Room for improvement
According to a new report from research and consulting firm GlobalData, price comparison sites have room for improvement when providing clarity for customers.
The report highlights the fact that the popularity of comparison sites is closely tied to the ebb and flow of rate movement driving shop-around behaviour, and that rate movement sits behind the positive figures reported for each of the ‘big four’ sites for 2016: Comparethemarket.com, Confused.com, Gocompare.com and Moneysupermarket.com. For example, according to the report, both Confused.com and Moneysupermarket.com saw a 14-per-cent bump in revenue in 2016, driven by a pricing environment that is set to continue.
“At a time where shopping around is set to be at a peak, these sites provide an invaluable service to help customers compare and seek the best deal. However, there are a few key areas in which service providers could afford to give consumers more clarity,” commented Stewart McEwan, GlobalData’s head of content for UK General Insurance. “Firstly, analysis conducted in March 2017 of quotes received across each of the big four price comparison sites for an ’average driver’ revealed that the average price across the top 10 quotes can differ quite significantly between sites – to the tune of £87 in this example.”
McEwan also said that although consumers may set their preferred level of voluntary excess on each site, the level of compulsory excess then added varies from quote to quote. “While clearly displaying the excess, none of the big four have built a system to balance the overall excess across the quote board. This means customers are not viewing quotes on an ‘apples-to-apples’ basis,” he explained.