How we rank lenders — and how we make money

What RatePine is

RatePine is an independent comparison service. We are not a lender, broker, or agent. We don't take loan applications, make credit decisions, or handle your money. We compare offers from licensed lenders so you can choose and apply directly with the lender.

How do we rank lenders?

Every offer is scored on five published criteria. The same criteria and weights drive every ranking and every review scorecard on this site:

• Cost of borrowing (35%) — representative APR range and all mandatory fees (origination, admin, NSF), assessed as total cost over the loan term, not just the headline rate.
• Transparency (25%) — whether rates, fees and eligibility criteria are published openly on the lender's site, and whether prequalification is possible without a hard credit check.
• Eligibility breadth (15%) — the range of credit profiles, income levels and provinces the lender actually serves.
• Customer experience (15%) — application effort, document requirements, support quality, and complaint patterns in public records.
• Funding speed (10%) — verified, dated funding-time claims only; we don't score marketing promises we can't check.

Scores are set before compensation is considered, and a lender cannot pay to change its score or position. Where two offers tie, the lower total cost of borrowing ranks first. Methodology version 1.0 — last reviewed July 10, 2026.

How do we make money?

We may be compensated when you click links to lender offers and are approved by the lender. Compensation does not influence our rankings or scores — ranking logic is criteria-driven and is never reordered based on what a lender pays.

How often is our data verified?

Rates, caps and regulatory notes carry a visible "verified" date, are checked against primary sources (provincial regulators, Justice Canada, lender rate pages), and are re-verified at least quarterly — sooner when a province changes its rules. Pages with unverified figures are not published.