Aggregators are not 'Independent'

I think the simple bit here is that aggregators and comparison sites aren't really as "Independent" as consumers would like them to be.

They all earn commissions of the merchants and retailers that they showcase and whilst the commission itself may not be the sole reason for promoting one product over the other, there are surely instances when a particular retailer or merchant is not highlighted within the comparisons at all.

I wonder if the solution may be an FSA owned comparison website where listings are added in via the retailers and merchants themselves. I think whenever there is a "business" model behind an aggregator site - true and fair comparisons are highly unlikely.

I work in the prepaid card industry (which is growing but still relatively immature if compared to financial products like insurance, credit cards and loans, etc) and new prepaid card comparison sites like prepaid365, knowyourmoney, etc have joined established larger comparison sites such as moneyextra, moneyexpert and others but none of them can be completely and truly independent or provide an overview of the whole market which in essence an FSA owned site might.

So if you are programme or product is not featured on the "FSA Comparison" site, it is down to you - the merchant - not informing them about it and not really a commission structure.

Until then, the 45% will just have to live with the decision they made ;0)