Good Product but poor communication and understanding
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BJ1
Good morning. I have spent the past day reading the last 70 pages of this thread. Common themes are concerns over the fees charged by Harmoney and the things investors would like to be added to available options. From time to time there are grizzles and sometimes Harmoney people have suggested those be taken offline for resolution. I've been with Harmoney since January 2015 and have attached a screendump of my current position. I have 111 loans currently invested and as you will see my total arrears at present is $76 with no charge offs so far. I cherry pick my investments based on 40 years lending experience.
The reason I am writing on this forum is because I am displeased with the responses from Harmoney when I raise issues with them. To date these issues have related to platform failures (from my perspective). I do not accept that it is appropriate for a professional tech platform to have timing differences so that investors see conflicting information on different parts of the platform - when I am told my total arrears are $76 I expect to be able to see the composition of that total in individual loans but on occasions there has been a difference that has lasted for days, not minutes or hours. I do not expect to have funds withdrawn from my account for an investment which has been confirmed but cancelled and to have that money missing for over 10 days. I do expect that when I raise such issues and receive commitments to respond with answers, that I will receive such responses.
Such matters make me wonder how I will feel when I am informed of my first write off. Will I feel comfortable with Harmoney's recovery process? How will I know that reasonable recovery action has occurred? Is the recovery process actually clearly understood by investors?
Frankly, while I understand the risk / reward scenario very well, the part of the risk I don't understand is how Harmony considers that its platform is professional and competent when it produces what is clearly false information from time to time (just look at some of the stated incomes on loans), appears not to have adequate checks in place (people being offered loans when not all parts of the process have been completed - per comments earlier in this thread and my own experience). But, while I can filter out such loans based on experience many investors obviously aren't doing so and those with automatic investment mechanisms (which include the major players such as Heartland) have no hope of doing so. It is all very well for Harmoney to talk about expected results net of defaults but when defaults are produced because of a lack of thorough checks of basic information then Harmoney itself is at risk of legal action. Any business running a $300million loan portfolio is expected to be professional and competent. In my mind Harmoney doesn't meet those criteria.
So, how many agree? Should there be a clear process for debt recovery (as that really is the business end of the risk)? Can investors be certain that recovery action meets industry standards? Are investors at risk as has been suggested earlier in this forum, of a blasé attitude to recovery because the net of default return is well above alternative options?
Attachment 8431
Hi BJ1 and Humvee,
Like the two of you, I have a significant amount invested in Harmoney. My writeoffs are at least twice Humvee's in value (but less in numbers? now over 60). My RAR at 20 Oct is just about 14%. I am comfortable with the performance so far but of course, I am always trying to improve it.
My opinion of Harmoney is that their product is a good one and they comes up with great improvements every now and then. But their communication of it to the Lenders is atrocious (and I am being kind here). An example is the Payment Protect. It seems to be good for Lenders but they muddle up the presentation at the beginning. It was so confusing that hardly anyone in this forum understand it. They finally comes up with clearer examples after the hue and cry in this forum and I am sure many emails and phone calls from investors like us with a bit of money in it. Some of the personnel there do not seem to fully understand their products and the way the website or reports work.
So, my conclusion is that generally the product is good, so is the website, reports etc. But really poor communication and understanding of it by the people that are charged with communication with us retail investors.