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A place where you can compare the difference in price of hundreds of products, including mortgages, credit cards and most types of insurance; the price comparison market, all you have to do is enter some details about yourself and you're away. This type of website has become more and more popular over the last few years. YouGov recently carried out a poll which showed comparison sites were used by 45% of people in this poll in the last year.
Due to companies jumping on this bandwagon and making the most of the high volume of traffic these sites can bring, there are huge amounts of these sites and a lot of competition. So now consumers waste even more time looking for the best deal because they actually have to compare the comparison sites! To add to the hassle comparison websites have had the finger pointed at them for misusing data given to them by the customer when using these websites. There have been a number of allegations made, including pestering customers to choose the deals that earn the employees of that comparison company the most money on commission, selling 3rd party data (customer phone numbers and details) and constant calls to individuals.

An independent policy and research firm, the Resolution Foundation, who deal especially with those on low and moderate incomes and how they fare in the economy of today, want comparison sites to have a voluntary code of practice.

Along side the aforementioned problems, there are fundamental issues with the websites. The Resolution Foundation say quite often details of the consumers are asked for unnecessarily and also that there is terminology on the sites that is not explained, meaning the customers are left to guess and quite often confused by this.

The other thing that has come to light via the Resolution Foundation investigations is that these comparison websites are acting independently of each other and aren't governed under one umbrella, making the voluntary code of practice even more necessary. Coupling with this, there is no clarity or transparency when showing the customer what the deal is between the comparison website and the product providers. This is dangerous because there is a risk of misleading consumers, as there may be biased interest towards one of the products. This comes in to play most obviously, when there are features like "best buys" and "editor's choices", which can easily be misread by customers as being best value products, but all they are is sponsored links.

"Comparison sites are valuable in making informed financial decisions, but many sites are undermined by a lack of transparency about their commercial relationships." commented Clive Cowdery, Resolution Foundation chairman.

Cowdery went on, "A voluntary code of practice would address this and encourage a growing market, without the need for further regulation"

Fortunately, the problems mentioned so far are not necessarily typical of all comparison websites. AsRecommended, who are traditionally a magazine based comparison company, who have recently added the online sector to their arsenal is a very good example of a company which prides itself on honesty, as well as being a very good comparison website. Ben Allan, the Managing Director, responded with the following when asked about the voluntary code, "Users of comparison sites will benefit hugely from the code of practice and they will in turn have more confidence in our will offer consumers and users of price comparison websites greater confidence in comparison services. We are obviously going to be more for it because we know our services will meet the requirements the guidelines require, but some other companies may not be so accommodating at first".

In conclusion, what comes out of this is that consumers are focal point and are the most important part of this set up. If consumers are happy and feel they are getting a good deal and an honest comparison, then they will return; if this does not happen then this age of websites will cease to exist.