Martin Lewis roasted for giving "diabolical" advice on C4

briona

sillystudent wrote: »

This was just on the tv where pretty much the presenter ripped into Martin Lewis and exposed his advice as a bit of a joke, and tbh I can't blaim him for having a go - I've got a couple hundred quid in Icesave myself that I'll probably need to get out in the near future, which I won't see for months now/if ever again!! :mad:

How is Martin going to sort out this mess? Because of him poor disabled pensioners like the guy in the interview have probably lost their hard-earned life savings!

!!!!!!! This is just typical of bloody spoon-fed brats looking to blame someone else, anyone else as long as it's not themselves! :mad: Tripped over a kerb (or even your own feet)? Then sue the council! Forgot to renew your house insurance? Better blame the insurers for not reminding you! Bank goes into administration? Blame a journalist for even mentioning a product!

MSE provides information on what the current best financial products are, it also advises on the downsides of products (fixes, fixed term bonus rates, affiliation or lack thereof with the FSA etc), but – and this is key – it requests that you make decisions based on your own circumstances.

Taken from Martin's signature: "Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance"

Just because people failed to do their own research before jumping on the 6.5% interest rate bandwagon, does not mean that Martin should now have to sort this out. He didn't expressly recommend a product or institution. He provided the public with information and it was up to the public to do what they wanted with it.

And do you honestly think that every single person with an ICESAVE or KE account is a member of MSE and signed up on Martin's advice?! I very much doubt it! So, I don't think you can hold Martin responsible for their current predicament. :rolleyes:

The_Dangerman

emmamack wrote: »

IThe one thing I would say is that Martin is an expert, and the only comment I can make is that perhaps he could have made a little clearer the financial situation in Iceland and the fact that in the unlikely event the bank was to go under, there may... just may, be an issue with Iceland as a country being able to cover the UK investors deposits. Although we were aware that Icesave operated under the passport scheme, we had no reason to believe this was a worry (we also have money in ING Direct who operate under the scheme). That’s the one thing to say – others that are more financially aware of global markets may not agree, but as far as we were aware Iceland was a prosperous country so we didn’t think there would be cause for concern… Saying that we didn’t expect to get stranded in Portugal last month after XL went under…

Absolutely 100% correct, I couldn't have put it better myself.

I had savings with Icesave, and I do not blame Martin for the decision to put my money there, it was mine and mine alone. It was only a few thousand so I perhaps a little too cavalier about not checking the safety, had I examined the facts I would not have done so! Not only was Iceland as a country MASSIVELY leveraged, there was not a hope in hell of the government bailing out the banks in the way that UK and US have done. To that end we shouldn't really have been suprised when it looked after it's own citizens ahead of it's own. Many other countries would have done the same.

The only person I am angry with is myself, for not checking. However I feel Martin put too much faith in the compensation schemes which spectacularly failed until the UK came to our aid. Again, should we be suprised about that? Even without hindsight, probably not.

Now, just because I as an individual saver didn't check the fundamentals of the Icelandic economy, it doesn't mean that Martin, as the owner of commercial website, should not have done so.

He's been lucky with the UK bailing customers out, if they hadn't his career could easily have been over, it may even run into difficulty now. However, I still believe he is a great guy and saved me a lot and I will continue to use this site to find the best deals, but when thosands of pounds are stake I will be a little more careful.

We've ALL learned lessons from this, and to say that ONLY those who clicked through to Icesave should learn from this is wrong. Martin himself has lessons to learn I am sure. But from what I've seen of him, I am sure he will because I strongly believe that he only ever has consumer's best interests at heart, and so is almost cetainly devasted with the last few days events.

Pssst

Truth is anyone can be an expert these days. I can be a docotr,lawyer ,dentist or even a moneysaving expert. No qualifications are required. I just go on the web,read,and suddenly i can become an expert so no need to blame Mr Lewis. He has just branded himself as a MSE so that he can earn a crust . We could all read about the FSA and FSCS long before Martin came along.

codger

47 posts in response to an existing member who has just created a new ID in order to clutter this forum with yet more adolescent wind-ups.

I wish MSE had a better way of vetting IDs / registrations.


:mad:

codger

The_Dangerman wrote: »

Absolutely 100% correct, I couldn't have put it better myself. . .

Now, just because I as an individual saver didn't check the fundamentals of the Icelandic economy, it doesn't mean that Martin, as the owner of commercial website, should not have done so.

He's been lucky with the UK bailing customers out, if they hadn't his career could easily have been over, it may even run into difficulty now. However, I still believe he is a great guy and saved me a lot and I will continue to use this site to find the best deals, but when thosands of pounds are stake I will be a little more careful. . .

We've ALL learned lessons from this.

Martin Lewis's career has nothing whatever to do with your ill-fortune or your good fortune.

The first was caused by yourself. The second is down to taxpayers like me who are still wondering why Mr Darling thinks the £50k FSCS maximum wasn't enough where IceSave depositors were concerned.

The way things are going, I'm amazed every IceSaver depositor isn't getting an extra £50,000 apiece from this Government to compensate for mental distress.

When you come on here talking about lessons, try learning first the one you still seem so oblivious to:

Caveat emptor.

And note that the word "Martin" doesn't figure in that phrase.

Martin_Discredited

steveb147 wrote: »

I take it you aren't studying finance? Your username certainly becomes you. You WILL get all your money back as the government is guaranteeing the cash. Why should Martin sort it out:

a) he didn't force anyone to save with them and did put up plenty of caveats to Icelandic banks. He doesn't give advice, he reports on what offers are available, no more.
b) he isn't responsible for the regulation of banks from Iceland or any other country
c) it was YOUR choice to save with them. Take responsibility for your own actions.
d) the man on C4 news ignored Martin's sensible advice about deposit guarantees and went and put £150k in a single bank. He should now count himself lucky he is getting all the money back.

Moneysupermarket just reports the rates. Martin DOES advise.

The compensation advise is irrelavant. How can it be good advice to take a savings account with a 1% better interest rate than another if there is a chance they are in trouble. The 1% extra is not going to make anyone feel better about the lengthy process they now have to go through to get their money back.

The fact that he states he wouldn't have done anything different just compounds his discreditation as an Expert. Experts by definition ADVISE!
:money:

ThrobsBlackHat

FairyElephant wrote: »

.

Having remortgaged several times, I have ALWAYS been able to get a better deal on my own than one which any advisor I spoke to could get me - and one of the advisor's is my own BIL!

Well said - for all the qualifications and courses and experience an IFA may have in my experience they are still only after one thing - the commission, and that involves selling the most products or the products that reward them the most and has naff all to do with "good" advice as I would see it.

ThrobsBlackHat

Martin_Discredited wrote: »

Moneysupermarket just reports the rates. Martin DOES advise.

No prizes for guessing who you work for then eh?

Former_MSE_Dan

The comparison you make between us and Moneysupermarket is interesting. Every mention of Icesave on our site for the past 6 months has been appended with an important notice, in bold, about the quirky compensation scheme it operated.

In that same time, no other Best Buy table or comparison site, that I saw, had the same policy of including this information every time they put a link to Icesave.

seven-day-weekend

margaretclare wrote: »

Of course the TV channel will find the most disabled person and the one who has invested the most. Emotion, that's what it's all about.

'Do your own research' remains the golden rule and Martin is in no way to blame.

I myself looked at those 'best buy' savings tables some while ago and I decided that 'if it looks too good to be true then it probably is'.

However, people who get paid for doing these things, finance officers from local authorities and those who advise them, also put money into Icesave and others! They are in duty bound, as the disabled man said, to get the best return on their deposits. If they didn't they could be in trouble for that. And I doubt whether those highly-paid financial executives took their advice from Martin's site. I think all this is emotive misinformation.

Agree Margaret, and whilst Martin mentioned Icesave as a best buy because of it's interest rate, he also afaik pointed out that it was not affiliated to the FSCS (or whatever it's called) and therefore might not be properly protected.

I also looked at it and thought 'an internet bank in a country that has a population the size of a large UK village? NO way Jose!'

People have a choice whether or not to save in this bank, all Martin did was point out the high interest rate.