By John Shmuel, LowestRates.ca

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Canadians love using comparison websites when it comes to booking flights to exotic locales, but when it comes time to make big decisions on major financial products, they’re skipping out.

That’s what we found in our latest survey conducted in partnership with Ipsos. The survey found that 60% of Canadians use comparison websites when looking for a flight, and 63% use them when booking a hotel.

Then we started asking about whether they did the same for financial products. We expected to find a gap — but not by such a wide margin.

Less than half of Canadians are really researching their options when it comes to these products. Only 47% do “a lot of” research when they’re buying car insurance, while only 45% do a lot of research when they’re applying for a credit card.

Those numbers rose to 60% when it came to mortgages. Reassuring, right? Not really. It seems that when mortgages come up for renewal, Canadians are just taking the rates their broker or bank hands them. Only 42% did a lot of research into interest rates before renewing their mortgage. Continue Reading…