The ACTUAL BEST
How we rank

Independent product rankings

Best means best.Not the highest bidder.

We rank financial products against criteria we publish first, and the order is built around your numbers, not around who pays us the most.

Find the best option for you

Three categories today. Nothing you type here leaves your browser.

  • Personal loans

    Loans up to $100,000

    $

    Checking rates won't impact your credit score. You'll see the personalized APR and fees each lender would really offer you.

  • High-yield savings

    Where will I make the best return?

    $

    Our recommendation changes based on how much you can deposit because rates are capped, tiered and conditioned. We rank on what your money earns after fees.

  • Student loan refinancing

    Can I save on interest?

    $

    Checking rates won’t impact your credit score. See what you would pay vs. what you pay now, including the federal protections you would be giving up.

What "the actual best" means

Three commitments. Every page on this site is built to keep them, and each one is checkable.

  • Best for you

    Best on average doesn’t mean best for you

    The same two savings accounts change ranking depending on how much you deposit. The same two lenders change ranking depending on your credit file and how long you want to borrow. A single published order cannot be right for all of them.

    So we ask. A balance, an amount, a term. We collect the facts that change the answer, and never more than we need.

  • Real rates

    A headline rate is just a starting point

    Until we know something about you, a list has to be ordered on published rates. They go to a thin slice of applicants with excellent credit, and they say nothing about whether you would be approved.

    So the moment you tell us more, the list is rebuilt. For loans and refinancing that means a prequalification against real lenders, on a soft credit check, and the numbers that come back are personalized for you.

  • Nobody buys a position

    Payment never moves the order

    The order comes from the criteria printed on the page and from figures anyone can check. It is produced before any commercial arrangement exists, and no provider can pay to move up, be featured, or push another product down.

    If the order ever changes, it is because a figure changed.

Worked example

When 4% is worth less than 3%

Provider A advertises the higher rate. Provider B pays the lower one. Which account earns you more is decided entirely by how much you put in it. Move the balance and watch them change places.

$
$1,000 $50,000

They swap places at $6,667. Below that the capped 4% pays more. Above it, the flat 3.5% does.

Provider A

Pays more

4.00% APY, but only on the first $5,000. Every dollar above that earns 2.00%.

$500

A year in interest

An effective 2.50% on your balance

Provider B

Pays more

3.50% APY, on every dollar, with no cap and no condition.

$700

A year in interest

An effective 3.50% on your balance

At $20,000, Provider B pays $200 more a year, from the lower headline rate. At $20,000, Provider A pays $200 more a year, because your whole balance sits inside its cap. At $20,000, the two accounts pay the same. This is the balance where the answer changes hands.

This is the whole argument. A ranking that has to publish one order has to choose between these two accounts, and whichever it chooses is wrong for half the people reading it. We would rather ask you for the balance.

Every ranking says how it was ordered

Not a score out of ten. Before we rank anything we write down the rule that decides the order, and that sentence is printed on the page the ranking appears on. The rule is different for each category, because what decides a savings account is not what decides a loan.

Every figure we publish carries the date it was last checked.

Read the full method →
The rule, as printed on the savings page
Ordered by what each account pays on your returns after fees, then by how many conditions the rate carries, then by how it is rated by the people holding it.

Figures last checked September 1, 2026. The loans page carries its own rule, built around the APR a lender actually delivers, the origination fee, and approval odds for your file.

Frequently asked questions

  • Will checking my rate hurt my credit score?

    No. Prequalification is a soft credit check and does not affect your score. Only a formal application, with the one lender you choose, is a hard inquiry which may impact your credit score.

  • What do you do with my information?

    We use it to rank products for you, and to run a prequalification with the lenders you ask us to check. We do not sell it on as a lead to anybody you did not ask for.

  • Do I have to give you anything to use the site?

    No. Every page works without it, and the calculators run in your browser. You get a sharper answer if you tell us more, and that is the only reason we ask.

  • Will I get the rate you show?

    The published figures are the provider's own. What you are offered depends on your profile, which is why we prequalify as soon as you give us enough to do it.

  • What happens when I click through to a provider?

    You land on the provider's own site and apply there. We are not a lender or a bank, we never see your application, and nothing on this site runs a credit check by itself.

  • Why isn't my bank on your list?

    Either it did not do well against the rule printed on that page, or we have not scored it yet. The list is what we have checked, and may not be comprehensive.

  • How often are the figures checked?

    Every figure carries the date it was last checked, on the page showing it. Rates move, and a number without a date is not trustworthy.

  • How do you make money?

    We get a commission when you take a product through a link here. What we get paid will never impact our product ratings.

Find the best option for you

Each page opens with the ranking, the rule that produced it, and the one input that reorders it for you.

Tax filing and credit cards are next.