Financial comparison websites offer confusion, not lowest price

It found that in most cases, the cheapest quote for insurance policies was different on each site. When it came to the lowest credit card interest rates, one site came up with an offer of 6.8% APR while another's cheapest rate was 12.9% APR.

Which? Money also found examples that proved it was sometimes cheaper to go directly to the insurer. Bradford & Bingley's home contents policy costs £68 from their website, but as much as £100 on Gocompare.com.

The proliferation of price comparison websites has already lead to jokes that a new comparison site will be needed for the comparison sites, but Which? Money's research shows that it might not be a bad idea -- not only are there different quotes on the sites, but it is difficult to make a true comparison between the findings delivered because each website uses different product features.

Martyn Hocking, editor of Which? Money, said: "With such an array of financial products to choose from, it can be tempting to turn to a price comparison site to do the legwork for you.

"But you might be very confused to find that different sites can give you vastly different quotes and often don't give enough information for you to make an informed choice."

The magazine advises consumers to use a number of different comparison sites before making a choice about what to buy.

Commenting on the report, bosses of the price comparison sites came out to defend their businesses.

Hayley Parsons, chief executive officer of Gocompare.com, said: "There are various reasons why Which? may have found quotes differed from site to site. For example, some comparison sites don't compare as many insurers or products as we do therefore the search results would be different.

"It's also worth pointing out that this research is nearly two months out of date and since then we've added even more insurers and products to our service and will be adding still more in the very near future."

Stuart Glendinning, managing director of Moneysupermarket.com, said: "This is not a comprehensive report from Which? on price comparison sites.

"Accuracy is of paramount importance to us. Moneysupermarket.com is the only price comparison site with a clear commitment to customers on how it will behave. Our customer promise makes it clear that our aim is to compare more providers than any other site, to list every provider (and make clear which ones we don't list and why), that the price you see is the price you pay and that you won't get cheaper by going direct."