Squirrel Money P2P

[humvee]

Hi Humvee,

The secured loans are now up to 17% of the book. 90% of the book are A or B grade. Also 44% of the borrowers own their own home even if we haven't taken security. (We only take security if the loan is over $30k.) And there are currently no arrears on the book (as at today) which although a young book is good after Christmas. We'll post another Credit update to the web site shortly.

Thanks JB
Thats good to hear - ill look forward to the next update

[humvee]

I just decided to run some numbers (and noticed there is no option to export transactions) to see how bad the idle money drag is

My current Average interest rate invested at shows as 8.93%

If I dont count the one off bonus $50 as part of my return my actual return before tax so far is just 1.32% pa
If I do include the bonus $50 as part of the return then this climbs to 7.27% pa

I have always had less then $500 in my call account - the money has been tied up in orders

Either way it shows the idle money drag is huge, interest on this would help, but being able to have less idle money would be even better.

[unhuman]

Feedback Please

We've got a few changes we are wanting to put through in March that I want to check with you guys.

1. We're going to pay interest on the Call account. Funds are sitting inside a Trust so will only attract bank type interest rates. We're thinking 3% on balances up to $100,000. That way you get bank type interest even when your funds aren't invested.

2. The ability to set up a regular/automatic withdrawal. It will only be a simple one - for example you can set up to withdrawal $600 per month. It will go through provided there is sufficient funds in your Call Account. That way investors can set up their investments to provide regular income.

3. More information on what is in the pipeline. We're conscious there's not enough visibility of the loans coming through and what's going to be available as well as what other bids are sitting in the system. We're going to provide a lot more information so investors can better target loans coming through and get a better sense of how quickly they can invest.

4. Limited secondary market. You'll be able to sell a loan back to the platform at face-value provided we can match it with an investor happy with the remaining term and rate. This is already built but we are waiting on the FMA to approve. Would this be a big deal if we get it over the line?

Next Up

What other features would be useful / valuable for you?

Currently happy with the service.

The above updates all sound excellent.

3% in a call account sounds quite generous, barely get that in a bonus saver cash PIE on current rates.

If the secondary market ever gets approved then I would be willing to invest much more than I currently am thanks to liquidity concerns on 5 year loans.

[JB@Squirrel]

I just decided to run some numbers (and noticed there is no option to export transactions) to see how bad the idle money drag is

My current Average interest rate invested at shows as 8.93%

If I dont count the one off bonus $50 as part of my return my actual return before tax so far is just 1.32% pa
If I do include the bonus $50 as part of the return then this climbs to 7.27% pa

I have always had less then $500 in my call account - the money has been tied up in orders

Either way it shows the idle money drag is huge, interest on this would help, but being able to have less idle money would be even better.

Thanks for the feedback.

The way you are investing is causing the issue and drag for you - i.e. $500 bids. The issue is two-fold and we know how to fix them.

First issue is that we don't give visibility to loans going through the approval process (so you can't see what's coming and target that effectively.)

Second issue is that we are jumping in too quickly to fill loans (underwrite) if there are not enough active bids in the platform. When we do that we have been doing that in $2,500 increments which means that none of those would be available to you. (Note that we bid at the highest rate. Once we take part of a loan, then an investor needs to be bidding $2,500 to take it off us.) We set it at $2,500 so that investors didn't end up with too many loans when bidding say $50,000. Now that investors are fairly active on the market we are not having to fill up many loans which is why there aren't that many showing "on the market."

What we are implementing to fix your issue is (1) we'll delay jumping into a loan for 24-48 hours (2) when we do jump in we're dropping our investments to $500 lots to match the minimum on the platform and (3) we'll increase the amount of information you can see when bidding so you know whats heading down the pipe and what bids you're up against.

We have some larger investors in the platform who have next to no drag, but we know we have an issue with the lack of visibility of the pipeline and the bidding process especially for new investors coming into the platform. Those active on it are literally buying up everything as it comes through.

Once we get through these next changes we'll be able to up the velocity on the loans coming through.

Also in the March changes - the interest on the call account will also apply to balances that are currently in bids.

Cheers, JB

[humvee]

Thanks JB. This things combined with earning interest on money tied up in bids/orders sounds like a good solution.

[Baa_Baa]

I just want to say that I think this is a terrific example of a pro-active approach to informing investors having JB@Squirrel directly involved in the forum, taking feedback, offering suggestions, informing on future features and updates to the platform. I wish every company took as much care to keep in touch with their investors. If I'm not mistaken, JB@Squirrel might be the only one who bothers to engage their investors in this way .. well done, superb effort.

[Lewylewylewy]

Most useful feature for me would be a button to get my forgotten password so I can log in

Doesn't seem to be one on the mobile

[mlt322]

I just want to say that I think this is a terrific example of a pro-active approach to informing investors having JB@Squirrel directly involved in the forum, taking feedback, offering suggestions, informing on future features and updates to the platform. I wish every company took as much care to keep in touch with their investors. If I'm not mistaken, JB@Squirrel might be the only one who bothers to engage their investors in this way .. well done, superb effort.

Actually, I did raise this fact with Mark Bardi at Harmoney and asked why they didn't get onto the forum as well. As you point out, it is certainly a great way to connect with current and future customers.

Mark tells me that the Sharetrader administrators (if that's what they are called) asked them not to. This was before the other P2P companies had hit the market. He didn't say why but I suspect that they didn't want a company pumping its services on the forum.

He said that they have considered adding comment on here in light of JB's entry to the discussion but have since set up their own blog and also send out regular newsletter. I assume this is now their preferred method of communication.

I hope I have got that all correct and hopefully it adds some clarity.

[RGR367]

Invested just a little amount today so as to try this out. Drawn to it after reading and/or comparing the chats on Harmoney. But I will also invest on Harmoney for diversification (sic) a bit later. May we all live long and prosper

[Kelvin]

Hi, dumb newbie question I wanna clear up:

I just invested my first $500 for 5 years at 9% to try Squirrel Money out. Is interest calculated by (ignore tax):

A) based on the outstanding principal each month?
Putting this into a loan calculator I get $622.75 back at the end of the 5 year term. That's $24.55 interest per year and only a 4.9% return on the $500??

OR

B) calculated based on total loan?
That results in $500x9% = $45 per year, so you are earning a whole 9% on your 5% per year.

I think A is correct as you receive part of the principal back every month - but the problem is that you can't reinvest this as easily on Squirrel unlike Harmony's $25 units.

Once again, sorry for the dumb question. Thanks for your help.