When I was searching for the best health insurance in Switzerland again, I realized that I used a specific online comparison tool for each of my needs.
Rather than keeping it to myself, I’m sharing my list with you below.
This is in the hope that, as usual, you’ll say to me “Hey, but MP, this comparison tool is better for this, and I prefer that one for that because of this and this.”
Oh, and while we’re on the subject, I’ll never claim to act as a full Swiss online comparison tool myself. That’s just impossible and a separate service in itself. What I do on my blog is document my choices of products and services as a Swiss Mustachian on the route to financial independence.
Which tasks do I use online comparison tools for?
Straight away, I started to list all the areas in which there’s a need to compare the prices of something:
- Financial services (Swiss bank account, savings account, etc.)
- Insurance (contents and personal liability, car, etc.)
- Telecoms subscriptions (natel, internet, etc.)
- Health (Swiss LAMal health insurance, supplementary insurance)
- Real estate (renting or buying)
- Mortgages
- Flights
- Cars
- Everyday items (electronics, clothes, etc.)
Comparing Swiss banks and other financial services (accounts, cards, etc.)
I use Moneyland.ch for comparing banks, Swiss online brokers, and credit cards, among other things. It’s currently my go-to comparison tool when I’m preparing an article for the blog. And once I’ve got my top 3 or 5 bank accounts or credit cards, then I add my Mustachian know-how to define the best financial service.
The bonus compared to other tools: they provide a (large) number of very well designed calculators. I like to cite the example of the compound interest calculator as it really is a magic formula (in terms of increasing wealth over the long term!)
In order to tell you just how much I respect their work: it’s the only newsletter that I read out of all the other comparison websites. It’s high quality and objective, and there’s only one sponsored article, which is easily identifiable.
Insurance comparison tools
I’m going to divide up this section as I don’t use the same comparison website for each type of insurance.
Contents and personal liability insurance comparison
Historically, I always used the contents and personal liability insurance comparison tool from Comparis.ch in order to find the cheapest insurance. I found their user interface and range of options easier to use.
However, since starting the blog, I’ve applied my multi-comparison strategy in order to make the final decision.
So every year I use Comparis.ch, then Bonus.ch, and then I check on the website of the insurer in question.
Something I also check is if I have any other policies with the insurers in the top 3 or 5. Because sometimes these companies offer multi-policy discounts which make it worthwhile having various insurance policies in the same place.
They immediately offered me a price that was CHF 5 cheaper than Smile - but I would need to commit to them for 5 years. No thanks! When I explained that I wanted the option to cancel every year, they added a small line into the contract allowing me to get out of it every year, after just one year. Deal!
Car insurance comparison
I prefer to use the bonus.ch car insurance comparison tool, rather than comparis.ch. Basically, the latter has added too many unnecessary data fields in order to try and make you use their Optimatis insurance brokerage system. So since around 2021, I’ve only used bonus.ch.
Comparing cellphone and internet subscriptions
Historically, I used Comparis.ch to find the best Swiss cellphone subscription for my needs. Then, Sunrise brought out its QoQa cellphone plan AND its QoQa internet plan and since then, I’ve not been able to find a better option.
While writing this section, I’ve realized that Moneyland also provides a comparison of cellphone and internet subscription plans.
If I had to find the best internet and cellphone plan today, and QoQa plans didn’t suit me, I would do this:
- Look on Comparis.ch
- Look on Moneyland
- Check out every offer from the top 3 on the cellphone or internet operator’s website
I’ve tried bonus.ch several times, but I find their filtering system is not so well designed for this comparison in particular.
Comparing LAMal health insurance
On chatting with friends living abroad, I realize that we’re really lucky in Switzerland when it comes to the public services provided by the Swiss Confederation.
And this is particularly the case for the health insurance premiums comparison tool priminfo. It is THE official comparison tool to use in order to find the cheapest health insurance that suits your needs. There’s no advertising or product placement as it’s a public service funded by our taxes.
Every year in October, I use it for choosing health insurance for both Mrs MP and me, as well as the children.
Once I’ve found the 2-3 best options, I check the price in the health insurance comparison tool, in order to see if there’s any additional discount for insuring all of our family with the same company.
Tip: Comparis was my automatic go-to for a long time, but it’s okay as I’ve now trained myself to be in the habit of using priminfo. I recommend you do the same ;)
Comparing supplementary insurance
Supplementary insurance is optional, and therefore less regulated than the LAMal basic insurance. So there’s no priminfo for supplementary insurance.
To compare our various supplementary insurance policies (dental for the children, and alternative medicine for Mrs MP), I use Comparis.ch and Bonus.ch.
I do this in 5 steps:
- Comparison on Comparis
- Comparison on Bonus.ch
- I compare and check that the ranking doesn’t include an advert that isn’t obvious if you’re scanning quickly
- Potentially I end up with a top 2 or 3 (with different rankings sometimes, due to the input criteria they take into account)
- I then check on the insurer’s website that it is the same price as listed on Comparis and/or Bonus.ch (did someone say “control freak?” haha!)
- I compare and change supplementary insurance if there’s a big difference
For info, Comparis is also available in English (in addition to the usual Swiss languages), while bonus.ch isn’t.
Note concerning Mrs MP: she’s never changed supplementary insurance because we took it out when she was young. If we were to change it today, she wouldn’t get the prices listed by the insurers as she’d need to undergo a medical review which would show that she uses the insurance quite a lot.
Note re the children: likewise, we took out dental insurance for the children when they were little. As they have had/are still having dental and orthodontic treatment, the fees listed are not what we would be able to get (meaning we would have much higher payments — and furthermore, they might not even accept us as clients).
Comparing property (purchase or rental)
When I want to know the price of a property, or rental cost of an apartment, I mainly use the Homegate and Immoscout24 websites. And I then add Comparis.ch which scans lots of other platforms (and therefore those mentioned above as well, so I often have duplicates).
I sometimes still use these comparison sites for my real estate investment projects in order to gauge the market.
Comparing Swiss mortgages
So many memories of looking for your first mortgage…
Doing it again today, I’d use this method in order to find the lowest interest rate:
- Look at VZ’s comparison of current mortgage rates in Switzerland
- Use Moneyland’s comparison tool
- Choose my top 3 or 5, ideally including a cantonal bank, a large bank (UBS), and a smaller bank (like Valiant)
- Book an appointment and go and negotiate with each of them directly
Pro tip #1: at the beginning of the year, banks generally have more room to negotiate, as their mortgage loan quotas have been reset to zero. Versus the end of the year when advisers have less incentive as they’ve already achieved their objectives.
Pro tip #2: NEVER take out a mortgage from an insurance company. Why? Because in 99.9999% of cases, they’ll try to flog you a 3a pillar linked to life assurance which is the worst legal scam in Switzerland. It’s usually very tempting as insurers offer you cheaper mortgage rates than banks. Obviously, because they make their margins from their darn 3a pillars. I made the mistake myself twice in a row, and it cost me several tens of thousands of CHF to get out of it. NEVER AGAIN!
Comparing flight ticket prices
Preliminary note: we’re trying not to roast the planet and we use airplanes in great moderation (I’m not talking from a political standpoint here — we’d all die of boredom…, but based on the most up-to-date scientific data that has been published).
That being said, when we want to visit some of our family on the other side of an ocean, we compare flight ticket prices like this:
- Kayak mobile app, with my dates set to “+/- 3 days” if my calendar allows
- Then comparison on a site like Opodo
- Verification of the top 3 flight ticket prices directly on the airline company’s website
Kayak mobile app for comparing prices of flight tickets (the date selector is really well designed visually)
Comparing car prices
Ah, cars…
A little Mustachian reminder:
- You walk or cycle for most of your local journeys
- For further away, you take the train to maximize the ROI of your trip
- And if there’s really no choice, you buy a car
But not just any car: a good old Japanese hybrid for less than 10'000.- in order to save CHF 2'520/year, which is CHF 37’ 263/decade (vs. a much more expensive car, and/or worse leasing)
That being said, in order to find a secondhand car, I’ve almost always followed this process:
- Autoscout24
- Comparis
- If I’m left with more than one vehicle, then I negotiate with the seller directly
Personally, I’ve always used a garage to limit the risks of a dishonest private seller.
Comparing Swiss prices for everyday items
I’m mainly talking about electronics here (smartphones, computer screens) and household appliances. But these sites also enable you to compare the price of socks or other everyday items.
My first port of call is to look on the Swiss price comparison website Toppreise.ch to see how prices have changed since the product first came out. You can also subscribe to price alerts when the item in question goes below a certain level in Swiss francs.
Obviously, if it’s an item I can find secondhand, then I go directly to Anibis. But I still have a quick look at Toppreise, to see the price of a new item.
Conclusion
With a bit of method for comparing and a dose of discipline, you can often save several tens of Swiss francs, even hundreds or thousands depending on the subject.
And this effort is far from being in vain…
I’m always amazed to think that saving CHF 100 per month doesn’t seem much… but over 10 years, with the magic of compound interest, these 100.-/month transform into CHF 17'749!
And how about you, which Swiss price comparison sites do you use for different things?
