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.
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