Martin’s Blog…

As a journalist, especially when broadcasting, it’s important to remember that the UK has a number of constituent parts and there are material differences in the rules covering them. The education and legal structures, for example, can differ substantially, with rules in England and Scotland often varying.

When doing my work I always try to check beforehand that I’m not just speaking about the English situation. Yet when you want an adjective to describe everyone, it doesn’t exist; the only word is British, but that seems to exclude people in Northern Ireland, as of course, it’s the United Kingdom of Great Britain (Eng, Scot, Wales) and Northern Ireland as well as a few smaller islands.

Perhaps it is time we introduced Ukish into the language, or maybe a slightly less ugly version that means the same?

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Whenever you write in the forum, beware marketing and branding experts are calculating the impact on their products. According to a fascinating piece on peer-to-peer communication in Marketing magazine, this site is “Probably the most powerful site on the Net right now” and it routinely comes top of the Brandwatch charts for the top source on brand comment.

Below I’ve reproduced the small section about this site. I do hope the magazine doesn’t mind - after all, following its own view, this is good marketing for it! To read the full article, here’s the link: Marketing Magazine piece (this section comes at the end).

“Money saving tips

Take MoneySavingExpert.com. When it comes to influencing UK consumer choices, this is probably the most powerful site on the Net right now. With nearly 5 million unique visitors a month - 2.2 million of them subscribing to its weekly money saving tips newsletter - MoneySavingExpert’s forums routinely come top of Brandwatch’s list of top sources of brand comment. “It is absolutely massive,” says Palmer. “Until I looked at our data, I didn’t quite know how big it is.”

The thing about MoneySavingExpert, however, is that it is a marketing free zone. Fiercely committed to providing independent, impartial advice to consumers, it refuses all advertising. Consumers actually go there positively wanting to be influenced - they are looking for help in making a choice. But they go there precisely because its content is not influenced by marketing. With MoneySavingExpert consumers are flocking to where they see value/ help in making better decisions. The “change consumer attitudes and behaviours in our favour” mindset of old media marketing ignores this need however. In doing so, it ignores the first rule of marketing - identify and meet your customer’s needs - thereby leaving the market wide open for new entrants.”

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I’m a sucker for cinema sweetie pick ‘n’ mix; it’s one of my little treats….

The other day, having succumbed (good for neither the wallet or the waistline), I was looking at the giant carton with my few sweets in and it got me mulling about sweetie/chocolate packaging in general. Think about it…

• Normal packs of sweets/chocolates have inflated packaging to make less look more.

  Here you often get a packet, open it and find out that this large, well packed and expensive product has far less sweets in than it feels it should from the outside.

• Pick ‘n’ mix sweets have massive cartons to make more look less.

  Here the opposite’s true. You put sweets in and it hardly looks like you’ve got any in there, encouraging you to fill it up. By the time you end up weighing it, you’re paying lot more than expected.

Sometimes you do have to admire such marketing genius.

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Is the credit crunch real? I’ve been asked this a few times, and put simply the answer is yes. The problem is the term’s now so corrupted, misunderstood and incorrectly used that it, like many other things currently being said, has become a nonsense.

I’m continually asked by my regular media outlets to ‘do things on the credit crunch.’ When I ask what they mean, the answers are things like “the rising cost of petrol”, “people feeling the pinch”, “mortgage rate hikes” or “the recession we’re in”.

In all but one of those it’s quite difficult for me to bite my tongue and not say “but I thought you wanted me to talk about the credit crunch?” So please try my quick quiz:

TRUE OR FALSE?

Which of the following statements do you think are true, and which false?

Scroll down for my version of the answers

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Something to think about before the answers

Please think about this concept; you may notice something similar coming up repeadly in what follows.

If a car accelerates from 0 – 60 mph in ten seconds, but then only gets to 70 mph in the next ten seconds, is its speed shrinking?

Don’t confuse absolute speed with acceleration.

• The UK is in recession. FALSE

  This is a commonly held false perception. First a definition:

  A recession is when there are two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Or in plain English, it’s when the economy has shrunk for six months.

  Yet the UK’s economy isn’t shrinking, it’s still growing, admittedly nowhere near as quickly as it used to, and we’re certainly feeling a slowdown, but it’s not shrinking.

  That doesn’t mean a slowdown is good, or times are easy, or even that we’re not going to go into a full recession (nobody can truly know one way or the other), but we’re not there yet.

• The UK has a problem of stagflation? TRUE (sort of)

  This is the latest buzz-word, and while like most things it’s arguable, we are suffering from it. First a definition:

  Stagflation is when an economy is suffering from both inflation and rising unemployment caused by a slow economic growth.

  Certainly the UK’s inflation is on the up: it’s now at 3.3% on the official measure, and 4.3% on the more relevant retail price index basket of goods rate. Plus, many people’s personal inflation is much higher due to jumps in the cost of food, fuel, and energy.

  Equally certainly the economy is slowing down, and unemployment is rising.

  However, let’s get this in perspective. I was recently shocked to read a newspaper saying we’re harking back to the 70s. Our inflation, which we want to be 2% (because zero or negative inflation has its own problems) has now increased to 3.3%; in the 70s, inflation was well over 20%.

  The same with unemployment; yes it’s gone up somewhat, but as we’ve been at or near twenty-year record low unemployment for such a long time, it’s not so surprising. It’s no consolation to those who’ve lost their jobs, but we’re still around the one million unemployment mark, compared to 3m plus at unemployment’s peak.

  So yes we’ve got stagflation, but currently its mild.

• We’re all suffering due to the credit crunch? FALSE

  This is false for a number of reasons: first, it’s a generalization and not everyone is suffering. Second, even those who are suffering aren’t necessarily suffering because of the credit crunch. So it’s time for another definition:

  The Credit Crunch describes the decreased availability and increased cost of borrowing first for financial companies and then consumers, who experience the knock on effect.

  Yet it’s now misused as a catch-all term for all economic woes. For example, the rising petrol cost and some of the increased food cost is caused by oil price rises (which have many causes, including antipicated increase in demand and decrease in supply), and the rising cost of energy’s determined by gas prices.

  Now of course, whilst everything is interconnected and there’s always an element of interplay, there are many other financial issues worldwide than the credit crunch.

  The house price drop is much more closely tied to the credit crunch, though equally, due to the US sub-prime problems, you can say the credit crunch is due to the house price drops.

So where does all this leave us?

Please don’t misread this as an essay on why “you’ve never had it so good”. I started 2008 by telling anyone who’d listen that it’s the year of the defensive consumer.

Sadly things certainly are getting worse.

The cost of fuel, food, mortgages, energy and more are going up (I’ve linked to the articles on how to save on these which is the key weapon against this). And this leaves lots of people with diminishing disposable income (use the Budget Planner to plan ahead).

Add to this the fact that house prices are falling and borrowing is more difficult, and the overused and dangerous tool of spending the paper equity in a house’s value is now much more difficult.

Things look like they’ll get worse before they get better.

Perhaps the biggest problem is we’re in a state of flux. Things are changing, and the surety and security of economic stability and strength that many had got used to has now gone, making people nervous. This in turn hits things like the job market, and insecurity and instability mean companies and consumers retrench, leading to a cyclicality of problems.

The real advice is to plan for the worst and hope for the best, but don’t blame it all on the credit crunch.

Comment and Discuss.

Finally got the free cup of coffee… see my even I’m not immune to loyalty cards blog for details.

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Every day this week, The Guardian’s got a special pullout focusing on saving money. To start the first one off, its main interviewer, Simon Hattenstone (not part of the money section, as you’ll see), came to spend a few hours with me.

You can read his article here: “I feel ashamed. Very ashamed”.

It’s hard to MAKE someone save

It was a fascinating experience. Normally when someone comes for a money makeover for a TV programme, it’s because they’ve asked for help. Some are in debt and some aren’t, but all are interested.

Simon, who’s a very charming chap, was there for work, to write an article about it; the saving money secondary. At times, and I do hope he’ll forgive me for saying it, it reminded me of the days when I worked on a US summer camp for kids with attention difficulties.

He’s obviously a clever man, read his article to see he’s witty and a master of his craft; yet when it comes to money, even though he was highly numerate it was a fight to make him interested. Before anyone assumes he’s a super-rich member of the London mediarati, it isn’t about that; his outgoings and incomings roughly match his life style, which is typical of many London professionals.

Yet even with super-speedy savings like using cashback cards, which in his case would net £750 a year, he didn’t really react – it seemed far more a psychological block towards dealing with money. The nature of my work means I rarely talk to people who react this way. And often those who have been like that are wanting to change their habits and are thus open to it by the time they meet me. You can read how I reacted in the article…

A quick note to Mrs. Hattenstone.

I first saw the piece on Friday, and smiled at the end bit when Simon talks about going home to his wife, who thankfully seems much more switched on with money.

I think perhaps though some of the notes were miscommunicated to her, so when I emailed him the other day to say how at a good number of places the piece had made me titter, I added this quick PS asking him to forward her the following info:

“M&S points are worth 1% for spending in M&S, and 0.5% for spending outside – so Amex Plat is over 10 times more for standard puchases and in cash.

The cheapest way to call Liberian mobiles costs 9p (I would’ve done this but Simon hadn’t said it was to mobiles). See the Callchecker’s Liberian mobiles result

Then the surprise reply…

In the reply to my e-mail about the piece I was very pleasantly surprised to receive this as the start:

“Hi Martin, thanks loads.

Was lovely meeting you too. In a weird way I think you have changed my life. Even though not yet v. successful, I am much more conscious of money – ie I was giving away £1k a year on stuff I barely knew about and have cancelled lots of direct debits cos they were over the top. Also, what was really shocking was when my statement came and i saw that every month I spent almost or just over what I earned. Every month there seems to be a different “Special” reason/occasion. So when I said I spent 2k or whatever a year it was much more like 3.5k – shocking, considering I have no extravagances.”

Perhaps a new convert?

PS. Someone’s just pointed out that the Guardian has a MoneySaving quiz…

I was very pleased that I got all right (though originally I had misclicked one and only got seven!) ironic considering this is what it says:

“You scored 8 out of a possible 8

You’re the kind of person who buys 120 boxes of fish fingers to get enough tokens for a trip to New York. But while you may bore your friends with your savvy ways they’re secretly impressed. Have you memorised our money saving guides? Are you Martin Lewis?”

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It’s incredible what we get sent through sometimes. This is my first “silly press release” contender - more to come as and when. Perhaps less credit crunch and more credit stuffed crust…

“NOTTING HILL DEFIES CREDIT CRUNCH

CUSTOMERS GO CRAZY FOR UK’S MOST EXPENSIVE PIZZA

LONDON, 13 JUNE: Mulberry Street Pizzeria was left questioning the truth of the so-called credit crunch last week.

Mulberry Street’s sales of such a high-end item questions the truth of economists’ popular credit crunch theory. The pizzeria’s growing popularity with families, children and big spenders alike is testimony to diners’ readiness to eat out in West London.”

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About an hour ago I put the phone down after swearing at someone; this was a deliberate but unpleasant tactic (and sadly not the first time I’ve needed to do it - see my I rarely swear at people blog). For the last few days our home phone’s been ringing and as I’ve either been out or on my mobile, the MSF’s answered it.

Every time it’s been the same man, with a heavy Indian accent, describing himself as Archie or Natasha (yes, Natasha) claiming to be a friend of mine or on one occasion a very good friend of mine, yet refusing to say where he was calling from.

Tonight I finally took the call…

Knowing what to expect I first asked where he was calling from and how he’d got my number. He said “I’m from Sxxxxxxxx Global Telecom” – sadly muttered so I couldn’t get the name. He proceeded to tell me he’d got my number as I used to be an AOL customer a long time ago, which is true. He told me he wanted to give me a free wireless router, insinuating it was an AOL offer.

Now to clear something up; I’ve no problem with legitimate Indian call centres for businesses. My issue is with him getting my number, harassing the MSF, repeatedly calling and talking nonsense. I told him in no uncertain terms I wasn’t interested, and I was firm and polite in asking to have my number removed from the database. Yet he refused to listen. At one stage he told me, “you must be stupid; I want to give you something for free”.

When I asked him his name, pretending (as knowing he’s in India, the usual Spam call blocking rules don’t apply) that I wanted legal assurance my name was removed from the database, he answered “Archie Walters.” I replied that I didn’t believe him; after all he had a history of lying, and it seemed incongruous. His reply was “I am a Christian”, as if that made a difference! I’ve met, studied, been friends with and worked with many Indian nationals of various religions including Christianity and none’ve had anglicised first and last names like Archie Walters.

After trying lots of verbal tricks (much to the MSF’s amusement as she listened - her having suffered from his persistent annoying calls) I continued to repeatedly ask “will you take my number off your database”. He wouldn’t answer. After about five minutes I told him I was going to put the phone down, and not to ever call again.

He called back!

Staggeringly, two minutes later the phone rang again. This time it was empty an automated dialer with no one on the end. Another two minutes and it rang again, and he was there. I was flabbergasted, so decided to make it even more plain if possible; this time instead of the ‘firm but polite’ approach, I repeatedly told him to get lost, but with more post-watershed language. I spoke over him and then put the phone down.

We received two more blank calls this evening, and have now taken the phone off the hook.

Have you been called by someone due to being a past AOl customer?

I’m interested to know if there is a genuine connection to AOL; whether this is the actual result of the AOL database being sold on, stolen or moved forward. Has anyone else had a similar call due to being a past AOL customer?

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I learned something shocking in the Forum discussion on my Cystic Fibrosis Breathing Life Awards: adults with Cystic Fibrosis (average life expectancy 31), who take huge and regular medications, are not exempt from prescription charges.. (except in Wales where all prescriptions are free – see the Cheap Prescriptions and Medications guide).

The allegation was that CF isn’t on the list of illnesses whose medications are exempt because when the exempt list was drawn up very few people survived into adulthood, so it wasn’t needed.

I found this staggering, so to check it out I contacted the CF trust charity to find out if this is true. Here’s its reply:

“The reason people with CF in England are not exempt from prescription charges is because when the exempt list was drawn up in 1968, most people with CF did not live beyond childhood, and as children were and still are exempt from prescription charges there was no need for this condition to be on the list.

The government has admitted that CF does meet all of the criteria and should in fact be on the list. In 2006, it launched an inquiry into NHS charges to which we submitted evidence, and has been promising a public consultation, which was supposed to be launched last year but seems to have been delayed, so we’re just keeping an eye on the situation at present.”

What an extraordinary and ridiculous situation. It’s at moments like this you want to bang all politicians’ heads together and say “just sort it!”

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Whilst shaving, I realised I’d left the tap on nearly full power since I started, wasting a huge amount of water. Of course, I should’ve switched it on and off throughout, but as happens too often, my mind was elsewhere.

Now, my loo has two buttons to allow different volumes of water to flow through it (or using the vernacular, a poo and a pee button). Yet, as far as I know (and I’ve done zero research!) there’s no widespread tap version of this.

If every tap had a system that when turned on, automatically stops at a soft-mid flow point and needs further turning for full flow, I suspect we’d use much less water. These types of systems already exist on some showers, which click and stick at a certain heat where temperature is a concern (e.g. gym showers), and you need to click a button to go hotter.

Most times we turn the tap on, it’s to get some water, not to fill a sink or a glass, so full power’s unnecessary (and can sometimes leave embarrassing water marks if it sprays out of the sink when too high powered). Imagine the water saving if this was macro’d up across the UK; many reservoirs of water could be saved.

Does anyone know if this exists? Should I be preparing a Dragon’s Den pitch? If it does exist why isn’t there more universal roll out?

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PS. While I’m on the subject of water use, it’s worth everyone checking out whether you can Cut water bills

Grrrr… One of my pet peeves is people saying they’re going to give 110% effort or more. You can see my last full blown rant on this in my old you can’t give more than 100% effort blog) . That blog was all about X-Factor contestants, and now I realise where they get it from…

This is a report on the recent Britain’s Got Talent result…

Fellow judge Simon Cowell told classical string quartet Escala that it was important to have an act which the judges would be proud to represent all over the world. “You girls one million per cent represent that,” he added.

Give me strength!

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