Aleksandr the Meerkat doesn't know about personal finance either

He’s may well be cute, he may well be cuddly, you can become his friend on Facebook or follow him on Twitter but as far as personal finance is concerned Aleksandr the Meerkat from the Compare the Market adverts is talking out of his furry little earhole.

If you take a look at the Compare the Market website you will find that in their Credit Card section they are promoting other financial products ahead of the best in the market. One can only assume it is for monetary gain. If it’s not it is because they don’t know what they are talking about. Either way the consumer visiting their website is being shown products that aren’t the best at the top of their charts.

For example in their Balance Transfer chart, Compare the Market place the best deal in the market, the Virgin MasterCard in fourth position and in their 0% on Purchases chart the best product in the market the Tesco Clubcard Visa does not feature at all.

Compare the Market get their financial data from Love Money (formerly The Motley Fool) in the form of a “White Label”. If you care to take a look at Love Money you will find that the same misleading information is displayed on their consumer finance website.

A “White Label” is when another website in this case Love Money, allow a company, in this case Compare the Market to produce their own version of the their website using their logo and corporate branding.

There are two ways the finances can work in a deal like this, either Compare the Market paid an annual fee to replicate Love Money in this way or Compare the Market get a cut of the money made by Love Money through the deals they have set up with the providers of financial products.

Malcolm Murphy the Business Development Manager at The Best Best Buys said, “This is fairly typical of the industry. That is why www.thebestbestbuys.com was set up. We compare and contrast the best buy tables that appear on the internet and in the press so as consumers don’t have to. There are very few financial comparison websites that truly have the best interests of the consumer at heart.”