Recently, a lot of articles have been appearing about the reliability of comparison websites. “These websites sometimes give different advice. Therefore, it’s better to look at several different comparison websites,” recommends ConsuWijzer. Bencom, the company behind (among others) Bellen.com, Internetten.nl, Lookingforbooking.com and Gaslicht.com, would like to explain that our comparison websites are reliable.
ConsuWijzer says: “Some homepages have deals with the providers, for example with the energy market. This means that the same energy contract on one comparison website could be slightly cheaper than on another. Therefore, it pays off to search for the same conditions on different homepages and to make a good decision based on your findings.”
The consumer programme ‘Kassa’ and the NRC pillory the reliability and independence of some comparison websites. This is especially the case with those websites where it is possible to compare health insurance companies.
Independent, complete, correct, and transparent
We want to emphasize that Bencom, the company behind nine different comparison websites and which was founded 15 years ago this week, does not make any price deals with providers. We are not linked to any external parties and are 100% independent. Therefore, providers do not have any say in the activities and the shown information on the homepages.
In other words: Bencom does not get any advantages from favouring one provider; in our comparisons we also show providers who are not collaborating with us, even if this means that the comparison shows that they are the better choice.
For Bencom it is not relevant to whom you transfer, the compensation of the provider always remains the same for us. This compensation enables us to offer our services for free. This means that we are and always will be independent.
It is very simple: if the providers want to appear higher on the ranking list, they need to have a cheaper offer than their competitors. We don’t ask the providers for money to showcase their products or services on our websites.
Next to this, we almost cover the entire market. As a comparison website for telephones, Internet, hotels and energy we strive to give as complete a picture of the market as possible by including at least 95% of the offers of a certain market in our comparisons. Not a single provider is given any preference. Therefore, you can count on saving money when using comparison websites. Next to independence, the information is as recent, correct, and transparent as possible.
Surveillance of comparison websites
Since 2004, the surveillance company ACM (former NMa) periodically performs research on comparison sites of energy suppliers. In 2011, the most recent report was published: Energieprijsvergelijkers2011 (pdf).
According to ACM, “the consumer can safely transfer via a price comparison website. All the necessary information can be found on the websites and the price comparison websites are independent enough to guarantee a big selection of choices and thus offer big price advantages.
Already from the first research and onwards, Gaslicht.com, Energiewereld.nl, and Totaalwijzer.nl have been tested and these sites were found to meet the requirements of providing information, transparency, being correct, independence, possibilities of choices, and sustainability.
On November 12, ConsuWijzer started the campaign “Doing nothing costs you money” (Niets doen kost je poen). ConsuWijzer encouraged consumers to take a closer look at their contracts, for example on the areas of energy, mobile telephones and insurances. For these areas you are, therefore, at the right spot with Bencom’s comparison websites!
