Tag Archives: Martin Lewis

Computers/Technology, Web/Internet

MoneySavingExpert.com to join the MoneySupermarket.com group

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In a deal announced this morning on the stock market, MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) will join the MoneySupermarket.com group. MSE will continue to operate as it does now, but with improved technology, so more people can gain from its MoneySaving techniques.

via MoneySavingExpert.com to join the MoneySupermarket.com group.

Interesting story this morning, but one that is not going down very well with some users of the site who are concerned about the editorial independence of the site following the sale.

However putting that aside, it is a superb example of somebody making a successful site online entirely from referral fees. The site has no advertising, no outside funding, and doesn’t charge users to use the site. It has built a reputation for independence and has always told users which links earn referral fees for the site, and provided a non-referral fee alternative. It also has impressive charity giving alongside keeping a staff of forty in work – as a result of the deal £10 million will be going to charity including £1 million for the increasingly underfunded Citizens Advice.

Computers/Technology, General, Web/Internet

Money Saving Expert

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I’ve been signed up on the Money Saving Expert mailing list for a while, but looking back, I don’t think I’ve ever recommended it here.

The site is run by Martin Lewis, who turns up on all sorts of magazine programmes talking about money. Amongst other things he has been influential in campaigns to get people to reclaim unfair bank charges, and more recently in getting people to check and appeal their council tax banding – something we’ve done successfully in the past.

Perhaps what he is most influential for now is his website Money Saving Expert, where his stated aim is to redress the balance between the consumer and the big corporations. As he says in his introduction to the site, we live in an adversarial consumer society, where the primary purpose of the companies out there is to make as much money from us the consumer as possible. Indeed companies will spend large amounts of money on flashy advertising campaigns to get us to by their products, ensure they have highly trained salespeople in order to sell us stuff we don’t want, and yet what do we as consumers have?

The site is a gold-mine of useful information – in the past I’ve used the tips on the site to find the cheapest telephone service for calling Canada, found cheap flights, and so on. It has won several awards, and indeed has been cited on a couple of occasions in parliament for it’s influence. Essentially the site brings together tips from Martin and many other users, all geared towards doing exactly what it says on the tin – saving money.

There is also the mailing list I mentioned at the top, which sends out details of special offers and deals, and keeps you updated when recommendations change. There is a real mix of stuff from simple two-for-one offers, to more specialist tips which would probably only be of interest to a small number of the more than a million subscribers to the list – in that vein we actually applied for another credit card at the weekend primarily due to a tip on the list, as by using the new card for a couple of months we can get 20,000 free miles for my BMI Diamond Club card – a good chunk of a free trip to Canada.

You’re not going to take advantage of every offer, indeed probably not most of them, but there are always one or two that can save you either a little, or a lot of cash, and certainly it is well worth heading over to the site and signing up for the e-mail.