P2P Money Blog

YES-secure (Encash) yesterday stated they are considering closing down their forum due to "a small number of small members constantly expressing negative comments".  This was met with a prompt response from several lenders, but unfortunately the some of their comments were removed as they were deemed to be negative.

Here is the statement in full from YES-secure:

Well Giles in Zopa closed his forum due to the constant cr!p that came from members.

With a small number of small members constantly expressing negative comments, the encash directors are considering closing this forum.

The few of you are destroying or should I say bashing the site? Don't you realise that the site is a social site and hence a framework which becomes successful by positive and creative members?

I am interested in your comments on this topic - particularly the members who have been negative...

The decision on closing this forum rests with your attitude and desire to make things work.

Happy Diamond Jubilee! Good Save Our Queen!

Chandra
Director

In this statement Dr Chandra Patni, Director of YES-secure, stated that Giles Andrews, CEO of Zopa, had previously closed down the Zopa forum.  As a Zopa member since the start, this has never been the case, and Giles himself rebuffed this comment.

The YES-secure lender MRC_London wrote in response:

Chandra,

Successful businesses are generally those that are most responsive to their customers, and in the internet era what better way to distil out the essence of your customers than a forum where issues are discussed openly. I’m sure you actually understand this premise given your comment “hence a framework which becomes successful by positive and creative members?” [Late Edit: Or maybe not given you felt the need to redact Terry's post]

We, the lenders (as well as the occasional borrower), do generally realise that starting a new business is incredibly hard work, and have since your inception made a significant number of “positive and creative” suggestions you could take to enhance the business. It is a shame that you view our suggestions as negative - they are actually intended to be positive steps to help you.

Very few of our suggestions have been acted on, just one example - we have repeatedly suggested that all written communications are proof-read by a native English speaker before release. Which would have prevented your disrespectful ending to your post earlier today “Good Save Our Queen!”

As Terry says in his response [now removed] “Simply put you have lost the trust of lenders, and without lenders you will have no business.” I holds my hands up to my negative post in another thread ( I can’t find the thread at present ??) suggesting rather more than the closure of the forum, but the complete closure of Yes-Secure as I believe your target borrowers would be better served by another market entrant.

At this point Chandra, you as CEO, need to be brave, accept that things have not worked out, and hire external consultants to audit all aspects of the business and devise a plan to go forwards. It is too late for incremental change, the botched rebrand symptomatic of a business divorced from commercial reality.

If the directors are asking “Should we close the forum ?” then they are not asking the right question. The question I would be asking is “Why are we not addressing the criticisms levelled at us on the forum?”. A good start would be to complete the following sentence “We, the directors of Encash/Yes-Secure do not believe having our written communications proof read by a native English speaker is necessary because ….”

The external consultants that both Terry [now removed] and myself suggest you need to employ would force you to answer this question and dozens of others phrased identically, to help you understand the implications of your actions.

MRC (Principal Business Consultant)

The YES-secure lender hor1997 wrote in response:

I am sorry, but I feel you see the world upside down.

1) The heart of a lending community is formed by lenders (cash IS KING). If they are not happy (and they are not at Encash) you will not succeed.

2) I am sorry but I, as a lender, have ONLY the YS/encash interface in front of me. What you call my 'customer' is a ghost, someone difficult for me to track, someone of which I have often have zero knowledge. The ONLY organisation I know is YS/Encash and it is also the only company I have signed an agreement with.
Encash is FULLY responsible to keep loans repayments ongoing and unfortunately it is NOT doing so well enough.

(as an example check the late loan: 3709; just for an odd chance I know who the borrower is and I know that the stories he is telling to your CS are not true, I know he earned more money that I have ever earned in my whole life, and yet I see Encash doing NOTHING to force repayment from a person who is reasonably well off and could sell a lot of thing to repay the loan.... He is NOT my customer!!! If I had any legal contract be sure I would be at his doorstep to get my money back!!!! ENcash is DOING NOthiNG to recover this money before default!).

3) Borrowers look for money, fast, easy and possibly cheap.
Stop the lies saying that borrowers need to feel the encash brand is trusted.
They look for money and once they have got it, they risk NOTHING!!!
What is true is the opposite. It is the LENDERS who look for a trusted brand to lend money, as THEY HAVE SOMETHING TO LOOSE (their money)!!!!

4) It is absolutely false that borrowers prefer banks because of the brand.
They simply go where it is EASIER AND CHEAPER to get the loan.

If you look objectively to how you get money on Encash, it is a nightmare!!
a) you require a lot of documentation (good for us lenders, hassle for borrowers)
b) you ask a borrower entry fee (not everyone does...)
c) you then ask them to participate in an auction, which might or might not attract enough funds (lately the latter is most likely)
d) Assuming they attracted enough funds and resisted to the time wastage here, then you pass them to the underwriters. And here it takes another 2-3 weeks.

So, besides the huge hassle, you, as a borrower, have:
a) a BIG time delay
The whole process require a lot of time, typically one full month. Borrowers typically don't have much time!
Benchmark Encash against competitors.
What is the time needed to get a loan on Ratesetter? (2 or 3 days at top and money is in your wallet)

b) a HUGE possibility to get nothing and loose the entry fee
The percentage of success is extremely limited at present if you sum the lack of available funds from lenders and the strict underwriting.

Competitors are there, ready full of cash, with large customer support, superactive on lates (be sure they tell you what they are doing, or cover anyway the risks as Ratesetter does) and are fast!

YS could survive all that only for a (relatively big) niche of loans which are rejected by banks and competitors but could still be viable if strictly followed day by day by strong management. It is the middle space between classic loans and payday loans.
But to get there you need to remove those low maximum bands which make lenders go away!

At present you have borrowers going away (or not coming) for the huge hassle, time wastage and high likelihood of getting nothing.
And you also have the lenders not investing due to the high risks with little rewards...
Not a good situation.

But, trust me because I know what I tell you very well, marketing and google stats on negatives HAVE NOTHING TO DO with the current lack of business at Encash. TRUST people who worked for years in this precise field!!!

It would be unfortunate for a P2P company to resort to shutting down their own forum to prevent criticism from being aired.  If the YES-secure forum were to close, there are several others available for lenders and borrowers to use.

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