Emma Simon

Consumers are worse off thanks to price comparison sites

Price comparison sites are being investigated by competition regulators. Good. It’s about time there was closer scrutiny of these meerkat-loving, opera-singing, stiletto-twerking financial behemoths.

To be fair, this current investigation centres on ‘one or two’ energy price comparison sites who are alleged to have breached competition rules for online advertising.

This isn’t my main beef with these sites. On of the face of it, they have made shopping around for energy deals, car, home and travel insurance and savings and credit a bit easier.

But the assumption that they are speedy and hassle-free is nonsense.

If you have an hour or two of your life to fritter away log onto a couple of these sites and compare results. The first thing you’ll notice is that the ‘best buys’ they find can be quite different.

When it comes to insurance, for example, no one site covers the whole market. Most have short-term ‘exclusive’ deals with one or more providers.

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