How The Money Edit analyses and reviews products

We know your money is important to you and that is why we wanted to be clear on what we base our recommendations and analysis of products on, and why you can always trust us.

The Money Edit regularly recommends and reviews products and services, but our editorial team is never influenced in any way by commercial requirements and we only suggest what we believe is the best for our readers. 

All our recommendations and reviews are based on the analysis of our award-winning team of financial journalists, who are experts in their field and are working in your interest only. 

The Money Edit journalists have over 30 years of combined experience and really understand the market and the products that we talk about.

Whether it is credit cards, mortgages, the best broadband provider or bank accounts, for example, we crunch the numbers so you don’t have to - and we let you know which is best for you based purely on our analysis.

How we rank products and services

Every product is different. For example, what makes a good credit card is different to what makes a good bank account. 

But our overarching principle is to find products to help you make the most of your money, by helping you save more or make more money.

For example, when discussing a loan, we'll point you to how to get the cheapest rate which saves you money. For a savings account, we'll point you to find the best rate, which makes you money. 

That said, we may create categories of products, and give you the best deals within each category, to help you pick. For instance, we will split out the best savings account that give you easy access to your money from those where you can get a better rate, but where you may not have easy access to your cash. 

The answer as to what is the best deal often comes down to maths; we don't just look at rates, we also factor in any fees, incentives or extra criteria. 

We have stringent processes behind the scenes to ensure our teams factor in all the appropriate criteria that go into analysing a product.

Other considerations we take into account include:

• Where a firm/product has a good or poor service rating this can affect its ranking. 
• Where we believe a firm does not offer good long term value (eg, a savings account with a one year bonus) this can affect the ranking. 
• Big brands may be prioritised where user testing shows people are more likely to buy/apply from a well-known or established names. 
• Other judgments, such a company’s/product’s ethics, green credentials, links to states subject to sanctions can also be taken into account.
• If a firm is not suitably regulated, it can affect our ranking.
• Commercial considerations never impact how we rank a product/service.   

Ensuring accuracy

When we tell you something is a best buy or value, we take several steps to ensure what we say is accurate.

This means putting all our copy through stages of various checks and then signed off by an editor or director.

Our editorial independence means you can trust us and we always do the best by our readers.