Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

COST OF LIVING

Cost of living: What are Norway’s best comparison sites for saving cash

With inflation pushing up the prices of most consumer products, people living in Norway are increasingly resorting to using comparison sites to make sure they get good deals – or at least that they don't get ripped off.

Published: 31 January 2023 16:08 CET
Online shopping
In this article, we will go through some of the best comparison sites you should use in Norway if you want to save money. Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash

The cost of living crisis is exerting significant pressure on the personal finances of most Norwegian households.

According to a recent survey carried out by Norstat for the Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) Oslo office, 70 percent of Norwegians are worried about their personal finances.

Furthermore, 77 percent say they will likely be able to afford to spend even less in the future as prices continue to rise.

The inflationary pressure in Norway has made comparison sites, which help users compare deals and save cash, more popular than ever.

In this article, we will go through some of the best comparison sites you should use in Norway if you want to save money.

Prisjakt

The price comparison site prisjakt.no is likely the most popular – and biggest – site of this sort in Norway.

Prisjakt.no enables consumers to compare product and service prices between a number of online stores so that they know they’re not paying more than they need to.

The site shows the lowest prices at the top of its product pages, as it is not possible for stores to pay to get a better position on Prisjakt – which is a nice consumer-oriented guarantee.

Along with price comparisons, you can also find other helpful information, including shipping costs and stock status, the price history of products, and reviews.

You can also get notified when the price is reduced or when a store receives a new product in stock, which can be a great timesaver.

Things to look out for: When it comes to the downsides, some consumers complain that the company is too strict when it comes to managing store reviews – especially critical ones.

Prisguiden

While Prisjakt is often considered the top comparison site in Norway, Prisguiden is a close second and is generally considered its leading competitor.

This price comparison site has been helping Norwegian consumers find great offers for more than 20 years. They cover around 700 stores and have 9 million products from 1,200 product categories on the site.

Prisguiden offers standard options such as price alerts, product price history, and a comprehensive page with the top deals of the day and week.

Things to look out for: Some users of the site claim that the number of stores included in the overview does not enable consumers to find the best offers, while others believe the search results include too many foreign stores and suspicious sites.

Kelkoo

Founded in 2000, Kelkoo is a shopping portal that helps users search through millions of products from hundreds of online stores in order to reach a more informed purchase decision.

The portal checks product data and prices from the online stores it covers several times a day and updates its result pages.

It offers thousands of trusted brands such as Apple, Sony, Philips, Microsoft, Nike, Adidas, Bosch, and Miele, as well as Norwegian household names such as Elkjøp.no, XXL.no, G-PORT / G-MAX.no, Jernia.no, and Megaflis.no.

Things to look out for: Note that the search results are not too extensive at times, and it might not be apparent which store is based in Norway and which isn’t at first glance (you’ll need to visit the pages Kelkoo.no recommends in the search results to find out).

Finansportalen

If you want to compare banking, financial, and insurance services, then Finansportalen.no is the place for you.

Finansportalen is a service offered by the Norwegian Consumer Council, which aims to give consumers the power and option to make good choices in the financial services market.

The portal offers a number of digital tools that help consumers compare banking, pension, insurance, and investment products.

Mattilbud

Sometimes shopping around is the only surefire way to save some cash. However, with all the legwork involved, it may not feel like it’s worth it.

Luckily, Norway’s Mattilbud app lets you collate and compare all the offers currently available in all of Norway’s major supermarkets.

The app shows you all the offers available in the supermarkets in your local area. Mattilbud includes prices and offers from Meny, Joker, REMA 1000, Bunnpris, Matkroken, Kiwi, Spar, Coop Prix, Coop Mega, Coop Marked, Obs, Extra and Europris.

Strømpris

Strømpris.no is another free service offered by the Norwegian Consumer Council. The site makes comparing prices and finding better electricity deals easier.

The comparison service is based on mandatory reporting from the power companies based on Norwegian regulations on reporting for power supply agreements.

That means that the companies are obliged to report their agreements to Strømpris.no by themselves.

FINN

While it’s not exactly a price comparison site, FINN.no is Norway’s biggest online marketplace. It has been on the market for roughly 23 years, and it is one of the most popular websites in the country.

According to the company’s website, on average, Norwegian spends an average of 30 hours on the site every year.

The site has a huge second-hand market, and on a typical day, there are around 300,000 listings and ads available on Finn.no at any given time. That means you’ll often find good deals on FINN – regardless of whether you are buying or selling.

Things to look out for: As is the case with most online marketplace platforms, there are also shady individuals using the site. Exercise common sense and be cautious before you commit to buying or selling anything on FINN. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

If you’re interested in second-hand deals, you might want to read The Local’s guide on how to buy second-hand and save money in Norway. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

WORKING IN NORWAY

Working in Norway: Are Norwegian wages really that high? 

How do Norway's wages stack up? Are they as high as everyone makes them out to be, and is the salary gap between Norway and other countries shrinking?

Published: 28 November 2023 13:27 CET
Working in Norway: Are Norwegian wages really that high? 

The average wage in Norway is around 53,150 kroner per month, according to figures from the national data agency Statistics Norway. At current rates, this is around 4,500 euros or 4,980 dollars per month. 

Men earned over ten percent more than women in 2022 at 56,250 kroner per month, compared to 49,280 kroner monthly. 

READ MORE: Is there a gender wage gap in Norway?

This gives an annual salary of 637,800 kroner per year when multiplying the average monthly salary for each month. This equates to 59,780 dollars per year or 54,587 euros each year.

In terms of annual average salary, this puts Norway on a level with the US. According to Forbes, the annual average salary in the US was 59,428 dollars. 

The very highest earners in Norway pull up the average wage significantly. Full-time employees in Norway had a median salary of 49,540 kroner each month. Annually, this is 55,700 dollars and 50,888 euros. 

Eurostat, the official statistics office of the European Union, measured the average annual salary for a single worker without children at 26,136 euros and 55,573 euros for a working couple with two children. 

The statistics office also keeps data on Norway, which differs slightly from the Statistics Norway figures. It found Norway had the 4th highest average annual net earnings for employees in 2022. 

The Eurostat figures show that workers in Norway made 74,056 euros per year net. The highest-paying countries were Switzerland (106,839 euros), Iceland (81,942 euros) and Luxembourg (79,903 euros). 

These Eurostat figures put the average earnings in Norway among the highest in Europe and significantly more than in the US. 

Why are wages so high in Norway? 

Many would assume that the high salaries result from a high minimum wage. However, Norway has no universal minimum wage. Instead, a minimum wage is only place in industries where workers may be at risk of exploitation. 

READ ALSO: Which industries in Norway have a minimum wage?

Many factors contribute to high salaries in Norway. Firstly, there are the high levels of union membership. Instead of a legal minimum wage, unions set pay and working conditions for most sectors. 

They govern everything from a minimum wage for a sector to salary bands. 

Then, there is the high cost of living in the country. The high cost of living means that salaries need to be high so people can afford to live. For example, Norway has the second-highest grocery prices out of the EU/EEA countries. 

Does this mean everyone in Norway is wealthy? 

In median terms, Norway was the eighth wealthiest country in the world, according to the Global Wealth Report from banking giants UBS and Credit Suisse.

Norwegians were also the seventh wealthiest on average, with the average Norwegian adult having an estimated wealth of around 4.05 million kroner or 385,340 dollars. 

The figures included pay, assets and property. Norway is a nation of homeowners, which would have driven up the average wealth. Numbers from Statistics Norway show that 76.4 percent of households owned a home. 

When it comes to inequality, analysis from Statistics Norway from 2021 shows that inequality in Norway is increasing, and researchers from the national data agency believe that the disparity is much more significant than the statistics show.

According to UN estimates, around 10 percent of the population in Norway lives below the relative poverty line. This is defined as those who earn less than 60 percent of the median income.

Despite this, Norway could still be classed as one of the countries with the lowest levels of income inequality. 

READ MORE: How much money do you need to earn for a good life in Norway?

How much do the highest earners make? 

The threshold for joining the top one percent in Norway regarding annual earnings is around 1.8 million kroner per year, or 154,207 euros and 168,830 dollars, respectively. 

The top one percent of earners comprised around 41,600 people in 2021 (the year the most recent figures are available). 

While foreigners and the children of two parents born outside of Norway make up nearly 20 percent of the population, only 11.4 percent of the highest earners (or less than 5,000 people) were among the highest earners.  

Is a weak krone eating in Norway’s healthy salaries? 

Over the past decade, Norway’s krone has weakened significantly against several major currencies. 

Ten years ago, a euro cost 8.43 kroner and five years ago, a euro traded for 9.63 kroner. These days, the euro is trading for close to 12 kroner. Through exchange rates alone, earnings elsewhere have achieved greater parity with the ones on offer in Norway. 

Hypothetically, if the exchange rate had stayed the same over the past ten years, the average Norwegian annual wage would be worth closer to 75,000 euros. 

If the exchange rate had frozen when converting the krone into pounds, then the average salary in Norway would be the equivalent of 63,381 pounds rather than 47,311 pounds. 

If the same thing happened to the dollar, the average salary would translate to 103,000 dollars rather than 55,000 dollars. 

Before wage earners in Norway get upset at the exchange rate, it’s worth remembering that the hypothetical figures don’t account for salaries and the cost of living ten years ago.

SHOW COMMENTS