Linked Finance Omdömen 17

I've been using Linked finance since 2017 when I set up monthly installments for it. I've found them to be quick to respond to queries and was able to withdraw monies in 2 tranches in 2020 and 2022 with no issues.
Re bad debts and defaults. That is the nature of small company finance and should be an acceptable risk for any person investing in this platform.
I treat my investment in Linked Finance as a long term investment with autobid to keep monies fully invested and spread the risk. I have found their client service response time to be also good.

Great return with few defaults over a long number of years. They can't be held accountable for every loan that goes bad, or expected to give huge insights into why that happened. Overall, through recessions, etc., there have been relatively few defaults. I estimate I've made 6.91% per year since 2013 (after fees and defaults), which is a lot better than leaving it in a bank.

04/12/2024
For the record the question that have been ignored are on the Q&A section of the Linked Finance platform.
These wait for moderation by Linked finance and are then passed on to the person looking for money.
They have done neither with any of my last 6 questions

IN THE 7 DAYS SINCE LEAVING THE BELOW REVIEW, I HAVE ASKED QUESTIONS OF 2 MORE LOANS. BOTH OF MY QUERIES ARE "STILL AWAITING MODERATION" WHICH WOULD TELL ME THEY ARE NOT BEING FORWARDED TO THE PEOPLE APPLYING FOR THE LOANS. THIS WOULD INDICATE TO ME THAT THE QUESTIONS ARE NOT BEING PASSED ON BY THE LINKED FINANCE PLATFORM, WHICH IS EVEN MOR DISTURBING.

I LOOK FORWARD TO CLARIFICATION
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27/11/2024
I have asked questions on 3 or 4 occasions regarding loans, before I put my money forward to be lent.

I have not had one reply from the loan applicants or any reason as to why these questions are not being answered.

In the past number of months, July to November 2024, there are much more B & C grade loans. If my risk is higher and I ask a question, I don't understand why I do not receive an answer.

I already have 1 bad debt and 4 stalled repaying loans on this platform.
That is my risk which I accept.
I CURRENTLY HAVE OVER 10k IN SUPPORTED LOANS
What is perturbing is the lack of any communication from loans applicant to really basic question.

If this continues I will not be bidding on further loans and will take back my money as it comes available.

Illiquid platform. Hefty fees (e.g. 5 EUR withdrawal fee, the larges I've seen, on balances below 250 EUR, and no way to top up the account to above this amount - you get an error like this: "Action needed to proceed. This action is currently unavailable due to outstanding actions on your account. If you have any questions feel free to contact us.")

I joined this platform in 2017 and this is my experience:
- this platform is not transparent

- you don't know what is your profit
- deposit 4k
- total lent 21k
- repaid 17k
- interest earned 2,5k
- I invested 4k, it was repaid 17k, but my profit is 2,5k, it does not look as good business

- they don't do their best to get investors money back

- this is the response after 4 years:
We have recently met with our solicitors in regards to this borrower. We have been advised that we have served the guarantor with proceedings however the guarantor has not engaged with us on the matter to date. We hope to have judgement registered against the guarantor soon and we will issue another update to lenders in due course. We appreciate your patience in this matter.

- this message was sent 5.8.2023:
We will have another update for lenders in the next 30 days.
- next update was 5.11.2023

- some statistics are not up to date

- they have promised to update their website several times few years ago

- when I was asking how to close the account, I got the answer with detailed information, this is OK. I expected also the question why i want to close my account, but nobody cares why the client wants to close the account.

Scam. Originally, they calculated the interest incorrectly. It's good to see that they've corrected this. However I cannot get my money back because of their unfair bureaucratic arbitrary rules of minimum withdrawls. In short it's a dirty scam

You can only withdraw free of charge once a month with minimum withdrawal balance allowed €250 , but any cash balance on your account over €50 in any month charged 1.25% fee, so you'll end up paying 1.25% on any cash balance over €50 on your account on top of 1% monthly mgt fee already charged by Linked Finance. Oh yeah unless you have invested in a loan in last 3 months every 3 months then no charge, basically no way to circumvent charges and take cash from repayments when you need it. Feels nearly as bad as a bank!

Other factors of concern is the multiple loan tranches to same businesses. There seems to be push for loan volume to get to profitability, be interesting to see impact on loan book performance once it reaches maturity.

I will put in a good word for Linked Finance.

I have not experienced, not being able to withdraw money . I have had fine (or promised) returns on all my investments. I see the site as an okay alternative to investing in the stockmarket. no complaints for now ;)

I joined LF in early 2016. At the time, it proved to be an innovative platform, where you could tailor the APR on your bid based on your perception of the risk associated with the loan. This resulted in some good rates for those who got in above the average APY offered. Eventually things went downhill.

A new auto-bid system essentially eliminated manual bidders from being able to invest as loans filled in seconds. Eventually you could no longer tailor the APY either. The risk categorization of loans was very poor, and the accuracy of the financials provided by businesses was questionable.

Eventually people stopped repaying, and this was the eventual downfall of LF. They were toothless in pursuing charlatans who continued to trade and/or transfer their assets to new company's to avoid the debts. LF has introduced a host of new fees in this time, and as they receive a portion of every loan funded, they do not care when investors lose out.

I invested a few years ago and have made a 10% return on average. There doesn't seem to be enough lending going on now though. I have autobids setup but yet nothing invested right now. Are LinkedFinance still valid?

12 hours since I requested evidence of my alleged account with Barclaycard .
This company has harassed me for over three years for a debt I do not owe.
Why are you not replying ?
You have my e mail address and contact details,

I used Linkedfinance 4 years ago to help 2 local businesses. 1 of them went bust 3 years ago and i suppose i will never get the money back (that's why this type of investments are very risky and not a good choice). I took some money out 2 years ago as we were allowed to withdraw for free once a year. I went to withdrawn the rest of the money today and i am told that because is less than 250 euro i have to pay a transfer fee of 5 euro. This is a new rule that was not in place when i took the rest of the money out 2 years ago.

In conclusion, If you are lucky enough that none of the companies you invest on go bust, your benefit will be eaten by their fees. I didn't know much about finance back them, but you are far better off investing in the markets (diversified portfolio) as the chances of losing all your money are very low.
If you only want to support a local business contact them directly and keep buying from them.
Read some financial blogs/podcast: money to the masses, meaningful money etc so you dont make this type of poor financial decisions which equate to making a gamble that the business is going to survive over the next 3 years.

Pithily I submit here; as my time is more important than money. Nothing is too much for this team; so they do precisely that: nothing!
Fuller account to interested parties available.

Long term customer already. Awesome. Best ever from all

I have been with linkedfinance from its first year.. really positive experience.. I made a nice chunk of money with little risk..
It’s just too popular now... we need more eligible companies to loan money too. I can safely say that I would actively an support a company I loaned to.. the banks will not do this !!

Very transparent and engaging lending site for Irish Business. After 7 years, I am very happy with Linked Finance. Yes, of course there have been defaults but this is expected in the course of SME lending. Overall in profit. Greatly stats and visibility of both my portfolio and the overall portfolio.
Very easy to verify projects as many are local businesses. Its also great to be able to see how my investments are used in local businesses.
Support very attentive and professional.