Harmoney

[whitt]

- fee increase: increasing the fees to take a 20% cut of my interest is just too excessive in my opinion, especially when I'm the one taking on all the risk.

Is this 20% fee shown in the RAR?

[Kelvin]

I think RAR does reflect the lender fees. Although the increased fees only apply to loans invested in from 13 June so it will take a while to see how much of an impact the new fees have on your returns.

[Harvey Specter]

I see a couple of people here have said they are not going to continue with Harmoney and are going to pull funds as they expire.

-What is your reasoning for pulling funds?

I thought even with defaults and fees the return was fairly good ( over 10% RAR)

Just to add to what Kelvin said, 10% may be 'good' but does it reflect the risk. I was getting a high proportion of defaults even though the economy has been going strong. So what will happen during a recession? So while the return may be good now, does it reflect a good risk/return ratio.

Also the lack of liquidity. i expected a secondary market to be created but apparently they surveyed lenders and fond out it wasn't a top priority. Because of this I dont want to invest a large sum of money as I already have enough illiquid investments.

The RAR does reflect fees but the higher fees are only new so the impact wont show yet. I modelled my return dropping below 10%.

*note: my write offs are high so maybe I have just been unlucky and/or not properly diversified (I had 100's of loans so should have been).

[Finite]

I see a couple of people here have said they are not going to continue with Harmoney and are going to pull funds as they expire.

-What is your reasoning for pulling funds?

I thought even with defaults and fees the return was fairly good ( over 10% RAR)

Lack of the promised secondary market - no liquidity!
How hard could it be to get the institutional investors to buy loans at their book value?
This could be a first step until a trading platform is developed.

[Harvey Specter]

Lack of the promised secondary market - no liquidity!
How hard could it be to get the institutional investors to buy loans at their book value
This could be a first step until a trading platform is developed.

Especially since the high-risk time for loans is apparently the first 9-12 months so in theory, buying aged loans should be a better investment.

[CR111]

Interesting that none of the borrowers on today's loans have any income. Must be "free money day".

[Darchie]

Harmoney seem to be having a Lot of issues over past few days ... i see currently 10 loans on offer .. one C loan wont even display detail and rest all have zero income YET OMG! They are almost fill.

[Kelvin]

^^ an example of one of the many reasons I no longer invest with Harmoney

[whitt]

REVIEW
Over the past year I have found the following:

-10% of Harmoney loans are worth investing and match my own personal criteria.
-Any arrears I get are often limited to the poorer grades. If |I get an arrear in better grades they seem to be resolved fast.
-Unsure how they grade them. Often they can be a "B" but have high repayments per month or be for a poor reason. Why does someone need a high interest loan for a 25k car when a 15k car will be satisfactory?
-Loans come online at random times of day, as there is no notification option you would need to constantly login during day to find good deals.
-Good criteria loans go fast ( less than 1 hr) but in saying that the high risk ones also get taken but sit around many hours longer.
-Customer service is hit and miss. Often the person on end of phone can be nice but you don't get a followup with answers you rang for

[kiwi_on_OE]

Harmoney seem to be having a Lot of issues over past few days ... i see currently 10 loans on offer .. one C loan wont even display detail and rest all have zero income YET OMG! They are almost fill.

I see a few at the moment. It really is pretty sloppy. But my experience from UK, is that they are not alone, but they probably are the worst.

Re a secondary market, I think some issues around that involve whether loan has been in arrears, default etc. and what info you pass on, and/or whether you allow a loan to be sold in those circumstances etc. Think about it the other way, if someone was trying to sell you a loan, what would you wonder about. If nothing, then I've got some loans in arrears to sell you.

Of course these may not be Harmoney's reasons.