MoneySavingExpert.com

Last updated

MoneySavingExpert.com
MoneySavingExpert logo.svg
Type of site
Finance
Available inEnglish
Owner Moneysupermarket.com
Created by Martin Lewis
URL moneysavingexpert.com
CommercialYes
LaunchedFebruary 2003 (2003-02)

MoneySavingExpert.com is a British consumer finance information and discussion website, founded by financial journalist Martin Lewis in February 2003. The website's focus is to provide people with information on saving money in the form of deals, tips and journalistic articles. In September 2012, it was bought by the moneysupermarket.com group for a value of £87M. [1] Since 2015, Lewis has taken on the role of executive chairman, overseeing 100 staff and editors reviewing and updating the site. [2]

Contents

Petitions

The website has launched three petitions:

Both of these campaigns have been the subject of Parliamentary early day motions. [3]

Campaigns

In August 2006 the site started to develop a system to check whether people were in the correct council tax band. Over a number of months an increasing number of people reported £1000s in backdated payouts. [6] On 26 January 2007 Martin Lewis presented a Tonight programme on this following up the successes from the site; it rated 4.5 million viewers and saw the site covered in many national newspapers including the full front pages of the Express and Metro . [7] [8]

During late 2005, the issue of reclaiming unfair bank charges was highlighted and a few small websites started to highlight the issue. The site has been one of the main campaigning forces on this ever since. [6] In November 2006 the original article was updated by a step-by-step guide, including template letters which speedily achieved its 1,000,000th download towards the end of February 2007. [9]

Other large-scale campaigns for the website include reclaiming council tax, payment protection insurance, reclaiming mortgage exit fees and reclaiming credit card charges all of which have had over 100,000 people using template letter downloads. [6]

The site also provides support for saynoto0870.com, a website that provides geographical alternative telephone numbers to 0870 numbers and similar.[ citation needed ]

Charity contributions

MoneySavingExpert.com regularly contributes to charities nominated by site users. It is estimated that £100,000 was donated in the 2006-2007 year. [10] In previous years all money has been given to nominated charities based on the percentage of the vote given by site users, but it has been announced that in the future a new registered charity, the MoneySavingExpert.com Charitable Fund, will distribute the money. It has also been announced that a proportion of the money will fund a feasibility study into setting up a "MoneySaving Kids charity" to help educate children about how to be consumers. [11]

In December 2006 the book Thrifty Ways for Modern Days was launched by the site. The book was compiled from advice given on the threads of the MoneySaving Old Style section of the site. [12] As the book was created from community knowledge and only edited by Martin Lewis, it was decided that all profits from the book would go to the MoneySavingExpert.com Charitable Fund. [13]

Traffic

As of September 2020, the site had a global Alexa rank of 8,891 and a UK rank of 175. [14]

Awards and support

Related Research Articles

<i>The Register</i> British technology news and opinion website

The Register is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee and John Lettice. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "Biting the hand that feeds IT." The publication's primary focus is information technology news and opinions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bingley</span> Town in West Yorkshire, England

Bingley is a market town and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is sited on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The town had a population of 18,040 at the 2021 Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Vorderman</span> Welsh media personality (born 1960)

Carol Jean Vorderman, RAFAC HonFIET is a Welsh broadcaster, media personality, and writer. Her media career began when she joined the Channel 4 game show Countdown, appearing with Richard Whiteley from 1982 until his death in 2005, and subsequently with Des Lynam and Des O'Connor, before leaving in 2008.

<i>Which?</i> Brand name of Consumers Association, a UK organisation promoting informed consumer choice

Which? is a United Kingdom brand name that promotes informed consumer choice in the purchase of goods and services by testing products, highlighting inferior products or services, raising awareness of consumer rights, and offering independent advice. The brand name is used by the Consumers' Association, a registered charity and company limited by guarantee that owns several businesses, including Which? Financial Services Limited, Which? Legal Limited and Which? Limited, which publishes the Which? Papers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Linton</span> British politician

John Martin Linton is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Battersea from 1997 to 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citizens Advice</span> British charitable organisation

Citizens Advice is an independent organisation specialising in confidential information and advice to assist people with legal, debt, consumer, housing and other problems in the United Kingdom.

lastminute.com is an online travel and leisure retailer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for Public Integrity</span> American investigative journalism nonprofit

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) is an American nonprofit investigative journalism organization whose stated mission is "to counter the corrosive effects of inequality by holding powerful interests accountable and equipping the public with knowledge to drive change." It won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, and in 2023, the Edward R. Murrow Award for General Excellence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Publishing</span> British magazine publisher

Dennis Publishing Ltd. was a British publisher. It was founded in 1973 by Felix Dennis. Its first publication was a kung-fu magazine. Most of its titles now belong to Future plc.

Gift Aid is a UK tax incentive that enables tax-effective giving by individuals to charities in the United Kingdom. Gift Aid was introduced in the Finance Act 1990 for donations given after 1 October 1990, but was originally limited to cash gifts of £600 or more. This threshold was successively reduced in April 2000 when the policy was substantially revised and the minimum donation limit removed entirely. A similar policy applies to charitable donations by companies that are subject to the UK corporation tax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Review Centre</span>

ReviewCentre.com is a privately owned, UK operated consumer review site in the same vein as Epinions and Ciao.com.

saynoto0870.com

saynoto0870.com is a UK website with a directory of non-geographic telephone numbers and their geographic alternatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moneysupermarket.com</span> British price comparison business

MONY Group plc, trading as Money Supermarket, is a British company which specialises in technology-led money-saving platforms including several price comparison websites. The company enables consumers to compare prices on a range of products, including energy, car insurance, home insurance, travel insurance, mortgages, credit cards and loans. The company's subsidiaries include the price comparison websites MoneySuperMarket, Travel Supermarket, IceLolly, and Decision Tech, along with the cashback website Quidco and the Moneysavingexpert advice website. MONY Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Labour Behind the Label (LBL) is a UK-based non-profit co-operative organisation with an office in Easton, Bristol, which campaigns for workers' rights in the clothing industry. It is the platform of the international Clean Clothes Campaign in the United Kingdom. LBL's members include trade unions and their local branches, consumer organisations, campaign groups, and charities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charities Aid Foundation</span> International charitable organization

The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) is a registered UK charity that operates in the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Canada. It works with companies, private philanthropists, regular donors, fellow foundations, governments, charities and not-for-profit enterprises to enable them to give more. Its stated purpose is to “accelerate progress in society towards a fair and sustainable future for all.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Lewis (financial journalist)</span> English financial journalist and broadcaster

Martin Steven Lewis CBE is an English financial journalist and broadcaster. Lewis founded the website MoneySavingExpert.com. He sold the website in 2012 to the Moneysupermarket.com group for up to £87 million. Lewis is currently a presenter for ITV, on the morning shows Good Morning Britain and This Morning since 2007. He also presents The Martin Lewis Money Show.

Energy Saving Trust is a British organization devoted to promoting energy efficiency, energy conservation, and the sustainable use of energy, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions and helping to prevent man-made climate change. It was founded in the United Kingdom as a government-sponsored initiative in 1992, following the global Earth Summit.

The Pride of Britain Awards is an annual award ceremony which has taken place in the United Kingdom since May 1999 and first televised on ITV in April 2000.

<i>It Pays to Watch!</i> British television series

It Pays to Watch! is a money saving show presented and written by money saving expert Martin Lewis, co-presented by Ruth Liptrot. It aired on UK terrestrial channel Channel 5. It was repeated on UK digital channel Fiver as an extended version on Sundays providing extra tips known as It Pays to Watch More!

The Center for Organizational Research and Education (CORE), formerly the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) and prior to that the Guest Choice Network, is an American non-profit entity founded by Richard Berman. It describes itself as "dedicated to protecting consumer choices and promoting common sense."

References

  1. ↑ "Martin Lewis sells MoneySavingExpert.com for £87m". BBC News. 1 June 2012. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  2. ↑ Williams-Grut, Oscar (30 October 2015). "Martin Lewis the Money Saving Expert just got a £19 million windfall". Business Insider. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Early Day Motion - Debt: Not in Front of the Children Campaign" . Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  4. ↑ Poulter, Sean (4 May 2006). "Vorderman attacked over ads". London Evening Standard . ES London. Archived from the original on 30 June 2009. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  5. ↑ Taylor, Paul (12 February 2007). "Mr Supersaver's on a mission". Manchester Evening News . MEN Media . Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Henley, John (20 June 2011). "Martin Lewis answers your money questions". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  7. ↑ Lewis, Martin (29 January 2007). "Council Tax Cashback shows the power of this site". MoneySavingExpert.com. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  8. ↑ Lewis, Martin. "Council tax: Check & challenge your band". MoneySavingExpert.com. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  9. ↑ Hickman, Martin (23 February 2007). "From banks to football, the consumers' revolt grows". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 25 February 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2007.
  10. ↑ Lewis, Martin (8 October 2006). "New Site Charity Nominations Now Open". TheGuardian.com . Retrieved 27 August 2006.
  11. ↑ Lewis, Martin. "Moneysavingexpert.com - The Charity Fund". TheGuardian.com . Retrieved 27 August 2006.
  12. ↑ "MoneySavingExpert - Business commenting in a forum". Resolver. 2019. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  13. ↑ Lewis, Martin. "Moneysavingexpert-com - About the MoneySaving Books". TheGuardian.com . Retrieved 8 February 2007.
  14. ↑ "moneysavingexpert.com Competitive Analysis, Marketing Mix and Traffic - Alexa". www.alexa.com. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  15. ↑ "House of Commons. Tuesday 25 January 2005. Notices of Motions for which no days have been fixed ('Early Day Motions')". House of Commons. 25 January 2005. Archived from the original on 15 July 2006. Retrieved 13 August 2006.
  16. ↑ "2005 Bradford & Bingley Personal Finance Media Awards Winners Unveiled". Bradford & Bingley. 9 November 2005. Archived from the original on 6 October 2006. Retrieved 14 August 2006.
  17. ↑ Patrick Collinson (17 September 2005). "Now time has come to end this mis-selling scandal". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 August 2006.
  18. ↑ Simon Kurs; Sally Kinnes (1 January 2006). "Kings of the online jungle". London: The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 3 January 2006. Retrieved 13 August 2006.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.