Save money with comparison sites in Canada. Find the best deals on utilities, insurance, and other expenses by comparing prices.
Online Comparison Sites Can Save You Lots Of Money
If you love to budget and want to learn how to save money, then the fact that I love to compare sites will come as no surprise to you.
When I lived in the UK, there were many comparison sites where you could compare and select the best choices for almost everything.
Anything from the socks cost to which domestic gas supplier you choose and which home insurance covers the damage if the gas supplier was a wrong choice.
It was available online, and you could compare prices, so you saved the most money available.
Using Price Comparison Sites In The UK and Canada
There are comparison sites for just about anything you want to spend money on, and they are waiting for you to compare.
After moving to Canada, there didn’t seem to be anywhere near the number of choices of utility companies, insurance companies, etc.
That is until I started looking into insurance quotes for my first Canadian car, which started a disaster.
After reading stories online about other people’s successful emigration to Canada and how they saved money on their car insurance, following in their footsteps should have been fool-proof.
Or so I thought
My Outrageous Car Insurance Quote In Ontario
I phoned almost every Ontario insurance agent in our local area and was disappointed at best and disgusted at worst with the quotes they offered me.
One quote I received for 1 year of car insurance was over $6,000, which was utterly ridiculous.
I’d held a valid UK driving licence from a young age and never had a crash or speeding ticket.
My previous insurance company in the UK even furnished me with proof of a 10-year No Claims Discount certificate, which states I’ve never claimed on the insurance.
Before giving you a quote, an insurer will determine your risk profile by considering many factors, such as age, how long you’ve been driving, and what kind of car you drive.
The more years of no-claims bonus you accrue, the less risk you pose to the insurance provider.
So, why was the insurance rate so far from reasonable?
It wasn’t a true reflection of my driving skills but rather more of a money-making scheme, or at least that’s what it felt like.
I don’t understand why insurance companies were scared that the Canadian government would allow me to swap my British driving licence for a full Canadian licence without extra testing.
Why would the insurance companies I called deem me a potential road disaster?
Eventually, I found a Canadian insurance company that would honor my UK no-claims discount, and they’ve happily insured me ever since.
The whole insurance process took me through the wringer, and I gave up using agents and tried my hand at dealing directly with the insurance company.
Price Comparison Sites In Canada
Trawling the internet revealed a small but evolving community of comparison sites in Canada.
There are many sites in the UK and the USA, but not many in Canada.
That may be due to the lower population density, but I’m always open to other opinions.
Now, back to the comparing, I used a Canadian mortgage comparison site when it came to getting ourselves a mortgage.
We wanted a specific rate, so I phoned my mortgage broker and requested that they find the same or a better deal.
Not long after that, we happily signed the paperwork at 4.13%, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The thing to remember is that you have to do the legwork to find the best mortgage deals.
I’ve searched the internet for some of the best comparison sites in Canada so we could save our family money.
You might not see the immediate savings, but you’ll benefit the most over the long term.
Every dollar you save means you can put money towards debts, such as paying off a mortgage, credit cards, personal loans, etc..
Why wouldn’t you look for the best price available to you?
It would be like throwing your hard-earned money out the window.
Best Price Comparison Site For Canadian Groceries
I’m sure almost everyone who has the Flipp.com App on their phone will tell you that it is the best price comparison site in Canada for groceries.
Flipp offers local weekly ads, coupons, and deals in your area and compares prices to each grocery store.
Flipp.com
Flipp is the number one grocery price comparison app, with over 50 million downloads in Canada and the US and 1 million product views per minute.
Related: The Ultimate Grocery Shopping Guide For Canadians with over 300 Money Saving Articles.
Comparing Canadian Gas Prices
The gas tanks are another budget guzzler, so I’m always searching for the best gas prices in our local area.
I use GasBuddy to compare local filling stations on a more week-to-week basis.
That way, I can take full advantage of the lower prices at each garage and save a little money at the pump every time I fill up.
There are other sites, but tracking them down seems harder unless you’re prepared to spend hours surfing the net.
Average Regular Gas Price Comparison in Ontario
Using GasBuddy, you can compare prices in Canada and the USA.
- Hamilton160.2+0.8
- Ottawa160.5+2.0
- London161.2+0.6
- Toronto162.0+1.7
- Barrie162.0+2.1
- Kitchener-Waterloo162.5+1.0
Comparing Prices Of Household and Electronics
During my brief Canadian adventure, I’ve also compared other things, such as TVs, Computer equipment, household appliances, and car parts, quite a lot.
Some websites are well put together and kept up to date to give the customer an accurate picture of the product available.
Retail giants like Amazon.ca or Walmart.ca often don’t compete as well as others, so consistently hitting the same sites may cost you more than you think.
If you need to shop for household items, visit shopbot.ca, which compares almost everything you can put inside a house.
This can narrow your search, but I tend to find I’m looking at different model numbers, so I try to narrow my initial search by make and model number.
Once you have your results, you can narrow the possibilities to color and size.
Another thing to consider is paying for shipping instead of spending time and gas to pick it up.
These days, almost all online outlets offer free shipping when you reach a certain dollar threshold, so it’s still very competitive.
I can remember a specific electronic item I was looking for, and I found that my local ‘The Source’ shop had it, which was only 10 minutes away.
If not, you can use coupon code websites such as Groupon, Honey, or Rakuten to get free shipping codes or cashback.
For example, Honey is a browser extension that automatically finds and applies coupon codes at checkout with a single click.
Review Of Comparison Sites
Price comparison sites can and will save you money on a purchase and time, which is valuable to everyone.
Remember to read the small print, though; company policies may vary wildly because one price is cheaper.
Make sure you ask questions to important questions you might have.
- Are returns accepted?
- Is return shipping free?
Always do your research about the product and the company from which you are thinking about purchasing it.
Comparison sites may not tell you all the details, so it’s in your interest to always investigate.
For example, you may think you are getting a deal on a bag of sugar when you compare it to another store but miss out on the size.
It’s important to compare apples to apples, meaning everything must be the same for an accurate price comparison.
We’ve done this before and had to return it, and thankfully, Amazon offers free returns.
11 Popular Comparison Sites In Canada
Here are a few other comparison sites in Canada and what they compare:
Maybe you know of others I don’t know of, so please share them in the comment section of this post for others who want to compare prices.
When dealing with big-ticket items like mortgages, loans, and banking, these comparisons must not be taken lightly, as they cost you thousands of dollars.
- Mortgage Comparison Canada– Find the best mortgage rates in Canada.
- Credit Card Rates- Find the best credit card rates in Canada.
- Pricebat.ca – Compare prices on electronics, computer products, and games in Canada.
- Rates.ca for free auto insurance quotes. They also offer home, travel, health, and insurance quotes.
- Stackup.ca compares Internet Plans, Cell Phones, TV Services, VoIP, Smart Home, and the latest Tech, making your choices more straightforward.
- Flip App to compare prices on all your grocery needs in Canada.
- Shopbot.ca compares prices in a matter of clicks from the latest Adidas Stan Smith sneakers or the latest Samsung Galaxy.
- Price Grabber – Finds the best online deals, comparing prices from major retailers.
- Price Dropper is Canada’s most reliable price-tracking tool.
- Shopzilla
- Compare Hub to find the best lender in Canada.
Discussion: What comparison sites do you use, or would you recommend one or more that I’ve already mentioned?
A family where I live who moved here from Ireland also got absolutely obscene vehicle insurance quotes, I think their mini-van was $5000 until they could round up 100 pieces of paper from Ireland.
My university’s book store website was actually one of the best Canadian comparison sites I’ve ever seen; it was able to compare against a few different major retailers, like amazon.
Coming from the UK, you should know a thing or two about customer complacency. It’s even worked into the business models here… That, and the low population density and huge geographic space does have something to do with prices, but high corporate taxes and customer complacency are huge factors.
Mr. CBB,
If I may suggest so, check out http://www.RateSpy.com as well.
Unlike the others, lenders and brokers don’t have to pay to participate on RateSpy. Plus we track literally every Canadian lender that publicly advertises mortgage rates, 345 and counting.
More rates and more competition generally equals better deals for mortgage shoppers.
Cheers,
The Spy
I’m glad you finally got an insurance company that had fair rates. We have had the house and vehicle insured with the same place for almost 30 yrs and they have been good. Back when we lived in the country and were hit by lightning, they were fast and efficient in dealing with our claim. We hear from the agent maybe once a year to check in with us for any changes we want. When we changed the truck over to me being principal driver all it took was a phone call.
I might just have a look over those sites for mortgage rates for curiosity as we still have a couple of years before we renew, assuming we don’t sell in the meantime.
I’d like to see what kind of comparisons I can get for things like the cable, phone and internet but I’m not sure hubby would go for that as he doesn’t like change unless it’s his idea…. Usually if he is thinking of getting something he talks to the older boy about things like electronics as the boy does know more. Plus as soon as he realizes his father is thinking about something he goes on an internet search for info to share with his father. I will be interested to see what kind of offers Rogers comes up with about the cable packages what with the government dealings and such.
As for gas prices fro the truck I use to check prices in Stratford….. I already know the price is town here is too high!!!
Mr CBB — interesting your story. I have been down a similar path, living in the UK and now back in Canada. I am Canadian, and when I moved to the UK I couldn’t believe the comparison sites.. Moneysupermarket, uswitch, comparethemarket, etc…. What was cool is they offered information on services like gas, electricity, water, phone, tv/internet & of course personal finance items.
When I moved back to Canada, nothing like http://lowestrates.ca was available, and having come from the UK it was very frustrating to try and compare the different options in Canada. Now, there are some players, but no one has yet to crack the market quite like it’s been done in the UK.
Thoughts?
What a story! As if moving to a new country wasn’t difficult enough …! Online comparison shopping has really come a long way since you first posted this, so many great sites. I’m privy to shoply.ca for any sort of household product, but they have a pretty wide selection beyond that
What is shoply.ca all about? I haven’t really looked into it yet.
They have products from a ton of online websites (like best buy, amazon, hudson bay) and clearly list out the products and let you know if another site has a better deal. They don’t ship products out though, so its almost like a search engine for comparison shopping. They also have a blog with shopping advice/lifestyle tips – a nice addition I think, trying to build a community
You are missing Compare My Rates Canada. I Found some good deal on internet on the site
I have been using this online comparison site for a long time now, and it is always in my best interest. Most recently, I used a website which allowed me to compare mortgage rates.