The Fine Print Australia · PUBLISHED 27 JUN 2026 · VERIFIED 27 JUN 2026 · AU EDITION

Comparison Sites in Australia: Only 7 of 27 Providers Shown? 🇦🇺

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A super balance of $50,000 left in a fund charging 1.0% in fees instead of 0.5% can cost a member about $12,000 more by retirement over a 30-year working life, according to ASIC’s MoneySmart super guidance and the ATO’s YourSuper framework for comparing MySuper products.

The number that matters

The central number is $12K: that is the approximate extra retirement balance erosion from paying 1.0% rather than 0.5% in annual fees on a $50,000 super balance over 30 years under ASIC’s MoneySmart-style compounding logic.

How it quietly costs you

The first quiet cost is that commercial comparison sites often do not compare the full market, so the “cheapest” result can miss lower-priced direct options or government-run alternatives.

CHOICE found that comparison sites typically receive upfront commissions from insurers, usually as a percentage of premium, and may also receive trailing commissions for up to the life of the policy, which creates a commercial incentive to prioritise certain providers or products.

In its energy comparison example, ABC found that Compare the Market returned 17 offers from 12 providers, iSelect returned 12 offers from seven providers, while the Victorian government’s comparison tool listed offers from 27 providers; the cheapest listed product on the government site did not appear on the commercial sites.

Old vs better: the “old” approach is relying on a commercial comparison site’s partner set; the better approach is cross-checking with the relevant government comparison tool or going direct to the insurer/provider to confirm the full market.

The second, compounding trap

The second layer is fees compounded over time: in super, even a seemingly small difference in annual fees and costs can materially reduce retirement savings because fees are deducted year after year and then the lost investment earnings on those fees are also forgone.

MoneySmart explicitly warns Australians to compare performance, fees, insurance, investment options and services, and says to look at 5 years or more of performance and to compare similar investment options rather than taking a rating at face value.

A practical long-run example from ASIC/MoneySmart logic is that, on a $50,000 balance, a difference between 0.5% and 1.0% in annual fees can end up costing about $12,000 over 30 years, showing how “small” percentage differences become large dollar losses.

What this looks like in practice

Mia, 38, is a full-time teacher in Melbourne earning $92,000 a year, with about $85,000 in super and roughly 27 years to retirement.

• She discovers that her super is not automatically “competitive” just because it shows up on a comparison site: the ATO’s YourSuper comparison tool only compares MySuper products, so a commercial site can look broader while still missing products or structures that matter to her.
• She discovers that a fee gap of just 0.5 percentage points can cost about $12,000 over a 30-year period on a $50,000 balance, so the “same” product recommendation can be materially expensive if the wrong fee is hidden or ignored.
• She discovers that the government benchmark matters: ABC’s comparison example showed the public tool had 27 providers in the market view, while a commercial site had only 7 to 12 providers, meaning a “best deal” result can still be smaller than the actual market.

The full cost of doing nothing

For Mia, the combined cost of using a narrowed commercial comparison screen plus paying higher annual super fees could plausibly exceed $12,000 over her working life, using ASIC’s fee-compounding example as the modelling basis and ABC’s evidence that commercial comparison sets can be materially smaller than government market coverage.

What to do about it

• Check your super with the ATO YourSuper comparison tool and find the MySuper product list for your fund.

• Go to the tool, filter to your fund or similar funds, and note the fee and performance figures shown for each MySuper product.

• Compare at least two funds with similar investment options and check the net performance over the same period.

• Compare your current fund’s fees against the shortlist.

• Good looks like a fund that is competitive on 5-year performance and has lower total fees than peers.

• Compare your insurance or energy options on the relevant government comparison site before trusting a commercial site’s ranking.

• Open the official comparison tool for the product you are buying.

• Look for the full list of available providers and the cheapest listed offer.

• Cross-check whether the commercial site shows the same cheapest option.

• Good looks like the government tool and commercial tool returning broadly similar providers, not a much smaller partner set.

• Inspect the product disclosure statement or insurer/provider website before buying through a comparison site.

• Find the premium, fee, exclusions and any commission-related wording in the PDS or product page.

• Confirm whether the quoted price matches the direct price.

• Check whether the product shown is an exclusive or partner-only offer.

• Good looks like the direct price matching the comparison quote and no missing cheaper comparable product.

A myth worth clearing up

Myth: “Comparison sites always show the cheapest option, so using them means I pay no more.” Fact: CHOICE found comparison sites can receive commissions and may not compare all providers, and ABC showed a commercial comparison result set can be far smaller than a government market view, so the cheapest option may be missing.

Sources

• ASIC / MoneySmart
• ATO

Researched 2026-06-27.

Corrections & disclosure: an AI-assisted, human-reviewed guide. Every figure is dated and sourced above. Spot something out of date or wrong? Tell us and we’ll correct it — corrections are noted here and in the video description.