We had thought that the Meerkat doll buying public were obsessed with comparison websites as an easy if not thorough way of getting insurance. However, the people from which, say that these sites are only trusted by 1 in 3, so maybe not.

To be fair being negative on products has sold copies of Which magazine for years, so it may just be that.
However, in our experience, from a potential client who rang us up this year, you should be very cautious.

Mr X rang us, wanting to know if anyone could beat the quote that he had from a life insurance company, which had topped a popular comparison website. He clearly didn't trust the website to show the cheapest if he was ringing around too.
However, we found that we couldn't get a premium anywhere near that quoted for Mr X and instantly realised that an error had been made on the quote. He had wanted a joint life insurance policy, but forgot to check the appropriate box and had gained a quote on his life only. We put him right and pointed him in the direction of the cheapest provider.

Unfortunately, not learning from his lesson, he went back online to sort the insurance himself and therefore was not armed with research on financial strength, customer service and Critical illness definitions provided by each provider.
Nor would he have been provided with an option to put benefits in trust which, later could have saved him from paying 40% Inheritance Tax.

I hope he got lucky, but advise everyone else to see an experienced IFA, such as ourselves.

Bestadvice.net wrote that. . .
Comparison sites are not providing their users with a good enough service for financial products, according to new research from Which? Money.

 

In its first ever comparison site satisfaction survey, Which? Money found that the average customer score for these websites was lower for than any other financial sector it has surveyed; no site scored higher than 50%.

 

Which? members expressed a lack of trust in comparison sites. Only three in 10 said they trusted them to find the best price available, while two thirds thought they would be presented with products that make the websites the most commission.  

 

A quarter of people said they did not buy through a comparison site because they found a cheaper quote elsewhere and 12% said they were unhappy with the quotes they were given. Even after searching for products on comparison sites, more than half said they bought the product directly from the provider.

 

Several sites also set quite high default voluntary excesses when a Which? Money expert looked at them in detail. These voluntary excesses are often then combined with the insurer’s compulsory excess on the results page, making it difficult for customers to make comparisons between sites and find the best policy to suit their needs. 

 

James Daley, editor, Which? Money, said: "We found that using financial comparison sites is clearly not a happy experience for many - all the sites in our survey got low customer scores. 

 

"If you’re shopping around for a good deal, it makes sense to go to more than one site and be aware that some companies aren’t featured. Watch out for things like voluntary excess, and make sure the policy you’re offered is what you actually want."

 

Carlton Hood, chief executive officer, at Confused.com, said: "It might be an idea for Which? to compare their reviews! Earlier this year it congratulated Confused.com on our market-leading position. In fact its insurance expert Dan Moore said: ’Confused.com has shown that it is possible to give consumers what they want, a fair quote based on criteria they selected. Other sites should follow their lead.’"