Bad journalism at thisismoney.co.uk

martinman3

Late yesterday an article was posted on the thisismoney.co.uk site entitled "The best - and worst - new cash Isas" in which it listed the best available cash ISAs and contrasted them with a couple of low paying ISAs. It said of one of them

New cash Isa losers

There are a few bad apples in every barrel and the current crop of Isa launches does not disappoint when it comes to mediocrity – particularly among fixed-rate Isas, which is doubly disappointing given the great deals on offer in this market at present.
The Isa deserving the most derision is the Leeds Building Society Inflation Buster Isa Issue 4, launched a day after this year's Isa deadline, which offers a paltry 2%. This will end up losing you money if the Bank of England governor's fears over possible inflation of 3.5% come to fruition.

You might think that the standard of journalism from this site must be quite high, as I used to, considering that these articles are published in the DailyMail.:rolleyes: However, the Leeds Building Society account to which they refer does not pay 2% but actually pays RPI+2% which makes a nonsense of the story as it is almost the best paying ISA at the moment and probably will get better in the months ahead.

Myself and two other readers added comments to correct the error in the story which were the only ones shown there until today. Instead of dropping the story or rewriting it, they have reposted it without the comments and now do not allow any to be made.

How does the law stand on publishing information about a company's product which is known by the publisher to be untrue ?
Article here http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=441748&in_page_id=7

Mickey_Monk

Comments are still there

ManAtHome

Comments are (rightly) still there in your link.

ThisIsMoney do have a lot of good quality articles, but they do publish over-sensational and wrong information from time to time. If your link wasn't for the "revised" version, I'd be tempted to email the Leeds (although I'd have thought they'd have spotted it as well).

martinman3

The comments were definitely not there when I posted at 11.18pm. It may be some temporary system problem at their end.

Everyone on here will think I am crazy now.:D

Still proves though that "the facts should never get in the way of a good story"

martinman3

The author of the article has today posted a comment in which he apologies and thanks the readers for pointing out his error.

Maybe Leeds Building Society have been in contact.

nrsql

The article has also been changed

Another good offer is the Leeds Building Society Inflation Buster Isa Issue 4, launched a day after this year's Isa deadline, which offers RPI plus 2%.

Red faces I suspect.

purple12

ManAtHome wrote: »

.

ThisIsMoney do have a lot of good quality articles, but they do publish over-sensational and wrong information from time to time. .

Just like the Daily Mail - funnily enough

DocProc

Just a reminder that the FSA publish tables on a whole variety of products from their member organisations. Of course, these do include 'Cash ISAs'.

The information on the site is regularly updated and is completely independent as to whether the members personally advise the FSA or not. Thus it is impartial and factual and is not to do with whether the members advertise with the web site or not.

The tables are available at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/tables

They also have a screening tool, thus:

1. How much do you want to put in the account initially?
A. £3600

2. Do you want to make regular deposits?
A. No.

3. Do you want to see accounts where the interest is tax free or taxable?
A. Tax Free.

4. How much notice....etc, etc?
A. Show all.

5. Do you want to see accounts that are available to....etc, etc?
A. Show all.

6. How would you like to sort your results?
A. AER%

The above screen produces a list, which is two pages long and contains 196 different Cash ISA products.

Jonbvn

Thanks for the info about the Leeds BS a/c RPI+2.0%, given the outlook for RPI.

Edit. However, after reading the T&C's the interest rate is based in the % change in RPI between certain dates, not RPI itself. This could be quite risky.

martinman3

Jonbvn wrote: »

Thanks for the info about the Leeds BS a/c RPI+2.0%, given the outlook for RPI.

Edit. However, after reading the T&C's the interest rate is based in the % change in RPI between certain dates, not RPI itself. This could be quite risky.

The annual inflation rates are also quoted in the same way, as the percentage change in the RPI in the last 12 months, just like the NS&I Index Linked certs do.

As far as I know, NS&I do the interest calculation using the RPI data from the month you withdraw and the anniversary of the month the cert was opened, as you can withdraw at any time, whereas Leeds BS do it every year on 31st May using the RPI from Feb in the current and previous years, and you cannot withdraw until maturity in 2 years.