As someone who cannot even balance her chequebook (what does that mean anyway, balance it on my head?), asking me to review personal finance web sites is not a wise move you might think.

However most personal finance websites are targeted at financial novices just like me I discovered.

So I thought I would be organised and developed a grid by which to compare the websites. Obviously my grid is not gospel (or even accurate I dare say!), merely a personal opinion. Below are my conclusions, but as most financial products warn, consult your own adviser, guru or god before making your decision.

You can find a good deal with research.

My main hurdle was deciding whether I wanted a personal finance web site at all. I try not to think about my bank balance, credit card facility and outstanding payments if I can help it. Using a personal finance web site does bring all this grief constantly to my attention. But I do like a GOOD DEAL and in financial services you cannot find such a thing without researching the products. So with a small measure (or two) of gin and much fortitude I began.

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Written by a "veritable folly of fools"

First I took a look www.fool.co.uk from The Motley Fool crew. This site covers the gamut of financial advice in its own inimitable style. Written by a "veritable folly of fools", i.e. non- professionals, the writing is in plain English and clear. The layout of the site is clean and you can generally find what you need. The irreverence and humour is also refreshing change from looking at my bank statements. It offers a weekly digest of the best postings on their discussion forums, finance news and stock market movements. The sign-up for a portfolio service is quick and painless and I loved the little feature that allows you to check if your desired login name is available. For someone whose surname is Patel this saves a great deal of time! The Motley Fool site, a US import, is very friendly indeed.

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Friendly & Humane?

I then reviewed FTyourmoney, www.ftyourmoney.com, a site from the same stable as the Financial Times newspaper. My initial thoughts were that I would be "out of my depth" among the City set who not only read the paper, but actually understand all those figures (shock! horror!). Surprisingly the www.ftyourmoney.com site is human in that it has excellent graphics and a crisp layout. Topics are listed under headings like "Education" and "Living Together" rather than school fees or mortgages. It features content from sister site, www.ft.com, and has lots of "finder" services e.g. find a mortgage broker etc. It does lack interactive services like discussion boards, games, polls and competitions but does offer personalisation. The site has very good navigation so you don't get lost and a quick sign-up. I believe it asks the least number of personal questions before giving you access to its portfolio services. Overall an approachable site for organised humans.

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Portfolio Services for meagre pots?

The issue of Portfolio Services is, however a tricky one. I would like a portfolio service to keep track of my meagre portfolio (mostly shares that are real "dogs", or is that "turkeys"?) but I do not want to spend time inputting all the information. Most of the time I access sites in my lunch hour at work (at least that is what I tell my boss) but the information I need is at home! A facility to link with money management software like Microsoft® Money would be a real boon. The other issue for an infrequent investor is whether you wish to track your portfolio quite so closely. If "freebie" shares in former building societies and IPO shares in privatised state industries is all that you hold then perhaps portfolio tracking is one luxury you can do without.

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Investment Clubs for the Internet Elite
(that counts me out then?....)

One site that does make good use of portfolio services is www.moneyworld.co.uk, now apparently gobbled up www.moneyextra.com. This is one of the largest umbrella personal finance sites in the UK with 310,000 users having signed up to its unique (that ubiquitous word!) online investment club. Of course they don't tell you how many actually continue to use it regularly, but hey that's business. The only sad fact was that it claims to be for the Internet Elite - the 41-year old married/cohabiting male who earns more than the national average and uses the computer daily. I bet he can balance his chequebook too! Obviously being young, female and a financial dunce didn't help my chances but I proceeded to join anyway. The sign-up procedure asks far too many personal questions - I'm surprised they stopped short at inside trouser leg measurement - a totally futile exercise. The site does have a great deal of depth and links to money management software like Microsoft Money although I suffered the same problem as before (package is at home whilst I am browsing at work). I particularly liked its clean graphics and layout and extras like the 'Wills Wizard'. This helps you write up a Will rather than "do what you will" as I originally thought. The www.moneyextra.com site is comprehensive.

Slicker than a car salesman hairdo.

The next site I reviewed was www.iii.co.uk from Interactive Investor International. This is a thorough, multi-purpose site. Their vision is to enable investors from all backgrounds to manage their finances and investments through the www.iii.co.uk website (no surprise there then). They aim to achieve this by helping you to understand financial products, compare the relative merits of each and then buy them online (presumably with a commission for iii?). They claim their portfolio service is renowned in helping members track their investments. The only issue I pondered was this - if they help you to compare and buy the best in the first place then why encourage you to switch to seemingly better products in the very next sentence? Their sign-up to portfolio services was relatively painless, but a little disconcerting message said that I would need to input credit card details for access to a Premium Portfolio Service that provides advanced charting (into unknown territories I presume?) and something called streaming. I wondered if the latter word was meant to be "screaming" rather than "streaming" but I am assured (by those who know better) that this is a valuable financial data service. The www.iii.co.uk site is very slick but I felt it was not targeted at complete novices like me. Some plain English would be appreciated too.

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Wannabe Investors can trade virtually here

The www.thisismoney.co.uk site from Associated New Media is all in plain English. It is also currently offering a fantasy share trader game* for any wannabe investor whose spirit is willing but bank balance is lacking. This site harnesses the content of The Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and The Evening Standard and is rich with news stories in every section. Added to the data & statistics provided by S&P Comstock, Lipper, Money£acts, Thomas Cook, London & County Mortgages you can almost overdose on information. The site is clearly laid out however and structured logically. The 'Ask the Expert' section is a nice touch; a newspaper tool translated to work online. It lacks portfolio services and discussion boards but overall www.thisismoney.co.uk is "newsworthy".

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All bells & whistles - hells bells!

One site that seems to have all the "bells & whistles" is www.uk-invest.com.** This all-purpose site covers a broad range from personal finance to share trading in the UK and abroad. But the flashing icons, banners and ticker tape do lead to a headache after a while. Probably the most comprehensive in pulling information into one website, the site is recommended by Freeserve and other partners. It is a pity that the Personal Finance channels are buried in a box half way down the home page. Better navigation would undoubtedly solve that problem. Sign-up to portfolio services is painless but clicking on community whisked me away to Freeserve, which I definitely did not want! Their articles are researched, well written and blissfully short. I would use this site if I wanted a one-stop-shop between personal finance information and share trading and was little more advanced than a novice. You can indulge in 'up-to-the-minute' information on the www.uk-invest.com site.

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"My dear, I feel nauseous"

Many people may be aware of Mrs Bernice Cohen, the elderly lady who taught herself financial skills. She used to write a column for a National newspaper and now has a finance web site, www.mrscohen.com. The only problem with the site is that it is just too much of Mrs C. Her photo appears on every section and almost every article starts with "How I did it". This is fine but the site will make you faintly nauseous if you are not a fan. There are well-written articles penned by other journalists but they get buried under the fame and persona of Mrs C. I felt like a lie down after visiting www.mrscohen.com!

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When all else fails, ask an expert.

One really great service I found was at www.uk.gomez.com. This is not a personal finance site at all but they currently have comparative tables (Scorecards) on the best on-line brokers, insurance companies, banks, credit card companies, music vendors and supermarkets in the UK. Another US import, Gomez compares various vendors using "an algorithmic and data-driven process that ensures that all scorecards produce an objective, consistent & reproducible results, thus providing deep insight in a competitive landscape". In English, this means that they carry out the same exercise as I have, scientifically!

If you cannot wait until Gomez gives you insight into the Personal Finance web site arena than here are my personal suggestions. Decide on what you want and how much time you have to devote to the subject, then select from the best of each. I plan to use MoneyExtra (www.moneyextra.com) as I would love to skew their user profiles and will dip into FTYourMoney (www.ftyourmoney.com) when I want specific information on the cost of education or the cost of taking pets abroad. Naturally I would be a fool to ignore the Motley Fool site (www.fool.co.uk). When my boss isn't looking, I'll play the Fantasy Trader game on www.thisismoney.co.uk and should I win anything I might have to traipse along to www.iii.co.uk or www.uk-invest.com ** and pretend to invest it wisely.

Now where did I leave that chequebook?

* The Fantasy Share Trader Game is a competition available for a limited period only. Please check the relevant site for details.

** Since this article was written UK-invest.com has closed its doors.(11/01)