I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that comparison sites are taking over the world! We constantly see adverts on billboards, the TV, through the mail and I hear at least three every morning on the radio on the way to work. You can think of pretty much any financial service and I’ll bet that there is a comparison site out there for it.
Why Should you Like Comparison Sites?
It is simple really – they help you to find the best deal. As the name suggests, they compare the costs of a product from different companies. Whether it be interest rates on a loan, or premiums on car insurance, a comparison site will search through tens (sometimes hundreds) of different companies and deliver you the quotes within minutes. Upon finding the best deal, you can click through to the company’s website and checkout…. Simple!
Four Reasons you Should Compare
- You only need to enter your details once. If you were to enter your details into the forms of different companies a hundred times, not only would you get extremely bored; it would take you so long that the first quotes would probably have expired! A comparison site will usually ask a comprehensive set of questions, once, before automatically querying costs with various businesses.
- Comparison sites are fast and they can often retain your details. This one is my favourite! You often find that you can create an account with comparison sites which allow you to store your details. When it comes to renewal time, you can quickly update your details and almost instantly retrieve a list of quotes.
- They target businesses you will never have heard of. It is quite likely that the first companies that come to mind are those that advertise heavily. Often these companies are not the cheapest – probably partly due to high overheads caused by said advertising!
- Better price transparency makes for increased competition. I dread to think how many people were consistently renewing their policies for decades before the comparison site was born – ignorant of the better deals to be had elsewhere. Furthermore, companies are aware how easy it is to compare the market these days, so are forced to offer more competitive pricing.
There you have it – 4 reasons why I will always use comparison sites. This posts comes as my car insurance is up for renewal at the end of the month. I have already received a full list of quotes from comparethemarket.com and am ready to play hard ball with my current provider. 😉
What are your experiences with comparison sites?
Comparison sites are pretty useful. Really we’re all benefiting from them even if we don’t use them since they generally bring everyone’s prices down. Any smart consumer is going to take a bit of time to compare prices before any big purchase. If they don’t, there’s a good chance they will be paying more than they could elsewhere.
Modest Money recently posted..Vehicle Insurance – Better Safe Than Sorry
You are completely right; in general it has definitely forced businesses to be more competitive!
Ohhh I like this. I often use the comparison sites when searching for flights.. Ive been with the same insurance company for a while now. Mine is actually coming to an end in a few months. I think I am going to have to take your advice and check out that site.
The pain of entering the same info over and over gets tiresome real damn fast. These sites definitely have become more popular. Cheers to them for making things easier for us.
Ryan @ Planwise recently posted..Ditch the Cable Bill
Hey Ryan, glad you liked the post. I think in the past, people have stayed with insurers because it was the lazy (and easy) option – you accept the renewal and forget about it for another year. Given that we can save our details now – nobody has any excuse!!
I particularly like point number 4. Increasing competition and prompting lower prices is usually a win for consumers.
Absolutely 🙂
savvyscot recently posted..4 Reasons Why I Like Comparison Sites
Totally agree with you on the use of comparisson sites and especially for all aspects of holidays. Two I’ve always had good results from are Hipmunk and Kayak
Good points. Comparison websites are great, but I always remember to use at least two of them when I renew my car or home insurance, because they don’t always show the cheapest price for a particular insurer.
Remember that the comparison sites are not totally impartial … several of them are actually owned by big insurance companies.
Happy quote-hunting, everyone!
If I’m particularly keen to find a bargain, I sometimes use a comparison website to find the best quote and then check whether I get the same quote if I go through a cashback website (so that I get a share of the affiliate fees paid out by the insurer). But this takes time and effort, and sometimes you find that the price is higher than if you go via the comparison service.