A transparent, well-documented rate-comparison marketplace whose lender rankings are paid for by the same lenders it ranks, so treat its "best of" lists as a useful starting point, not a disinterested verdict.
What it's really for A loan and refinancing marketplace (owned by Fox Corp); it earns a fee when you take a loan through it.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its lender rate comparisons, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
Lenders pay Credible the most: per its own FAQ, "our partners pay us a fee when borrowers that we refer to them take out a loan," and users are not charged. Credible states that within its prequalification Marketplace "the amount of our fees does not impact how and where lenders appear," but it also discloses that non-prequalified users may be shown network-partner options "presented based on the compensation we receive."
Source →- Operating since
- 2012 (14 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- A lead-generation marketplace: free to consumers, paid by lenders. Partner lenders pay Credible a referral fee when a referred borrower closes/disburses a loan. Owned by Fox Corporation since 2019.
- What they do
- Credible runs an online marketplace that lets consumers compare prequalified rates for student loan refinancing, student loans, personal loans, mortgages, and (via insurance partners) other products from multiple lenders, and it publishes "best lender" rankings and lender-rating methodologies alongside the rate-comparison tool.
- What to watch for
- Its rankings rest mostly on lender-supplied and third-party-verified data rather than independent hands-on testing, and many of the lenders it rates and lists are paying partners; by its own disclosure, if you do not prequalify it "may show options from other network partners that are presented based on the compensation we receive," so the comparison set you see can be shaped by who pays.
- Composite score
- 2.90 / 5.00 → grade B-
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- Credible's FAQ states how it is paid and by whom: "Typically, with respect to our lending marketplace, our partners pay us a fee when borrowers that we refer to them take out a loan" and "We do not charge Credible users a fee for our service." It adds that within prequalification "the amount of our fees does not impact how and where lenders appear," but that non-prequalified users "may show options from other network partners that are presented based on the compensation we receive." Source: Credible FAQ (primary) →
- Credible's published personal-loan rating methodology says it "collected 1,216 points of data on 32 lenders" across weighted criteria (rates and fees, eligibility, availability, customer service, customer satisfaction via BBB/Trustpilot/J.D. Power, etc.), with lender data drawn from "lender sites, lender representatives, and internal intake forms" and "verified by a third party," plus a small weight on proprietary closed-loan data; it states "Compensation will not impact how or where products appear." Source: Credible personal-loan lender review methodology (primary) →
- Per reporting and the company's own disclosures, Fox Corporation acquired a roughly 67% majority stake in Credible Labs for about US$265 million in 2019 (announced August 2019), committing up to $75 million in additional growth capital; Credible, founded in 2012, describes itself as a consumer-finance marketplace that is not itself a lender. Source: Fox Corporation acquisition press release (PR Newswire) →