Is This A Zopa Advantage?
Zopa doesn’t process contracts at the weekend. Or it doesn’t appear to! This might be because they have to interface with the credit agencies and the banks and those don’t work 24/7.
So with the bank holiday tomorrow, it will be interesting to see how the money I have on offer disappears. Last week I loaded my account with £10,000, so there is plenty of money there.
On Saturday morning, I had £650 being processed in 13 contracts. These will probably start being sorted on Tuesday.
This morning it was £3350 in 67 contracts.
As I write now at 22:43 on Sunday, it’s £4,700 in 94 contracts. The last of those contracts was setup about 22:15. I’m watching to see if this is the last contract of the night.
Do Zopa have a cut-off time for loans or if say you applied at 04:00, would you be taken seriously? I wonder what Warclays would say if you applied for a loan at that hour?
If Zopa does accept loan applications at any hour, that must surely be a business advantage, as well as one for the customer, as we all have those times, when we prefer to fill in forms.
I’ll finish now for a bit. but I’ll update this in the morning.
I didn’t get any more contracts last night and when I went to bed at around midnight, there were still 94 contracts.
I got up just before seven on Monday and another had dropped off, so the number was now down to 93.
As I type this at 08:00, the number of contracts being processed is now 96. So people are still applying for loans. How many other places could you apply for a loan at this time on a bank holiday morning?
The clue is in the words bank holiday!
It’s now 12:00 and the number of contracts being processed has risen to 113.
And now it’s 18:22 with the contracts standing at 140.
21:22 and it’s 151.
It’s now Tuesday morning at 11:00. None of the flood of offers from the weekend have been fully processed yet, but that queue is now at 157.
I’ve also heard from Zopa and they say that they’re a 24/7 operation as regards to applying, but that obviously processing is usually done on a nine to five basis, Monday to Friday. But they are starting to do this on some weekends.
It’s now 13:00 and the processing has climbed to 166. Of the ten grand I put in, I have just about two grand left to lend out.
It’s now 15:42 and we’re at 170. Nothing seems to have accepted and signed off yet!
It’s now 18:10 and 20 contracts have been fully accepted and signed off. I’m not sure how many were not accepted, but it can’t have been more than a few!
Disruptive Innovation
I’ve not heard the term before, but read this article. It starts with this question and answer.
Question: what do these companies have in common?
Skype, Spotify, Marks and Spencer, Whipcar, Zopa, Zilok, Kiva, Patagonia, Kickstarter, Café Direct, Taskrabbit, Buzzcar and InterfaceFLOR.
Two of my favourite innovators; Zopa and Kiva are mentioned in the same breath as quite a few companies like, Skype, Spotify and M&S.
If the article has a fault, it’s that it misses out a couple of well known names, who the writer would call disruptive innovators.
I would have thought ARM Holdings and Dyson should be on the list. And I would think that a certain company called Metier Management Systems was one of the first! So we were only a shark in a small pond, but we completely rebuilt the pond.
IPPR Says Fuel Prices Should Rise
The IPPR is reported to be saying that fuel prices should rise, much to the dismay of motorists. It’s all here in the Telegraph.
I don’t care what happens to fuel prices personally, as I don’t have a car and I get my public transport in the London area free.
But I’ve always felt that fuel prices are too low, as this increases consumption, which increases global warming. It also reduces the pressure for vehicle manufacturers to make more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Concerning the latter, I have a lot of hybrid-buses near me, including of course, the New Bus for London. All of these hybrid buses deliver much higher lower fuel consumption and in addition, quantities of black smoke and noise.
Rises in fuel prices would improve our vehicles in other ways.
A Better Way To Pay By Credit Card?
There are certain things, I don’t like where money is concerned.
The first is smart-phones, as they are just status symbols, beloved of the light-fingered. So if anybody suggests that I need those to do things like buy a train ticket, a coffee or a pair of knickers, or even replace my rail ticket then I say a big no!
I don’t like too to always have to carry more than one payment card. At present, I usually carry two; my Freedom Pass for transport in London and usually my John Lewis/Waitrose credit card for purchases. I would like to be like the Queen and not carry any cash, but as I do like coffee, which is almost as good as milk for my throat, I’ve always got a few coins in my pocket. So I have a small folder with these cards, my Senior Railcard and a few of my business cards in my pocket. My wallet stays at home most of the time, when I’m in London. I did lose the folder once and within a few hours, the bus driver had phoned me saying he’d got it and I could get it from the garage.
So I was rather intrigued, when I saw in the Sunday Times, an article about Square, a payment company started by one of people who brought us Twitter. You upload your picture, a recording of your name and credit card details to a web site and then when you go into say Starbucks, their iPad app recognises you and your name recording is the password. You can get your receipt as a text message to any phone as new as a Nokia 6310i. I knew I was right about smart phones being dead end technology. Nothing will persuade me to get one. If for instance, a shop, a theatre or a train company said I must have a smart phone to purchase their product, then I will make sure that I take my business elsewhere and give them all the bad publicity they deserve.
I can’t wait to walk into Starbucks on Upper Street, say “Anonymous Widower” and get my cappuccino.
Living Near Premier League Grounds
The Halifax has done a survey of house prices near Premier League grounds. It’s here in the Telegraph.
As I live within walking distance of the Emirates Stadium, I’m not bothered, especially as I have a buy-to-let close to both Old Trafford and Carrow Road. Don’t ask me why an Ipswich supporter should have those! But suffice to say, they were purchases my late wife made without consulting me. Although, I did think that nearness to football grounds could be an advantage.
Thoughts On Zopa’s Rapid Return
Zopa has a system called Rapid Return, which allows you to sell on loans.
I haven’t picked up a loan through someone else wanting to pass it on for over a year now.
Judging by the rules for Rapid Return, which mean that any loan that has missed a payment can’t be passed on and looking at the statistics for my loans, I would suspect it’s not a lack of eligible loans, but more that people are holding on to their loans. And especially the good ones! They’ve no choice with bad loans.
So does this mean that Zopa is attracting a credit-worthy class of borrower? If so, that’s good news.
Did Betfair Lay Down The Model For Social Lenders?
Zopa, Funding Circle and Ratesetter, think they are unique, but did they just borrow the principle from the betting exchange, Betfair.
In all four, you can play both sides against each other, although the purpose of Betfair is different.
The same principles could also be applied to an energy exchange. Let’s say a town or an area got together and pooled their energy needs and say they wanted a particular price, which the energy suppliers could then bid for.
I don’t see too much difference.
Birthday Charity Giving
I’ve had some more positive responses on my idea for giving to charity on your birthday, which I outlined here.
It just seems to hit a chord with people, to give to celebrate another year of life, hopefully well-lived.
So I’ve now given it a name of Birthday Charity Giving. It was the only sensible name I could think using the first letters of the names of my wife, son and the late company accountant, who set me up with the good pension I enjoy.
Creating A Ratesetter Account
I have just created a Ratesetter account, as I want to see how other peer-to-peer lending sites work.
As a Zopa user for many years, I could be considered biased, but although I got registered quickly, there are some things I liked and didn’t.
E-Mail Address Based Account
All accounts, should be based on e-mail addresses. They are in Ratesetter.
Passwords
Because of my gammy left hand, I don’t like passwords where case is important, as I often get it wrong, when I use the shift key. Ratesetter insists on at least one number.
At least though they didn’t use the dreaded Captcha system beloved of so many sites.
Check Questions
They only have one question, which you setup yourself. I’m happy with that.
Addresses
I had no problems here and they only wanted my current one.
Debit Cards and Bank Transfers
Ratesetter allow both methods of transferring money to the account. I prefer the bank transfer.
But I did successfully register my account and transfer £1,000 into the account.
Kiva – On-Line Microfinance
Kiva is almost a cross between peer-to-peer lending and micro-finance.
You choose an entrepreneur with a business in some faraway country, who needs some finance to either start or expand their business. The business might be a recycling business in Pakistan or a cafe in Vietnam, but the list is endless. You then contribute something like $25 to the loan they require.
The About page on their web site tells you more. I just signed up and then lent $25 through my PayPal account to a pharmacy in the Congo to buy more drugs. Of the pukka sort that is! It was a very simple process, where you just sign in and then start lending in chunks of $25 to those borrowers you choose from a map of the world. I have since made a loan to a woman starting a restaurant in Ecuador. I chose Ecuador, as I have experience of the country, so know a bit about the way they work.
So far they claim they have lent over $337 million dollars and they have a near 99% repayment rate.
I regard any money, I give to Kiva as a donation to charity. If I get any money back, then that is a bonus. If I get all my money back with interest, then that’s an investment.
I think the big disadvantage of Kiva is that it appears you have to pay by PayPal or a credit card, whereas Zopa or funding Circle can be fed using a direct bank transfer.
Perhaps if you’ve had a clear-out and got rid of unwanted clutter through eBay, Kiva is a good way to spend your PayPal funds creatively.
Remember too, that most of our charity donations are either made by cash or credit card, often through something like JustGiving. A lot of these will be increased by Gift Aid.
The Anonymous Widower 