Thoughts on Finance, Current Affairs and General Consumer Ripoffs - Damn Lies and Statistics

  Latest UPDATE   Feb 2024  - Marshbell being struck off - act now!    A question has been raised on Marshbell Group investment in solar farms and whether it is a scam   The website is: marshbellgroup.com Offering 2 Years Fixed Rate Account at 8.4% p.a with monthly interest payments 2 Years Fixed Rate Account at 10.20% p.a with interests paid at maturity. Does anyone have any experience with/of them? Is it a legit company or a scam? UPDATE -December 2021 The FCA have now issued a warning about Marshbell Group operating without authorisation in the UK.  https://www.fca.org.uk/news/warnings/marshbell-limited-t-marshbell-group The FCA say:  This firm is not authorised by us and is targeting people in the UK. Marshbell claim the investment is only suitable for certain classes of investor - yet it is clear they sold to people that were not in these classes. Investors are reporting that they have not received interest payments from Marshbell - more details here If you are prepared to lose yo

Blackmore Bond investors seem to be hanging all their hopes of recovering money on the Insurance Guarantee which is understandable given the way it was promoted in the literature. However even alongside the discussion of the guarantee the documents clearly state "Capital at risk" There are many get outs that the insurance company can use to avoid paying but based on the premium paid of £10k for £45 million of cover it is extremely unlikely that there is any chance of the company paying out any money. From the Blackmore Bonds website prior to closing in 2019 - very clear that 20% was taken from every bond Screenshot from the Blackmore Bonds website prior to closing in 2019 Excess Charges paid from your bonds For every investment made into Blackmore Bond only a fraction of it went to the company to invest in property. The rest was taken in fees, charges and interest payments. 20% was given to Surge Financial for marketing and admin 3% was given to Insurance company for the guar

 The administrators Duff & Phelps have given their update on progress at the end of 2020 which doesn't make very good reading for investors in Blackmore Bond. With costs it looks like investors are set to lose almost all their investments. Despite Blackmore Bond having property assets these were almost all used as security for other loans and have been sold by the lenders with no surplus left for the bondholders. One glimmer of hope is the Insurance backed policies that were meant to cover investors in the event of default by Blackmore Bond. However these cannot be accessed by the administrators and will need to be enforced by the trustees on behalf of the bondholders. From reading the wording of the report it seems that there may even be a case that every investor has to apply individually for the cover on their investment. With the insurer based in Costa Rica as outlined here long before Blackmore failed this isn't likely to be an easy process. According to the contract d

 High Street Group have apparently been failing to pay investors when their interest and repayments are due. There are a couple of places setup to try to help investors get together to recover their money You can register on the website https://www.thehighstreetgroup-creditors.com/ And/Or join their Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/hsgcreditors As investors in LCF have found, being able to talk with other investors in the same situation has been very valuable.

Investment in Concept Capital Group is being promoted on Facebook and Rightmove to solicit investment in their static caravans for rental to social housing tenants via Social Park Housing. Concept Capital Group are claiming to guarantee rental income of 10% but as investors in London Capital & Finance are fully aware, this sort of guarantee is fully dependent on the company making it still being in business. If the company fails for any reason then there will be no-one to support the guarantee or to return money to investors.  If the company fails your guarantee disappears. Concept Capital Group have only existed since 2019 so have no track record of honouring investment guarantees over the long term. Concept Capital Group Risks - Is it a Scam? Concept Capital Group include a small link to a disclaimer page on their site that identifies the risks involved in their investments yet it is very clear from the reviews posted that investors are not aware of the risk they are taking with