MoneyThing Review

Here is the quick MoneyThing review by one of 4thWay's experts:

Update at end December 2020: MoneyThing has gone into administration.

Administrators have been appointed to wind-down the outstanding book of loans by collecting and chasing payments from borrowers. As of December 2020, the administrators and/or MoneyThing believe that the appointment won't have a material impact on lenders. This means that if there are additional costs to lenders during the administration, they should not be substantial.

When a P2P lending company goes into administration, it's the company's own finances that are impacted. Any direct lending and borrowing that took place through its platform is supposed to be insulated from such an event. It's loosely equivalent to a company that runs stock-market investment funds closing down in that the underlying investments remain the property of the individual investors. The vast majority of wind downs in P2P lending have gone smoothly for lenders.

4thWay's Quick Expert MoneyThing Review

Could be good, but we need more info about bad debts

MoneyThing has done tens of millions in lending since 2015. We have sparse information about the two key decision makers, with no real understanding of how much specific, directly relevant banking and underwriting experience they have combined. The maximum borrowers can borrow is usually 70% of the value of the property or item (80% for cars), which is not always valued by third-party professionals.

MoneyThing's loan-approval focus is on valuation. Usually you are first in the queue compared to other lenders (e.g. banks) if the security needs to be sold to repay the debt, although we note that assets used as security are not always taken from the borrower in advance. Development loans are valued based on the current property valuation, not the hoped-for future value. MoneyThing's partner businesses sometimes lend 5% in the same loans and, if a loan goes bad, they take the first loss if selling security does not cover the debts. Alternatively, they might promise to buy bad loans back.

MoneyThing is just partially transparent. While it has provided a great deal of background information, we have little critical, up-to-date information about late loans, or loans that have been in trouble, so we are unable to conduct a serious assessment of the risks. We have limited information on the financial health of this P2P lending company, although it was profitable in 2015 and has grown considerably since then.

Visit MoneyThing.

Independent opinion: 4thWay will help you to identify your options and narrow down your choices. We suggest what you could do, but we won't tell you what to do or where to lend; the decision is yours. We are responsible for the accuracy and quality of the information we provide, but not for any decision you make based on it. The material is for general information and education purposes only.

We are not financial, legal or tax advisors, which means that we don't offer advice or recommendations based on your circumstances and goals.

The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not held by 4thWay. 4thWay is not regulated by ESMA or the FCA. All the specialists and researchers who conduct research and write articles for 4thWay are subject to 4thWay's Editorial Code of Practice. For more, please see 4thWay's terms and conditions.

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