Money Saving Expert Newsletter - 50p to the Haiti Disaster Fund

[LWA]

Hey all,
Please sign up to the Money Saving Expert newsletter. For every new person that signs up, 50p gets donated to the Haiti Disaster Relief Fund. Link here:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/haiti-appeal

Please please please add all your emails to this. It's a great way to donate and it costs you nothing.

I've added it to my Facebook and emailed as many people as I know to get them to add their email. This closes on midnight 23rd Jan. £10,684 has been raised so far.

It's an excellent newsletter as well!

Thanks,
Leon

[Saracen]

Well, each to his own I guess, but personally ..... no thanks.

First, if I feel a charity is worth supporting (and I neither express nor imply any view on this one, either way), then firstly, I'd do it directly and secondly, I wouldn't ponce about with 50p.

Secondly, if I wanted their newsletter (and I don't) I'd have signed up for it because I wanted their newsletter, not because it's a charity appeal.

Third, I don't want stuff I don't want in my in-box, and this is effectively me selling my email address for a 50p charity donation. I'm not that cheap, and so will stick a £5 donation in directly, just for the privilege of turning this down.

And finally, and it may be being .... erm .... uncharitable, but this just smells to me of being a very tacky bit of opportunism on the back of a disaster. I mean, why make this conditional on signing up for a newsletter? If MSE want to donate, then just donate for pities sake.

But could it be that that their ad rates depend on email signups, and the number of letters distributed? Could it be that they have a naked commercial gain to make from this? Or maybe it's just their knack for self-promotion and a bit of easy publicity. I don't know, but I do know I don't like the way it feels, and it feels awfully tacky to me.

[LWA]

Some people, Saracen, simply don't have any spare money to donate to worthy causes (and no I don't include myself in this).

Rather than slating this, you could just see it as an opportunity for those people to give something to try and help. It doesn't matter whether MSE earn ad revenue from these or not (and no I'm not affiliated in anyway with them).

Oh well...