As you may or may not know here at www.thebestbestbuys.com we monitor and assess the financial best buy tables from the press and from websites. This means we can bring our users a top 5 best buy table for savings, mortgages, credit cards and loans that has been created by comparing the financial comparison websites, so you no longer have to take their word for it.
The Best Best Buys has no vested interest in promoting any particular provider and therefore no conflict of interest because:
• We do not sell financial products
• We do not sell leads
• We do not manipulate the customer journey of our users
• We do not promote inferior financial products for personal gain
The reason we get up in the morning is to expose the many sharp practices that are employed by the companies in this unregulated sector.
Don’t be fooled by TV advertising, remember the saying, “there be dragons” was once a warning to sailors.
The well respected BBC Radio 4 programme, Money Box discovered when researching the topic that financial comparison websites of all sizes, make money from the providers of financial products in many different ways:
• fees for prominent product placements
• money for every customer who clicks through to a particular company
• Personal Details sold as leads
The programme concluded that, financial comparison websites, "had an obvious incentive to feature companies that give them the best rewards."
We are continuing to keep our eye on about half a dozen websites and are almost at the stage of naming and shaming......watch this space!
Monday 30 November 2009
Monday 23 November 2009
Woolworths: After a year the top executives blame the Administrators....what a pair of clowns!
It was about 12 months ago we witnessed the collapse of an iconic brand on our high street, Woolworths. Yes, it was a retailer we all grew up with and it held fond memories for many of the British public but looking at the harsh reality it was never going to survive.
We all talked fondly of it but we never went, never bought anything and the world had moved on. In the last year I have not once thought, damn if only “Woollies” was still open. Have you?
Woolworths went before the affects of the credit crunch had really kicked in and I doubt very much it would have survived any restructuring as its management seemed completely out of touch with the retail business and customer’s needs.
The company had also been restructured, as had its finances prior to this particular crisis.
So what happens one year on, the two individuals who managed the fiasco, Steve Johnson the former CEO and Richard North the former Chairman, come out and blame the Administrators?
Absolutely unbelievable!
These two bozos were in charge when they ran the business aground for the second time; they are the ones who couldn’t make it pay even in the good times. In my opinion they are the ones that killed the iconic brand but they did it slowly over a number of years through ineptitude.
To come out and try to make out that that the collapse was down to Deloitte who were appointed Administrators is pathetic. If the dynamic duo of Johnson and North hadn’t screwed up so royally nobody would have been appointed to sweep up their mess.
Surely these two should simply shut up about Woolworths and concentrate on not screwing up in their new jobs, that’s if anyone was daft enough to employ them. Someone has given Andy Hornby of HBOS a new job so there is hope for everyone, no matter how big your corporate cock up is.
We all talked fondly of it but we never went, never bought anything and the world had moved on. In the last year I have not once thought, damn if only “Woollies” was still open. Have you?
Woolworths went before the affects of the credit crunch had really kicked in and I doubt very much it would have survived any restructuring as its management seemed completely out of touch with the retail business and customer’s needs.
The company had also been restructured, as had its finances prior to this particular crisis.
So what happens one year on, the two individuals who managed the fiasco, Steve Johnson the former CEO and Richard North the former Chairman, come out and blame the Administrators?
Absolutely unbelievable!
These two bozos were in charge when they ran the business aground for the second time; they are the ones who couldn’t make it pay even in the good times. In my opinion they are the ones that killed the iconic brand but they did it slowly over a number of years through ineptitude.
To come out and try to make out that that the collapse was down to Deloitte who were appointed Administrators is pathetic. If the dynamic duo of Johnson and North hadn’t screwed up so royally nobody would have been appointed to sweep up their mess.
Surely these two should simply shut up about Woolworths and concentrate on not screwing up in their new jobs, that’s if anyone was daft enough to employ them. Someone has given Andy Hornby of HBOS a new job so there is hope for everyone, no matter how big your corporate cock up is.
Thursday 12 November 2009
Are we coming out of recession or going into a “double dip”?
Mervyn King the Governor of the Bank of England announced yesterday he is now starting to see evidence that we are at the beginning of the recovery. As always he also sounded a cautionary warning that the recovery was still fragile.
So it is a good job that they are pressing on with their fiscal stimulus or quantitative easing.
However in the background there are a number of articles warning that Britain is heading for a “double dip” i.e. a noticeable recovery and then a return to previous lows. The predictions of the shape of the recovery are growing ever wilder, we have had the “W” and the “Slipper” but somebody has coined a new one on me, the “Bath Shaped” recovery. All of which are completely lost on me and I suspect the wider public.
So are we or are we not now safe? Are we in or out of recession? Has the recovery started or is it another false dawn? None of this does anything to inspire the consumer’s confidence.
I am with Merv, we are starting to move out of recession, a number of factors have stabilised in the last month, unemployment appears to have peaked, mortgage lending has improved and the lower pound is making our goods and services more attractive in overseas markets that have already come out of recession.
The reasons for the “Double Dip” theory are based around three things:
1. Large companies seeking funds from the bond market
2. The return of securitisation
3. Underlying concern about the recovery in America
As long as the recovery is gradual and the economy is managed through this tricky period properly, which I believe it is, we should not face a double dip.
But as we keep repeating at www.thebestbestbuys.com until the end of the first quarter in 2010 we will not know for sure.
So it is a good job that they are pressing on with their fiscal stimulus or quantitative easing.
However in the background there are a number of articles warning that Britain is heading for a “double dip” i.e. a noticeable recovery and then a return to previous lows. The predictions of the shape of the recovery are growing ever wilder, we have had the “W” and the “Slipper” but somebody has coined a new one on me, the “Bath Shaped” recovery. All of which are completely lost on me and I suspect the wider public.
So are we or are we not now safe? Are we in or out of recession? Has the recovery started or is it another false dawn? None of this does anything to inspire the consumer’s confidence.
I am with Merv, we are starting to move out of recession, a number of factors have stabilised in the last month, unemployment appears to have peaked, mortgage lending has improved and the lower pound is making our goods and services more attractive in overseas markets that have already come out of recession.
The reasons for the “Double Dip” theory are based around three things:
1. Large companies seeking funds from the bond market
2. The return of securitisation
3. Underlying concern about the recovery in America
As long as the recovery is gradual and the economy is managed through this tricky period properly, which I believe it is, we should not face a double dip.
But as we keep repeating at www.thebestbestbuys.com until the end of the first quarter in 2010 we will not know for sure.
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