In the middle of last week we got round to checking if http://www.moneysupermarket/ had fixed the http://www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/ loan rate as it was still wrong in the Sunday papers. The loan rate had been incorrect for two weeks and the Sainsbury’s loan had been shown in position three and not at number one. We weren’t particularly surprised when we found that it had been sorted and the correct rate was showing on the website.
As I said in my previous blog, it is only an error and all companies dealing with data have an error rate, however small. In fact due to the publicity on this one you would have expected it to get picked up the first week. So you can imagine my astonishment when I was going through the best buy tables on Sunday and the loan was still showing at the rate of 8.7% APR and not 7.9% APR.
What the hell is going on at Sainsbury’s Bank that they could miss the fact that their unsecured personal loan was showing incorrectly on the biggest price comparison site in the UK? Whoever manages the sales of this product for the bank has lost them a bundle.
Hopefully for all concerned the data will match up this week, Sainsbury’s can take up their rightful place in the charts, Moneysupermarket will be showing the correct data and consumers won’t be making financial decisions with suspect information.
Please don’t think that http://www.thebestbestbuys.com/ is turning in to a “Gripe Site”, we just find it incredible that a company such as Sainsbury’s can pay so little attention to a major sales channel. It is a fair bet that their shareholders would not be chuffed if they knew. We would also have expected Moneysupermarket to have picked this up sooner as the error is out in the public domain, it is not a data error tucked away in the back of a database.
http://www.thebestbestbuys.com/ adds a great deal of value to the consumer finance sector because we carry out a cross reference of data sources. Remember, if one of the major providers of financial data gets it wrong, it is wrong in all the other websites and publications they provide with best buy tables.
Another example of this happened this week, http://www.moneysupermarket.com/ was showing a savings product from Manchester Building Society in its No Notice Savings Account Best Buy Tables, however it was not being shown in the best buy tables of http://www.moneyfacts.co.uk/ or http://www.defaqto.com/ . When we investigated, it turned out that the savings account had a 35 day Notice Period (not exactly Easy Access). Again, it is a simple mistake but I wonder how long it will take them to spot it?
Sadly enough I am now eagerly awaiting the arrival of the papers at the weekend to see if http://www.moneysupermarket.com/ are wrong 4 weeks in a row about http://www.sainsburybank.com/ unsecured personal loan. Surely not?
Or if they are wrong for a second week about the presence of a 35 day Notice Account in their No Notice Savings Account Best Buy Tables.
Thursday 23 July 2009
Friday 17 July 2009
Why do store cards still exist?
I will never understand why store cards are not a thing of the past. They have been in decline for years but they are still with us, hanging about like a bad smell. A store card in general has a very high interest rate in comparison to a mainstream credit card and ties you to only being able to use it in a department store or in a chain of stores.
Most people acquire these hideous products in-store. The retailer will offer a discount based on the application for the card. So on the day the card will save the applicant 10% or more on their purchase. This can be a significant saving if you are making a major purchase, furniture, etc. However they then hang about in a wallet, purse or handbag waiting for you to use it again. The only way a store card can be of benefit is if you use it to secure an additional discount on a major purchase and you can pay the balance off in full.
Not even the King of Consumer Finance, Martin Lewis has been able to kill off these dreadful things. So let’s look at the facts and hopefully we can help bring about the end of store cards:
Most people acquire these hideous products in-store. The retailer will offer a discount based on the application for the card. So on the day the card will save the applicant 10% or more on their purchase. This can be a significant saving if you are making a major purchase, furniture, etc. However they then hang about in a wallet, purse or handbag waiting for you to use it again. The only way a store card can be of benefit is if you use it to secure an additional discount on a major purchase and you can pay the balance off in full.
Not even the King of Consumer Finance, Martin Lewis has been able to kill off these dreadful things. So let’s look at the facts and hopefully we can help bring about the end of store cards:
- Store cards are expensive and inflexible.
- Credit Cards are cheaper and more flexible.
Ideally you should not carry a balance on any card (store or credit) if you can avoid it. They are both forms of “expensive money” and were never designed for medium to long term debt.
If you know someone with a store card tell them to pay off the balance, if there is one, and to cut it up. Should they want or need access to this type of borrowing they can log on to www.thebestbestbuys.com and look for the best credit card deal. They may not offer you a discount but you can get a credit card that will not charge you interest on your purchases for up to 12 months.
Friday 10 July 2009
So who is right about the Sainsbury's Finance Unsecured Personal Loan
So if you are looking for an unsecured Personal Loan at the moment you have probably seen the Sainsbury's product available at a typical APR of 7.9%. However, if you looked on another website and in many newspapers it appeared with a rate of 8.7%. So who is correct: in many charts this is the number one loan of this kind, in all the other it is number 3. So who is right?
Here at http://www.thebestbestbuys.com/ we understand how the charts in the newspapers are compiled and due to the editorial process the Sunday Papers show the rates available on the Thursday before. But when we checked a number of websites are still showing the product at a rate of 7.9%. It was only Moneysupermarket that was showing the higher rate of 8.7%.
When we checked http://www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/ it was also displaying the 7.9% APR (as long as you had a Nectar Card). So either Moneysupermarket are accurate or the data in all of the websites that take their data from major providers: http://www.moneyfacts.co.uk/ and http://www.defaqto.com/ have the wrong information.
We contacted the Product Team at Sainsbury's Finance and asked them to tell us who is wrong.....Sainsbury's Finance & 70% of the major consumer finance websites in the UK or Moneysupermarket.com by far the biggest and most influential of all the comparison websites?
Well, well, well. It turns out that it is http://www.moneysupermarket.com/ that are incorrect. Hardly surprising when you consider that they were promoting the 7.9% loan last week as an exclusive product when it was easily available through numerous comparison sites.
At the end of the day this is an error but what it really highlights is that all of the credible consumer finance websites such as http://www.confused.com/, uSwitch, Interactive Investor, etc and all of the national press take their Best Buy information from one of three suppliers, Defaqto, Moneyfacts or Moneysupermarket. If one of these sources is wrong then it is wrong in many other places too.
Unfortunately for Sainsbury's The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, etc. have been publicising the wrong rate and the product that should have been at number one was actually shown at number 3, for the last 2 weeks. Yes they lost revenue but I am pretty confident they will survive.
The moral of this tale is just because Moneysupermarket are the biggest and the most recognised doesn't mean they are the best.
Here at http://www.thebestbestbuys.com/ we understand how the charts in the newspapers are compiled and due to the editorial process the Sunday Papers show the rates available on the Thursday before. But when we checked a number of websites are still showing the product at a rate of 7.9%. It was only Moneysupermarket that was showing the higher rate of 8.7%.
When we checked http://www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/ it was also displaying the 7.9% APR (as long as you had a Nectar Card). So either Moneysupermarket are accurate or the data in all of the websites that take their data from major providers: http://www.moneyfacts.co.uk/ and http://www.defaqto.com/ have the wrong information.
We contacted the Product Team at Sainsbury's Finance and asked them to tell us who is wrong.....Sainsbury's Finance & 70% of the major consumer finance websites in the UK or Moneysupermarket.com by far the biggest and most influential of all the comparison websites?
Well, well, well. It turns out that it is http://www.moneysupermarket.com/ that are incorrect. Hardly surprising when you consider that they were promoting the 7.9% loan last week as an exclusive product when it was easily available through numerous comparison sites.
At the end of the day this is an error but what it really highlights is that all of the credible consumer finance websites such as http://www.confused.com/, uSwitch, Interactive Investor, etc and all of the national press take their Best Buy information from one of three suppliers, Defaqto, Moneyfacts or Moneysupermarket. If one of these sources is wrong then it is wrong in many other places too.
Unfortunately for Sainsbury's The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, etc. have been publicising the wrong rate and the product that should have been at number one was actually shown at number 3, for the last 2 weeks. Yes they lost revenue but I am pretty confident they will survive.
The moral of this tale is just because Moneysupermarket are the biggest and the most recognised doesn't mean they are the best.
Tuesday 7 July 2009
Has Mortgage Lending Increased or Decreased?
In the past week we have seen one set of headlines saying that mortgage lending has decreased and other reports have said that there has been an increase (however slight). So what the hell is going on?
To make matters worse neither of the two statements are incorrect, but you have to have an understanding of where these conflicting pictures come from.
So on the 30th June 2009 we were told that mortgage lending had decreased for the 5th month in a row. Now, the source of this report is the Building Societies Association. It explains that its members (virtually every Building Society) have seen an overall decrease in mortgage lending.
Yet on the 1st July 2009 there were reports that there had been a marginal increase in the number of approved mortgages. This report came from the Bank of England and gives details of all the mortgage lenders in the UK.
The Bank of England Report is the one to go with, they are looking at the entire market and giving the most accurate picture. The Building Societies Association is reporting on its members' performance in the last month and there are a number of reasons why their mortgage lending is down:
To make matters worse neither of the two statements are incorrect, but you have to have an understanding of where these conflicting pictures come from.
So on the 30th June 2009 we were told that mortgage lending had decreased for the 5th month in a row. Now, the source of this report is the Building Societies Association. It explains that its members (virtually every Building Society) have seen an overall decrease in mortgage lending.
Yet on the 1st July 2009 there were reports that there had been a marginal increase in the number of approved mortgages. This report came from the Bank of England and gives details of all the mortgage lenders in the UK.
The Bank of England Report is the one to go with, they are looking at the entire market and giving the most accurate picture. The Building Societies Association is reporting on its members' performance in the last month and there are a number of reasons why their mortgage lending is down:
- There are fewer Building Societies aggressively pursuing mortgage business through the best buys.
- Banks are now more actively seeking new mortgage business and they are offering better rates than building societies at present
- Building Societies are finding funding mortgages through savers at present is tough as there is more competition for deposits
It is important not to take headlines at face value in these strange financial times, as a little knowledge can be dangerous
Monday 6 July 2009
What has the internet become?
I am old enough to remember the world before the internet and throughout the last 14 or 15 years I have watched it go from a nice to have to being an absolute life essential. In the beginning it was a place to find information, yet it has gone from the lofty ideals of youth to the other extreme.
The internet today is a place where you have to question what is before you and employ a healthy dose of cynicism. The information you need is still there but it is tucked away behind the attempts to sell you things or lead you off in another direction. Companies view the internet as a “channel of distribution” while, the user must remember that they should look at the internet as a source of information and a way of saving time and effort as well as money.
It takes longer these days to get what you want from the internet but it is still worth it, you just need to remember that many websites and companies are trying to relieve you of your hard earned cash. Some are legitimate, some indulge in sharp practices and some are actually untruthful and misleading. In the case of consumer finance websites, unfortunately, it tends to be that virtually every site is either using sharp practices or is misleading.
So how did it get to this point, where I am worked up enough about it to change my plans, career, develop a website and start ranting on a blog. The owners of http://www.thebestbestbuys.com/ have all worked for either one of the major financial comparison websites, a major bank or both. We came together to offer consultancy services to banks and building societies but when we started to research the business idea it became apparent that virtually every financial comparison website hides the best products behind their sponsored links or partner’s products.
In most cases you can find the right information. You will need to get to the home page, choose the required section, get past the sponsored products and partner’s products and fill out the search. Even then three of the major comparison sites have one last go at selling you their sponsored links or partner’s products.
Our issue with this is that anybody who did not know too much about the subject or wasn’t paying attention will be taken in by the subtle tricks being employed and can quite easily end up with a product that is not the best in the market. They went on to the internet to get the best deal. Financial Comparison websites are supposed to give you details of the best financial products. However, it would appear that there has been a huge disconnect here. The visitor to one of these sites must spend time searching for the information and they have to then check it against other sites to make sure they can trust it. Not really in keeping with what the net should be or what we hoped it would be.
It should be straight forward to use the internet to get the information you require. However we are now entering a time where only the users can ensure other users know where to go to find what they need. Forums, Blogs, Twitter and recommendations from friends on Facebook should now be the first step when searching for information on anything important in life.
We have therefore started to aggregate the aggregators, http://www.thebestbestbuys.com/ looks at hundreds of financial best buys and puts the top 5 in easy to read tables. The right information should never be more than two clicks away and you can be sure that the site is giving you the right information to start you on your way to finding the right financial products to suit you. Hopefully our approach to publicising the best mortgages, savings, loans and credit cards brings the internet back to what it should be and what we all hoped it would be.
Please check out http://www.thebestbestbuys.com/ Please give us your feedback on the site and the concept.
Please recommended it to friends, family and colleagues but only if you think it is worthy.
The internet today is a place where you have to question what is before you and employ a healthy dose of cynicism. The information you need is still there but it is tucked away behind the attempts to sell you things or lead you off in another direction. Companies view the internet as a “channel of distribution” while, the user must remember that they should look at the internet as a source of information and a way of saving time and effort as well as money.
It takes longer these days to get what you want from the internet but it is still worth it, you just need to remember that many websites and companies are trying to relieve you of your hard earned cash. Some are legitimate, some indulge in sharp practices and some are actually untruthful and misleading. In the case of consumer finance websites, unfortunately, it tends to be that virtually every site is either using sharp practices or is misleading.
So how did it get to this point, where I am worked up enough about it to change my plans, career, develop a website and start ranting on a blog. The owners of http://www.thebestbestbuys.com/ have all worked for either one of the major financial comparison websites, a major bank or both. We came together to offer consultancy services to banks and building societies but when we started to research the business idea it became apparent that virtually every financial comparison website hides the best products behind their sponsored links or partner’s products.
In most cases you can find the right information. You will need to get to the home page, choose the required section, get past the sponsored products and partner’s products and fill out the search. Even then three of the major comparison sites have one last go at selling you their sponsored links or partner’s products.
Our issue with this is that anybody who did not know too much about the subject or wasn’t paying attention will be taken in by the subtle tricks being employed and can quite easily end up with a product that is not the best in the market. They went on to the internet to get the best deal. Financial Comparison websites are supposed to give you details of the best financial products. However, it would appear that there has been a huge disconnect here. The visitor to one of these sites must spend time searching for the information and they have to then check it against other sites to make sure they can trust it. Not really in keeping with what the net should be or what we hoped it would be.
It should be straight forward to use the internet to get the information you require. However we are now entering a time where only the users can ensure other users know where to go to find what they need. Forums, Blogs, Twitter and recommendations from friends on Facebook should now be the first step when searching for information on anything important in life.
We have therefore started to aggregate the aggregators, http://www.thebestbestbuys.com/ looks at hundreds of financial best buys and puts the top 5 in easy to read tables. The right information should never be more than two clicks away and you can be sure that the site is giving you the right information to start you on your way to finding the right financial products to suit you. Hopefully our approach to publicising the best mortgages, savings, loans and credit cards brings the internet back to what it should be and what we all hoped it would be.
Please check out http://www.thebestbestbuys.com/ Please give us your feedback on the site and the concept.
Please recommended it to friends, family and colleagues but only if you think it is worthy.
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