LendingCROWD NZ P2P

[Bjauck]

Agree, the whole thing annoyed me enough to stop investing...

Good decision by Lending Crowd, though somewhat overdue.

I agree it was well overdue. However until they have their own autoinvestor or offer new loans to investors in tranches through the day, then the current LC system will favour investors who can immediately review new loans as soon as they are notified by email.

[whitt]

It would have been nice if LC had made there own auto investor tool tho.
Harmoney has this option and because it is in-house they have the ability to limit % of loans thru that method.
The fact LC didn't have a in-house tool means they lost control of 3rd party apps.

It was obvious 3rd party apps would be blocked in future but LC should have created and introduced something official by now and then 3rd party app use would have died off on there own. After all the 3rd party apps have existed for ages.
LC dropped the ball and should have seen the demand and been proactive.

[joker]

Not at all fair on LC's part. The inequality of those who do/don't use the app is being replaced by the inequality of those who can/can't access their computer instantly a loan is listed. The app was available to anyone who wanted to use it but instant access to a computer when a loan lists is not available to all. The app is a much fairer way to distribute loans because it polls at intermittant intervals. Accordingly, there are times that loans have been filled before you get to the next polling time. The best idea for LC would be to encourage all investors to use the app and perhaps restrict the maximum investment via the app to a couple of hundred dollars.

[whitt]

Not at all fair on LC's part. The inequality of those who do/don't use the app is being replaced by the inequality of those who can/can't access their computer instantly a loan is listed. The app was available to anyone who wanted to use it but instant access to a computer when a loan lists is not available to all. The app is a much fairer way to distribute loans because it polls at intermittant intervals. Accordingly, there are times that loans have been filled before you get to the next polling time. The best idea for LC would be to encourage all investors to use the app and perhaps restrict the maximum investment via the app to a couple of hundred dollars.

That raises some good points too. If LC used a webased version or desktop app then the polling would be random and fair on all users.
Now the new policy is unfair and only people who work at a desk job and get instant emails can invest.

[darrenc]

As a person that owns a custom-coded complex website (written in Angular, the same language that LC has used) with 1.3m visitors a year and 5m page views a month, I can't see the reason that LC would wait so long to create an auto-invest function on their website given the obvious demand for it. Either their programmers are stiffing them or they are planning something mega that even we can't conceive of. (It's probably the first option).

It is, at most, a couple of hundred hours of wireframing, coding and testing, if that. In fact, the model is already amply demonstrated by Harmoney, so part of the work is done.

It shouldn't be a separate app, it should simply be a set of rules within the website. We can start with basic functionality and build it up over time.

[myles]

The app was available to anyone who wanted to use it but instant access to a computer when a loan lists is not available to all.

The app was windows only so ruled out quite a few, no to mention the potential security risk associated with using it.

As darrenc hints at - doing it on the host side is the much better/fair option. LC's choice/decision to make I guess.

[whitt]

It is, at most, a couple of hundred hours of wireframing, coding and testing, if that. In fact, the model is already amply demonstrated by Harmoney, so part of the work is done.

It shouldn't be a separate app, it should simply be a set of rules within the website. We can start with basic functionality and build it up over time.

DarrenC I agree.
Waiting till later in 2019 to introduce a auto investment feature like LC suggested is a joke , Are they wanting to lose investors to the competitors?
Its some simple coding and not rocket science.

[PennyPicker]

As the developer behind Provance-LC, probably the most visible of the auto-investor applications (I doubt just I have done this but maybe I shared mine the most) I'd like to respond to some comments on the thread, but first...

I really do appreciate that the limitations of my application were it being tied to the Windows platform, and it's need to act on your behalf and therefore know your LC credentials. And of course this is more than easily exploited. I don't begrudge those of you that shied away, it's sensible in this day and age and your caution will keep you safe in the future. But to those that put their trust in me and most importantly, my integrity, I thank you. Further to this I happily offered the application for free and even then some of you chose to donate to the continued hosting and development of the app, a huge thank you. You all know who you are

And now my comments:

This means people are using auto investors that are probably hitting the site every few seconds which would cause unnecessary server load for LC.

Personally I deliberately designed the application to work in a way that limited polling to no less than a few minutes, primarily to not starve non app users of loans. There's also an implicit assumption in your comment that users of the auto-invest tools are so numerous or invest so much that they take up all available loan notes. From the usage statistics I have this is not the case in the slightest.

I agree it was well overdue. However until they have their own autoinvestor or offer new loans to investors in tranches through the day, then the current LC system will favour investors who can immediately review new loans as soon as they are notified by email.

That raises some good points too. If LC used a webased version or desktop app then the polling would be random and fair on all users.
Now the new policy is unfair and only people who work at a desk job and get instant emails can invest.

Agreed, this change in a sense makes things less fair. But life isn't fair so we cannot stew on that. For a start we're all in a position to be investing what to us is spare money on this venture. I think we need to remember not everyone is in a position to do so and we should remember that at least.
And while I sit at a computer screen all day I cannot react to every email I receive to see if it's a new loan. In fact the burden I felt lifted when I created this app was huge. I could relax now. Though with the recent reduction in loans on the LC platform and today's announcement I feel like I'm left with three options; invest more heavily in each loan when I can catch it; halt introduction of new capital and let what's there tick over; actively withdraw from the platform as it's currently too hard to use. I haven't settled on what I'm going to do yet. I really want to see LC succeed, I think they have a real point of difference against the other lenders and I feel compelled to help where I can. I've liked the company and the people from day one and am not so quick to turn my back on them. But the idea of having to do another year of manually buying into loans, honestly exhausts me.

As a person that owns a custom-coded complex website (written in Angular, the same language that LC has used) with 1.3m visitors a year and 5m page views a month, I can't see the reason that LC would wait so long to create an auto-invest function on their website given the obvious demand for it.

Then you might agree with me that a feature that some of us understood to be available early this year, mid this year, and now second quarter next year will likely never happen. If they have this on the roadmap for 2019 I'm really curious about what new content will be delivered in the interim. I expect none. And I expect this feature will continue to be pushed out until it all becomes a moot point...

The app was windows only so ruled out quite a few, no to mention the potential security risk associated with using it.

I really did want to provide a Windows, Max, Linux application and went down the route of designing a solution and planning the development time. However I'm doing this in what free time I have available and it's not the only project I have on the go. I had to compromise and not take on the extra work. In the long run I don't see it would have made any difference to today's outcome. Without push notifications from either LC or a cloud provider a mobile app was out of the question too.

In summary I don't see this delay a question of resources, money or people. This feature could be developed and tested, rolled out to some preferential customers for beta testing, could be done by one person in a few months, at most. They can even take learnings from Harmoney and overseas platforms. Everything they need to develop has already been solved by someone else.

Personally, the way I see it is that LC don't have the loan volume to warrant development of an auto invest feature and they don't have enough dev staff on hand to allocate some to this feature development. I've offered to help them in any way I can to bring release of this feature forward.

Aaron.

[joker]

Hi Aaron and thanks for the app. Like you I wasn't in a position to react to very email to invest in LC's loans and found real relief in being able to invest automatically. Very disappointed that LC has gone this way without offering an alternative. Again - thanks for your enterprise - it's most appreciated.

[RMJH]

Seems to me LC could reduce interest rates if demand from lenders is so high. I would have placed more money with LC but simply couldn't get significant volume.