moneysupermarket.com

...having to go back to moneysupermarket.com to find it.

**Business Finance**
This is part of the website that I had never looked into until I decided to write this review so have had a quick look in order to give you a basic understanding of what it is all about. Basically this part of the site, (which can also be accessed by www.commercial.moneysupermarket.com) is designed for the small business. From here you can search for ...
...card switching.

Moneysupermarket.com has only been up and running for just over 5 years, but since then has taken off in such as way various ISPs use them to promote finance offers to their customers. In fact some of the finance news that you read in some papers is taken from this site.

The website and company is owned by Moneysupermarket.com Financial Group Limited which also runs Mortgage 2000, a company well know ... more

I first came across this website when looking for my next 0% credit card, and being one of those card tarts who hates to pay interest I wanted somewhere that I can look at all my options in one go. To begin with I started going through the money channel on the Wanadoo homepage and that is how I ended up being re-directed to www.moneysupermarket.com.

To my amazement, not only could I look up some of the best credit card deals around I could look up pretty much any financial product I want and find the best one available. The products you can search for range from credit cards to mortgages, and from current accounts to hotels.

When you first log onto the website you are presented with the sites homepage. From here you can begin that search for your financial needs. You have two real ways of starting your search, the first is from the product list down the left hand side of the page, and the second is from the boxes in the centre of the page.

The list down the left hand side has the following options: Mortgages, Loans, Credit Cards, Insurance, Refused Credit, Savings, Current Accounts, Flights, Hotels, Car Hire, Business Finance and Share Dealing. The pictures for your selection in the centre of the page are unlike the product list because these items are not always the same but they do give you a better description of what you will find in that area. For example if you were looking for Mortgage comparison then the list obviously just says mortgages, but the item in the middle actually tells you how many mortgages you can compare through this website and that you can also apply for many of them online as well.

Under each of the product headings you get the facility to enter more details about the type of product that you are looking for:

**Credit Cards**
Under here you can select the type of credit card deal that you are looking for. An example of this would be where you can choose maybe a Low Standard Rate cards, or you may select to view those cards with Low Introductory Balance Transfer Rates. In fact they actually have 22 different ways of comparing cards ranging right through to comparing Football Credit Cards.

**Mortgages**
From this area you get 4 main options, the first 2 give you the chance to search through over 8500 different mortgages some of which you can apply for directly from this site. This includes specialist mortgages such as buy to let or first time buyer options so they pretty much have a mortgage option for anyone. The reason that this is covered by two options is one is a quick search and one is a far more detailed search. The 3rd option from here gives you the chance to fill out an online form submitting your details and an impartial financial advisor will call you back. The fourth and final option gives you the chance to call them, although this can only be done during office hours Monday to Friday.

**Loans**
From this heading you get the facility to search through over 400 personal loans, including secured and unsecured loans. You begin this search by selecting a few options such as is it a Joint or Single application, how much you wish to borrow and over what period of time. You also get the opportunity to select whether you are a homeowner or not which of course can then limit those loan options to those companies that match your criteria.

**Insurance**
Under the insurance heading there is then a further 14 insurance options ranging from car insurance, to life and travel insurance and from breakdown cover to dental insurance and critical illness cover. Once you have decided which insurance it is that you are searching for you click on the relevant heading and are then taken to the relevant webpage where again you get to enter a few details in order for them to bring up the most relevant products.

**Refused Credit**
From making this selection you are given the opportunity to search for the same type of products that you are from the main homepage only this time there is one difference. The difference being that the only products that will get listed for you are from those companies that are prepared to help people who for what ever reasons in the past have had financial difficulties and therefore find getting credit difficult. There are also two headings at the bottom of this page if you are having credit problems. The first is a link to Credit Expert from Experian where you can look into your credit file and actually get a free 30 day trial. The remaining heading is a link that will take you to a page where you can make contact with people that may be able to help you with things such as Free Advice.

**Savings**
By selecting the Savings link you get the opportunity to search for many savings accounts, but once again there a few options you can select first in order that the list that gets displayed to you is off some relevance. So under this heading you can select items such as Children Accounts, offshore Accounts, Notice Accounts etc, as well as the option to enter the amount you wish to deposit.

**Current Accounts**
This option is pretty much self explanatory and does not vary much from the Savings pages only this time it list current accounts as opposed to savings accounts.

**Flights**/**Hotels**/**Car Hire**
By making one of this as your selection you are taken to another website that runs in partnership with moneysupermarket.com, www.travelsupermarket.com. This site runs in exactly the same way as it parent page but only this time all of the options are based on and around travel. You get the opportunity to use one search to search through lots of flight companies, hire car companies or hotels. This saves you going to various travel sites trying to find the best deal, especially as they search many of the leading holiday booking companies including the likes of lastminute.com to ensure that you do receive the very best deal they can find.

From this site you also get a direct link to Travel Insurance, this is designed so that once you have booked you arrangements you can then go directly to booking your travel insurance without having to go back to moneysupermarket.com to find it.

**Business Finance**
This is part of the website that I had never looked into until I decided to write this review so have had a quick look in order to give you a basic understanding of what it is all about. Basically this part of the site, (which can also be accessed by www.commercial.moneysupermarket.com) is designed for the small business. From here you can search for specialist financial products such as commercial insurance and business loans as well as business insurance and current accounts. There is also links for you to get business documents translated if you do business is various companies and links to take you to stationery suppliers.

If you run a small business or have any plans in starting one then from the first impressions that I have had it looks like it would be well worth you taking a look.

**Sharedealing**
This is the final heading on the homepage for different financial products but works in exactly the same way as all of the others. From here you basically can compare various share dealing services to ensure that for those of you who do deal in shares are getting the best deal from the company you use.

Now that I have briefly explained to you the various selections that you can make on this site I will give you a bit more detail on the site itself.

Firstly one of the things that does seem quite interesting is that fact that you can register your details with them and input all of you online accounts with them. This includes online current and savings accounts, credit cards, email accounts and even reward cards such as Nectar. The way this works is that you save your login details into a secure part of their website then when you log in your other accounts are logged into and displayed on one screen, this therefore allowing you to see all your finances on one screen at the same time.

This can be particularly useful if you have various accounts as all you really have to input each time you wish to view anything is one password. I find this can be useful sometime as I use a similar product with egg.com if you are only viewing accounts. If you intend to do any transactions with these accounts then you need to have logged into them via them organisations particular website. The advantage that this one has is that it constantly compares your accounts to ensure that you are receiving the best deals.

If, and when, you decide to have a search through this site you find that the deal you want is not there or that you are not yet ready for the product you can register your email address. With this address you will then receive ‘Rate Alert’ emails, and what these contain are details of any lower rates with the type of product that you showed interest in originally such as loans or credit cards. This I do find useful especially for my credit card switching.

Moneysupermarket.com has only been up and running for just over 5 years, but since then has taken off in such as way various ISPs use them to promote finance offers to their customers. In fact some of the finance news that you read in some papers is taken from this site.

The website and company is owned by Moneysupermarket.com Financial Group Limited which also runs Mortgage 2000, a company well know in the mortgage and finance industries.

To view the website click either of the following:

www.moneysupermarket.com
Or
www.travelsupermarket.com

Email them at:

moneysupermarket@mortgage2000.co.uk

Call them on:

0845 345 5708

Or for those of you, who prefer the old fashioned mail, write to them at:

Moneysupermarket House, St David's Park, Ewloe, Nr Chester, CH5 3UZ

I know this review has turned out rather long but hopefully it now includes enough details to help at least some of you get the best financial products around and save some of the well earned money you go to work for.

Thanks for taking the time to read this review.

 

...less