Topic: BTCjam - Any Thoughts or Experiances - page 17. (Read 57508 times)

Of course, by its very nature; BTCJAM is global meaning that jurisdictional and legal difference between countries makes collection of debt incredibly difficult, not to mention costly.

As said before, BTCJAM is an awesome idea but unfortunately it is a scam magnet.

Correct - and most users walk away rather than go to court for what is (usually) a small amount.  BTCJam doesn't care - they get their cut up front.

In Canada, it's actually very easy to collect on a debt certificate.  Just simply file it in court and you get your money - the defendant has no chance to provide a defense because he/she has already lost. 

I started up a website called coindebt.ca and even then I couldn't find enough interested people to make it work.

That's why you always need collateral.

I think this is mandatory! You mean that btcjam does not chase the defaulter in any way? It passes it along to investors?

Thanks for the kind words.   

I don't have a problem with sharing the borrowers that have been good.   Part of the issue at BTCjam is that if you are investor you aren't allowed to give feedback on the borrowers unless you go through the same identifying steps as borrows.   I guess that is to prevent fake investors from giving false feedback, but I think that once some has loaned out more than one BTC they should be able to give feedback.   Investors really don't need to be cleared if they are investing in loans.   

As for good borrowers: TechGeeks,  Alex077, Detz where the 3 big ones that pulled me back to profit.   There were many others that paid, sometimes a little late but paid.   The main reason I stopped loaning though is all the loans went to once a month payments.   Personally I don't like that since we have so little visibility into the borrowers.   Since TechGeeks was very interactive and seem to be answering pretty honesty, I pretty much put all my free BTC at the site whenever he had a loan.   That worked really well.     

I did put small amounts into new borrowers too and that has mostly been okay probably because I became very picky.   

Very interesting point, and it is good to hear that someone is profitable as I see some horror stories online and some great reviews, but not many unbiased neutral ones.  I think more people complain online than post positive occurances, so it is nice to read your post with a neutral point of view (not a hater and not a shill) which is rare!

I know investors with good histories can default, but do you think some kind of pool of investors sharing experiences and good borrowers could help?  Of course this would be kept within the group so I cannot see it violating TOS in anyway, but I could see just like people share stock tips and such, that a group of investors that stuck together could be useful to each other.

I based my thoughts off of my own common sense as far as thinking diversification would help, but I can see where your point about picking the right ones and not stretching out too much could be successful, so very interesting points.

I have invested in some loans on this site.  Only 1 of these has paid in full or kept up to their payment schedule.  One of these had many repaid loans , so that is not garantee that the person is going to pay back.  When someone does default, you either take then to court yourself or lose your investment as far as I can see.

I also invest in a site called funding circle which, when someone defaults, has a part of their organisation which chases debt on the lenders behalf.  I have never had a problem with the latter.

I would love to invest in people via BTCJAM again, but as there is no comeback on people who do not pay....I can`t see its recommended.

Of course, if you do your due diligence, (as I clearly failed to do) then investing isn`t a good idea anywhere.

Diversification only ensures that when you get scammed, you have lost too little to go after it.   It is death by 10000 cuts.

I'm actually slowly getting out of BTCjam with a profit, but the only reason I have a profit is I stopped diversifying.   Instead I poured more BTC in the few people that didn't scam and had a reasonable story.   That worked, but getting that list of good borrowers was an expensive horrible experience.  

The upshot is you can make money there, but you have to really look out for yourself.   Personally I don't think the advice from the site is in investor's best interest, you need to think for yourself.    

BTCJam Review (Borrower and some minimal investing, will update more investing reviews after much more time and diversification.)
*I Post this in other areas and was told that it should be post in this section, the area I post this in originally, well let us just say they did not like me posting in the wrong area, so here I am.

I have been a member 1 week, so this is a review of the process of joining, the document review process, and my interactions with support.  I created my 1st loan today and it is in the review process.  I will update this thread after it is approved, I am funded, and pay back the loan.  I will update this with additional information and reviews about my investing on the site, and any overall observations and experiences as a borrower and investor.  I have seen many lopsided reviews for the site either overly negative or positive, so I thought a more realistic point of view would aid some.

Additionally, I have read MANY past loans, and most of the current loans waiting for funding so I could learn more about the type of loans, interest percentages, and which borrowers repay loans and what type default (not that there is any guarantee, but there are definitely trends, EXAMPLE: There are plenty of legitimate loans for trading and mining, but I would expect these type of loans to show some type of business plan, and past gains if it is not a new venture.  I would also want to see detailed plans.  Nothing would deter me more than 1 sentence loan request for mining or trading as those are very generic categories that scammers could use, since many real loans are in those categories.  Most scammers are not creative or they would have a real job so they use common loan categories and very short descriptions.  I have also noticed that most of the loans with detailed information and specifics about their business do not default, where as the ones that do are very vague. I believe from talking to some investors that the people who lose money investing only use the credit rating and not their own judgement, and the profitable ones invest in many credit ratings but have better personal judgement about the loan descriptions, AND ask many questions if they have them and do not invest until the get a satisfactory answer).

Signing up - VERY easy, the site is user friendly, and has detailed descriptions.  There are also YouTube videos by some users who have signed up that someone can watch to get help signing up.

Verification - Some documents were verified within hours of signing up.  Some took a few days.  I grew concerned when my income took several days only because I am impatient, but I imagine they have tons of users and since they check things over it takes time.  Although it took slightly longer than the 1-2 day window, it was not much longer than that so I have nothing to complain about.  I would rather they thoroughly check things than rush them, so although I was impatient, everything went fine.

Support - Some people complain about support being slow.  As I mentioned regarding verification, they probably get TONS of support requests.  I received emails within about 2 days from a support member.  Friday (Today) is the day I submitted my loan about 1pm.  I emailed support to see if anything else was needed, and got an email back within hours unlike the previous response that took a day or 2.  They even asked if they could call me to go over some details, and called within an hour or so of me confirming time to teleconference.  I was VERY impressed that they took the time to personally reach out to me, so although I can see where some people are frustrated that some responses take days, I think they have a good support team that is simply slammed with support tickets so they can get backlogged at times.  I hope as they grow they hire more support, but at the same time I cannot complain about a support ticket that was answered by email and phone within hours, and the one that took a few days was no big deal either since it was just me being impatient wondering what was going on with verification as I wanted it done immediately.  A cpl extra days feels like weeks when you are waiting for something, and I can see where someone who has $ tied up or a problem with a financial matter could become impatient, but overall I think they get back to people as fast as possible and offering great quality support although there can be delays and things can take slightly longer than a user may want, I never experienced massive delays like reported by some users and was overall very happy with the experience, especially after receiving a personal call to go over my loan and personal details as I thought this shows they really care about their users and actually spend time reviewing each loan (it is not just something they say they do and push them through without looking at them).  Support might not take an hour or two like many want, but would say 48 hours or 72 maximum and they get back to you, so the people reporting months are either bitter scammers, or people who had a very different experience than I did.  So I would say they are not perfect, but so far have been very good to me.

Loan - The process was easy to do, I submitted my loan around 12:30pm on a Friday.  It is in the review process.  I would be surprised if it is not live for funding on Monday, Tuesday at the latest.  I will email support if it is not up by Tuesday, as I believe the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

I will update as my loan is funded, any future positive/negative interactions with support, and about the process of getting funded and communicating with any investors.  

So far I made small investments, 1 has paid early, I will update information about investments only once I have invested a very small amount across 100+ handpicked accounts as I believe diversification to be a fair judge of profit loss.  The 2 factors I think are necessary are 1) 100+ investments AND 2) handpicked investments, not just investing in 100+ but picking them based on judgement that includes but is not limited to the rating as I think it is important to go through each business plan personally whether it is an A or D rating as I would not invest in any 1 sentence loan because if they cannot take the time to write a proper business plan I cannot be bothered to fund it.  I don't care if it uses google translate and is in broken English, I just want fleshed out details. So I would say using more than just rating, and using personal judgement is key, if this makes one uncomfortable then investing might not be for that person.

Feel free to ask any questions, as I go through the process I will post here and go through it with you.  I am happy to use this site, as a college graduate who is just getting my career launched, credit can be difficult and I supported bitcoin even before this site as I like the idea of a currency that is for the people and not by a government (decentralized).

I would rate them 90%, or 4.5/5 Stars.  Not perfect but they have been good so far.  If that changes I willl edit, as I am not a shill, but I am tired of the internet only having negative reviews because most happy people don't say a thing, while bitter people complain.

True for investments in any medium. I think one of the best characteristics of successful investors on the platform is patience. Maybe you're skeptical, ask some questions and let some other commentators contribute. Stay patient, and find ones that you are comfortable with.

If anything, the rule of thumb should be dont hope to get it back.

Expect a loss, and afford to lose it. But, its also a better choice to see others go 1st, if youre hesistant.

Diversification is really a key thing with us, and as the commentator mentioned above never invest more than you can handle. You'll continue to see a lot of changes with us going forward, we are getting a lot tougher on fraud and bringing quality borrowers to the platform. If you want to get started throw a tiny amount in 0.1 and invest 0.001 if you wanted across numerous loans. This will give you a good feel for investing on the site and get you familiar with borrowers.

its awesome, to see youre willing to help us out with your own screen cap.

but its just too bad we cant seem to see it lol. it seems its btc-jam is more of a gamble like any other dice site 50/50 win or loss.

My advice is: never invest more than you can afford to lose!

In the last weeks it seems they woke up and are implementing a lot of changes which shows they are active and determined to improve the site.

Here is a screen cap of my first loans just to give you an idea:

My Advise, stay away from BTCjam, the chance that you will burn a big chunk of your money is quite high!

So i`m a bit lost on either lending some btc to afford to lose, even if the service is bad.

I guess, I`m kinda desperate on what other ways to make btc outside from gambling.. does anyone have screen caps of their returns.

We work on figuring those out! Most the times we have already gotten to these accounts and are well aware of the fraud behind them.

Yes, we make many moves on such accounts. They arent given more access to capital etc. We have more plans in the works for this as well.

Can you please comment on the following listings:

https://btcjam.com/listings/42598

https://btcjam.com/listings/44124

https://btcjam.com/listings/41307

https://btcjam.com/listings/43536

https://btcjam.com/listings/42924

How can you be sure you have the info of the right person?

Some time ago I saw a BTCJam account for sale in Cryptothrift. It was $70 I guess.

Honestly, if you think you are running a serious Business than, exactly now that is the Point where YOU have to take legal action, because he is clearly fraudulently using your System.
But i think in the end NOTHING will happen at all.