A bit of a development from last weeks post, but I guess along the same theme.

I promise that next week I will get off my high horse about the independent broker theme and get onto some other stuff that is probably of more interest to everyone else!!

This week however I wanted to talk about a growing phenomenon in the UK, and which up to even a couple of years ago were virtually unheard of.

Of course I am talking about comparison engines, such as comparethemarket.com, or gocompare.com, and there are good reason why these stick in the mind…

Advertising that’s why!

Who can forget Alexsandr the Meercat, or the tenor yelling “Gocompare” at customers in a coffee shop? 

In fact rumour has it that there may be a Christmas novelty single from one of maybe even both of these characters.

The reality is that these sites (amongst others) are visited by thousands of people every day, looking for a cheap insurance deal.  What you may not realise is that comparison sites are effectively brokers.

In order for an insurance company’s products to appear on a comparison site, they need to pay commission to that site. So that makes the site effectively a broker. Every time a sale is made on the site, a small percentage gets paid to the comparison site.

However the potential issue is that not all the insurance companies are represented on the sites – in fact a number of high profile insurers are now advertising the exact opposite.

Probably the most vocal of these insurers to use this strategy is Direct Line, who even use the strapline “You can be sure of the best deal unless you come to us direct”

So what’s my point? Well to be honest it is very similar to Direct Line - the point is you can’t be sure that you’ve got the best deal if you only use comparison engines.  Although a number of them do cover a lot of the market, none of them (to the best of my knowledge) include every single insurer.

So don’t just ask Aleksandr for a quote (although the partner website www.comparethemeerkat.com is just genius) - also make sure you look at the whole market.

And OK, banging the drum – ask an independent broker – a good one will quote for you and be honest enough to point out if you can get a better deal elsewhere

Next week – a brand new money saving service – we use it ourselves and love it, and I reckon you will too…