Investing picks beside broker 'best of' lists ordered by who pays commissions.
What it's really for A stock-newsletter publisher; the product 'best of' lists earn affiliate and lead fees.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its 'best of' broker and finance-product rankings, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
The brokers, card issuers, and banks it ranks (Fidelity, Schwab, American Express, Capital One, Citi, Ally, and others) are the same advertisers that pay it commissions, and its own disclosure concedes that "compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear) and may influence which products we write about," directly linking payment to placement even as it claims the underlying star ratings are insulated.
Source →- Operating since
- 1993 (33 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- It sells paid stock-picking newsletter subscriptions (e.g., Stock Advisor at ~$199/year) and earns affiliate/lead-generation commissions when readers sign up for the brokers, credit cards, and bank accounts it reviews on its Motley Fool Money vertical.
- What they do
- It publishes investing commentary and subscription stock recommendations alongside rated reviews and "best of" rankings of consumer financial products like brokerages, credit cards, and savings accounts.
- What to watch for
- The financial products it reviews are mostly ones that pay it referral commissions, and it openly states that compensation can change which products appear and the order they appear in, so a high-ranked or prominently placed pick is not necessarily the best available, only the best among partners worth listing.
- 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
- The Motley Fool was founded in July 1993 by brothers David and Tom Gardner (with Erik Rydholm); it remains a privately held, independent company headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. Source: Wikipedia - The Motley Fool →
- Its advertiser-disclosure page states it partners with advertisers and 'may earn a commission when referring you to certain financial products,' and that compensation 'may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear) and may influence which products we write about,' while asserting 'our product ratings are not influenced by compensation.' Listed advertisers include the brokers, card issuers, and banks it reviews (Fidelity, Schwab, American Express, Capital One, Citi, Ally, etc.). Source: Motley Fool Money - Our Advertisers →
- The rating methodology is published per category but relies on editor judgment of published product terms plus a 2,000-person consumer 'preferences survey' rather than hands-on use; cards get a 0-10 score 'weighted, and scaled to 5 stars,' but the specific numerical weights and point allocations are not disclosed, making scores non-reproducible. Source: Motley Fool Money - Rating Methodology / Credit Card Methodology →