30 replies to this topic

[chilterncom1]

This is not a functionality issue, so I've placed it here rather than in the "Problems" section.

I wonder whether it isn't time for someone to do a comprehensive review of the website to update or remove out-of-date or incorrect information?

For example, you might think it's great that the "About Zopa" front page trumpets the fact that Zopa was "Voted 'Best Personal Loan Provider for Service' at the 2010 Moneywise Awards'" - until you realise that they won not just the 2011 but the 2012 award as well. Perhaps the 2010 award was more prestigious??

Another example: I might be mistaken, but it looks to me as if the "meet the team" information could also do with a refresh.

Let's help.  What else needs attention?

[momac]

chilterncom1, on 03 July 2012 - 16:55, said:

This is not a functionality issue, so I've placed it here rather than in the "Problems" section.

I wonder whether it isn't time for someone to do a comprehensive review of the website to update or remove out-of-date or incorrect information?

For example, you might think it's great that the "About Zopa" front page trumpets the fact that Zopa was "Voted 'Best Personal Loan Provider for Service' at the 2010 Moneywise Awards'" - until you realise that they won not just the 2011 but the 2012 award as well. Perhaps the 2010 award was more prestigious??

Another example: I might be mistaken, but it looks to me as if the "meet the team" information could also do with a refresh.

Let's help.  What else needs attention?

GG mentioned and I agree, that on the Zopa Home page, 'Community' should be replaced with Forum (bear in mind recent posts).

Edited by momac, 03 July 2012 - 18:58.

[Uncle Tone]

chilterncom1, on 03 July 2012 - 16:55, said:

This is not a functionality issue, so I've placed it here rather than in the "Problems" section.

I wonder whether it isn't time for someone to do a comprehensive review of the website to update or remove out-of-date or incorrect information?

For example, you might think it's great that the "About Zopa" front page trumpets the fact that Zopa was "Voted 'Best Personal Loan Provider for Service' at the 2010 Moneywise Awards'" - until you realise that they won not just the 2011 but the 2012 award as well. Perhaps the 2010 award was more prestigious??

Another example: I might be mistaken, but it looks to me as if the "meet the team" information could also do with a refresh.

Let's help.  What else needs attention?

Seems  a very fair observation.  I've nudged Zopa Towers to attend this thread.  

[figures18]

The newly introduced 'loans disbursed' tab introduced a couple of weeks ago is visible via the Borrower and Lender 'Meet Dave' link  to 'The markets' info.  But, when logged into your Zopa account at the bottom of the dashboard 'The markets' info is missing that tab for some reason.

Edited by figures18, 04 July 2012 - 12:20.

[sl75]

figures18, on 04 July 2012 - 12:20, said:

The newly introduced 'loans disbursed' tab introduced a couple of weeks ago is visible via the Borrower and Lender 'Meet Dave' link  to 'The markets' info.  But, when logged into your Zopa account at the bottom of the dashboard 'The markets' info is missing that tab for some reason.

Looks to me like they decided to remove the "Newest Members" from the publicly visible web pages, and just wanted something to fill the gap?

First glance at that graph seemed to me to imply that over £200M of loans are now being arranged each quarter.  
(line graph would seem more appropriate than bar chart, as the bar of a bar chart implies that the entire contents of the bar belong to that category)

[MikeS1531]

sl75, on 04 July 2012 - 14:18, said:

First glance at that graph seemed to me to imply that over £200M of loans are now being arranged each quarter.  
(line graph would seem more appropriate than bar chart, as the bar of a bar chart implies that the entire contents of the bar belong to that category)

I agree that a line chart would be less susceptible to misinterpretation, but the 'title' of the chart "Zopa Lenders have funded £213,464,420 in loans to date" should make it clear enough that the bars are cumulative.  (The fact that each bar is longer than the prior one is a bit of a clue as well!)

Any guesses how much of the £213M lent is currently outstanding?  Half??  More??  Less??

[Deddington]

MikeS1531, on 04 July 2012 - 17:43, said:

Any guesses how much of the £213M lent is currently outstanding?  Half??  More??  Less??

Well doing a back of the fag packet calculation. From their accounts for the year ending Dec 2011 they had £2.2m turnover made up of Lender and Borrower fees.

So say half was Lender fees of £1m at 1% then roughly £100M loans outstanding. At that time they were about 200M total loans from inception so half outstanding.

I can think of many other variables which I can’t quantify but half seems a good working estimate.

[figures18]

sl75, on 04 July 2012 - 14:18, said:

Looks to me like they decided to remove the "Newest Members" from the publicly visible web pages

I don't see why they can't remove that tab permanently across the board.

[propman]

MikeS1531, on 04 July 2012 - 17:43, said:

Any guesses how much of the £213M lent is currently outstanding?  Half??  More??  Less??

I think Giles mentioned something like £95m a month or so ago.

- PM

[ashtondav]

Given the attractiveness of the ZOPA model I struggle to see why it has taken 7 years to achieve an annual turnover of £2M!

Pencilling in 50% pa growth rates still creates a very small company after another 7 years, say £34M. That's astonishingly small given the advantages borrowers enjoy over traditional lenders.

[alexp2000]

ashtondav, on 07 July 2012 - 10:14, said:

Given the attractiveness of the ZOPA model I struggle to see why it has taken 7 years to achieve an annual turnover of £2M!:blink:i

Pencilling in 50% pa growth rates still creates a very small company after another 7 years, say £34M. That's astonishingly small given the advantages borrowers enjoy over traditional lenders.

I'm not sure the advantages for borrowers are that great... what exactly were you thinking of?

Alex

[Philanthropist]

There are some errors in the MLB download - it would be nice if they were corrected.

Column K, labelled 'PercentRepaid'  is *not* the percentage repaid, but the decimal fraction repaid.  If I lend a tenner and the borrower has repaid £3 capital, then I should see 30% repaid, not 0.3%.   The same irritation occurs in column V, 'PercentOfLoan'.  Of a loan  of £5K, my tenner is 0.2%, not 0.002%. )This column strikes me as redundant anyway).

Column T, 'LendingMonth' is not a month at all but the date the loan was made, and its content is identical with that of column A, 'LentDate' and is thus redundant.  And anyway I joined Zopa to lend money, not dates - 'LentDate' should be 'DateLent', or perhaps 'Lending Date', but that label has been usurped by column S which is *not* the lending date but the Offer Creation Date (again, I could do without this column).

Elsewhere in Zopa interest rates are always quoted as percentages , but in MLB they are decimal fractions (cols C, AB) - why?

Data presentation and clarity of terminology (not to mention spelling) are not always Zopa's strongest points anyway, but MLB looks as if it was thrown together in a tremendous hurry and simply left unconsidered and unchecked.

[ashtondav]

alexp2000, on 07 July 2012 - 14:20, said:

I'm not sure the advantages for borrowers are that great... what exactly were you thinking of?

Alex

For loans £5,000 and under ZOPA are massively cheap. Lenders' adverts for 6% for 7K to 15K are just that. Go to them for £5,000 and they kipper you for 11% APR.  AT LEAST. Plus ability to repay with no penalty.

For loans of £1,000 to £6,000 its a screaming bargain.

[Trium]

Philanthropist, on 08 July 2012 - 07:20, said:

Elsewhere in Zopa interest rates are always quoted as percentages , but in MLB they are decimal fractions (cols C, AB) - why?

Presumably because that's how spreadsheets handle percentages - you format cells to display percentages but internally they are stored as decimal fractions.

[alexp2000]

Trium, on 08 July 2012 - 09:15, said:

Presumably because that's how spreadsheets handle percentages - you format cells to display percentages but internally they are stored as decimal fractions.

Absolutely. 20% = 0.2 by definition therefore the Zopa spreadsheet is exactly as it should be.

[CKemahli]

His point is still valid, if the column head is "PercentRepaid" it would make it neat to have the figures in percentages. Of course 0.2 = 20% but its a mere matter of cleanliness. I personally am not fussed either way as the demo spreadsheet handles everything for me

[sl75]

CKemahli, on 08 July 2012 - 12:53, said:

His point is still valid, if the column head is "PercentRepaid" it would make it neat to have the figures in percentages. Of course 0.2 = 20% but its a mere matter of cleanliness. I personally am not fussed either way as the demo spreadsheet handles everything for me

The CSV file format doesn't contain any formatting information, it is just data.
It doesn't (and can't) include information to tell the program into which you import the data how to display it.

If you want it displayed as a percentage, you need to tell the program to display the column in that manner (perhaps, for example, making Excel use the text import wizard so that you can select how you want each column displayed, rather than importing the CSV file with default settings)

[ashtondav]

Philanthropist, on 08 July 2012 - 07:20, said:

There are some errors in the MLB download - it would be nice if they were corrected.

Column K, labelled 'PercentRepaid'  is *not* the percentage repaid, but the decimal fraction repaid.  If I lend a tenner and the borrower has repaid £3 capital, then I should see 30% repaid, not 0.3%.   The same irritation occurs in column V, 'PercentOfLoan'.  Of a loan  of £5K, my tenner is 0.2%, not 0.002%. )This column strikes me as redundant anyway).

Column T, 'LendingMonth' is not a month at all but the date the loan was made, and its content is identical with that of column A, 'LentDate' and is thus redundant.  And anyway I joined Zopa to lend money, not dates - 'LentDate' should be 'DateLent', or perhaps 'Lending Date', but that label has been usurped by column S which is *not* the lending date but the Offer Creation Date (again, I could do without this column).

Elsewhere in Zopa interest rates are always quoted as percentages , but in MLB they are decimal fractions (cols C, AB) - why?

Data presentation and clarity of terminology (not to mention spelling) are not always Zopa's strongest points anyway, but MLB looks as if it was thrown together in a tremendous hurry and simply left unconsidered and unchecked.

All valid points. And why is this dogs' breakfast labelled as "BETA" after 3 or 4 years of no change.

[Uncle Tone]

ashtondav, on 08 July 2012 - 16:34, said:

All valid points. And why is this dogs' breakfast labelled as "BETA" after 3 or 4 years of no change.

One would expect it to be up to Kappa software by now, or even Lambda...

[Oldnick]

ashtondav, on 08 July 2012 - 16:34, said:

All valid points. And why is this dogs' breakfast labelled as "BETA" after 3 or 4 years of no change.

Because it's free?