Which? slates aggregators

Consumer champion Which? has criticised hidden excess costs on home and car insurance on online financial comparison sites.

Which said they often adjusted or didn't clearly display excess charges making it difficult for customers to make like-for-like comparisons and find the best policy to suit their needs.

Problems included:

• details typed in were changed by the website to give cheaper, but not necessarily better, results
• Adding compulsory excess charges on top of the voluntary excess without warning
• not identifying compulsory excess charges at all

All of the sites failed to act as one-stop-shops, since none of them consistently provided the cheapest quote based on Which’s researchers' criteria.

Jess Ross, Editor, which.co.uk, said: “Comparison sites sell themselves on having all the information in one place and being easy to use, but we found that the way they display excess charges means it's difficult for people to make informed decisions.

"Don't be fooled into thinking that online comparison sites are a one-stop shop - customers need to search around different sites and keep their wits about them."