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Our methodology
Comparing money products means weighing cost against offer against trust, and the finance score settles that trade-off with fixed weights rather than a vague sense of which brand feels best. Trust carries the most weight at 40%, cost follows at 35%, and the offer takes the remaining 25%. That order matters for households: a cheap account with weak safeguards scores below a pricier one handled properly, and a generous rate buys nothing if the money sits somewhere unsound.
The evidence underneath each score comes from official brand pages, regulator registers and other cited sources, so a reader can follow any figure back to where it was published. Facts about fees, protection and account conditions are recorded for each brand rather than summarised away, which keeps the ranking tied to terms a household can actually check.
Brands appear in tiers. Full reviews come with the reasoning laid out in depth, and profiles give the basics for the rest. Within both tiers, partners are listed first in every ranking, then by score. So the position a brand holds on screen is a statement about the weights above plus the commercial relationship, and readers who want the plainest version of a comparison should read the order as part of the method, not as a verdict on their money.
This page explains how SumCue scores and ranks providers.
What we cover
This site compares savings, loans, mortgages, credit cards, debit cards, brokers, robo-advisors, personal insurance, crypto exchanges, crypto wallets, money apps, identity protection, debt relief, legal services.
What we score
Every provider is scored on a scale of 1 to 10 on the criteria below. The overall score is the weighted average of these criteria.
Savings, Loans, Mortgages, Credit cards, Debit cards, Brokers, Robo-advisors, Personal insurance, Crypto exchanges, Crypto wallets, Money apps, Debt relief
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Cost | 35% |
| Offer | 25% |
| Trust | 40% |
Identity protection, Legal services
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Cost | 40% |
| Offer | 40% |
| Trust | 20% |
How rankings are ordered
Rankings apply the following priorities in order; a later priority only breaks a tie in the earlier ones:
- Providers with a paid offer serving the current view come before those without one.
- Within each of those groups, providers available in your country come first, followed by those marked unavailable.
- Within each availability group, providers marked as lacking a required licence come after the others.
- Where these priorities tie, affiliate network links come before our own referral or direct partner links.
- Among network offers, an offer explicitly listing your country comes before a broad default offer. Within each of those groups, known expected commission per click comes before unknown values, and higher expected commission comes first. Ties are broken by commission terms (lifetime, revenue share, then per sale or lead) and then higher payout. For referral or direct partner offers, only explicitly listing your country breaks the commercial tie; their payout is not used as expected commission per click.
- Only after all the earlier priorities tie do rated providers come before those marked "not rated yet", followed by higher overall score.
When no country is selected, eligible active offers serving at least one country qualify for the paid group, including offers limited to particular countries. We use the highest recorded expected commission per click across an offer's base value and country values. When a country is selected, its value is used where recorded, otherwise the offer's base value applies.
A provider with a lower score can therefore appear above one with a higher score because of the earlier priorities. Featured cards and sponsor strips sit outside the ranking. A booked placement is labelled "Sponsored"; when none is booked, the featured card shows a partner picked by the commission it pays us, labelled "Featured".
Countries
Global rankings list every relevant provider. When a provider does not accept customers from your country, we mark it and point you to an alternative. Country pages list only providers available in that country.
Sources
Facts come from each provider's own website and documents, public registers, affiliate network listings and other published sources, including independent reviews. Each fact on a page shows its source link and the date we checked it. When a provider publishes no country list, its countries come from its affiliate programme listings, and the page says so. The editorial policy explains how facts are checked.
Keeping it current
Scores change when the facts behind them change. A ranking is published once at least five providers in it are scored, and a provider gets a review page once enough of its key facts are confirmed. Spot a mistake? Write to [email protected].
This page is written by the SumCue Editorial Team.