rebuildingsociety.com Reviews 

This is the second time I have looked to fund a project through Rebuilding Society and once again, I found them to be nothing but helpful and supportive. Where most funding sources are very black and white, these guys are a long way from “the computer says no!” They give the chance for a narrative which explains who you are, what you want, and also, any adverse credit, how it was obtained, and what was done about it. I am very passionate about my business, that I started from scratch, and I always feel that Rebuilding Society feel the same way! I cannot recommend them more highly

I've had an excellent experience with ReBs. The new website is brilliant and the guidance I received was supportive and helpful, as you'd expect from an FCA accredited organisation. Before you start lending each application comes with a "Risk" score - so it's your responsibility to determine the level of risk you are comfortable with. If you are not comfortable with the potential of a borrower defaulting, then only select the A listed safer opportunities. "Do your research!" as a lender - you should investigate the Companies listed on the ReBs opportunities before investing your money.

ReBs is a Peer-to-Peer lending platform at the end of the day, there is always a degree of risk. Their customer support is superb and the time they take to answer your queries and help you understand whatever debt recovery process they are following up. The opportunities I am invested in are great, paying to time with interest. I can log into my dashboard anytime to review my portfolio and funds. Great website, good company just remember to carry out your own due diligence.

*I have left all my updates/edits on my review below. As indicated when I put 'Update'. The same cannot be for Rebs, who have taken out some clearly incorrect statements that were easily rebuffed*

Terribly slow website is the least of their problems. Overall loss for for me, even though I was spread across about 30 different loans. ROI figures on your dashboard are massaged to look better than they actually are in reality. Defaults are initially put under an estimated loss column and an arbitrary (guesstimate) number is put against the 'expected' recovery. 80% of these debts have ultimately moved to the 'bad debt' column. Shambolic recoveries record, with most of my defaults being a 100% loss. No updates in almost a year for some of the defaulted loans. Borrower personal guarantees are worthless.

In summary, do not invest your hard-earned cash on Rebs. Betting on horses would be safer!

Update: Most of my defaults have been classed as 'bad debt', so even if all the other defaults are fully 100% recovered, things will still be looking bad.

Moreover, I did not pick the more 'riskier loans'. In fact, the B class (on a scale of A - C) loans have been worse than the C class loans in terms of defaults, so how does one judge whether or not a loan is 'risky'. I based my choices on the business and the security. It is the security that has turned out to be worthless. Additionally, there has been a significant amount on lenders who have just disappeared off the face of the earth after defaulting. Sometimes after making 1 or 2 repayments!

Update 2: You assume that I have bad judgment when it comes to picking loans? my opinion is that it comes down to luck, as the information given on the platform about the business/borrower is neither accurate or transparent. These borrowers come to Rebs for a reason...they can't get credit anywhere else. An analogy would be junk bonds in the stock market. Lending money to the governments of Argentina or Venezuela. No thank you.

Website is tough to engage with but email support service is great. If you have any trouble simply email. I am sure the website functionality will improve in due course.

RBS offer very high returns with 100% control over buying and selling. A healthy secondary market allows you to recover your money in a short time if you need to as loans can be sold quickly using the flexibility of the system. Of course no loan system is perfect and some loans do default but lenders should follow sensible strategies when lending such as spreading the risk across loans, sectors and risk levels. My experience is that the staff at RBS chase outstandjng and late payments assiduously keeping lenders informed and with a high success rate in bringing in debts. In extreme cases they change the terms of the loans to ensure repayment. I have investments in 5 p2p organisations and RBS gives the best returns. I have been with RBS for 10 years with no complaints. I strongly recommend this investment platform.

I have been with RS for just over 5 years with no issue's that were not sorted straight away in that time
They have done exactly what I was hoping for with my average gross returns at 17.39% even though one of the companies folded
I am with other P to P companies but their returns are quite a lot beneath this return from RS
I would have no problem at all in recommending this company. They have done exactly what is written on the packet for me,

I consider myself lucky to have got my funds out. I was in from the early days and initially happy, but there were more and more defaults and I began to question the competence of them.
The website was the slowest I've ever been on. One loan and it's default / recovery provide a large textbook case of how not to conduct this type of business, it's like a novel. Luckily I have only a few ££ to collect although this will take a year or two, then I'm off.

GREAT EXPERIENCE WITH A CLEAR PROCEDURE
As a borrower this has been our first experience in raising capital for growth projects through a P2B platform.
I would like to comment that the due diligence undertaken and the request for information from ReBS was thorough, which we were able to supply in a timely manner.
It was a pleasure to work with the team as we felt they took a pro active approach to our request for funding rather than the current lending criteria by many of the banking institutions who operate via a tick box and computer system.
The dialogue between ourselves and the team at ReBS has always been convivial and the out comes were of a positive nature.
In the future we would look to use ReBS as our first source of funding,as the whole experience from start to finish has been 5 Star.

Been with Rebuilding for years, great support, easy to use and good quality products on offer. Never had an issue.

I don't make recommendations; it is safer to allow friends to learn their own lessons. That said, I am bemused by the relative size of ReBS. I consider it to be the best platform by a large margin, yet it has not grown exponentially like some of its peers. The latter's performance has not justified the trust I placed in them obliging me to all but abandon them within a couple of years. I continue to invest over 95% of available funds on this one platform (despite its small size) because it is the only P2P I have discovered where the gross returns are sufficient to outweigh defaults. The site is not perfect (due largely to resource constraints), but it is undoubtedly the best in my five years+. Surely my experience is not unique. This P2P deserves to grow greatly, and as it does, it will eventually be the only one I use.

I am still investing with Rebuilding Society and am now getting 13% so still looks good or better despite the risks one has to accept with this kind of investing. As long as their debt collecting is robust I am happy being involved in what the banks will not do, i.e. Rebuilding Britain.

Keep it up Rebuilding Society.

My Last review
I read all the other reviews, and made up my own mind. Invested waited a year, wrote this review.

Started investing Jan 2018 sill investing Feb 2019. I am happy so far. 12% pa is good.

Most of these peer 2 peers are great for a while then they die off, look at how FC, RS and Z withered away. But Rebuilding Society look genuine and in it for the long haul and the right reasons. So keep reviewing.

I do not think there is anything wrong with the company. There are good opportunities here making far better returns than the bank.

Any negatives - so far - have been down to me picking the odd dud, but I am new at this and enjoying learning.

I have been investing (lending) through ReBuilding Society since January 2014.

After a successful 1½ years with the platform, I added an account for my pension scheme in 2015. Later, I added an IFISA account in 2017.

All 3 accounts have made, and continue to make, double digit returns.

I do spend time on due diligence - I look into each individual loan. I only lend if I understand and agree with the purpose of the loan, and the goodwill of the borrower (goodwill is not always enough, the loan/business needs to add up).

Each loan has a Discussion section where lenders can ask questions of the borrower and discuss with other lenders, as well as the borrower, which is helpful.

EG - we once discovered that a potential loan may involve animal cruelty, and because of this the loan failed to fund and was cancelled. Other times lenders have been able to give helpful business advice to borrowers (as we all want them to succeed).

Some borrowers may have been rejected by standard lenders for not meeting normal creditworthiness checks. This may make them a higher risk, or they may just need to be given a chance. It is not always possible to know this at the outset, but I have been pleased to be able help a small business local to me, as well as others, to stay afloat and/or grow.

There is an active, liquid secondary market for selling on loans. I once needed to access my funds urgently and was able to sell a lot of loans in minutes. Later, when I returned the funds to the platform, I was able to re-purchase more of my favourite loans on the secondary market to rebuild my portfolio.

I have actively invested/loaned through UK P2P platforms for 6 years, and ReBS has always provided my highest net return.

Caveat - as with most investments/loan, my funds are at risk. For me, being selective and understanding the loans has worked well so far.

It is possible to lend as little as £10, so it is easy to dip a toe in to get a feel for how things work.
If you are not comfortable lending, then don't rush into anything.

Too Many defaults so far, but I think they are working on improving since the defaults, early days yet to be certain.
I would advise investors to check securities on loans for safer investments, and smaller commitments to riskier investments

Serious , professionnal and understand quickly the need of their client not time waisted

I have been investing with Rebs for over 4 years. I have found the team to be accessible, open and honest, including when they (and we, the investors) have learned the hard way that not all business people seeking loans have been equally open and honest. Rebs has responded by tightening its assessment criteria, the quality of information to investors, and the vigour of its pusuit of 'wrong 'uns'.

Inspite of these 'reality-check' actions, through Rebs informed investors are still able to lend to good, honest businesses and directors who would not otherwise be able to find capital, thereby fulfilling Rebs (and my) aim of Rebuilding (our) Society by stimulating local enterprise. And this includes showing forebearance to good businesses that hit (inevitable) rough patches. In fact this understanding by Rebs investors, instead of the 'big banks' automatic foreclosure in such circumstances, is one of the most rewarding aspects of investing through this platform.

Inspite of the ups and downs, over the years my net return is better than any other P2P site I loan through and is steadily improving as 'dodgy applicants' are shown the door before being admitted.

But this type of investment is risky and you need to have enough knowledge to make your own mind up, and be able to lose a proportion of your money without it affecting your personal financial stability.

My advice isto focus on and mange your net return, not the gross rate, in order to avoid being distracted and put off by the inevitable 'hits' that diminish the excitingly high - but rarely attained - gross interest rate.

I've been using rebuildingsociety.com for several years now. Most businesses I lend to repay their loan on time so I'm happy with my returns overall. I like reading up on each company and choosing where my money goes. By spending a little time on research each week I get a better return than elsewhere.

This platform started with such high hopes and a declaration of open communication, that has now disappeared, when a loan defaults ReBS do not follow their own policy, it does not matter how much security is in place ReBS take so long to do anything (if at all), you still won't get your money back. On the very rare occasions a recovery is made it often is NOT as a result of ReBS being proactive but that the borrower has a sense of duty to repay. Information of defaulted loans is often poor, claims about doing something are made but nothing happens.

UPDATE: following ReBS objection to a summary of the above in two words it has been slightly modified to allow it to remain visible, their objection was to the use of factually correct words, which summarised the making of a statement of action they claimed would happen, that they subsequently fail to do.
I would also note they responded faster to this review than they manage to respond to questions over the action or not in relation to the loans behind payment,

Your capital is at risk. It sure is with REBS. Despite being well-diversified my current return is -6% (minus). None of the other peer to peer companies I invest in has given negative returns. As luck plays such a large part with REBS best avoided unless you are a gambler.
Since writing the above my returns have improved to ca 3.5%
as money has been recovered from defaulted loans.

Before investing any money via Rebuilding Society, I would strongly recommend that potential lenders investigate how they treat investors when a loan goes into default as a result of poor due diligence by Rebuilding Society, a good place to start would be the p2p independent forum