Your television and newspapers are increasingly full of adverts for insurance comparison sites. At present the emphasis is on car insurance but health insurance is on their radar.
You may be confused by the adverts that suggest that comparison sites are brokers, but that is not true.
An increasingly bitter war of words is raging in the media between some direct insurers and some comparison sites.
To older onlookers most of this is hilarious, not just because of the absurdity of some of the stances, but because it is all too familiar. When direct insurers first appeared on the scene, similar rows went on between established insurers and the new direct phone insurers. So it is deliciously ironic that the company handing out the stick 20 years ago, Direct Line, is now on the other end of criticism of being uncompetitive and out of date.
Behind the row is the bitter rivalry between Direct Line and its founder Peter Wood, who financed comparison site Gocompare.
Comparison sites are here to stay, like the direct writers before them. They are not going to go away, however loud Direct Line shouts. Comparison sites now account for one in four new motor policies.
A comparison site is not a broker, but some are owned by brokers, and some are owned by insurers.
Online comparison sites started off purely comparing price, and have evolved into comparing some elements of the product too. This is where the arguments start as price is affected by what product features you compare and what adjustments you make to quotes to get lower prices. Every single one has a different selection of insurers and brokers, and a different way of comparing policies.
Many comparison sites send customers for health and similar products to specialist intermediaries, other comparison sites, or to a select few insurers and intermediaries.
Very few comparison sites on health and related subjects, offer a true comparison service in-house.
We are not a price comparison site.
We compare product details.
Comparing prices on private medical and dental and health cash products is much harder than on car insurance, as products are so different. A computer system for brokers has tried for a decade to get health insurers to allow it to compare prices, but most insurers refuse to take part on the basis that you are not comparing like with like.
