Martin told you Icesave had a "dodgy compensation scheme"... his comment on 4 News

silvercar

On a side-note I find it amazing that icesave had almost as many UK savers, as the entire population of Iceland

Look at the banks in the U.K.-HBOS and RBS. Should savers with them also be branded by some of these people in this forum as greedy.

No, they are not taking extra risk to get that (minutely ) higher return.

Why would any UK person want to put their savings with an icelandic bank? only because the calculated that the extra risk was worth the extra return. If they had all kept their money in the UK our own banking system may be in better shape.

The compensation schemes should give back to people the money they invested; to compensate for the extra interest lost, when the interest rates were in retrospect at unsustainable levels, is overkill.

BarryPseudonym

I fully agree that it's only the investor that's ultimately to blame, regardless of any financial advice they've taken, be that free or paid for. It's your money, you need to take responsibility for it.

However, http://web.archive.org does confirm that the warnings ('dodgy', or otherwise) weren't in place for their archives of the savings accounts/safety pages. I knew I hadn't imagined it. Martin's messed up a bit in my eyes, but a recommendation from an expert doesn't mean that you shouldn't do your own research before stumping up hard-earned.

Oh well, he does a lot of good stuff, and I'm sure he'll learn from this.

meester

zaccy wrote: »

Does anyone know how much Martin earned from each Icesave clickthrough?

zero, check here,

http://web.archive.org/web/20080109143121/http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest

No affiliate links

posh*spice

StevieJ wrote: »

He advised it as a good buy, and flagged up the potential limitations of protection scheme. No problems with Martins advice.
There were a few people trying to shoot down anyone who was trying to nail down the compensation scheme (e.g. would the UK govt step in if Iceland scheme failed?), almost like they were plants from Icesave.

How do you know they weren't. This is an public web site, all sorts crawl over it. I personally have been PMed by a journalist from the Sunday Times. You don't know who another poster is, they could well be an employee of a company with their own agenda.

LucyTheDwarf

earlgrey wrote: »

Assuming he did constantly make clear the compensation system was "dodgy" in his best buy list, as he claims, then I find it astounding that so many ignored his warning.

Astounding that many ignored his warning?

I find it astounding how many fail to read t&cs, or research what they're buying, then feel the need to blame Martin Lewis - who has put an encyclopaedia of financial information at their fingertips - it couldn't be easier!

nachovx

I heard Martin on the Jeremy Vine show (R2) a few times discussing Icesave and mentioning the passport scheme - all I ever remember him saying was the compensation would come from two different sources in the unlikely event a claim were needed, but never did he say there was anything dodgy about the foreign part of the scheme or that it should be avoided because of possible complications. He gave me the impression that putting money into Icesave was as safe as putting your money into NatWest.

posh*spice

Lance_Botelle wrote: »

I registered to say that I thought that Ch4 were unfair in the comments made towards Martin Lewis. I believe his advise has been very good and quite clear ever since I have been receiving his regular updates (for quite a few months now) and was the reason I did not invest any monies with IceSave.

The only bank I invested money that used a passport scheme are the Anglo-Irish, as they are closer to home.

I wanted to say that I believe Martin Lewis has been a great source of advise and CH4 (Jon Snow) have gone down a bit in my estimation because of their rather harsh (unfair comments) treatment of Martin Lewis.

EDIT: It was because of reading Martin Lewis' website that I learned of the £35000 (now £50000) in the first place. From his advice, I moved money around from some of my HBOS accounts to others. I did not know (at the time) that Halifax, BM and others were of the same institution until he posted it. Martin has helped me reduce many risks and I think CH4 should have recognised Martin's help in advising the public in these matters, which no other person has so openly done before.

EDIT: Furthermore, with respect to "recommending accounts", Martin has always made it clear which banks were offering the best rates of interest. He also made it clear how the banks operated as far as their compensation schemes worked. He may have said the chance of a bank collapse is highly unlikely, but he never advised which of the accounts to open. He simply gave the information as it was and left it for the consumer to decide. He may have made it clear which accounts offered the best interest rates, but he also made it clear which banks gave a 100% guarantee.

Well done Martin Lewis!

Lance.

Great Post
:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

LucyTheDwarf

Oh, ING is also under the passport scheme. When do we start a run on them?

I say that with my tongue firmly in my cheek.

nachovx

LucyTheDwarf wrote: »

Astounding that many ignored his warning?

I find it astounding how many fail to read t&cs, or research what they're buying, then feel the need to blame Martin Lewis - who has put an encyclopaedia of financial information at their fingertips - it couldn't be easier!

People may read the t&c and see there is a two-part compensation scheme, but nothing in that states that one of them may not be worth the paper (or screen) it's written on. How could you expect people to know that the bit that says €20,000 from the Icelandic fund, may not be paid to UK customers, there were no such warnings.

earlgrey_3

I notice from that link he says:

Got big savings and want to spread your money for safety?

If you’re concerned about getting maximum safety on your savings, then, as explained in the Are my savings safe? article, you shouldn’t have more than £35,000 in any one financial institution.

RATE NOT DROPPED To do that and still get a top rate, first use the accounts listed above, then the next best clean products are Bradford and Bingley at 6.4%, Principality BS at 6.3%, Icesave at 6.3%.

What he needs to understand is that there should be no if or buts about safety of savings. That comment suggests it doesn't really matter or shouldn't be a major consideration. Risk/reward assessment is in fact essential as any "expert" should understand.

He would do everyone a favour if the highest paying account was not automatically described as the "best". At best naivety, at worst lazy journalism I'm afraid.