/ 4 May 2007

Price comparison sites — how good are they?

Almost two-thirds of consumers have used one of the growing band of financial price comparison websites, but what kind of service are they receiving?

Around 64% of people have logged on to one of these internet supermarkets — which display hundreds of options for the would-be borrower or saver — and a similar proportion are likely to do so in future, according to a survey.

But Global Reviews’ Comparing the Comparison Sites report also shows that only 20% of people have actually used them to buy financial products and a mere 55% of people find them easy to use.

Adam Goodvach, a director of the customer experience benchmarking firm, said: “These companies are changing the face of the financial markets. However, their entire business is their websites, so it’s crucial that they are easy to use.”

The independent research measured customers’ experience on seven leading sites — Money Expert, Kelkoo, Fool, Money Extra, Money Supermarket, Find and Beat That Quote.

It assessed the sites against more than 150 criteria, and found that consumer experiences vary widely — and could be significantly improved.

Beatthatquote.com, find.co.uk and moneysupermarket.com gave customers a below-average experience, the survey said. They scored 28%, 35% and 41% respectively against an industry average of 48%.

Moneyexpert.com led the league with a score of 63%, followed by shopping channel kelkoo.co.uk with 61%, fool.co.uk with 58% and moneyextra.com with 51%.

However, the research also shows that few websites offer a consistent experience across the board. While those trying to find the most competitive mortgage or credit card deal should visit moneyexpert.com for the best online experience, fool.co.uk comes out top for consumers searching for savings and personal loans.

Goodvach said: “Unfortunately consumers’ online experience varies dramatically depending on the comparison site they are visiting and the product they are seeking.

“They promise to help us find the best deal, but don’t always make it easy to do so.”

The criteria used to benchmark the companies included information available on the home page, the ability to browse, quality of search engines and how the search results are displayed.