Most "best savings account" lists are ranked by commission size, not by the actual APY on offer — ours are scored from the providers' own published disclosures, the same numbers you'd find if you read the rate sheet yourself.
We collect rate and fee data directly from each provider's published disclosures — not press releases.
We score each product on category-specific weighted criteria (see the "How We Rate" note on any category page for the exact weighting).
We re-score a product the same week its rate, fee, or terms change.
We flag conflicts of interest — if we earn a commission on a product, that's disclosed on the product's review page and on our Affiliate Disclosure page.
This site earns affiliate commissions when readers apply for a savings account, credit card, loan, or investing product through our links. That commission does not change a product's rating — the top-rated product in any category may or may not pay us a commission. Full detail on which links are paid is on our Affiliate Disclosure page.
CFA charterholder, 8 years in personal finance research.
Former bank operations analyst.
6 years editing financial content for compliance and clarity.
Browse the review archive to see how these steps turn into an actual score for a real product.
