Car Insurance Comparison Sites Clash Heads

By Daniel Keogh

A recent wave of claim and counter-claim has seen three of the largest UK price comparison websites each announcing themselves as the best when it comes to comparing car insurance quotes.

With the number of people buying car insurance online continuing to rise competition for customers has never been more fierce. Where once this only impacted the insurance companies themselves it seems now this battle has extended to the comparison sites themselves.

Within a short spell of media frenzy moneysupermarket.com, confused.com and tescocompare.com each announced that independent research found them to be the best choice when comparing motor insurance quotes.

This was soon followed by the predictable spat whereby each accused the others figures of being flawed and biased. While this has certainly been amusing for their fellow competitors, comparethemarket.com and gocompare.com, it has done little to help motorists.

Lest we forget, these sites are supposed to exist to champion the consumer and save the average person money. This latest episode hardly promotes that image, rather it highlights how these companies exist to make profit and as more comparison sites enter the market commercial needs will increasingly be put before those of the public.

The result of this is the FSA being called to regulate price comparison sites to ensure a fair deal for online customers; this is one area of debate that will run for some time yet.

All of that aside, it is important to remember that price comparison sites can still be very useful when shopping around for cover, not only in getting a cheaper car insurance quote but in saving a lot of time in the process.

The one big difference is you should now check more than just once comparison service. If they continue to make these claims it is wise to get a quote from several comparison services to make sure of finding the right policy.

For more information on motor insurance read the car insurance blog for the latest news as well as tips and ideas for finding the best premiums at the lowest prices.