Great, finally got my money invested into some loans. One of them spent over a day in the "Awaiting Drawdown" stage though.
Good to see a higher volume of loans coming through recently, but sadly my funds available for investing are limited :(
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Great, finally got my money invested into some loans. One of them spent over a day in the "Awaiting Drawdown" stage though.
Good to see a higher volume of loans coming through recently, but sadly my funds available for investing are limited :(
There has been a fair bit more activity on Squirrel Money the last day or two which is good to see.
Has anyone else had an increase in early repayments lately?
Hopefully these guys can implement some sort of auto email script when early repayments occur over a preset amount.
It's one thing to get early repayments on $25 loans in Harmoney, but it is a little annoying logging in to find thousands of dollars sitting in the cash management account due to early repayments.
Has been happening for the last couple of months.
Now I feel that I need to constantly log in every couple of days to make sure my capital is actually being applied.
I did mention this in the survey they did a couple of months back, I assume they have been too busy with the share offer to work on the system - which would be fair.
Interesting, I was only just thinking earlier in the week how I haven't had any early repayments unlike Harmoney yet I would have expected more being A and B loan grades that some may have only required lending for short term. I have a fair few active loans since starting to invest beginning of December and I had the first one make an early repayment yesterday. It's not the full amount either, only about a third so I'm not too fussed just yet but it would be good if they activate as you mention an automated email or reinvest option.
I have found them to be excellent in responding when I ask questions, you could try asking if they have plans for notifying of such.
Very quiet this past week, barely any loans and lender funds piling up. All of my loan investments so far have been at the maximum interest rate, but this will most likely change as investors start to bid lower.
Might skip Squirrel this month and invest in Investore instead :p
Decided to go ahead with my monthly $500 deposit into Squirrel. Got matched to a 5 year loan at 8.5% pretty quickly after I put in a bid at 8.45%
So although not very visible, it seems like the loans are still coming through
Got an email today telling me that a loan of mine has been paid off and that the funds are sitting in my call account ready to be reinvested.
Thus it seems they now do have an auto email system setup in place. Very good.
The interesting thing with squirrel is there is actually nothing to talk about. Returns are not quite as high but are more stable. And are still good.
There no write offs or arrears. It just ticks along
Yeah, I'm happy with Squirrel so far and have been adding in funds every month. Your repayments come on time on the due date so it's very stable and no arrears to worry about.
Although still no secondary market or interest on the on call account, two of the features that were due a few months ago.
Thumps up to Squirrel Money for starting AutoBid function! No news about secondary market, anyone know anything about it?
Woo Hoo! Secondary market is here!
Between their automated email system detailing when large one off principal payments have been made and now autobid, these P2P funds basically look after themselves.
There is literally nothing I have to do anymore.
Not a huge fan of how little info there is on the loans available to be filled, however with autobid I guess it doesn't matter anymore.
Will be interesting to see if they separate out the secondary market loans from new ones. One only assumes this will make Squirrel more popular now that funds are (reasonable) liquid. Hopefully they are actively promoting this as a competitive advantage along with the reserve fund model as points of difference compared to the other providers.
The only thing I don't like is how only 10 lines of data are displayed on any one page, be it transaction statements or the investments. Seems silly to limit like this, I want to be able to see all of my investments on one page and not mixed in with all the repaid loans.
Otherwise both the IT and product offered from the investor side seems very good.
But I can't seem to see the remaining term of those 2 and 5 year loans up for sale?
You can append "?pageSize=100" to the end of the Investments URL to see 100 loans.
e.g. https://app.squirrelmoney.co.nz/enti...23/investments?pageSize=100 (where 123 is your investor number)
If that's useful then create a bookmark for Ron.
(later Ron.)
Ok. I emailed them. They said that this is clarified in their investor booklet on page 14. It says:
"A new investor will be automatically matched to and transferred an investment that is being sold if their investment order matches the amount and interest rate. The term remaining of the investment to be sold must be within 3 months of their requested term for 24 month and 36 month investment orders (12 months for 60 month investment orders). For example, this means a new investor with an investment order of 36 months will be automatically matched to an investment being sold with 34 months remaining. An email will be sent to a new investor to accept or decline an investment when the remaining term on an investment that is for sale is outside this tolerance."
They also said that they will be looking at displaying the term in future. Sounds good to me.
So loans are always sold at exactly face value ?
It could be hard to sell some loans at face value quickly or at all. Eg 5 years @ 8% when there are alot of new loans going for 8.5 or 9%
What would happen if interest rates rise - you would not be able to sell loans without discounting - which I dont think you can do.
That's right about loans being difficult to sell at lower interest rates. But you never know, someone might not want to waste time in the bidding process and might still buy the loans at a lower rate especially if the bank interest rates are waaay lower. However, the loans with higher interest rates of say 9, 8.9, 8.95 etc could be lapped up in no time.
At least this is a start and a facility to bail out if required. No other company has it yet. So well done Squirrel Money! I am sure improvements will keep coming over time.
After sending Funds to SM ( from ASB to ASB ) how long before Funds get Credited to your SM Account?
Any funds sent before 12 midnight are deposited next day early morning.
Once the money is deposited in your account, they send out an automated email to let u know.
I've been with Squirrel for a while and so far pretty happy with the way things are going. I have a slight concern that if investor funds are significantly higher than approved loans, they might relax their credit approval standards to get the funds away. I'm not sure if anyone from Squirrel reads this, but if so it would be good to hear how this situation will be handled.
The interest rates on Squirrel are determined by the market so too many investors and few borrowers means investors bid lower and rates fall to attract borrowers. Opposite happens if too few investors.
The current minimum and maximum rates for 5 year loans are 8% and 9%, perhaps these rates will be adjusted if investor funds keep building up.
Thanks Kelvin. Yes, I understand that. However, as far as I am aware, the approval of borrowers is not dependent on the market interest rate. We, as investors, have no control over the credit checking process used by Squirrel. That's true for all P2P lenders I guess, but with the other companies investors are taking on the risk of individual loans. In the case of Squirrel, if they were to reduce their credit checking standards to let more potential borrowers through the gate, it could potentially affect the entire loan book. I am not saying that they would do this, just highlighting it as a potential risk.
Keep an eye on this page: https://www.squirrelmoney.co.nz/our-borrower-profiles/
Currently 80% of applications declined, and ~87% of the loan book are A or B grade.
Very frustrating today, got matched to a 5 year 8.5% loan only for the borrower to not accept it :cursing:
Kelvin,
I tired making my 1st loan yesterday - dialed in a 9% return and nothing got matched.
I could see other investors wanting lower rates ( 8.5% and up )
So as a 1st timer to me it looks rather like a 'Game of Chicken' crossed with a 'Dutch Auction'! Would this be correct?
That's right, borrowers aren't gonna match with your funds at 9% when they could get cheaper funds at 8.5%. Lowest bidders get their funds matched first. So people who bid at 8% will get a match first, even if the loan ultimately ends up being filled at 8.5%.
I see it as working similar to selling shares
Doesn't seem to be. But right now there is only a 1% difference between lowest and highest Investor rates e.g. 8%-9% for 5 year terms, so any bids you make aren't going to be way off the historic rates. These rates remain the same for each grade.
The interest rate the borrower pays is calculated differently though - they pay the rate offered by the investor + margin for Squirrel (2% I think) + risk levy which is paid into the reserve fund. Risk levy depends on grade with Ds, Cs and Bs paying more than As
This week I've been matched with 3 loans.
8.45% for 5 years
8.50% for 5 years
8.00% for 3 years
There's a $29,250 3 year loan up for funding.
Barely any bids for the 3 year term so this should fill at the top rate (8.5%)
Just heard an ad for Squirrel Money personal loans on Spotify! Hope to see more borrowers here
Thanks so much for this I switched my bid to 3 years and was able to get some money invested in to this thanks to you!
Just a quick question from a newbie - how do you see other bids. I can see mine and I can see what's in the pipeline for the various terms but I haven't figured out how I see how many bids etc. I went into the borrowing screen to see how much money is waiting for investment and thought I might have to wait sometime before getting my money invested.
I am new to p2p and am only on Squirrel because I prefer the 1.9% they set aside against future 'non-performing' loans but I did wonder does that mean the interest rate we see is gross or net?
Sorry for the dumb questions
Good on you. It's a problem with Squirrel Money that a 3 year loan sits unfilled for 2 days while tens of thousands of investor funds sit unmatched waiting for 2 and 5 year loans...
You can see other bids on the Make an Investment page (in the Choose your interest rate section).
The interest rate you get is net of any platform margin and reserve fund levy, so if you match on a 9% loan, you get 9% paid to you. Just have to pay RWT on that 9%.
FWIW, my view on reserve funds that I've got from elsewhere. It might be useful if I'm not diversified across a lot of loans. If I am diversified and they 1) don't reserve enough, then I will lose money at some point anyway, 2) reserve too much, then I'm missing out on interest, 3) they reserve exactly the right amount, then I'm paying the money now, rather than later when the loss occurs, so I'm missing out on some money now.
This week on Squirrel Money I put 2 bids in and was matched to 2x 3-year loans @ 3.50%
Also it looks like Squirrel have had their first write off ($11,000): https://www.squirrelmoney.co.nz/look...er-your-money/
Hi Squirrel (JB),
I finally signed up today. Something I've been meaning to do for a while.
Can you change the system so that the autobid allows me the option to automatically bid for the highest loan on offer, or something like that so my money doesn't just sit there? Also, can you set it so you have have multiple auto bids or a single autobid across multiple loan periods? That way I can have a bid @ 2, 3 and 5 year loans.
Finally, can you put some money into Google Ads and do some SEO on your site? We need more borrowers.
Thanks.
Made and got matched with 1st Squirell loan today - 5 Years @ 9% = Happy :)
In the past week I've been matched to 2 loans
2 years at 8% and 5 years at 8.9%.
You have to be patient to get the 9% ones, as it seems like investor bids pile up pretty quickly for 5 year terms
A 3 year loan is up now too :)
Today I got matched with a loan @ 8.95%
Is anybody managing to get rates better than this currently?
If so do you have a strategy to get the higher rates?
Thanx in advance :)
Well 9% is the max rate so you're doing pretty well.
You have to wait until there's not many bids in the market so that when the next loan comes in you get matched at the highest rate. You might have to wait a while for this though, as you'd need a high enough volume of loans to come through to clear out all those bids
Personally I put in $500 at a time. So if rates are poor at the time that's only $500 being invested at a poorer rate, or if no loans are coming through, I only have $500 being idle.
In the medium term I hope to achieve an average return of at least 8.5% (currently I'm at around 8.7%)
Hi again JB,
Can you post an update on the current status of the Reserve Fund?
Have you concluded your 1st year now ( where you were putting in 4% ? )
What is the actual current Loss Rate?
Thanx
Section 4 of this page might help you saamee? https://www.squirrelmoney.co.nz/look...er-your-money/
Today it's Squirrel Money's turn for making the Press!
http://www.interest.co.nz/business/8...takers-licence
SM has been very quiet for new available loans this week.
For 4 days now this week, NO Qualified Borrowers on the 2 year \ 3 year & 5 year terms!
Has the tide turned for demand for funds on P2P? ( having said that, LC has been getting busier and busier! )
Still the only activity here @ SM seems to be 2 Year loans..... No 5 Year activity for ages!
Have started watching the recently Funded field..... just not going up!
Attachment 8331
I've had a 5 year loan "Waiting for document sign off" for ~ a week now
Cheers :D I see it has progressed to awaiting draw down
My last loan drawdown was on the 24th Sep...
I put in additional funds exactly a week ago and haven't been able to get it invested since then. Very frustrating seeing investor funds piling up (have to bid lower and lower), seeing repayments piling up in my account, and no new loans to take these funds.
Watching. Waiting. Still very quiet. Now 5 Year loans recently funded has rolled over to Zero.
Attachment 8346
Happened to hear a Radio Ad on George FM this morning from Squirrel looking for new Borrowers....
Just got an early repayment (fully repaid) at the worst time, with no loans to invest in (apart from a $4000 5 year loan that just got funded)
After 3 weeks been matched with a 5 year loan at 8.6%
Got matched with a 8.8% 5 year loan
Matched with a 5 year loan at 8.9%
Hey Kelvin... Yes I got into those loans as well this morning :)
Just matched this morning with a 5 year loan at 8.85%
I think what might be happening here is when a loan is matched with lender funds, an email is sent to the borrower asking them to accept the deal.
A lot of borrowers have been slow to accept, or fail to accept - so either they aren't checking their emails or the instructions are not clear.
I suspect Squirrel is calling the borrower to get their acceptance shortly before expiry, while a couple I had expire on a Saturday never got accepted as there's no one in the office to call the customer??
Better volume of loans recently (I do not have the funds to match with all of them though).
In the past week I have gotten an 8.75, 8.8 and 8.9% (still awaiting funding approval)
Borrower never accepted the 8.9% loan.
While my funds were held for 24 hours awaiting acceptance, tens of thousands of $$ worth of other loans were matched :mad ;:, now I go back in the queue awaiting to be matched again.
Squirrel really should look at fixing this awaiting funding approval process, perhaps cut it to 12 hours
A lot of loans came through today. Only ~$1000 of funds left bidding for 5 year loans!
Wish SM pushed harder for an Accept or Decline response from the borrower, rather than waiting 24 hours for a loan to expire
That way if they do decline, your funds can go straight back in the queue rather than having them tied up for 24 hrs.
Any Squirrel Investors ever had a SM loan here repaid early yet?