been trying to stretch out the majority of their loans to 3 year facilities, which were priced too low to reflect the associated risk.

They also took advantage of investors desire to participate by pushing them into a position where they have to use Autobids to get onto most of the loans offered (without being given any reasonable opportunity to consider if they want to lend to each borrower) and now I think people are starting to realise the implications of same.

I've started to take cash out, think I'll continue to do so each quarter from now on, as I see very little attraction to LinkedFinance these days in all honesty.

Grid continue to offer a better model, with better returns, imho.

bohsman

I'm sticking to 6 and 12 month loans till my old 24 and 36 month loans are nearly completed and will see how things look then. I've only had 29 loans, no defaults or missed payments yet but agree that things dont look great at the moment.

TheSheriff

garrettod wrote: »

No doubt about it, these guys are struggling now ....

For the last six - nine months, they've been trying to stretch out the majority of their loans to 3 year facilities, which were priced too low to reflect the associated risk.

They also took advantage of investors desire to participate by pushing them into a position where they have to use Autobids to get onto most of the loans offered (without being given any reasonable opportunity to consider if they want to lend to each borrower) and now I think people are starting to realise the implications of same.

I've started to take cash out, think I'll continue to do so each quarter from now on, as I see very little attraction to LinkedFinance these days in all honesty.

Grid continue to offer a better model, with better returns, imho.

I am excited for the day when I can finally say goodbye to LinkedFinance - stopped investing as soon as the autobid system came into play. I wasn't going to get caught up in the maddness of investing into companies without being able to do any due diligence.

It's a slow process, but I am not down to ~10% of the original capital I had invested.

Someday I won't have to log in anymore....

Pussyhands

So where is the next best option for ways I can lend money? What are the pros and cons?

garrettod

Pussyhands wrote: »

So where is the next best option for ways I can lend money? What are the pros and cons?

Have a look HERE for some ideas on alternatves to LF. Personally, I like Grid Finance as an alternative Irish P2P website, but know some of the others here rather the UK sites.

Wheety

TheSheriff wrote: »

I am excited for the day when I can finally say goodbye to LinkedFinance - stopped investing as soon as the autobid system came into play. I wasn't going to get caught up in the maddness of investing into companies without being able to do any due diligence.

It's a slow process, but I am not down to ~10% of the original capital I had invested.

Someday I won't have to log in anymore....

My longest loan left is still over a year away. However, I have now withdrawn 95% of my initial deposits and over the next year and a bit it should mostly be 'profit'. Hopefully no more defaults. Another borrower has just missed a payment though.

sceach16

sceach16 wrote: »

4 loans of mine newly missed payments in August....is this a record? it is for me. :eek:

Two more today.......like the August ones, loans almost finished but now not paying.

Wheety

sceach16 wrote: »

Two more today.......like the August ones, loans almost finished but now not paying.

Yup. I got 2 emails today too.

benjamin d

There's definitely been an uptick in late payments recently. From my loans it seems to be the ones who have previously missed payments that are starting to miss them more regularly now. I wonder have they seen that there are no consequences to late payment so have put Linked to the bottom of their priorities?

Cute Hoor

benjamin d wrote: »

There's definitely been an uptick in late payments recently. From my loans it seems to be the ones who have previously missed payments that are starting to miss them more regularly now. I wonder have they seen that there are no consequences to late payment so have put Linked to the bottom of their priorities?

Fair point, until LF successfully takes out a defaulter, and be publicly seen to do so, then there is little incentive for borrowers to make those final few repayments (assuming they are not going to be seeking a new loan). Action required on the defaulters.

Number of loans being offered on the site now appears to have pretty much collapsed as well. Their business model is now being challenged. Haven't quite got my initial investments back yet but will be there by year end, so reasonably comfortable with my position. Still have a few short-term autobids in for the moment while the longer term loans are winding down, but rarely get one filled now (last one was around 3 weeks ago). I can see the day coming when it will no longer be financially viable for them to continue with their current business model.

annelimerick

I'm only a very small lender, My stats are:

22 Repaying, 2 In Default and 25 Finished. Of the 22 repaying, 2 have regular late payments.

Does that sound ok? When I joined a few years back, I really liked being able to pick the businesses I'd like to support, but I don't like the way things have evolved, to only being able to lend with autobid. I'm far from economical expert but from this thread and what others have written about LF, it all doesn't look great. Haven't lent in ages, just withdrawing my available cash 4 x / yr till it's all gone

CeilingFly

LF have linked up with Retail Excellence to provide short term seasonal stocking loans. They should have gone into this area along time ago. They are still charging a 4% fee though, but rates from 6% and no early settlement charge will tempt some retailers.