Is Martin Lewis the “Money Saving Expert” a significant proportion of the public believe him to be, or is he simple a “Money Grabbing Show-Off” many other suspect he is? Whichever side of the fence your fall on, you can’t help but notice the animated Martin Lewis on your TV screen or in your newspaper speaking out about one issue or another to do with saving money.
So how much should the public trust Martin Lewis’ guidance? This is a particularly difficult question to answer. On the one hand, Martin Lewis provides the public with a – barely – digestable format to consume information about financial products. This is not generally done well by “stiff in suits” so perhaps that’s a necessary evil we must contend with. But on the other hand, is he really qualified to provide the sort of advice he has been putting out there, are his intentions purely honourable and should he be regulated or answerable in some way?
A quick search on Wikipedia highlights some of the controversy surrounding Martin Lewis and his Money Saving “Expert” advice…
“One of the services provided by Lewis’s MoneySavingExpert.com website, supported by weekly emails, was a savings “best buy” recommendation. This service led to Lewis highlighting the attractive rates offered by Icelandic banks, several of which subsequently failed during the second half of 2008 with savers’ funds frozen pending compensation from either the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme or its Icelandic equivalent… …Lewis was attacked by a number of his own website users for “recommending” Icelandic banks.”
From personal experience, I know that his employees are definitely not knowledgeable enough or qualified to be writing the content they put out there or talking about financial products in the way they do. Far too often, the key element of the product – the one vital bit of information you’d think the customer needs to know to make a qualified decision – is not put across in favour of something else which will actually make them money …an affiliate link or advert.
Which brings me nicely onto a couple of interesting highlights of Martin Lewis’ personal life – a part-time stand up comic who lives in the North Kensington area of London. So Martin Lewis “the show-off” has always been within him and maybe that plays a big part in his various crusades and campaigns. And Martin Lewis “the North Kensington resident” just goes to show that it’s not all about the customer.
Ladies and gentlemen of the UK finance industry …what are your thoughts? Martin Lewis the Money Saving Expert or Martin Lewis the Money Grabbing Show-Off?
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{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Great for saving £1.50 off a cup of coffee or having discount codes for 10% off at Tesco, but when it comes to offering ‘Expert’ advice on finance items, this is a bit too much to handle.
Wonder if any of the article writers are qualified in any finance arena? – I very much doubt it………
Well said Kevin and Ernest. The guy is a liability. Then again, so too are many of the finance journalists out there today.
The best thing is that people really believe Martin Lewis is the Consumer’s Champion! Greatest trick the devil ever pulled …and all that.
Martin comes shining through this morning with a FREE £4.95 burger. Surely that’s a safe level for him to provide his expert advice?
But where’s the threshold? Shopkeepers aren’t regulated.
Now this is just scary
Lot of flak at moment for Sir Martin…
Noticed he had death threats from mortgage advisers because they feel he is taking the p**s !
One minute says to get fixed rate mortgage, next minute says get rid of them. Swears that he isn’t giving advice (good job, giving mortgage advice when not qualified could see him go to jail!!!!!).
Unfortunately this bloke is like Noel Edmunds. The public love him, people who know anything about the subject however think he is a complete knob….
I genuinely have a problem with this man. Him, or one of his team told me to get my site off the internet. I admit, I did put a link from his forum to my site, which is cheeky but it did not warrant the abuse I got afterwards.
He subsequently somehow found out my mum’s home address, who lived there, including the full names of my mum, dad and three brothers. He said, ‘he was going to call my mum’ if I didn’t take my site off the Internet.
I think this was taking it all a little bit too far.
Contact me if you want more details.
He said he “was going to call your Mum”?!
Hehe. That made me laugh. How old are you? 9? What was Martin hoping to achieve? That she’d give you a clip ’round the ear and tell you to stop kicking a virtual ball against his garage
Keep your site up, after all, what harm did you do?
@Steve, the worst thing your site does is give a job to people who can only smile cheesily in photos and it also gives an outlet for the istock icons which would otherwise be under used!!!!
Only joking mate!
So, what was the “real” story with Martin Lewis? Surely there was more to it than posting a link up for them to head out and find the name and address for your family?
Personally I am not a huge fan of Mr Lewis… he has a shouting know it all stance I simply don’t agree with.
He also gets “carried” away with a lot of his advice and doesn’t clarify and caveat it enough sometimes in my view…. its a case of the blind leading the blind. He is after all simply a journalist with no background in banking or in giving financial advice.
Like the advice to take out Icelnadic savings products he risks in some instances causing very real harm through some of his advice.
I am also very sceptical about his claims not to chase the dollar with his advice… journalistic integrity blah blah blah… since when did journalists suddenly aquire integrity… most are happy with the headline even if it only presents half the picture.
In his defence though I would say there are some useful snippets of information on his site but you do need to wade through a lot of dross to get to them.
Apparently the FSA has also authorised him… now on the basis he has no training or skills in the area I wonder why they did that… maybe it says more about the state of the FSA than it does about martin lewis. I wonder what he said on his application to persuade them he was a fit and proper person to offer the advice he does.
I personally think Martin Lewis gives really bad advice and should not be allowed on the TV. I’m a fully qualified Financial and Mortgage Advisor and most of the things Lewis says is rubbish. I’ve had to sit multiple exams, and also annual tests, and had to go through a rigourous vetting procedures to do my job and I only give advice to about 3000 or so customers. Lewis advises the whole nation and I can pretty much bet he hasn’t sat any exams. This was proved in a programme aired in the UK on Fri 6th Feb 2009. I think it was the Tonight programme. He had to bring 3 experts in to speak about Stocks and Shares, Commodities and other ways to invest money. If he was a financial advisor, he would have a fairly broad understanding to talk about these himself as it is part of the job and also part of the exams. I think he should do his Certificate of Financial Advice (CeFA) exams and then he would know more of what he is talking about.
If anyone disagrees or wants to prove me wrong, just email me or reply at dave156789@yahoo.co.uk. Also, how did he manage to get such a fit bird. That Lara lewington is well hot. I actually thought Martin Lewis was gay.
How did he manage to get such a fit bird?
He’s a MULTI-millionaire. His company made over £3 million profit in 2005/06, and since then the revenues have at least doubled.
What do you expect?
What I don’t like about Martin Lewis is the way he tries to make out that his site is free of ads to benefit consumers.
Unfortunately most visitors don’t know that the site makes far more by recommending affiliate links within the content.
It’s little different to Tesco advertising the fact that their free of ads.
Except of course that every link that makes any money has a * next to it, and any page with a starred link also contains this explanation
How this site is funded. Two types of contacts are listed. The first, which all have a * within the main body of the articles, help MoneySavingExpert.com stay ad-free and free to use, as they’re ‘affiliated links’ which invisibly take you usually via affiliate linkage or commercial money sites, which then pay this site. The second type doesn’t help and therefore doesn’t have a *.
You shouldn’t notice any difference, the links don’t impact the product at all and the editorial line (the things we write) is NEVER impacted by the revenue. If it isn’t possible to get an affiliate link for the best product, it is still included in exactly the same way. For more details read how this site is financed.
I heard about this “Martin Lewis” phenomenon & his MSE website recently so decided to give it a try. His website indeed is cleverly architected to woo the average low-IQ’ed Joes of the UK. Apart from the obvious money saving articles, there are lot of discussions/posts urging people to buy and spend; e.g. spend 100p to save 10p where he or she should really be spending no money! The website appears like a collection of referral sites, the difference here is, instead of the usual click-through flashy eye-catchy animation banner ads, Martin Lewis provides links based on story-telling. The average Joe think these stories as “intelligent analysis”, which obviously is doing his bread winning job. For those who understand the internet referral market, it is quiet clear from the MSE website and its ‘redirection’ mechanism that Martin Lewis “works for himself” for getting paid directly from his clients. It appears like he works one-to-one with his clients by writing and promoting products within articles urging people to use his affiliate links providing personal recommendation. This is indeed a different logical business model when compared to using third party referral companies like doubleclick or commission-junction!. Personally, I do not see much of quality in his money saving tips, though there is lot of quantity. And yes, I think it has worked well for him so far , hard work or hardly worked – he is celebrating his websites 6th birthday!.
Yep, like many other people I can’t stand Martin Lewis but the fact is he’s done VERY well for himself and his buisness. But that’s what people tend to forget – he’s not doing all this for the love of it, he’s making money from most of the clicks on his site! I can’t really comment on many areas but I know for a fact Martin Lewis has made lots of money by publishing finance content and by that I mean mainly affiliate links from comparison sites and other affiliate networks. I worked for a financial comparison web site a few years ago and even back then MoneySavingExpert was invoicing for well over £50K a month…
Hello ‘ME’
As you obviously can;t read, or are too ignorant to, i shall repost my comment from above…
—-
Except of course that every link that makes any money has a * next to it, and any page with a starred link also contains this explanation
How this site is funded. Two types of contacts are listed. The first, which all have a * within the main body of the articles, help MoneySavingExpert.com stay ad-free and free to use, as they’re ‘affiliated links’ which invisibly take you usually via affiliate linkage or commercial money sites, which then pay this site. The second type doesn’t help and therefore doesn’t have a *.
You shouldn’t notice any difference, the links don’t impact the product at all and the editorial line (the things we write) is NEVER impacted by the revenue. If it isn’t possible to get an affiliate link for the best product, it is still included in exactly the same way. For more details read how this site is financed.
Hi Pete, Thanks for another overly agressive comment. I can read thank you very much and I’m not ignorant…
If you actually bothered to read my comment you would see that I’m saying that Martin Lewis has made a lot of money from these links, I didn’t mention the fact that Martin Lewis makes it clear which links he makes revenue from…
The implication of your comment is clear; that there is some level of secrecy or impropriety surrounding the money that Martin Lewis’s website makes.
I wanted to reiterate that such a warped implication couldn’t be further from the truth (compare the openness about revenue-generating links on MSE with moneysupermarket and the like).
If anyone recalls the story of the Kings New Clothes, they will recognise the value of someone who points out the obvious when the masses appear to be oblivious. Martin is this person and has been shouting out loud and clear that the banks only real telent is to rip off apathetic customers. Fast forward a few years and now we see them naked and begging for shelter from us-the taken advantage of. Going forward, if banks offered good value for money to existing and new customers alike, there would be little need for Martin and he could hang up his dictophone. Until then long live the voice of reason.
Whether or not you like Martin Lewis or feel he is qualified to offer guidance/advice isn’t really the point. As easy as it is to sit back and moan about the great unwashed being taken in by someone parceling up financial advice and making money (worst crime of all) so doing, what you should perhaps consider is – why does the public like him? What is it that Martin does that works that the financial services industry either doesn’t or can’t? And is there something in his formula that everyone would benefit from adopting – consumer, qualified adviser and providers alike?
Personally I believe that these questions are far more constructive than any amount of within industry crabbing.
Ha!
Is “Pete” a Martin Lewis employee or Martin himself??
I read the comment left by “ME” and didn’t have any trouble understanding what was written. No there is no secrecy on martins site, and ME doesnt imply this… but your avergage Jo doesnt understand, or care to look into the statement “this link helps this website”. The little asterix is hardly fully explaining what is going on.
Its not like he actually states anywhere that clicking a link earns him a referal fee, and he is making millions from it. If he was fully transparent the asterix would say “clicking this link earns this website £2.20 in referal fees” etc.
He’s running a busines and he needs to be watched very closely. I dont think the BBC should have him on Radio1. They need to get a proper expert in. Yes, he speaks nicely, and hes started telling jokes or putting on comedy voices in his spot.. Get someone serious, get someone qualified.
J.
A message for Conrad.
I have a very fit bird. I’m not either a millionaire of very successful. I do alright though. It’s hardly a reason for having a “fit bird”. Wanker
Sorry. The above website was meant to be aimed at michael – not conrad. Sorry Conrad. Please accept my apoligies.
Re above message to Conrad. Meant to say comment – not website. My writing skills are shocking
those complaning about martin on bbc would you prefer more over paid celebrities radio 1 dosnt pay martin he appears for free if the bbc payed him you mwould be moaning but he saves you licesnece fee telling how to save money and not taking a payment for his time he has saved alot of people alot of money if you read his website
Fair comment tara. BUT HE SHOULD NOT BE GIVING FINANCIAL ADVICE – WHICH HE DOES. He ain’t qualified.
Nothing that the FSA considers financial advice though, right…?