MSE Discussion: MoneySavingExpert.com to join the MoneySupermarket.com group

setmefree2

StaffsSW wrote: »

It's a huge money-spinner, but even though I may not be preaching what I practice, I can only see that the more people taking a cut out of all of these sign-up referral fees is going to cost us consumers more in the long run.

I agree. The fact that MSE makes so much money costs us all as consumers. Now we know exactly how much it's costing us!!!!!!!!

All those clicks have added up to many many millions for ML. And ultimately we the consumers pay.

No consumer revenge here.:( Move along, nothing to see......

WhiteHorse

This explains what's being going on for months.

The weird new changes, the tracking software, the sudden rush of commercial links, the new 'moderators'.

The sellout has obviously been planned for some time. It stinks.

The MSE newsletter will now be blocked from my inbox. Why bother with it? It will be nothing but spam and spyware.

cepheus

82% of users say no to the sellout so far

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/53515871#Comment_53515871

BJV

I saw this yesterday and I really did not know how I felt. I am somewhat new but over the last few months this forum has really helped. I actually liked the fact that within two clicks I could communicate with someone about child care, click later the state of the NHS click later consumer rights.

I have to say I am disappointed. Yes ok so move with your feet ! There are other forums, consumer action groups and the likes but it is already plagued with ads so much so that you can not read a post without a link for what ever appearing!

Guess I am sad. Really do not think or see how it will be the same.

Any commercial organisation that pays that much money will want a return on their investment and that means from us.

Shame on you Martin Lewis didn't you have enough money already !

payless

Purpose of a business... Maximisation of shareholder wealth.

Given the released revenue values- £87Mill looks cheap,
That said I would say it reflects the likely loss of confidence that will occur.

Shareowners ( which includes Martin) will still be expecting wealth maximisation.( return of investment)

Rules of business include.. Have an exit plan, Martin may have made more by continuing , but might have wanted out - or perhaps felt it had run its time.

In his shoes would have have taken the money .. hard not to, but will full understanding that flax would follow, and future focus might have to be commercial, especially as I feel his comments / articles will now be tainted with "is this really indepenent" and " what will he/they make from it"

SXGuy

anyone on here who thinks this is a good thing for "your" forum, are living on another planet, sorry but thats the truth.

You talk about it being "your" forum, yet you have NO control over the content, all you have, is the "hope" that a mod wont delete your post should they feel it not acceptable. This already happens with certain subjects which i wont mention, but anyone seen me post before will know what i mean.

So your all assuming that you will be given debt help from a site which is fully affiliated with a site that promotes Credit Cards? i.e DEBT.

So next time you are finding it hard paying your creditors and you are paying them tokens, feel safe in knowing that the next advice you will prob get from here, is to consolidate your debt with a nice loan or credit card from their partners at MoneySupermarket.

WAKE UP, yes this is a business, and ML can do what he likes, but do not sit there deluded thinking that this is anyway YOUR site, or that it will not influence people to make bad debt choices.

Time for you all to move on to somewhere, where people actually help you get out of debt, not put you more in it.

Rant over.

Mort

Looks like a good deal to me and nothing should change too much.
I don't pay to use the site, I am just a user so don't expect a say on how it is run or who owns it.

Am I envious of Martin's success? Certainly. Will I lose sleep over it? No. Am I grateful the site exists? You bet.

nuno

Moneysavingexpert.com isn't worth £87m. Its value is in its users and the content they bring to this forum. If you screw over the users, they will screw the site over, leave and the investment from money supermarket will be pretty worthless. we're already hearing a lot of people are unsubcribing from the email - I'm not sure if this is just a vocal minority or not, time will tell.

I'm disappointed that this site has been sold. All claims to maintain editorial independence count for nothing - you can wrap things up in as many contracts as you like, the fact remains a site that aims to give objective financial advice is now 100% owned by another profit making financial website. You cannot truly believe you will remain independent MSE team?!

There is really not much on the main site that can't be found elsewhere - most of us already use moneysupermarket to compare deals all the time. The real gold in this place is on the forum (I hardly go on the main site) at least for 90% of us. The forum should have remained a separate entity to prove to its users (who have brought massive value) that there is a place they can still go and remain critical of whoever deserves to be examined. Including money supermarket. Now I'm not saying the users OWN any part of the site, of course not. But they do bring value to the table.

The money aspect isn't important. It could have been £8.7m or £870m for all I care - congrats on the payday. The thing I think most people are upset about is that a well loved forum is now not going to be open discuss all things equally. Words like "go compare" and "compare the market" will shortly be censored I can guarantee it. A thread like "use go compare for X, I've found them to be consistantly cheaper than moneysupermarket" will not last a day. Now for forums like valve's steam forums, this is acceptable: the rules were on the table when you signed up that you don't post about amazon offers etc, but this place attracted its users based on independence and now (no matter how much you claim to the contrary) this forum will slowly become moderated to suit moneysupermarket's investment

Bottom line, the main site can do what it likes and congratulations to the team on a successful sale. The forum however should have been spun off to remain independent.

anselld

Martin hasn't been truly in dependant for some time. He already sold out to the politicians over the Student Loan debate. This is just another step down the same road.

However it really doesn't change anything. "do your own research" allways applied and allways will do.

mcgsp

It's all very sad.

I have found 3 main sources of information in my attempts to spend wisely and avoid many of the pitfalls which catch us out if we don't have enough information.

Two of them: this site and Which (with its commission from the any companies which provide energy to people who move as part of its Big Switch) will now need to be treated with caution - I will continue to use them but will be less trusting. The third "HotUKDeals" will hopefully continue as it is.

I just hope that not too many people give up on MSE. If they do, we'll need a new site as we all need help from time to time given that commercial organisations will always do their best to maximise profits and information is our best weapon as a means of fighting back.