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

poundshillingpence_2

Recently, I noticed aggressive marketing to sign on for the email. - screen blacking out, 'get the email' window highlighted. Almost giving the fleeting impression that you couldn't read the weekly email without subscribing.
Now I know why they were so keen to harvest all those subscriptions...

ross007

Anyone who would sell for £87million FACT, people who claim they would not are just kidding themselves. Who cares - money talks.

blossomhill_2

I have given the situation some thought and I think the reason why people feel so aggrieved is because of who the posters were - eg someone who has gone through bankruptcy, prepared to share their experience in the hope of helping another, and instead someone else decides to profit from that.

Someone in debt who has found a way to get through the day without spending money they don't have and shares their tips; hey kerching! I can make a profit from their ideas!

If it had just been ordinary consumers who shared how to maximise glitches I don't think there would have been such an issue but this feels like Robin Hood skimming the poor to give the profit to ... Robin Hood

Gorgeous_George

The site was created my Martin Lewis. Its value was and still is whatever someone is prepared to pay for it. £87M seems cheap when you see what Facebook is supposed to be worth.

I would question the 'billions' saved by MSEers though. If we have saved money then who has not earned the billions? For example, we think we save a few quid by switching energy providers yet the energy companies profits increase year on year. These profits come from the consumers - us - so how can they keep increasing if we are saving money?

The banks have been forced to return billions of pounds of PPI earnings and bank charges have been reduced - MSE helped to achieve this. The end result is that the banks still need to make a profit. Notwithstanding the credit crunch, the result will be that we will lose the free banking that I have enjoyed ever since I learned not to go overdrawn. I never paid for PPI so nothing saved for me.

I virtually left MSE forum some time ago due to it being ambushed by idiots.

Good luck Martin.

GG

ThrobsBlackHat

Man, there is some self righteousness doing the rounds.

Yes this site will never be the same again.

And for £35 million in cash, you would have done the same too.


Everyone complaining it is now commercialised and a bit of a sell out seem to have forgotten it's annual revenue had broken £16 million.

What bit of that is not commercialised?

Sure, it was still impartial. It still can be. MS are not product providers they are affiliate marketers.

This site has become a massive affiliate marketer.

60% of its revenue came from MS.

They were already in bed together, in that sense.

The only difference now is that MSE is sharing their bed, not the other way round.

aliasojo

melbell wrote: »

That was personal to the sell out how?

It's not.

aliasojo wrote: »

......but posting personal remarks like you did about what other people think is out of line.

You can't even read what was written so how is anyone supposed to take your comments seriously, instead of putting them down as being argumentative just for the sake of it?

aliasojo

blossomhill wrote: »

I have given the situation some thought and I think the reason why people feel so aggrieved is because of who the posters were - eg someone who has gone through bankruptcy, prepared to share their experience in the hope of helping another, and instead someone else decides to profit from that.

Someone in debt who has found a way to get through the day without spending money they don't have and shares their tips; hey kerching! I can make a profit from their ideas!

If it had just been ordinary consumers who shared how to maximise glitches I don't think there would have been such an issue but this feels like Robin Hood skimming the poor to give the profit to ... Robin Hood

I can understand this completely.

However I'm not sure ML's intention was to use this/the site/us like that.

The reason I say that is because I remember an instance years ago where there was a world tragedy (can't remember which offhand) and ML called for everyone to donate something to the cause. He was being quite 'forceful' at the time and he reckoned that everyone could donate a percentage of what they had saved over the year, so if someone had swapped energy suppliers and saved £80 then they could donate 10% of that for example. He was quite caught up in this and quite vocal about it. He made it clear he thought people should do this and there was an underlying feeling about those that didn't.

I (and others) felt at the time that his stance (whilst admirable) wasn't reflective of how a lot of us used MSE and was very unfair.

I didn't save money, I spent it. I lived on the Grabbit board back then and I would buy whatever great bargain interested me. But it wasn't because I needed it and so had saved money on the purchase, it was because I was weak and a bit of a shopaholic. MSE cost me a lot of money in those days.

I also came here just to 'chat', it was a social avenue for me.

I was quite annoyed at feeling badgered into giving money I couldn't afford to give so I pm'd Martin (shows you how long ago it was if he could be pm'd, lol) and I told him I thought his heart was in the right place but that many of us simply did not fit in with his vision of what was happening at his site and his thoughts on saving and donating.

Credit to him he replied and admitted he hadn't considered that could be the case, he was working on the thought that people came to his main site, found whatever 'deal' and saved money on it. It was a straightforward way of thinking that was honest and genuine. (But wrong for a lot of us, lol.)

So I think Martin's thought process over this sell out is in the same vein. He knows the users feel the site (forum) is important but he's looking at it from one aspect and perhaps hasn't been prepared for the view from 'the other side' iyswim.

I do think he has profited from the site users, but I don't think he set out a net to do so deliberately. I think he just sees things in a different way to some of us maybe. I just don't feel he's the cold blooded calculating money grabber that some are making him out to be.

He chose to go into the world of financial business, he never signed up to be Mother Theresa. The site developed into something that offered a good deal which would secure his and his family's future and he took it. Damn right, I'd have done exactly the same.

mrBlue

It would have been better, more ethical and nice if ML had offerred all members a chance to buy shares in a floated company instead; then the real customers of the site would have been able to try to keep it independent. Perhaps we millions should object to the Competition Commission: after all, this is a dangerous precedent for impartiallity. Of VERY GREAT CONCERN however, are the user privacy issues. Under no circumstances should member details be made available to Moneysupermarket.com.

absfabs

Very disappointed, Martin.
Byeeee

poundshillingpence_2

Martin made Personal Finance fun for people who hadn't previously taken an interest, but my appreciation is for posters on the many forums. Ive enjoyed many freebies and lots of advice over the years, thank you!