Spotlight: Price comparison by text

A price comparison website has gone that little bit further than its rivals by offering comparison searches via texts to your mobile. By sending the make and model of the item you want, and your location, to 60706, GotYourPriceCheck will search for the best price in your area and send you back two other prices for the same make and model in that location, plus one online price.

The service is aimed at those who spend hours researching an item online only to get to the high street and change their minds, often influenced by a sales pitch or what's being sold at a discount.

It sounds a nifty shopping aid, but each text will cost your standard text rate plus 35p for every text you receive back from GotYourPriceCheck, so the savings have to be enough offset the cost of the texts. And it's redundant if you're a committed online shopper. Plus, until mid-2009, it's only available in the South-east. But the chances are that it will save you a decent amount of cash if it's properly used, especially for big-ticket items.