Martin’s Blog…

A wee tale via my big sister Debby. She’s a Manchester based aerobics/step/body pump etc instructor, and excitedly went to the massive instructors convention on at Blackpool’s winter gardens on Friday. Deb’s as enthusiastic about her work as I am about mine, so she bounded up there early for maximum time (if you want an idea of how my sis would be in a place like this, if you’ve seen the film Kenny, you’ll understand).

After a while she went to one of the music stores, called ***** ***** to get some new tunes for her classes. As it’s a public performance this isn’t like buying music for yourself, it comes with the PPL licence (that allows you to play it for commercial purposes).

The following conversation ensued.

Deb: “Any chance of getting a discount, I am already a member?”

Salewoman: “Discount. No chance. Where do you get that from?”

Deb: (laughs) “Uh oh, I think I may be turning into my brother!”

Saleswoman: (Deb had already given membership card; after looking at it) “You’re a Lewis, your brother isn’t called Martin is he?”

When Deb said it was, the saleswoman revealed herself as a massive site user (apparently a competitions board regular). On hearing this, one of the nearby DJ’s came over to comment that she’s always going on about the site and the MoneySaving on there. Of course my sister, seeing an opportunity said:

Deb: “Do I get a discount now?”

Even then, after a fun chat, it was a no. So she bought the goods and left.

A little later I called her and was regaled with this story. So for a bit of fun, I told her to mutter I’d tell the story in here, but without revealing the company; after all, no discount, not a drop of publicity. Apparently when she returned to tell them that, “discounts next time” were mentioned. Ah well…

Comment and Discuss

A young man rang my doorbell, maybe aged 20. He said he was from the local learning disability home and was looking for sponsorship for a ten-mile run he was doing; the money would support the home. He handed me an untidy sponsorship list which many people had signed.

After a brief conversation, to my instincts (and my father was headmaster of a school catering for children with learning difficulties and I grew up living there) he very much seemed to have learning difficulties. It was difficult to communicate and he appeared to be answering much as he’d been told too.

I asked him if I could give him an email address for the sponsorship, but unfortunately he didn’t really understand. I did ask if anyone would be helping him with the list, but he was a little confused. However he did let me know some people had sponsored him there and then.

This left me in a difficult position. I wanted to help; maybe I’m a soft touch, but it was cold and he was very earnest and trying hard. It did cross my mind that perhaps it was just a good act; I’d asked him for ID but he didn’t have any (the home should’ve done that). So what do you do? In the end I decided to give him five pounds in cash; better than putting my details on a form, and enough that if I was conned I don’t regret it too much.

What would you’ve done?

Comment and Discuss

I’m interested to know if there’s a new trend in companies using disguised premium rate 0870 numbers (see the saynoto0870 guide). Twice in the last week I’ve been given 0870 numbers to dial, yet rather than being told the number is 0870-123-123, both times it’s been told to me as 087-012-3123. Thus the call operator is never actually saying the phrase 0870. Cunning devils…

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Back in 1995, at the end of my year as General Secretary (President) of the LSE Students Union, having only recently discovered e-mail, the entertainments sabbatical, Gary Delaney (who’s now a stand-up comic), and I were surfing the web – before it was called that – and came across Stephen Fry’s website.

Back then the internet was in its infancy, confined to limited numbers in Universities, and techies. We were both comedy fans (I spent a couple of years doing amateur stand-up, with Gary writing some of it; thankfully he later worked up the courage to do it himself, and unsurprisingly massively surpassed me as he has funny bones I could never dream of) and Stephen Fry was a great hero.

Tentatively we emailed him, wondering if the great man would e-mail back, and shockingly he did. Unshockingly, while I can’t remember exactly what he said, it was witty and erudite. Yet the biggest surprise was the fact that he’d bothered to email back in the first place.

As I now know to my cost, as the Internet’s grown it’s become virtually impossible for those of us in the public eye to answer back, even people as low down the pecking order as me. I get literally thousands of emails every day, and all get an auto-response; a shame as in the early days of the site I tried to follow Stephen’s example; now I could spend 24 hours a day replying and still not reply to them all. Though I do try to post in the Forum whenever possible.

Occassionally I manage to email or respond to a PM, and sometimes when I do I get something like “I can’t believe I’m actually talking to you – is it really you?” in response. Rather similar to my email back to Stephen Fry…

Comment and Discuss

Just a quick update on some earlier blogs (see LSE Governors blog and blagging about fiduciary responsibility). I’m very proud to say it’s been confirmed that I will be officially joining the Governors this year.

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I know many MoneySavers are stats nerds like me. So I thought you’d enjoy the fact that yesterday was busiest the site has ever had. The vast majority of this is due to the weekly MoneySaving email, where both the Ryanair 1p flights article and Are your savings safe?} were HUGELY well read/used.

Overall the stats for Wed 20 March 2008

Page Impressions: 2.5 million

Visits: 545,000

Unique Users: 419,000

Average Time on site: 5:55 minutes

Just as a comparison….

Roughly six months ago (I’ve used a Wed to be fair – as it’s the busiest day)

Overall stats for Wed 24 October 2007

Page Impressions: 1.43 million

Visits: 320,000

Unique Users: 247,000

Average Time on site: 5:43 minutes

Sadly I can’t go back a year as we were using a slightly different stats package then and thus the comparison wouldn’t be totally fair (but it was substantially less back then; maybe 60% of current traffic).

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If you read my why does no one text me? blog, you’ll know that these days after I’ve been on TV I don’t get any texts from friends or family. Rather bizarrely this week, the MSF appeared on It Pays To Watch in a package about mobiles. As soon as she finished she got SEVEN, yes SEVEN texts and I didn’t get one. This really is rather silly; it’s MY programme after all…

Even my less-than-subtle mention of how to get free texts from your mobile in the MoneySaving news didn’t make any difference. Hmpff.

Comment and Discuss

I’m quite substantially under the weather at the moment, which is a bit of a struggle since the financial collapse means I’m getting a lot of interview requests.

However it has made me mull over what I call, “the different types of well.”

At the moment I’m somewhere between bed and home well, which does cause concern for tomorrow’s show, as I’m nowhere near that specialised category – studio well – where I can do an afternoon of adrenaline-pumped studio work. The problem with having my own show, filmed on the day, is there’s no one to stand-in and no contingency to be ill. Not much fun!

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You have to hand it to ING Direct; first it sold out its customers by continually allowing its rates to drop, now it’s put the rate up, and left its old “no tricks” branding out in the cold.

ING Direct launched with a fanfare five years ago; to paraphrase its sell, “people want high rate savings with no tricks”. It was actually due to ING Direct that I started to use the term “clean savings” in my top savings account article, as a way to describe a simple account where you put the money in and get the rate no nonsense. Then things started to change:

First selling out its customers

Having been a consistent high-rate player, the rot set in when ING failed to pass a rise in UK base rates on to its customers, effectively meaning a 0.25% rate cut. This started to continue. I remember meeting the head of UK operations at the time and telling him I thought this was a ludicrous strategy, and if he dropped the rate more than 1% below the best buys it’d haemorrhage customers and I’d be shouting from the rooftops trying to help that happen.

He denied it and said ING had great stickiness - in other words people would stay. For me this was flaccid logic; after all, ING direct’s customer base was built on the back of rate tarts transferring money to a high-paying internet account. You can’t compare this with the high street banks’ customer bases – they can and sadly do drop savings rates with alacrity, and apathetic or ill-educated consumers stay put. Yet ING built its base by attracting people willing to move from the old style.

He went ahead and did it though, and the result? Let me quote from an article on FT.com in January:

“In the UK… ING Direct failed to follow the Bank of England base rate increases on three out of five occasions and watched £3.5bn in deposits leave in the third quarter. The withdrawals pushed the UK unit to a loss. Lindsay Sinclair, head of ING’s UK operations, left the company in early December.”

Now it’s selling out its business proposition

You may’ve seen ING Direct’s more recent TV ads, still with the old familiar red ring enclosing the latest rate. This rate looks attractive too; a nice 6%, which while not table-topping, isn’t too bad. Yet spot the difference; now this includes a ‘bonus’, which is bank speak for a short term rate hike to entice in new customers before they can fleece them again by letting the rate plummet. Existing customer don’t get it.

In fact if you read its terms it says:

“New ING Direct Savings Account customers will get 6.0% AER* variable (gross p.a. 5.84%, this includes a 0.95% bonus fixed for 12 months from account opening). After this period the variable rate will be paid, currently 5.0% AER*. This is a limited offer.”

Staggeringly, it still has the chutzpah to keep its tagline “ING Direct: keeping things simple”. Yeah, about as simple as the European Constitution!

Comment and Discuss

The latest announcement from Ocado (the online delivery firm for Waitrose) that it will price match Tesco on branded goods, is welcome news. I’m yet to check out the details, but at first glance it seems this will mean online shopping via Waitrose could actually undercut the in-store price (see the Cheap Supermarkets article for more).

What amuses me about this is that the trend for online shopping is hailed as a great convenience revolution of the technological age. Yet, as anyone old enough to remember the sit-com “Open all hours” will tell you, it’s nothing of the sort. Whilst the mechanics of ordering may have changed, the idea of home delivered groceries isn’t a new one.

Looking back with assumptive spectacles, it seems the supermarkets helped kill off the local grocer and its delivery services. Now these ‘cathedrals’ of consumerism are so dominant the market place has become theirs, and they’ve dressed up the old home delivery service as a modern development.

So much so, the common complaint “they never choose the best fruit and veg”, rings back to the days when grocers stores weren’t self service; you asked and they packed the goods for you.

My how times don’t change.

Comment and Discuss

PS. Supermarkets are always conceptually difficult for me as a Money Saving Expert. On the one hand I strongly support the price competition they’ve brought as it undoubtably benefits consumers. On the other the ensuing oligopoly (a monopoly by a few companies rather than by one) and the oligopsomy (where a few companies are the dominant buyers) of the food chain puts a lot of power in the hands of a few companies who could use it to push market abuses which in the long run may be detrimental to consumers.

There’s a chapter in the Money Diet called “Forget Loyalty”. I’ve ranted about it on telly and radio countless times, yet I must admit, even I’m not immune to the power of certain loyalty marketing promotions.

GM-TV is filmed at London Television Studios. On a Tuesday I go in for 7.30, do my live slot and then wait three hours to do a second, pre-recorded one. During this time, I often head down to one of the on-site catering facilities that has its own internal Starbucks. This is great; because it’s an internal franchise, it’s roughly half the price of a normal Starbucks for the same product. I often have a decaf latte as a poncy treat.

Yet this branch has a “Buy 8 speciality coffees/teas & get the 9th free” promotion; each time you buy a coffee you get your little card stamped. And I have to confess, there’s something deviously tempting about that when I’m choosing where I go to have breakfast; often the thought of it plays on my mind and I want to go have it stamped some more.

Worse still, if I see someone else’s card while I’m in the queue, I find myself checking to see if they’re further along than me (a symptom of my dreadful competitiveness!).

I do fight these impulses, asking “is it rational? Is it constructive?”, a simple mantra I often use when I need to make a decision unswayed by emotion (ok and I know using it on a coffee is perhaps overkill); yet I feel just for my reputation alone I have to fight being drawn down the marketing path.

Comment and discuss

Reflecting on my last blog, it occurred to me part of the reason for the lack of texts may’ve been because it’s just about the busiest media week I’ve ever had. It’s no wonder I’m writing this on Sunday night, feeling quite exhausted and desperately trying to catch up on everything else that needs doing.

While I’ve done more interviews and appearances in a week before, this was different; it was all big focused programmes and columns. So, for the sake of posterity I’ve decided to record my exact agenda:

Friday 29 Feb.
BB1 NW, Inside out, feature on the life of a MoneySavingExpert

Sun 2 March.
News of the World column, Sunday Post column.

Mon 3 March.
ITV1. Small trail on the end of Tonight for the Fri prog.

Tue 4 March.
ITV1. GM-TV 7.45am regular weekly expert slot (council tax reclaiming)

Wed 5 March.
ITV1. LK Today 8.45 regular weekly expert slot (best bank accounts)
Five. It Pays To Watch 7.30pm

Thur 6 March.
Moneywise column done
Hour-long charity speech

Fri 7 March.
Radio 2 Vine. 45 minute phone-in on student finance
ITV1. Tonight. Presenting Council Tax Cover-Up

Sun 9 March.
Five. It Pays To Watch Extra
News of the World Column

Mon 10 March.
Five. Wright stuff, expert slot

This misses out my research, work on the site, the weekly email, two articles I’ve drafted, and about another ten interviews and briefings given for the papers.

I suspect one day I’ll look back on this week and think WOW! Now I just think “need bed”.

Discuss this blog

Working on TV is one of the few jobs where everyone you know can see what you do for a living. In the old days when I used to do a TV programme, especially a big one like Tonight which is on between the two Coronation Streets, I’d get lots of texts from people saying they’d seen it.

After last Friday’s Council Tax cover-up (see the Council Tax Rebanding article or Watch Again on ITV’s site) I heard not a dickey bird. No friends, no family, not even the MSF’s family who normally watch everything. Total quiet. Whilst of course they’re now used to It Pays To Watch, being on each week, I had expected some comment on the programme, good or bad. That type of feedback is very valuable; no one’s as honest as my friends.

Perhaps it’s just a case of it’s now taken for granted.

At least the MSF watched it with me.

Comment and discuss.

I’m just going off to record the voice over for this evening’s Tonight (ITV1 8pm) that I’m presenting. It’s called Council Tax cover up, and it’s a slight (though not huge) departure for me. This time last year I did my Council Tax Cashback programme, revealing my ten minute check ‘n’ challenge system to see if you’re in the right band (see the Council Tax Rebanding article).

That was pure MoneySaving; all about how to get a backdated payout of £1,000s. This evening’s programme, while incorporating much of that and following it up, also focuses on an accusation that the Government knew 400,000 were paying too much and did nothing about it.

An alleyway I wouldn’t normally venture in

This is a political alleyway I wouldn’t normally venture in, but quite an exciting departure. The problem with it of course, is ensuring it’s accurate, and getting the tone right. My whole working life (and I’m not sure I need the ‘working’ in that phrase) is dedicated towards MoneySaving. Doing programmes is the easy bit; I’ll have been researching and working with my team on a subject for months, so all it takes is ‘tellyification’.

Yet for the political elements here, it leaves me reliant on the talented Tonight editorial team; the political work on the programme is theirs; and in many ways during those sections it’s their words coming out of my mouth. This isn’t a rarity; it’s actually the standard modus operandi for most current affairs programmes; the presenter is the mouthpiece of the collective production team. I’m only not used to it since in my hybrid presenter/expert role, by definition I break that mould.

The producer and I know each other from Uni

The producer of this programme, Alex and I know each other from outside professional life. We studied our Postgrad in Broadcast Journalism together at Cardiff University, yet it’s the first time I’ve worked with him and as he lives in Manchester I haven’t seen him for many years. Way back when I always thought he’d be a star reporter, but he now prefers life behind the camera.

In a way I was a little apprehensive about this at first; the dynamic of being produced by a student peer is a strange one… I tend to be, shall we say ‘quite precious’ about my words and how I put the message across when I’m talking MoneySaving. Yet actually, almost instantly it was easy, we got on well and it’s been fun.

Whether that translates to good telly and a good story though, you’re going to have to tell me. I’ve not seen it yet; until voice over I don’t get to see the whole thing edited together in one piece (it takes five days in the edit suite to piece the whole thing into one).

Comment and discuss

Update Note: Carol Barnes Sadly Missed. Sat 8 March

I wish I wasn’t writing to update this. Very sadly the tradgic news was announced today that Carol has died at the tender age of 63. My thoughts go to her family. Rest in peace Carol.

The Original Blog: Carol Barnes Get Well Soon

Having been filming hard for two days, I’ve only just heard that Carol Barnes is in a very serious condition in intensive care. To be honest I’ve a tear in my eye, and as there’s little any of us can do I thought it’d be cathartic for me if I wrote a public note on why I think Carol is wonderful.

I first met her back in 2000 on the Simply Money TV channel where I got my start as Money Saving Expert. When Angela Rippon was away, Carol would come in as the main presenter. As well as being very talented, she was also a kind, funny, witty woman who was a great laugh behind the scenes. We always had a good time, and she was the life and soul of the party, enlivening any do.

When Simply Money ended, we kept in touch for a while. I remember talking to her once about my ambition back then to “get money saving onto This Morning”. She told me she thought it a great idea, and an important topic that needed wider coverage.

Without telling me, as she knew some of the senior folks there, she wrote a letter to the programme extolling my virtues and those of the subject matter, something unheard of in the industry. I only found out about it later. It was actually a year or two later I ended up as the regular expert on the show, but this generosity of spirit is why, I suspect, there are many people around the UK with fingers crossed for her to get better soon.

Comment and discuss

It’s the 21st century and the internet is a dominant, potent force yet there are still hundreds of thousands of people without bank accounts in the UK. I’ve been pondering this recently because of both the Bank Charges case and the recent Ofcom announcement and court cases regarding higher charges for not paying via Direct Debit on utility bills.

Easy MoneySaving for most

With the utility bills, the simple thing to do is pay via Direct Debit for Gas & Electricity and it’ll save you up to 10%. On Home Phone bills, use a Direct Debit and paperless billing and you’ll save there too. Yet what if you don’t have a bank account?

Our national financial structures are now built around the concept of working with those who have bank accounts. For those without, shopping on the web, making payments, having direct debits, conducting money transfers and more all becomes a nightmare.

The banks don’t help

For once I don’t blame the banks for this situation. They are, of course, commercial companies that can reject or accept customers as they please to fulfill their profitability. If we want public service banking we’d have to nationalise them. My issue with the banks is one of communication.

Most banks do offer ‘basic bank accounts’ which even those with terrible credit scores should be able to get. These were set up, as far as I’m concerned, as a sop over Government concerns that there’s a lack of bank access and to prevent legal enforcement that banks must offer basic facilities.

The problem is, that while these are available, they’re underpublicised and hardly mentioned. I’ve heard so many times of people going into a bank and saying they have a bad credit history and don’t have a current account but want to apply for one. They’re then given forms for normal accounts, which of course they’re rejected from. To get these basic bank accounts, (with the notable and commendable exceptions of Barclays and the Co-Op which I hear do it better) you need to actually ask for the specific forms.

This is exclusion via confusion and should be stopped. If these accounts are truly there to work then they should be prominently portrayed and if you do apply for a normal bank account and get rejected you should automatically be offered the basic account version.

It’s the Government’s job though

Why we try and allow the banks to self-regulate on such an important social issue I don’t know. They have nothing to gain from it, so you can’t expect them to pull out and help; it’s not what they’re there for. As part of a truly fair, modern society we should ensure everyone has access to a bank account; and that needs doing via regulation. No such regulation exists so this sham continues.

Comment and Discuss

Debt isn’t bad, bad debt is bad. That’s one of my constant mantras. Yet I still can’t help feeling a little depressed when I read the press release from Sainsbury Financial – no doubt trying to flog its own not best buy products – see Cheapest Loans for those – which lists the horrid prospect that over £1bn will be borrowed for weddings this year.

While of course a wedding day is meant to be one of the most special in your life; it is only a day, a transitory thing. Spending money on it isn’t an investment like buying transport or expanding the house. What you spend has gone the next day leaving memories. And, as wonderful as they may be, are great memories really there because people spend a lot of cash?

My worry isn’t the amount spent: if you’ve got it and it makes you happy, then enjoy. Yet if it results in putting you and/or your family into serious debt just to get married, is that really a solid foundation to build a relationship on?

Surely a bit of understanding that you’re going to be together, hopefully forever, is more important. From memory, the statistics show that financial issues are second only to infidelity in the list of reasons that people get divorced, and borrowing heavily for a wedding doesn’t bode well in those stakes.

Is it ever right to borrow for a wedding?

As I explain in the Get Married the MoneySaving way article (which needs a little updating), if borrowing is controlled and thought through, then I’ve no problem. Yet if it’s going to cause you to be under the pressure of debt for a long time to come, it’s a real problem. The best rule of thumb is, if you can’t pay it off in under a year (which also means you can do it at 0% see best 0% purchases card), don’t do it.

Comment and Discuss

I’m not sure whether this means I’ve reached the depths or made it. While I was having my make up done for It Pays To Watch, the make-up artist, Justine, saw a small spot on my neck and pronounced that it couldn’t stay. I volunteered to deal with the offender myself, but she swiftly and professionally dispatched it. Now that doesn’t happen to me every day!

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