The BestMoney methodology, editorial standards, and commercial-model disclosure
Our mission
BestMoney exists to help people make confident financial decisions. We compare more than 120 financial and insurance brands across 17+ verticals — credit cards, online banking, insurance, personal loans, mortgages, savings, business loans, and more — and present what we find in plain language. Our goal is simple: when you leave BestMoney, you should better understand your options, know what to ask, and be able to choose a provider that actually fits your situation.
We do not lend money, issue credit cards, or underwrite insurance ourselves. We are a comparison marketplace. The sections below explain how we rank the providers we feature and where our income comes from.
How we rank providers
Every provider on BestMoney is scored against a category-specific rubric. The rubrics are built and maintained by our editorial team, are documented in writing, and are applied consistently across all providers in a category. No provider can pay to change their score.
The core rubric
BestMoney's editorial team researches and reviews financial products based on factors such as: range of features and services offered, ease-of-use, online accessibility, customer service, special awards, and more. Each brand is then given a score based on the offerings in each parameter. The specific parameters which we use to evaluate the score of each product can be found on its review page.
Our research process
Before a provider is added to BestMoney, our research team gathers data from four sources, in this order:
Editorial standards
The way we produce content matters as much as the data behind it. Here is how a BestMoney page comes together — and where AI fits in.
How we use AI
We use AI as a research and drafting assistant. Specifically, AI helps us:
- Summarize provider documents, terms, and rate sheets so our writers can find the details that matter faster
- Structure large data sets — comparison tables, fee breakdowns, rate ranges — from primary sources
- Draft first passes of explanatory sections so writers can spend more time on analysis and nuance
- Surface recent news, regulatory changes, and provider updates that our research team should investigate further
- Identify gaps in coverage so our editors know what to commission next
We are open about this because we believe readers should know. Treating AI as a hidden tool is not the standard we want to set — being transparent is.
What AI does not do at BestMoney
AI does not make ranking decisions. AI does not score providers. AI does not write opinions, recommendations, or any text that appears on the site without expert human review and editing. AI does not approve content for publication.
The judgment our readers rely on — which provider is best for which situation, what fine print to worry about, what trade-offs matter — comes from our human editors and the Money Besties, every time.
Every page goes through human review
No content publishes on BestMoney without two layers of human oversight:
An editor reviews and edits. Every draft is read line by line by a member of our editorial team, who is responsible for accuracy, voice, completeness, and adherence to our rubric. The editor's name appears in the page byline.
A Money Bestie fact-checks. A subject-matter expert in the relevant vertical aims to independently verify every factual claim, rate, fee, calculation, and regulatory reference against primary sources.
Both names are visible on the page. Both people are accountable to the reader.
What gets fact-checked
Fact-checking at BestMoney is not a final once-over. It is a structured check against primary sources:
- Rates and APRs are verified directly against the provider's published materials and confirmed through a live quote or application flow where possible
- Fees, minimums, and eligibility criteria are confirmed against the provider's terms and conditions
- Statistics and survey data are traced back to the original published source, and that source is cited in the article
When we disclose AI use on a specific page
For most pages, AI use is part of the production process described above and is governed by this methodology. Where a page contains content in which AI played an unusually prominent role — an experiment, a data-driven analysis built primarily from AI-assisted research, or a piece that highlights AI's role explicitly — we aim to add a per-page note so readers can see exactly what role AI played and what role our humans played.
Editorial independence and how we make money
BestMoney is an affiliate marketplace. When you click through to a provider from our site and complete an application or qualify as a lead, that provider may pay us a fee. This is how we keep the site free for readers and how we pay our editorial and research teams.
We recognize that this business model could create the perception of a conflict of interest. That's why we've established clear safeguards to ensure our editorial decisions remain independent.
The wall between commercial and editorial
- Rankings are produced by editorial, not by sales. Our scoring methodologies, category rubrics, and rankings are developed and approved by our editorial team. Our commercial and partnerships teams have no role in determining scores or rankings and cannot influence them.
- Inclusion is not for sale. We feature providers based on relevance, eligibility, and quality. Providers cannot pay to remove competitors.
- Every page that contains affiliate links discloses that fact. Look for the disclosure in the page footer and at the top of every "best of" article.
What we will not do
- We will not publish a provider's score until our editorial team has independently completed the rubric.
- We will not adjust a published score because a provider asks us to.
Our experts — the Money Besties
Our content is written, reviewed, and updated by a team of more than 50 financial experts we call the Money Besties. Each Money Bestie has documented credentials in their field and a public author page on BestMoney that lists their background, areas of focus, and how to reach them.
Categories of expertise on the team include:
personal loans, mortgages, credit cards, business financing, student debt
life, health, auto, home, renters, pet, travel, business
checking, savings, money market accounts, CDs
brokerages, IRAs, gold and silver, robo-advisors
relief services, tax planning
Every "best of" list and every product review on BestMoney carries the byline of the writer who built it and, in many cases, the reviewer who fact-checked it. Reviewers are subject-matter experts who did not write the original piece; they verify claims, check math, and confirm that the recommendations follow our rubric.
Authors and reviewers are required to disclose any personal financial relationships with providers they cover. Where a relationship exists, they remove themselves from that piece.
Licensing and accountability
BestMoney.com is a registered trade name of Natural Intelligence Technologies Inc., a Delaware corporation. Our parent company, Natural Intelligence, has operated comparison marketplaces since 2009 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv with additional offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Madrid and Australia.
Mortgage licensing: NMLS #2084135. State-by-state mortgage licenses are listed at /mortgage-license and can be verified at the NMLS Consumer Access registry.
Insurance licensing: Natural Intelligence Technologies Inc. is a licensed insurance producer (NPN: 19016703). State-by-state insurance license details are listed at /licenses. Insurance services may not be available in every state.
Important limits on what we are: We are not a lender, an insurer, an investment adviser, or a broker. We do not extend loans, issue policies, or hold customer funds. Our role is to help you compare and connect with providers. All approvals, terms, premiums, and policy obligations rest with the underlying provider you choose.
A note on our limits
We strive to provide accurate and helpful information, but no comparison site can cover every provider or every product. Some providers may not meet our editorial criteria for inclusion, while others may not participate in our marketplace. The right product for any given person depends on details we cannot see (your full credit picture, your goals, your local options), so the rankings we publish should be a starting point, not the final word. Where appropriate, we recommend talking to a licensed professional — a mortgage broker, a tax attorney, a financial planner — before making a decision that significantly affects your finances.
We will keep improving this methodology. If you have a suggestion for how we can be more useful, more accurate, or more transparent, email editorial. We read every note.
Last reviewed on August 11, 2026.