Comparison sites confusion
Wednesday, 20 Aug 2008 00:01
A good deal on home insurance may be harder to find than you thought
It may be necessary to use more than one comparison site to get the best deal on insurance, research has shown.
Consumer finance magazine Which? Money checked the three largest price comparison sites – Moneysupermarket.com, Gocompare.com and Confused.com and found the cheapest quote was different on each website.
The cheapest home contents policy varied from £51 on Gocompare.com to £71 on Confused.com, while the cheapest standard-rate credit card varied from 6.8 per cent APR on Moneysupermarket.com to 12.9 per cent APR on Gocompare.com.
In some cases, the quotes were cheaper on the insurer's own website, Which? found.
Martyn Hocking, Which? Money editor, said: "With such an array of financial products to choose from, it can be tempting to turn to a price comparison site to do the legwork for you.
"But you might be very confused to find that different sites can give you vastly different quotes and often don’t give enough information for you to make an informed choice.
"You need to use two or three comparison sites and check directly with providers to get the best quote, and remember that cheapest isn't always best – it's a false economy if you don't get enough cover for your needs or have to pay a huge excess if you claim."
Which? Money also finds a true comparison was difficult as each website asked different questions and showed different product features. In some cases it was necessary to visit insurers' own websites to check details such as the excess that people would need to pay if they made an insurance claim.
Stuart Glendinning, managing director of moneysupermarket.com, has dismissed the report for not being thorough enough.
"This is not a comprehensive report from Which? on price comparison sites," he said.
"Accuracy is of paramount importance to us.
"As well as price we provide a huge amount of supporting information to help customers find the product that best meets their needs. This includes customer reviews of providers, expert reviews of providers, detailed terms and conditions, user forums, video blogs, editorial and more."