MoneySavingExpert.com Reviews 783

A forum populated by condescending a**holes.

Re: Property forums, I get the strong impression that I'm talking to property flippers who will give FTBs inaccurate information in order to mislead, simply because they're giving "advice" based on their own personal greed rather than the context and situation of the person asking for advice. Their aim seem to be to lower your expecations, embarrass you, insult your intelligence, burn you out, and cause drama. A total waste of time.

The functionality and accessibility of the forum itself is just also absolutely terrible: You can't edit or delete your own threads, you can't even post links, and sometimes it just seems to glitch out with an error message when you try to post anything. Frustrating.

Also, getting your account deleted is an ABSOLUTE ORDEAL. I've been on countless forums as a user and moderator since 2003 and have never encountered a process as ridiculous as this.
You can't just delete your account yourself. Oh no. It's like they try to make it into so much more of a ridiculously overblown process than it needs to be.

FORUMS ARE TOXIC AND FINANCIALLY MISLEADING

Do not expect to receive any sound advice from their unhelpful advisers on the forums. They are deployed by the financial sector and their role is to troll the forum pages in order to mislead the public with their toxic advice. When you know your loan company is not following the regulations and unfairly charging you fees and interest rates, it is time you take your case to the court. But these people will do everything to discourage you since the financial sector behind them are afraid of being exposed by a court decision.

Others have commented on the toxicity of these forums. I would agree. Members only seem to be interested in derailing the topic and ganging up on innocent newbies. If you need advice, go elsewhere. The forums at MSE will just make you frustrated and get your blood up. Avoid!

WARNING: The Financial Ombudsman Service have ruled that Plusnet contract costs, terms and conditions do not have have to be accurately advertised on MoneySavingExpert.com and can be changed at will despite a contract being agreed.
So taking this ruling one step further ALL offers in any media can be ignored by big business.

Any comparison is therefore rogue.

All very sad given MSE history before sale to big business.

@Holly I did report this to MSE and posted in the Forum. MSE didn't just ignore my report, they deleted it without explanation from a special message sent to all members by MSE.

The Martin Lewis I knew from many years ago would have taken my report very seriously but the current owners are big business so not interested in consumer welfare.

Have always found them to offer good advice and have saved money by using their tips. Not giving 5 stars though as they have definitely increased the amount of providers on their website which they make money from if users click through and buy a relevant item/service.
This gives rise to inherent bias but I do not have reason to believe they over abuse this.

Grate website with a lot of knowledge.

Especially useful for me is the Credit Club, Energy Club (i think its called something different), sections on sim only mobile network, utilities and internet providers. Thank you a lot!

Always informative.

Shouldn't generalise but the general perception is that Moneysavingexpertforums are full of smug, costive, condescending cheeseparers who wouldn't know a good time if it came in their pants.

Martin told everyone not to do anything when the gas and electric monthly charges nearly doubled
So I followed that advice
Even when I was told that it would be a £30 monthly increase as Martin said do nothing
As a result of following his advice my monthly charge has now gone up £60+
Thanks for that I won’t be so eager to follow his advice in future
I would advise people to be very careful when listening to him he talks very fast and give wrong advice you have been warned

I’m not sure if you have read my comments or are just answering with the typical l’ll ignore the question /comment reply but your reply does not relate to the comments I put on about the advice given by Martin
If Martin had not said do nothing I would of taken action swapped tariffs earlier and not been landed with double the monthly charge by taking his do nothing advice

There was a time when MSE was a great site but since Mr Lewis sold out to Money Supermarket it has been going downhill and now not fit for purpose.

The forums at MSE were absolutely toxic with ganging up on people and bullying so I cancelled my forum account. So when I heard they had been given an overhall I recently rejoined. Sadly it is just the same.

If MSE want to improve the forum site they need to have just one rule, "do not post unless your post will be genuinely helpful to the person to whom you are replying". The user who starts a thread should be able to delete negative posts and any post that quote negative posts. It should be for the originator to curate their post and the moderators to oversee.

The MSE forum is like going to a school where there are gangs of hyenas all taking bites out of you. I looked up some of the people and could see they post with similar negative comments and sometimes under different names but with same content.

It was not just me, I started to look around the site and saw similar snide comments against others. I reported some comments, there are just categories so you can't say what is wrong.

Then you get an automated email that says

"Please make sure you have included a link to the Forum post/thread in your report. Without it we cannot investigate further."

But I reported the post so they should have the link and there is no space to type, as expected no reply no follow up, just an automated message.

The money saving part of the site no longer offers the sorts of deals it used to. Previously it seemed that MSE sacrificed their own commission or negotiated really good unique deals. This is no longer the case.

The newsletter they send it pretty much the same old tripe but in a different order. It is no longer sent as the same time so if there is a time limited offer you will miss it because message got sent in middle of night. There was a time when I would forward MSE newsletters to family and friends because they was always something in it. Also there are sometimes deals I miss because they did not email it and there was a limited number.

The last newsletter was leading with Mortgages, it was so long and too much information on Mortgages, then other stuff an afterthought.

Maybe MSE has passed it's peak, but unless it finds a way to leverage it's user base and obtain unique and incredible deal, then it will sink into oblivion.

As for the forum, I would strongly suggest that MSE does a serious review of the traffic from the forum to the offers and which actually convert, because I actually think they would be better off without the forum. It is NOT a kind welcoming place but a nasty toxic environment that is ruining the Money Saving Expert brand.

MSE were offering fee free credit card Balance Transfer with MBNA. After completing their eligibility criteria I was pre-approved but after applying the fee was 2.69%.
On querying this with MBNA I was told that MSE were in error offering a no fee Balance Transfer. Very frustrating after completing all the checks which no doubt will affect my credit rating..

MSE is recommending you still switch energy suppliers.
I switched to 'MSE Specially Negotiated Deal' with Green Energy Network ( Went bust 18 months ago - never seen a penny of my £200 credit).
Moved to AVRO (once again recommended 'special deal') - Bust and I am pretty confident I will never see my £300 credit.
AVRO were still switching people to their tariffs earlier this week.
I think MSE is misleading, not because I changed tariff - that was my choice, but because there is NO REGULATOR.
He will bash on tonight on TV about OFGEN this and that BUT he is simply guessing !!! Just be careful about his recommendations BECAUSE there is NO regulator. YOU WILL HAVE LOST OUT WHEN YOU FOLLOWED HIS ADVICE TO SWITCH - YOU HAVE NOW BEEN TRANSFERED AGAINST YOUR WILL, BECAUSE AN ENERGY COMPANY LIED TO YOU, TO A NEW POWER COMPANY'S WORST TARRIF.
Cheers Martin !

I expected a higher standard of morality, professionalism and service from Martin Lewis but as it turns out he is no better than those he purports to protect us from.

Since signing up with his Money Credit Club for a free credit report and credit score, his business has been carrying out its own credit searches on my credit file without my authority. Sometimes twice a month, the MSE Credit Club appears in my credit report searches as a credit card quotation which I have never asked for or signed up to. I have raised this with MSE via their numerous email addresses but they only reply to say they cannot respond d to individual credit report questions. And so I am now on a mission to find out why Mr Lewis believes he can get away with carrying out unauthorised credit searches on my credit file and I am starting with exposing his duplicitous actions via online media channels and by addressing this matter through official channels such as the ICO.

MR MARTIN LEWIS, STOP DOING CREDIT SEARCHES ON MY CREDIT FILE NOW. YOU HAVE NEVER HAD MY AUTHORITY TO CARRY OUT AICH SEARCHES OR CREDIT CARD QUOTATIONS - I DO NOT WANT A CREDIT CARD

16/09/2021 Response
I do not accept your response to my complaint. I have not made any credit card enquiries via MSE Credit Club or any other site. I joined the MSE Credit Club for the free access to my credit file and that is the extent of my interest in the club. Further, the searches you have done on my credit file do not correspond at all to the dates I have logged into the club. Not even close. Even if the dates were to marry up, why would you run a Credit Card Quotation just because I log into the club to check my credit report? So you are going to have to try harder to explain why you persistently perform Credit Card Quotations on my credit file without my authority. It matters not that these are ‘soft’ searches. These searches are a breach of my privacy rights and are being done without my permission. The ICO has been contacted. Martin Lewis preaches so commendably in terms of people’s rights but then he takes advantage of people and then hides behind spurious excuses for breaching their rights.

MARTIN LEWIS & MSE ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED.

They removed the referral board from the forum, yet spam us with referral links in the newsletter every week.

It's the definition of hypocrisy to run a website claiming to save money for the people, whilst simultaneously making money selling them useless products in a newsletter that's supposed to be about saving money.

This site used to be great community to share things, help each other make money, now it's basically spam and advertising to make Martin Lewis more millions from affiliate links selling me products that have nothing to do with saving money whatsoever ... such a disappointment what it has turned into.

Would query the effort MSE put into research. MSE Recommended AVRO energy just over a year ago - AVRO seem to have a problem when refunding money when you switch away and are in credit - looking at Trust Pilot there is a trend with AVRO but there is no warning on the MSE website about this
Always thought MSE were good but do they really care about the long term?
Will look into things in more depth if using them in future and not take things at face value

very good, but the forum platform needed improvement!

Vast amount of useful financial information and guidance here. I've found it a helpful resource for many years.

Tried to do a switch by the energy club ,didnt happen after 3 months left paying hefty price for gas and electric with currant supplier for months. Waste of time i would avoid even thought its linked to martin Lewis

The entire system is rigged as they coin in the cash in brown envelopes for supposedly impartial reviews and recommendations. The rotten crook sold out long ago. Who could resist handfuls of cash for bent appraisals.

My Utility, Home/Car Insurance quotes, allegedly the best deals, were ALWAYS at least 30% more then I could have got elsewhere. The site steers you like the titanic into an abyss and still gets his pound of flesh. Consumers should be protected from these charlatans. Like they say "if you wouldnt buy them a drink in a pub then dont trust them". This applies to this muppet and every single politician today who should be protecting us from these faux consumer scams. STAY AWAY.

Nigh on £100m in assets (2019) and clear profit, after cooking the books, of some £33m. Your phoney free advice clearly aint free after all. Where is the regulator when we need them. Can you please send them home Martin from their little perks empire and tell them they too have a job to do and thats to protect us from the likes of moneysavingcoiningitin ltd. Thanks.

Really helpful and educational site. Recently claimed back £1800+ in packaged bank account fees for 15mins work, great advice on saving money for car insurance and how to be financially savvy in general.
Just don’t be like some of the blind sheep just mindlessly clicking on anything they think will save them some money but neglect to read the T&Cs or instructions / warnings and then complain when it doesn’t meet their expectations. This site is to help you help yourself