The Troubles with Price Comparison Websites Are…

Last month websites offering energy switching deals had been under steady criticism accused of hiding the best deals available.

This post is about what has been going on and why.

How Do the Best Comparison Websites Work?

Let’s be straight to the point, Price Comparison Websites (PCWs) are a business and so they want to make money (including FairMoney^TM).

The way most PCWs make money is through introducing potential customers to suppliers, in this case energy companies.

To attract customer looking for the best deals, some PCWs do lots of advertising and marketing saying how they are the ones to get you the best deal.

The customers see the advert, go to the site, search for a deal, choose the one that looks the best and sign up to change to a cheaper supplier. The energy company then gets a new customer and the PCW gets a commission for making it happen.

All good until you realise that not all energy suppliers the customer could use are presented by the PCW on the results page. These other deals appear in out-of-the-way parts of the site (if at all) and these deals might be cheaper, ‘better’ deals, than the more obvious ones on the site.

So, Why Keep the Best Loans a Secret?

The reason for this is that the cheaper, ‘hidden’ deals are from companies that pay little or no commission to the PCW. The energy companies that pay the best, get the best position on the site. The same is true of many loan comparison sites. This doesn’t match with customer expectations of the site that are based on the marketing and advertising that convinced the customer to use the site.

How Can FairMoney^TM Help?

This is why FairMoney^TM lists only loans from lenders who agree to our FairMoney Promise^TM. We do receive commission from lenders, but we don’t hide that or the best value deals from FairMoney^TM approved lenders. FairMoney^TM seeks to treat our customers equally, whatever their credit history and we list loans suitable for those with perfect credit scores, bad credit scores and even customers with CCJs on their credit record.

Money and debt are subjects we take very seriously, so we don’t spend huge amounts on advertising and marketing, so we can afford to turn away lenders we consider unfair.

If you have any questions about how to compare prices online, lenders or the industry don't hesitate to get in touch. Tweet us on @fairmoneytweets today!