A personal-finance content site whose "best banks" rankings rest on public data, not hands-on testing, and which by its own disclosure earns performance-based money from the financial brands it covers.
What it's really for A personal-finance media site; rankings drawn from public data, monetized by partner commissions.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its bank and product reviews and 'Best Banks' rankings, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
Financial brands (banks, card issuers, lenders such as Capital One, Chase, and Fidelity) pay the most via ads and performance payouts; the site says advertisers cannot buy favorable reviews but discloses that compensation can affect how and where products are displayed.
Source →- Operating since
- 2004 (22 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- It earns advertising and performance-based commissions from financial brands when readers click links, submit applications, or open and fund accounts.
- What they do
- It publishes personal-finance articles, bank/product reviews, and annual "Best Banks" rankings scored by its in-house research team from public data like FDIC filings, fees, APYs, and app-store ratings.
- What to watch for
- It is not a comparison tool and, by its own disclosure, advertiser compensation "may impact how and where products appear on this site," so placement is not purely merit-based and the listings do not represent all available products.
- Composite score
- 2.20 / 5.00 → grade C
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
- Advertiser disclosure states the brands it covers "compensate us through a variety of commercial arrangements, including advertising placements and performance-based compensation, such as when users click on links, submit applications, open accounts, or fund accounts," and that this "may impact how and where products appear on this site but does not affect the content of any product review or rating." Source: GOBankingRates Advertiser Disclosure →
- Its Best Banks rankings are derived from public data analysis (total assets, monthly fees, minimum balances, interest rates, mobile-app ratings) rather than hands-on account testing, and the page does not publish the scoring weights needed to reproduce the rankings. Source: GOBankingRates Best Bank Methodology →
- Launched as ConsumerTrack, Inc. in March 2004, the company describes itself as operating "at the intersection of marketing, digital media, content and fintech" and was acquired by Gen Digital in January 2025. Source: PR Newswire — GOBankingRates Celebrates 20 Years →