CANSTAR

CANSTAR is New Zealand’s most accurate and popular financial and insurance product comparison website.

We have over 20 years of experience in this field, are privately owned, unbiased and completely independent of any financial or insurance company.

Why we’re the best

CANSTAR does not just list a variety of personal loan or insurance providers and their going rates – we strategically evaluate and consider the overall product to find out which is the best in terms of value. This means that any products rated as 5 star, has struck a unique balance between quality and price that makes it truly the best.

When looking for a personal loan the best approach to use is to compare various rates as offered by different lenders the only problem is that comparing lender based solely on interest will not necessarily show you the loan that will be cheapest overall after fees are included or which product offers the most value.

How we solve the problem

On CANSTAR kiwis can find products that offer great rates but don’t skimp on value and are therefore the best and most competitive products on in the country. With CANSTAR you can compare credit cards, home loans, insurance products and personal cash loans to find the best.

The majority of lenders offering personal loans that are featured on our comparison website have these basic application requirements:

• That the applicant be employed a full time
• That the applicant be over 18
• That the applicant has a valid ID and bank account
• That the applicant be an NZ citizen

Using our comparison service

We’ve put a lot of effort into ensuring that our website is the most advanced and simple to use to compare loans as possible. You can find a range of categories on our top navigation bar which then expand to show you various subcategories. Simply select the category and subcategory you’re interested in and you’ll be directed to the relevant page. You will then be asked to refine your search by telling us a few specific and you will then be presented with a list of the best value products.

How does Canstar get paid?

Canstar is devoted to offering comprehensive information to customers for free. To generate this email quality information our group employ around 60 staff with experience in monetary services and we run large computer systems. This costs millions of dollars every year and we need to generate revenue in a range of ways to pay for it. There are four major ways to get paid.

Subscriptions to our database

Banks subscribe to Canstar's databases so that they can keep an eye on their competitors without having to spend many hours on competitor websites. Interestingly, when Canstar first launched in 1992 there was no internet and staff had to walk the streets to do this.

Almost every Australian monetary institution is a subscriber and our fees are low by corporate research standards. From a customer’s point of view, the fact that banks are willing to subscribe to our databases says a lot about the quality of our data.

Rating licences

Once five-star winners have been determined, monetary institutions have the opportunity to use the Canstar rating or award in their marketing. In these situations, a fee is arranged for allowing the winner to use the Canstar name and applicable award.