Is Money Saving Expert’s Advice on Bridging Reliable

By Helen Jackson 19th August 2022

If you’re constantly scouring the internet to find answers to your financial questions, you’ve probably stumbled across Money Saving Expert (MSE).

The website is full of valuable resources and boasts a two-million-member strong forum — quickly becoming one of the UK’s most trusted sources of impartial advice.

Forums like these are invaluable to anyone looking for a bit of advice around bridging loans or property finance guidance in general.

This guide explores the advice shared on Money Saving Expert about bridging finance and whether it’s reliable or not.

What is Money Saving Expert?

The website, moneysavingexpert.com, was founded in 2003 by financial journalist Martin Lewis to save the general public money by providing advice on deals, timely tips, and well-researched journalistic articles.

Over the years, moneysavingexpert.com has been involved in many successful political petitions, campaigns, and subscriber-led charitable contributions, quickly endearing itself to the public. Along with receiving praise and awards from multiple bodies and publications.

Today, Money Saving Expert is part of the moneysupermarket.com group and employs over 100 staff responsible for overseeing the site and providing up-to-date content on all current financial issues.

And who is Martin Lewis?

Over the years, founder Martin Lewis’ name has become synonymous with the company and the act of saving money. In many ways, he has become a brand in his own right. He is very much the money saving expert.

He has reached celebrity status in the UK as the go-to person for financial advice, largely due to his TV and radio work, offering well-articulated financial advice. In 2013, a year after selling Money Saving Expert, he was the UK’s seventh most googled person, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.

He’s currently still making guest appearances on ITV’s flagship breakfast show, Good Morning Britain, while being a regular columnist for multiple regional and national newspapers, such as The Sunday Post, Yorkshire Post, and Manchester Evening News. All the while being known as the founder, editor-in-chief and executive chairman of MoneySavingExpert.com since 2003.

What is Martin Lewis’ opinion about Bridging Loans?

Neither Martin Lewis himself nor Money Saving Expert has ever spoken publicly about bridging loans, despite being fairly regularly debated on the moneysavingexpert.com forum.

All we can say is if Martin ever wants to discuss his thoughts on bridging finance, who better to speak with than BLD? We’d be very keen to hear his thoughts in a BLD-led interview!

We’d recommend using the forums on moneysavingexpert.com to engage with other users and gather a better understanding of the subject from their collective views.

Why do people go straight to MSE for bridging advice?

The level of trust built up over the past 20 years by Martin Lewis and the Money Saving Expert brand has made it one of the go-to places for financial advice in the UK.

Over the years, Martin has crossed the line from financial journalist to financial celebrity. He pushed his face and brand into public consciousness through various TV, radio and newspaper appearances, portraying himself as the man fighting the good fight for joe public. All this publicity has been great for business and has led to the money saving expert website having more than 16 million visitors every month.

A large part of the site’s appeal is the moderated forums, which tend to be the place for visitors who want to learn more about bridging loans.

What questions are most common about Bridging on MSE’s forum?

Since the money saving expert forum started in 2003, more than 4,000 conversations have been had about bridging loans.

The vast majority of these conversations start with people asking how bridging loans work and requesting other people’s experiences, usually referencing their specific financial situation and asking for people’s advice.

Some other questions that also get flagged up are listed below:

How do I go about finding the best bridging loan deal?
How do I apply for a Bridging Loan?
What is the best company, or bank, to contact regarding applying for a bridging loan?
Do you declare a bridging loan to the mortgage lender? Does this affect your chance of being approved or the amount you’re approved for?
What security do you get with a bridging loan?
How do you repay a bridging loan – is it monthly or at the end of the term?
Would a bridging loan bring down my affordability with the mortgage provider?

These are just a snapshot of some of the questions on the MSE forum. You may relate to a few of them if you’re currently considering a bridging loan. If so, visit the MSE forum to interact with some of the MSE “forumites”, or visit our bridging loan directory to ask our expert partners your questions.

What are the best bits of advice on Bridging Loans on MSE?

If you’re considering a bridging loan, it can be beneficial to discuss your situation online and listen to the opinion of others. And that’s what the MSE forum can help you with. Remember, though; you should always seek professional advice rather than just taking everyone’s opinion as gospel.

You can start a new thread for discussion on MSE or join one of the many active conversations about bridging finance. Just search ‘bridging loans’ into the forum search bar.

Which bits of Bridging advice on MSE are best ignored (or taken with a pinch of salt)?

We’d never recommend ignoring advice on the MSE forums, but instead, we suggest weighing up the pros and cons of bridging finance for your own circumstances. Bridging loans aren’t the right financial solution for everyone — they can be an expensive way to finance your property purchase. However, they’re handy if you only need them for a short period of time (i.e. a few months).

Bridging loans get more expensive the longer you have them, so if you only need it to help plug a short-term financial gap in the property process, you can compare lenders in our bridging finance directory here.