In general, I agree.Price controls for goods and services is generally a bad idea.
Shop around folks.
In general, I agree.
But it's not necessarily easy to shop around properly when certain markets involve such a range of slightly different offerings (deliberately designed to bamboozle the customer?) that the consumer struggles to make sense of them and identify the best deal for their needs.
E.g. health insurance, energy providers (especially with the increasing number of smart plans), phone/broadband providers etc.
I've tried to use that and always end up only marginally less bamboozled than before. The plethora of plans, often with only small differences in cover, seems deliberately designed to obfuscate and confuse the consumer.For health insurance the HIA provides a comparison tool which I go to (almost) every year.
Bonkers (at least) doesn't list all providers/tariffs on the market so could easily mislead consumers. Switcher doesn't deal with all providers/plans but at least provides an option (disabled by default though) to see the ones that they can't switch a customer to.For utilities (gas and electricity) the likes of bonkers and switcher.ie are approved (or were last time I looked) by CRU to provide comparisons.
The main reason for so many plans existing is to penalise existing customers who don't shop around. Look what each provider is advertising on their websites as a guide to their best value plans. These are priced to win new business unlike the potentially hundreds of other plans they have for renewals.There are 300 plans on the market and I honestly think someone qualified both as a physician and an actuary couldn’t make an informed purchase.
Bonkers - which I'm more familiar with - does allow you the option to include plans you can't sign up for. I'd be surprised if they didn't have all plans available but neither am I here to defend them.Bonkers (at least) doesn't list all providers/tariffs on the market so could easily mislead consumers. Switcher doesn't deal with all providers/plans but at least provides an option (disabled by default though) to see the ones that they can't switch a customer to.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?