Methodology
Exactly how the card and loan rankings on this site are scored and ordered: the data, the formulas, the tie-breakers, and what is never an input.
The data
Card rankings read the card database that YourBestCards also uses; loan rankings read the loan database that YourBestLoanRates uses. Product facts come from each issuer’s or lender’s own site, our scanner re-checks tracked pages daily, and a person reviews a detected change before it is applied. Every ranking page is written into the HTML when the site is built and refreshed in your browser from the live data. A scheduled check every six hours rebuilds the site when the data changes.
How cards are scored
Each card gets four sub-scores from 0 to 100:
- Fees: the lower the annual fee, the higher the score ($0 scores 100).
- Perks: the value of the card’s listed benefits and credits.
- Rewards: the estimated yearly value of the card’s rewards on typical spending.
- Welcome offer: the value of any sign-up bonus.
The sub-scores are combined with weights. Two blends matter on this site:
| Score | Fees | Perks | Rewards | Welcome offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card score for a card whose main category is secured or credit builder | 80% | 13% | 5% | 2% |
| Credit-building score (any secured, credit-builder or student card) | 55% | 30% | 10% | 5% |
The card score is the card’s overall score in the shared database, and it uses the weights of the card’s main category. A secured card whose main category is cash back is scored with the cash-back weights (rewards 50%, welcome offer 20%, fees 20%, perks 10%), so a few rewards-focused secured cards score lower than their fee alone would suggest. The credit-building score applies the same credit-building weights to every secured, credit-builder and student card, so they can be compared directly.
Which page uses which score
Best cards to build credit and the home page’s top 3
Cards tagged secured or credit builder, sorted by card score, highest first. A card tagged both secured and credit builder is listed with the secured cards; the no-deposit list holds credit-builder cards that are not secured. The home page shows the three highest card scores across both lists.
Cards for fair, bad and no credit
Cards are placed on fair, bad and no credit pages by the credit level the issuer itself states (its own “credit level” or “best for” wording), never by our score. Within a page, cards are sorted by the same card score (score_display) used on the other ranking pages. Secured and student cards with no stated level appear in a separate section on the no-credit page.
Credit builder cards compared
Live secured, student and credit-builder cards (business cards excluded), sorted by credit-building score, highest first. Cards without a credit-building score are listed last. Ties go to the lower annual fee, then the higher card score.
Credit-builder loans and accounts
Credit-builder products from the loan database, sorted by the loan score, which reflects the APR. Because a “0% APR” product with a monthly membership can cost more than a low-APR loan, ties go first to products with no monthly subscription or membership, then to products available nationwide, then to the lower APR. The short fair-credit list on that page shows the five highest-scoring unsecured personal loans with a minimum credit score of 660 or less, and links to YourBestLoanRates for the full comparison.
What is never an input
Money doesn’t move a ranking. Whether a product has an affiliate or partner link, and how much it might pay, is not part of any score or sort. Partner links are swapped into a page only after it has been ranked, and we test ranking pages with and without partner links to confirm the order is identical. Ads are served separately and have no say in what we list.
What the scores don’t tell you
- Your approval odds. The scores don’t use your credit profile. Approval is always the issuer’s or lender’s decision.
- Facts our data doesn’t state. Where a deposit amount or bureau reporting isn’t in our data, the page shows a dash. That means unknown, not “no”.
- Terms that changed today. Always confirm the current terms on the issuer’s or lender’s site before you apply.
Found something that looks wrong? See our corrections policy. Written and reviewed by the YourBest Editorial Team.