"Price comparison" Websites

[Mike Boss]

When shopping around for the best business finance deal, please don't rely entirely on these price comparison sites.

I can't speak for the consumer finance comparison sites, but I can speak with some experience on the commercial side.

They may claim to have access to a large number of lenders and search around for the cheapest deal from all of them, however reality is quite different.

One company I know who run such a site visited one of their lenders and explained the concept behind their new site. The lender replied that whilst this was a great idea, it wouldn't produce any business for them, as they would never be the cheapest lender. It was then admitted that in fact any deals that came out of this site, would in fact be shared around between all the lenders, not in fact the cheapest.

I'm sure many of you are already aware of this, and of course it does make commercial sense from the website owner's/lenders point of view, but i'm sure there are many new businesses that see these type of sites as genuinely the cheapest deals available.

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by Mike Boss

i'm sure there are many new businesses that see these type of sites as genuinely the cheapest deals available.

One high street bank owned factoring company always makes sure that their quotes given through one particular commercial finance price comparison site is on the low side but once interest has been aroused and a visit has been arranged they manage to find some reason why the price quoted wasn't quite right and try and increase it.

This was told to me by one of their ex employees.

[Mike Boss]

All so familiar unfortunately Ian.

Similar to the companies who offer "cheap" asset finance, yet when the client comes to sign the contract, there are a few hidden extras such as interim rentals, payments in advance, balloon rentals, high document fees etc.

[M1ck]

Some of these big comparison sites, who have access to all the lenders, will display at the top their "partner" companies, who are not the best or the cheapest (a bit like google adds, but without making the customer aware)
Most of the others are part of lead generation and as soon as you have filled in your details, they will be sold off to the highest bidder, (sometimes more than once) and you will spend next month answering calls from brokers !

Mick

[cheri]

thanks for confirming the farce these sites are!!! i filled my details in and suddenly the junk mail started piling up

[Ian J]

If I want online prices for anything I always give a fictitious address and telephone number so that I get just the online quotes that I wanted but without the hassle afterwards.

The car insurance price quote sites are amongst the worst as the telephone will start ringing 10 minutes after you've submitted the request for an online quote.

[lori99]

It seems like this market isn't as mature as shopping sites for household items and electronics. I can usually get good deals on those items when comparison shopping online. Maybe it just takes more time for the business to become legitimate.

[Rhyemba]

Hi,

I am still a strong believer that if it sounds to good to be true it normally is

Regards

Rhyemba

[Alby]

As some have mentioned many of these comparison sites are feeders for lead sellers, several of the larger sites have lead sales companies that are part of the same company. I have several sites that supply our own leads and i get people telling me regurlarly that they have been bombarded with calls since they put their details onto a comparison site.

[BusFor]

I'd be very wary about these sites, I agree with Ian about giving a false name and address, will save a lot of the post quote hassle!