cedarcourtcapital
Member of DD Central
Listening is not the same as understanding
Posts: 190
Likes: 316
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Post by cedarcourtcapital on Mar 8, 2019 17:42:15 GMT
All that has been open to us is to 1. List for sale on the secondary market 2. Write directly to MT and 3. Protest and make constructive comment here. I have done all those things to no avail and I think now I am the mercy of MT, the borrower and the market. I have no wish to antagonise you but for me your 2. and 3. above have absolutely no likelihood of doing any good. Sometimes there is actually nothing you can do other than regret your lending decisions as matters play out. Once MT started having defaults, and through necessity changed their T & Cs to end repayment at term, their secondary market got constipated and we were all at their mercy in terms of how they handle loans that fail to repay or even continue to pay interest. The whole ethos of lots of small lenders collectively making larger loans, means a collective body must make decisions. While registering your thoughts and opinions might make you feel better, for me they have no real effect on MT who do what is best for them, usually (and unfortunately) this is the path of least resistance. Lenders are only protected in so far as in the long term what is usually good for lenders, is usually the same as what is good for the platform. The issue remains is too many platforms make short term decisions, where their and lenders fortunes differ. Crude analogy... if you purchase shares in a FTSE company, do you expect to have any say in how the company you have invested in, is run?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2019 17:53:25 GMT
Well, MT are actually one of the few P2P companies that I trust to approach the recovery transparently and diligently. So far their communication has been solid and their recovery fees seem a lot more reasonable than some of the competition.
Ok, so it still may not lead to an ideal result. But at least it gives lenders a fighting chance.
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stokeloans
Member of DD Central
Posts: 402
Likes: 485
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Post by stokeloans on Mar 8, 2019 18:50:12 GMT
Nobody was forced to invest in this...or any loan. I did my own due diligence and decided it wasn't for me.I missed out on all the interest but I'm not convinced this will end positively so am happy with my original decision.
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Post by df on Mar 8, 2019 19:45:22 GMT
Well, MT are actually one of the few P2P companies that I trust to approach the recovery transparently and diligently. So far their communication has been solid and their recovery fees seem a lot more reasonable than some of the competition. Ok, so it still may not lead to an ideal result. But at least it gives lenders a fighting chance. Exactly, one has to expect repayment problems when investing in high interest loans. Comparing to how some other platforms handle defaults, MT (and ABL) are doing a very good job [imo]. Sadly I have 9.3% exposure to this loan, but can only blame myself for being too greedy and not careful enough at the time.
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Post by queenvictoria on Mar 8, 2019 23:22:29 GMT
All that has been open to us is to 1. List for sale on the secondary market 2. Write directly to MT and 3. Protest and make constructive comment here. I have done all those things to no avail and I think now I am the mercy of MT, the borrower and the market. I have no wish to antagonise you but for me your 2. and 3. above have absolutely no likelihood of doing any good. Sometimes there is actually nothing you can do other than regret your lending decisions as matters play out. Once MT started having defaults, and through necessity changed their T & Cs to end repayment at term, their secondary market got constipated and we were all at their mercy in terms of how they handle loans that fail to repay or even continue to pay interest. The whole ethos of lots of small lenders collectively making larger loans, means a collective body must make decisions. While registering your thoughts and opinions might make you feel better, for me they have no real effect on MT who do what is best for them, usually (and unfortunately) this is the path of least resistance. Lenders are only protected in so far as in the long term what is usually good for lenders, is usually the same as what is good for the platform. The issue remains is too many platforms make short term decisions, where their and lenders fortunes differ. Crude analogy... if you purchase shares in a FTSE company, do you expect to have any say in how the company you have invested in, is run? But if you are right what is the point of a forum like this? I accept that communicating with the platform and with other lenders has limited effect but not necessarily no effect at all. I regard MT as one of the better run platforms that intends to stick around long term if it is able to. I think they want me (you) to stick with them if we can and to that end, if for no other reason, they listen to constructive criticism. That is not to say I expect to have a say in how they are run.
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cedarcourtcapital
Member of DD Central
Listening is not the same as understanding
Posts: 190
Likes: 316
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Post by cedarcourtcapital on Mar 8, 2019 23:49:57 GMT
But if you are right what is the point of a forum like this? I accept that communicating with the platform and with other lenders has limited effect but not necessarily no effect at all. I regard MT as one of the better run platforms that intends to stick around long term if it is able to. I think they want me (you) to stick with them if we can and to that end, if for no other reason, they listen to constructive criticism. That is not to say I expect to have a say in how they are run. For me this forum's purpose is to facilitate an exchange views about MT and it's loans. I do not see it as something MT are an active part of. I do believe MT read the forum posts relating to their loans, they would be silly not to, I am just not convinced they really are too influenced by opinions here, and why should they? It's their business and it does not really work if they do not act collectively on behalf of lenders. We just have to trust MT's judgement. As has been seen from my posts, we also have the right to be critical when MT's judgement appears not to be correct, or does not align with what we believe is right. Other than the above I think we agree.
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Post by queenvictoria on Mar 9, 2019 7:02:52 GMT
But if you are right what is the point of a forum like this? I accept that communicating with the platform and with other lenders has limited effect but not necessarily no effect at all. I regard MT as one of the better run platforms that intends to stick around long term if it is able to. I think they want me (you) to stick with them if we can and to that end, if for no other reason, they listen to constructive criticism. That is not to say I expect to have a say in how they are run. For me this forum's purpose is to facilitate an exchange views about MT and it's loans. I do not see it as something MT are an active part of. I do believe MT read the forum posts relating to their loans, they would be silly not to, I am just not convinced they really are too influenced by opinions here, and why should they? It's their business and it does not really work if they do not act collectively on behalf of lenders. We just have to trust MT's judgement. As has been seen from my posts, we also have the right to be critical when MT's judgement appears not to be correct, or does not align with what we believe is right. Other than the above I think we agree. MT are active on the Forum. Both Ed and Sophie add comments on an occasional basis and I have no doubt they that they log-in as often as you and I do. Of the various platforms on here they are one of the most active as far I can see. Where we don't seem to agree is in our views on the extent that a business, and MT in particular, listens to the views of its customers. I hold that a good business does that and does it quite seriously and rigorously. I count MT as one of these good businesses. Once they have considered our/my views it is for them to make decisions, of course, and that is what we need to trust them on.
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cedarcourtcapital
Member of DD Central
Listening is not the same as understanding
Posts: 190
Likes: 316
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Post by cedarcourtcapital on Mar 9, 2019 7:58:41 GMT
MT cannot be active on this forum as I understand it. Yes they do make the occasional trivial post, but to me that does not qualify as 'active'. By their own admission in order to be fair to all the lenders in a particular loan, they only release any information relevant to that loan via the updates tab for that loan on their web site.
As I wrote I have no doubt MT read posts, but I do not believe these forums were set up as a communication Chanel with them. If they wanted this they would have set-up a firum as part of their web site. We agree they read these posts but we apparently disagree about the firms primary purpose.
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Post by Badly Drawn Stickman on Mar 9, 2019 8:57:25 GMT
MT cannot be active on this forum as I understand it. Yes they do make the occasional trivial post, but to me that does not qualify as 'active'. By their own admission in order to be fair to all the lenders in a particular loan, they only release any information relevant to that loan via the updates tab for that loan on their web site. As I wrote I have no doubt MT read posts, but I do not believe these forums were set up as a communication Chanel with them. If they wanted this they would have set-up a firum as part of their web site. We agree they read these posts but we apparently disagree about the firms primary purpose. I am reluctant to suggest it as I know you become very passive aggressive (what I believe the French call war). Read some of the early threads on the MT section, I would suggest they used interaction with this forum very successfully as a marketing tool.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2019 9:32:55 GMT
MT cannot be active on this forum as I understand it. Yes they do make the occasional trivial post, but to me that does not qualify as 'active'. By their own admission in order to be fair to all the lenders in a particular loan, they only release any information relevant to that loan via the updates tab for that loan on their web site. As I wrote I have no doubt MT read posts, but I do not believe these forums were set up as a communication Chanel with them. If they wanted this they would have set-up a firum as part of their web site. We agree they read these posts but we apparently disagree about the firms primary purpose. I am reluctant to suggest it as I know you become very passive aggressive (what I believe the French call war). Read some of the early threads on the MT section, I would suggest they used interaction with this forum very successfully as a marketing tool. It's possible for you both to be right. Plenty of platforms were far more communicative on these forums during the glory days... remember those 'MoneyThing have never had a default!' good times? But once the inevitable defaults start to kick in, recriminations, angry criticisms and threats of lawsuits start flying around... funnily enough, most platforms become a lot more picky about their communication.
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Post by Badly Drawn Stickman on Mar 9, 2019 10:23:32 GMT
I am reluctant to suggest it as I know you become very passive aggressive (what I believe the French call war). Read some of the early threads on the MT section, I would suggest they used interaction with this forum very successfully as a marketing tool. It's possible for you both to be right. Plenty of platforms were far more communicative on these forums during the glory days... remember those 'MoneyThing have never had a default!' good times? But once the inevitable defaults start to kick in, recriminations, angry criticisms and threats of lawsuits start flying around... funnily enough, most platforms become a lot more picky about their communication. I wasn't really pitching for right or wrong. You have encapsulated how we got from where we (general term, I was not part of the original love in)were to where we are. The Lendy section of the forum is a good example of one future direction, what or who needs to change to stop the MT section becoming a useless wasteland is something we should work on together. The recent loan feedback suggests there is still a lot of potential for interaction.
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Post by queenvictoria on Mar 10, 2019 9:35:17 GMT
MT cannot be active on this forum as I understand it. Yes they do make the occasional trivial post, but to me that does not qualify as 'active'. By their own admission in order to be fair to all the lenders in a particular loan, they only release any information relevant to that loan via the updates tab for that loan on their web site. As I wrote I have no doubt MT read posts, but I do not believe these forums were set up as a communication Chanel with them. If they wanted this they would have set-up a firum as part of their web site. We agree they read these posts but we apparently disagree about the firms primary purpose. Someone named as ‘MoneyThing’ and described as a ‘Representative of moneything.com’, presumably Ed, was ‘active’ on the site 42 minutes ago. Someone else going by the name of ‘SophieThing’ was online 13 hours ago. If that is not active I don’t know what is. They, wisely in my view, comment sparingly on here and when they do they mostly refer back to their platform for further detail. They will take note of the sensible, reasoned comments on here and I am sure that they are grateful for constructive suggestions. Why would they be logging in if they didn’t want to read them? Communication with the platform may not be an objective of the forum but it certainly happens. I think MT generally do a great job and I have more faith in them than in other platforms I could name. I am concerned about this particular loan though (not least but I am exposed to it); it is a large loan and it is going particularly badly. The borrower is far from straightforward, the project in which we/they are invested is failing and the security may not be the easiest to liquidate. I think MT need to be more decisive with this loan and I think they need to keep lenders well informed so to maintain them as customers into the future. That is what I have been seeking to communicate to them. I have no doubt that they will take heed of my warnings and weigh them against contributions from other when they are planning their next steps. Why wouldn't they?
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Post by SophieThing on Mar 11, 2019 13:57:54 GMT
All the Things read the forum regularly as it is an excellent way of understanding some of our lenders thoughts. Many lenders are very experienced in P2P, business and life in general and often have interesting points to make. We find this useful. We don’t always agree, but sometimes it helps to raise the quality of debate if a point is made that we haven’t considered.
We do listen, but then as has been pointed out, it’s our role to make a decision on behalf of all lenders, not just some. We have to be mindful that active forum members are only a percentage of our customer base and views expressed here are not necessarily the majority.
We also need to bear in mind that balancing lender and borrower interests is sometimes tricky; particularly in the degree of forbearance given in certain circumstances. Often there is no right or wrong decision. We consider our actions carefully and we do what we think is best based on the information we have at the time. Hindsight is of course a marvellous thing.
We are more cautious about what we say on the forum nowadays that perhaps we were in the early days. That is for the obvious legal reasons, but also to make sure that we are giving all our lenders the same information at the same time and not giving forumites a head start on info. Downside of that of course is we miss out a bit on interaction and that’s a shame.
Kind regards
Sophie
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Post by queenvictoria on Mar 11, 2019 16:01:01 GMT
All the Things read the forum regularly as it is an excellent way of understanding some of our lenders thoughts. Many lenders are very experienced in P2P, business and life in general and often have interesting points to make. We find this useful. We don’t always agree, but sometimes it helps to raise the quality of debate if a point is made that we haven’t considered. We do listen, but then as has been pointed out, it’s our role to make a decision on behalf of all lenders, not just some. We have to be mindful that active forum members are only a percentage of our customer base and views expressed here are not necessarily the majority. We also need to bear in mind that balancing lender and borrower interests is sometimes tricky; particularly in the degree of forbearance given in certain circumstances. Often there is no right or wrong decision. We consider our actions carefully and we do what we think is best based on the information we have at the time. Hindsight is of course a marvellous thing. We are more cautious about what we say on the forum nowadays that perhaps we were in the early days. That is for the obvious legal reasons, but also to make sure that we are giving all our lenders the same information at the same time and not giving forumites a head start on info. Downside of that of course is we miss out a bit on interaction and that’s a shame. Kind regards Sophie Much appreciated Sophie
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Post by queenvictoria on Mar 15, 2019 11:08:02 GMT
It's been 7 working days since the last update which said 'An all parties meeting will take place on site within the next few working days to re-assess the situation and to determine next steps.'
It would be good to have an update which confirms that this meeting has taken place and summarises the outcome and actions to follow.
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