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?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment