Martin Q&A about his work and the site

THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN INSERTED INTO THIS POST - AS THE CHARACTER LIMIT WAS REACHED ON THE FIRST POST. THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE IS RETAINED AT THE END. MARTIN What has been your most memorable TV appearance. And what has been your most memorable post on MSE Forums?

My first appearance on This Morning, simply as it was such a huge step in my career and I knew if it went well there was a job as regular expert. Thankfully it did and that really was when things started to take off. Even though I'd been doing the job a long time before then - this was my first major regular TV job.

As for the most memorable post on here, to be honest I simply can't answer that, I really can't think of any specific one. Sorry to be pants.

Have you ever been in debt yourself?

Pre-university I took a year off and worked which helped me save for Uni. When I was there those savings helped me through, though I took out a student loan - so that was my first time in debt. I then worked for two years in financial PR before I went to do my postgrad.

During the last year of that, I knew I was going to do the postgrad, so I deliberately put aside half my disposable income to save for the 9 months of the course. While on the course I'd taken a career development loan, but actually never needed it and just stoozed the cash.

After my postgrad I was lucky enough to get a job (at the BBC) which started on the Monday after the course'd finished on the Friday (from memory). I think that was the only time I ever went genuinely into overdraft for that month until I got my first pay.

Do you ever think that the site will kill "Golden Geese", e.g. will we see the death of rate tarting and stoozing because of too many people on the band wagon?

Loopholes are always closed. It's the nature of them. Rate tarting has already been hit by the growing savviness of consumers. I do think the volume of MoneySavers will and does impact the marketplace, yet it’s still on the periphery. It's my great hope that we increase financial and debt literacy so that card and other companies need to change their offers. Though I wouldn't call this killing the golden goose, I'd call it laying a golden egg.

What is your vision of the future for the site? What are your goals?

Well the big change to come is a redesign - so people can find the info better. I want the site to be really easy to use so people can find the info at speed and easily. I want more tools on the site (one or two are underway) and to keep building the articles to an ever wider subject range.

As for growth, I'm addicted to my "email numbers" which details how many people get the email. I have a graph on my computer I update daily, with lots of rolling averages of the numbers. It's a really sad nerdy thing... but it’s a huge ambition of mine to reach more people, and stop them having companies take money out of their pockets.

Currently there are 665,000 people on the email, a million would be incredible, so that's my next target.

Do you have any thoughts on how to balance shopping ethically and saving money, and whether this is likely to lead to a problem for ethically-minded MSE-ers in the future?

It's my belief that environmental change takes two elements.... the first is government and regulatory change.... the second is personal action. Yet I think for those who are financially uncomfortable, making the effort to be green is very tough, and thus in many ways simply showing people how to be better MoneySavers enables them to make more green choices.

When it comes to the environmental impact of MoneySaving itself, this is a difficult one. Of course cheaper can sometimes mean other factors such as environmental impact are forgotten. Yet I don't believe there's necessarily a conflict.

E.g. showing people how to get a cheap flight could mean they fly more. It can also mean they fly the same number of times but pay less. I have recently thought perhaps of including details of carbon emission offsetting in the article and may do so at next main rewrite.

Yet the techniques of MoneySaving don't preclude being environmental. It is simply a criterion that people must include in their search for the perfect product. E.g. I want the cheapest energy becomes I want the cheapest green energy.

Do you remember your very first money-saving/enterprising activity? Mine for example was waking up at 6am and collecting seafood, then selling it at a local market when I was around 9...

Also, I know it's cheeky but I've spotted spellos in the weekly e-mails, if you don't have a proof-reader - can I be one!

Actually in a way I question whether your example is MoneySaving or entrepreneurial. It's not a criticism, more of a definition. For me MoneySaving is about being a better consumer. Entreprise while not conflicting, is for me something different - it's MoneyMaking.

My first MoneySaving memory would be realising that it was cheaper to get the sweets I liked when I went with my Dad to the cash & carry/Makro and take them into school with me, rather than buying them at the tuck shop. Can't remember how old I was though....

As for proof readers... I have them, as my spelling is notoriously poor.... and their wrists should be slapped for such errors


(Without naming names) Have any of the "big boy" companies tried to lean on your website and apply pressure to try to protect their extensive profit margins?

Amalgamated with

Do you get hate mail from the big companies? And do they refuse your business when they find out who you are?

When I write, I do so as a journalist and am diligent to check out that I am within the law. The companies accept me, I think, as a necessary evil, so have never put pressure on. They used to call a lot to try and 'sell me the merits of their product', but these days after loosing my tongue, they tend only to do that if it's something plausibly decent that I would be interested in.

As a customer I tend to get better rather than worse service if the press office are aware of who I am, as self-evidently I have a direct line to negative publicity. In fact I'd rarely ever write on my own story. If there's a problem, I'd call up a journalist I know and tell them the story - and when it’s written, depending on what it is ask for it to be anonymous.

The real time they put pressure on is about things in the forum. Stories of poor service, or voucher codes. Often they come in hard with legal threats and this is one of the most difficult things to deal with. Sometimes I fight; sometimes I consider the issue isn't big enough.

Unfortunately part of the deal when I don’t is usually that the posts come down and nothing further is written. Posters can then get upset that their post has been deleted without explanation. Without realising the site is under threat from a legal suit about something minor or some rude words.

Yet sometimes, where I feel it is in the consumer interest, and the consumer is right, I spend money on my own lawyers and tell them to bog off! Please don't ask for any details about the above, by the nature of it I can't say much.

Only once have I ever been genuinely scared by legal threats, it was truly hideous and brought me to my knees, but in the end I believed I was doing the right thing and took the decision to fight. It was all ok in the end. Unfortunately I can't tell you any more about that!

Do you have a good relationship with your bank, and have they ever said anything to you about you supporting us (ConsumerActionGroup) in helping people recover unlawful bank charges?

I bank online, so I have no relationship with it and nothing's ever been said about the CAG.

Are you asked more frequently for your autograph now?

I'm very very rarely asked for autographs, maybe 10 times in my life. However I am stopped and spoken to much more freely now. In London it usually happens five or six times a week. If I'm outside London it's much more frequent - a number of times a day.

People are usually very friendly and say a variety of "it's you isn't it?", "you're the money man?", "you're off the telly aren't you?", "I just want to thank you for saving me money", "I love your website I get the email", "would you mind if I asked you a quick question about my mortgage/credit card etc?"

People are usually very nice and I don't mind. Occasionally it can be a bit difficult. E.g. 9.30pm after doing a 14 hours day, in the supermarket to pick up dinner as I've been away filming for four days, and a women starts to cry as she sees me saying "you have to help me, please" and wanting a full money makeover to save her and her kids. It's a very difficult moment.

And in a similar vein, what impact does your fame/infamy have on your life? apart from invites to all the right parties, what other perks does it bring?
Infamy!!! ;)Not that much to be honest. Many of my friends are journalists - so it makes no difference to them. I don't get that many party invites, when I do they're fun, but not really. There really aren't that many more perks - occasionally I now get first class travel paid for by whomever I'm working for, but not too much more.

I suspect you have to be a lot more famous than me for that to happen. There are some negatives though - it makes you very self conscious whenever you're out - aware of the impression you're giving.

You must have met a few MPs by now and realised that despite having floated to the top, they aren't necessarily super-human. They need all the assistance they can get, so when are you going to write a budget for the Chancellor to plagiarise?

I wouldn't have a clue where to start. I often get asked this question and actually that's such a different discipline. Where I do speak to politicians, when I get the chance, and some of the things I would love to rewrite are legislation involving debts, and financial services issues....

I direct people here on a weekly if not daily basis and have done since joining in March, but the more I send here the more people with financial problems that by far out do my own I find. Don't you ever find it disheartening that MSE don't reach the same amount of people that those dreaded loan adds (boo hiss) on telly do?

Yes terribly, and I've often thought I'd love to do an ad for the CAB, CCCS and National Debtline. I'd more than happily give my time, but funding the ad budget is the problem - it'd cost millions and those agencies (nor I) have it!

We're getting there though... slowly, thankfully. The more people who tell others about the site, the better we do.

Do you cut coupons and use them even if you do not buy the product, on the basis that someone else will buy it and not use a coupon?

Occasionally. If they're acceptable. This is one of those areas where these days I’m a bit weary. It's a bit like when I walk in a shop and the person behind the counter says, "ah its you, I bet you're going to try and haggle with me, not here you won't!”

So did you take your early job at Brunswick expressly to learn the power of the corporate "dark side”? Or did the power of the dark side you saw at Brunswick shock you into changing tack?

I wish I’d been clever enough to pre-think it. I went to Brunswick because I was offered the job and it sounded interesting. Sir Peter Parker was the Chairman of the LSE Court of Governors which I sat on when I was President (General Secretary) of the Students Union. I won a big debate there about student representation on the standing committee of the Uni - students had lost for the previous twenty odd years and I managed, somehow, to turn it round.

After that meeting he said to me "I think you should meet my son - he could use someone like you." His son turned out to be Alan Parker who owns Brunswick and I was offered a job. It was an amazing opportunity as I was very young to go straight in there as an exec after Uni - so I jumped at it.

While I was there I learned a lot, and was doing reasonably well, but realised it wasn't what I was about - I was on the wrong side of the debate for me and thus decided that I needed to get out.

Can I ask, does your long-term plan/vision hope to include a solution to the lack of any one-on-one non-profit debt help and guidance?

It's something that’s often on my mind, but I've not yet found an easy and do-able solution!

What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

Well, my grandma was always very keen to ensure I wore clean underwear and that's never done me wrong!

However I think perhaps the one I remember most was a piece of career advice. When I was doing my sabbatical year as president of my Uni, the Director (would be Vice Chancellor anywhere else) was a chap called Dr. John Ashworth. We always personally got on well, even though disagreed on policy over many things.

Towards the end of my year (before the job offer above) I was speaking to him about careers and asked what on earth I should do. He'd had (and has since) an illustrious range of jobs e.g. Chief Govt Science Officer, Chair of the British Library, Director of Sainsbury and Granada and his answer was "don't worry about jobs and careers, try to grab skills where ever you are".

I always remembered this and it was later that I found that skills learned from being Uni President, working for Brunswick, doing stand-up, journalistic training, working on summer camp in the USA, being a caravan awning salesman, being a Beeb reporter/producer have all massively helped what I do now. I would never have thought it - but often refer back to skills acquired in this variety of things in my current work.

Martin

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SouthScouser's Original Question

I posted this on the other thread so ignore that one!

I'm not creeping here! Honest! But you are a bit of an inspiration! What inspired you to do what you do, if anything?

Also do you send off for the freebies and stuff that you include in your email?

And do you use Quidco?

heres one martin

'are you ever going to answer that scrabble question?'

Will

ps thats the first scrabble question not the second one!

My question to you is who inspired you to be good with money. Did you start at an early age. Was you always encouraged to be a money saver.

Also i do hope your realise how addictive your site is.
Thankyou Martin.

My question is. Is there anybody you have worked with on TV who is really irritating or has really not "got" moneysaving. Obviously you dont have to name name's unless you really want to.