Price disparity among comparison sites
Data and analysis company GlobalData has highlighted an inconsistency amongst UK insurance aggregator sites, which are offering consumers wildly different prices for the same policies across different sites.
The extent of price variation across the four comparison sites ComparetheMarket.com, GoCompare.com, Moneysupersarket.com and Confused.com are revealed in GlobalData’s latest report UK Insurance Aggregators 2019.
GlobalData’s shop-around exercises that it conducted in each of the personal lines – travel, motor, home and pet – highlighted disparities in pricing in each product. The differentiation means consumers are justified in searching through multiple aggregators to find the best deal, an activity which itself limits customer ‘ownership’ by any one site. Consequently, this drives confusion and limits the convenience afforded by the comparison services.
Ben Carey-Evans, Insurance Analyst at GlobalData, said: “While it is no great surprise that prices vary between the sites, the scale of some of the differences is alarming. The sites pitch themselves as being on the side of the consumer, and they certainly have made the process of buying insurance a lot quicker. However, if consumers feel the need to start checking several sites, or even the emerging trend of a comparison site for the comparison sites, then the aggregator’s greatest strength, its speed, will diminish.”