Life is made a little
bit more complicated, also, by the fact that a number of insurance companies
own prominent price comparison websites, although they do not advertise this
fact too readily! Whilst it would be extremely cynical to suggest that they
may favour their own products over those of their competitors it is not a
possibility that can be completely discounted. It is also interesting to note
that although someone shopping for, say, car insurance can enter exactly the
same details which include their name and address, driving record, car
specifications etc into several different comparison site questionnaires the
cheapest policy which is produced at the end is often a different one from
each website, and sometimes these same insurer can be recommended by several
websites bought at different prices! This is because most insurers allow their
agents to add their own markups to the basic insurance price so in order to
get the cheapest price it would be necessary to look into very many comparison
sites rather than just one, which really defeats the whole object of them! It
can be argued that it is far safer to pick a reputable insurer, find out which
website is giving the best discounts from that insurer, examine the policy
carefully and decide for yourself whether or not to buy that policy, rather
than be swayed by expensive television and press advertising into going
through a Price comparison website and ending up with a policy which may or
may not be the cheapest, and which may or may not give you the best cover.
