Episode 1: 9th Jan - What did you think?

littlemissmoney

I'm confused about what Martin said about current accounts... I think he said if on average you have a lot in your current account you should go with First Direct's £100 bonus... if you don't have much in your account you should go for Abbey's 8%. Surely that's the wrong way around? Surely the higher interest rate is better for people with lots of money in their account and the bonus better for people with less?

Am I missing something here or did I missunderstang what he was saying?

crocodileteeth

I'm only a newbie but watching the show made me feel like an expert. Watched it with my husband who was amazed, but I kept saying 'yep. I knew that.'

MiM

I enjoyed it, although I agree most site regulars will also know most of the info already.

Only annoying bit the otherwise lovely OS board lady saying "off of" instead of just "off" but that's just me being grumpy!

By the way, I think Martin got the bank thing the right way round, ie Abbey better for those with over £1,000 in their a/c at the end of most months.

melancholly

i liked it - the only thing i could see as an issue is that it covered so many topics. for newbies (like my parents who i ordered to watch!) it might be information overload... perhaps one less topic and a bit more time on the others? but i don't mean that to be a criticism as such because i enjoyed it!

sweetmoneysaver

Really annoyed that Freeview box had no signal for channel Five today so I missed it. Been a bad day for things not working .... PC went bang this morning, luckily my mum had given us her old one so up and running again after a few hours. Shame there is no on-line service for Five like there is with BBC and Channel 4.

Edinburghlass_2

littlemissmoney wrote: »

I'm confused about what Martin said about current accounts... I think he said if on average you have a lot in your current account you should go with First Direct's £100 bonus... if you don't have much in your account you should go for Abbey's 8%. Surely that's the wrong way around? Surely the higher interest rate is better for people with lots of money in their account and the bonus better for people with less?

Am I missing something here or did I missunderstang what he was saying?

Have a read of Martin's article here on current accounts.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts

Edinburghlass_2

sweetmoneysaver wrote: »

Really annoyed that Freeview box had no signal for channel Five today so I missed it. Been a bad day for things not working .... PC went bang this morning, luckily my mum had given us her old one so up and running again after a few hours. Shame there is no on-line service for Five like there is with BBC and Channel 4.

Keep up with it on the It Pays To Watch website here...

http://www.itpaystowatch.co.uk/

crocodileteeth

Have told the people using the grabbit board about this thread. (will prob get complaints) but there are loads of people looking at the same old grabbits and i'm sure they don't know this new board is here. And they may have missed the tv programme as well.

BigBouncyBall

oh dear i think i'm going to be unpopular.

I thought the show was pretty bad i'm afraid.

I thought it was incredibly patronising in places. It was a rip off of the 'Top Gear' format of studio audience/celeb guest on a 'leaderboard' type thing.

Martin sounded like he was on speed or perhaps too much caffeine? And felt he had to explain any concept not by standing and talking to people in a grown up way, but bringing out giant calculators, walking around, climbing a wall(?) - (was anyone else waiting for him to say "it's enough to drive you up the wall!!!" on that segment?) and bouncing around the studio.

As for those people who claimed back their mortgage fees in '3 minutes' - do you really expect us to believe that? Perhaps 3 minutes after the 30 minutes of waiting on the telephone, getting through to the wrong dept etc?

I noticed that woman saying 'off of the internet' too.

sorry, i know its more appropriate to blame the production company, but martins name is above the shop and i think he has higher standards than that show.

To be honest, i think martin you're in danger of getting ahead of yourself. To me it came accross like you're trying to become the Jeremy Clarkson of the money world.

I'm hardly one to give career advice, but compare martins style to that of David Kuo (financial writer on the fool.co.uk website), he has a wonderfully natural, simple, grown up and non patronising way of talking about financial matters. Martin would do well to listen to his 'style'.

Sorry. I love the work this site does, however i really thought that was an absolute shambles of a programme tonight. Sorry.

BigBouncyBall

I also have to take serious issue with your segment on PruHealth. I think you miss sold that scandalously. You made no mention of the fact that most people will NOT be eligable for medical insurance with PruHealth, and further those that will will unlikely get the £20-40 premiums you mention. You made no mention either of the fact that if you do not use the Gym your premiums will rise dramatically and your gym membership will no longer be free.

I think you should make a correction/clarification on next weeks show.