Business

BEWILDERED BY BROADBAND?

By Nicci Cloke ⋅ November 26, 2007 ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Could one website make all the decisions you can’t be bothered to?

When moving into a student house, things you may have taken for granted - internet, tv, phone line - may suddenly perplex you. In a confusing, and frankly, boring process of reading through various companies’ promises (and of course, most importantly, prices), you have to decide which package or provider is cheaper or more convenient for you. Not to mention the confusing melee of credit offers piling through both your physical, and cyber, letterboxes.

But now, with the advent of websites such as uSwitch.com and moneysupermarket.com, you can have a handy little cyber helper do all that for you (leaving your internet time free for vital activities such as facebook poking) and have all the results neatly presented to you at the end. But what’s the catch? How do websites like these make money? The cynic in our midst is not entirely unfounded: uSwitch.com do admit they receive ‘a small commission payment’ when a customer switches through them. In general, it’s always good to have a basic knowledge of such humdrum topics as interest rates, but advice from these sites could certainly prove valuable and time-saving in a sea of unintelligible figures. And let’s face it, it’s one catchy advert.