Credible Rating Lender Methodology

Our primary mission at Credible is to give you the tools and power you need to make confident financial decisions. Although we receive compensation from our partner lenders, whom we will always identify, all opinions are our own and our reviews and articles are written objectively.

Student loan refinancing lenders

To identify the “best companies” for refinancing student loans, we looked at data points in the following categories (with the following weightings):

Interest Rates: 20%
Loan Terms: 20%
Eligibility: 25%
Repayment: 25%
Customer Support: 10%

Learn More: Student Loan Refinancing Lender Rating Methodology

Private student loan lenders

To identify the “best companies” for private student loans, we looked at data points in the following categories (with the following weightings):

Interest Rates (20%)
Loan Terms (15%)
Eligibility (25%)
Repayment (30%)
Customer Support (10%)

Learn More: Student Loan Lender Rating Methodology

Personal loan lenders

To identify the “best companies” for personal loans, we looked at data points in the following categories (with the following weightings):

Rates and fees: 18%
Loan terms: 18%
Customer experience: 17%
Eligibility: 14%
Customer satisfaction: 10%
Efficiency: 10%
Options for poor credit and no credit: 9%
Discounts: 4%

Learn More: Personal Loans Lender Rating Methodology

Mortgage purchase lenders

To identify the “best companies” for home loans, we looked at data points in the following categories (with the following weightings):

Rates and fees: 34%
Reputation: 25%
Efficiency: 17%
Eligibility: 17%
Customer experience: 6%
Discounts: 1%

Learn More: Mortgage Lender Rating Methodology

Mortgage refinancing lenders

Credible currently uses Better Business Bureau® (BBB) ratings for mortgage refinance lender scores. These ratings are made up of the business’s complaint history with BBB, whether the business raises marketplace concerns, how long the business has been operational, transparency regarding products and services, whether the business honors its commitments to the BBB, any licensing issues or government actions, and advertising practices. Please find more information here: https://www.bbb.org/overview-of-bbb-ratings.

All of the lenders were ranked against the same weightings to get the rating out of five stars.

To gather and validate all of this information, Credible’s experts reviewed and researched multiple student loan refinancing, private student loan, and personal loan lenders. Our methodology task force consisted of 17 experts across four teams.

We scoured each lender’s website, spoke to customer service, reached out via email, and consulted internal teams and data to ensure all data points were accurate and up to date.