A transparent, conflict-disclosing affiliate comparison marketplace whose user-voted scores look honest but whose table rankings are partly bought, with no independent product testing underneath.
What it's really for A financial-product comparison site monetized by lead-gen referrals to the lenders it lists.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its loan and financial-product rankings, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
SuperMoney is paid most by the financial-services providers it lists. By its own disclosure, "some, but not all, of the financial institutions with products on our site may compensate us" when a user applies or is approved, and the site is an "advertising-supported service" whose owner "may be compensated in exchange for featured placement." Paying can influence table placement and position, though SuperMoney says its user-voted recommendation scores are not affected by partner compensation.
Source →- Operating since
- 2013 (13 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- Advertising-supported affiliate and lead-generation marketplace: financial-product partners pay SuperMoney when users click through, apply, or get approved, plus segmented lead sales, an affiliate program, and a point-of-sale financing platform monetized through lending partners. Free to consumers.
- What they do
- SuperMoney runs a comparison marketplace across 50-plus consumer finance categories (personal loans, credit cards, debt relief, tax relief, banking, insurance, mortgages, auto loans, business loans), letting users line up products side by side, read user-submitted reviews, and request pre-qualified offers. Companies are also scored by a community recommendation score (-100 to +100) built from user votes rather than editorial product testing.
- What to watch for
- The catch: where a brand sits in the comparison tables is shaped partly by what advertisers pay. By SuperMoney's own disclosure it "may be compensated in exchange for featured placement," and it says advertising fees combined with factors like conversion rates and product popularity affect placement and position. The community star/recommendation scores are stated to be vote-based and not influenced by compensation, but those are crowd opinions, not independent hands-on testing, and many providers carry only a handful of votes.
- Composite score
- 2.40 / 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
- SuperMoney's knowledge base states: "Some, but not all, of the financial institutions with products on our site may compensate us. For example, we may receive compensation when someone applies or gets approved for a financial service through our site." Source: SuperMoney Knowledge Base — How does SuperMoney make money? →
- Site disclosure: "SuperMoney.com is an independent, advertising-supported service. The owner of this website may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services," and advertising fees combined with criteria such as conversion rates, reviewer findings, and product popularity impact the placement and position of brands within the comparison table. Source: SuperMoney advertising disclosure (review-page footer) →
- On company review pages SuperMoney states its recommendation scores (-100 to +100) "are based entirely on community member votes and are not influenced by partner compensation," and that it removes fake reviews when detected — i.e., ratings come from user votes rather than editorial product testing. Source: SuperMoney reviews page (community recommendation score) →