Findings by the British Insurers Brokers’ Association (BIBA), following its investigation into price comparison websites, confirm Defaqto’s own findings in its survey of aggregators for its Motor Insurance in the UK report[1] published in October 2007.

Defaqto carried out a detailed study of the services offered by 17 leading aggregator sites, including Moneysupermarket, Confused.com, GoCompare, Comparethemarket and TescoCompare. Key findings in the report were:

• 65% of the aggregator sites had ‘default’ positions for underwriting questions and, in effect, could complete these questions on behalf of the proposer.
• 53% of sites automatically defaulted to a voluntary excess of either £200, £250 and more worryingly £500
• From the quotations obtained, 59% did not actually state who the insurer was.
• Only 47% of the sites analysed provided a “comparison feature” which allowed the proposer to check policy cover information.
• Only 41% of sites actually transferred the correct risk information to the insurer’s/intermediary’s website.
• Only 41% of insurer/intermediary websites matched the initial premium given by the aggregator.
• Only 12% of consumers who applied directly to the insurer/intermediary’s own website were provided with the same premium as provided by the aggregator site.
• 88% of the insurer/intermediary websites needed the proposer either to ‘re-key’ or provide additional information.

Mike Powell, Consultant - General Insurance at Defaqto, said: “Taking motor insurance as an example, there are clear regulatory issues around whether the customer is being provided with the correct policy information in a fair and honest way by the aggregators. In addition, aggregators need to address the sometimes exaggerated claims they make about their market coverage as well as the whole issue of differential pricing for the same policy on different sites. ”

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Notes to Editors:

[1] The report entitled ‘Motor insurance in the UK, 2007 - the rise of the aggregator’ is on sale priced £1,200 plus VAT for a PDF version and £595 (No VAT payable) for a single printed copy. For further information please contact Chris Johnston on 01844 295457, or the Sales Department on Freephone 0808 1000 804 or visit www.defaqto.com

For further information contact:

Defaqto Limited
Mike Powell, Luci Mylward or Chris Johnston
01844 295 454