BestMoney vs Bankrate: Which Financial Comparison Site Is Better?

The post BestMoney vs Bankrate: Which Financial Comparison Site Is Better? appeared first on Penny Pinchin' Mom.

When shopping for financial products like bank accounts, loans, insurance policies, and credit cards, you’re no longer limited to brick-and-mortar banks and credit unions. These days, you have access to nearly endless options, so you can surely find something that best fits your financial situation. 

The problem is that there are so many choices that it can be hard to pick between them. That’s where comparison sites like BestMoney and Bankrate come in, aggregating several financial products on one page to make choosing easier. 

Here’s a look at BestMoney vs Bankrate and where its strengths lie. 

At a Glance

	BestMoney	Bankrate
Best For	Quick, user-friendly comparisons	In-depth mortgage research
Product Coverage	Broad	Broad, heavy focus on mortgages
Filtering Depth	Moderate	Moderate, high for mortgages
Ratings and Reviews	Editorial scores out of 10 points; in-depth editorial reviews	Editorial and user scores out of 5 stars; editorial and user reviews
Matching Tools	Mortgage loans, car insurance, pet insurance, personal loans, and business loans	CardMatch (credit cards), AdvisorMatch (financial advisors)
Financial Education	Articles and calculators	Articles, calculators, mortgage rate news
Cost and Privacy	Free; no contact information required to use	Free; optional Bankrate account registration
Advertising Disclosure	Receives commissions and advertising money that may influence rankings and scores	Receives compensation from advertisers that may influence where products appear and in what order

BestMoney: Best for Quick, User-Friendly Comparisons

BestMoney doesn’t zero in on any particular specialty, like insurance, mortgages, or credit cards. Instead, it’s a broad, user-friendly comparison platform that simplifies the search and doesn’t overwhelm you with information. It can be especially useful when you’re just starting to do research and don’t want to get bogged down in details you don’t understand. 

Product Coverage

BestMoney presents data from over 120 top financial brands under 19 distinct categories, including mortgage loans, car insurance, online banking, credit cards, life insurance, pet insurance, debt consolidation, and personal loans.

One area where comparison sites like this differ is with the number of products they show you within each category. Generally speaking, BestMoney tends to err on the lighter side, but it still gives you a good range of options. For example, when I looked at pet insurance, I got 12 choices overall, while I got nine options for online savings accounts.

Filtering Depth

For many categories, you’re not just given a blanket list of options to explore. Often, you’ll see filters you can use to focus on products that align with your needs and preferences:

Mortgage loans: Loan purpose (purchase, refinance, home equity), credit score, loan amount Life insurance: Age, annual income Credit cards: Our best, cash back, balance transfer, travel, rewards, no annual fee, 0% APR Online banking: Savings accounts, checking accounts, business checking Personal loans: Loan purpose, loan amount, annual income, credit score

BestMoney doesn’t have as many filters as some competitors, and in certain cases, it could be missing what you need. For instance, there’s no filter for secured vs. unsecured credit cards, and you can’t filter for VA or FHA home loans. 

Ratings and Reviews

BestMoney gives each product a score out of 10 maximum points and publishes in-depth editorial reviews. The underlying rating methodology can differ somewhat depending on the product, but most of the time, the ratings take three things into account: 

Popularity: The number of clicks each brand receives Brand reputation: Online visibility and performance data Features and benefits: Range of products and services offered, ease of use, online accessibility, customer service, special awards, etc. 

The editorial reviews give you a comprehensive look at where a product shines and where it’s lacking. The reviews also discuss topics like who the product is suitable for, features, policy types and terms, the application process, interest rates, safety, and customer support. 

Matching Tools

While it’s mainly built for browsing, BestMoney has a few quizzes you can take to get personalized recommendations for mortgage loans, car insurance, pet insurance, personal loans, and business loans. 

These quizzes don’t affect your credit score and are designed to provide results within a few minutes. However, you may need to gather your financial information beforehand, as some of the questions pertain to your income and credit score. 

Financial Education

While comparison is BestMoney’s main focus, the site also provides a variety of educational resources and tools you can use to broaden your financial knowledge, including blog posts that cover the basics of the product type you’re looking at. 

Some of the topics covered in these articles include: 

Mortgage loans: First-time homebuyer financial assistance, home equity loans vs. lines of credit, FHA loans, VA loans, mortgage points Pet insurance: Dental care, pet insurance for older dogs, what pet insurance covers, how to file a pet insurance claim, annual limits Credit cards: Credit card interest, balance transfer credit cards, statement credits, building a credit history, closing a credit card

Beyond reading, BestMoney also has a few interactive calculators for things such as:  

Credit card balance transfers  Home affordability  CDs  Savings 

Cost and Privacy 

BestMoney is free to use, and you don’t have to provide personal information like your email or phone number to browse the site.

Advertising Disclosure

Most comparison sites receive commissions by partnering with organizations like insurance providers, banks, and credit card companies. 

BestMoney is pretty transparent about its business model, describing itself as an advertising-supported comparison platform that earns commissions when users click affiliate links or register for products. It’s also forthcoming about how the income it receives from partners may have some influence on the final product rankings and scores. 

Bankrate: Best For In-Depth Mortgage Research

Like BestMoney, Bankrate provides plenty of information that can help guide you in the right direction when making an important financial decision. Its biggest differentiator is that it’s more data-heavy than BestMoney. This can be beneficial when you’re deep in a search, but it can be intimidating when first starting out. 

Product Coverage

Bankrate heavily focuses on mortgage rates, but it also covers banking, investing, credit cards, loans, home equity, and insurance. 

This should be enough for most of your needs, but there are a few notable gaps. For example, under the insurance umbrella, there’s only auto and home insurance — no life or pet.

In some categories, Bankrate gives you extensive choices. For example, HYSAs have a staggering 92 options. Under others, the choices are more limited, such as 19 options for auto loans and eight for personal loans.

To develop its database, Bankrate continually surveys over 300 banks and credit unions, updating its information weekly. 

Filtering Depth

Bankrate’s mortgage filters are far more extensive than BestMoney’s, including:

Down payment (dollar amount and percentage) FHA and VA loans Loan term Debt-to-income ratio Mortgage points Property type and use

Of course, not all product categories have such a detailed filtering system. For credit cards, there still isn’t a filter for secured cards. For personal loans, there are only filters for ZIP code and loan amount. Notably, the sections for auto and home insurance don’t have any filters. 

Ratings and Reviews

For many of the products on its site, Bankrate assigns scores out of five stars and publishes editorial reviews.

There isn’t a uniform ratings methodology that applies to all products on the site. Instead, the Bankrate team uses different formulas depending on the product type. Some of these include: 

Banks: Savings (25%), checking (25%), CDs (20%), money market accounts (10%), customer experience (20%) Mortgage lenders: Affordability (33%), availability (33%), borrower experience (33%) Rewards and cash back credit cards: Value (65%), flexibility (15%), perks (15%), customer experience (5%)

The editorial reviews are usually fairly detailed, covering topics like product offerings, rate histories, the customer experience, and the application process.

While BestMoney relies on editorial reviews alone, Bankrate also lets users submit their own ratings and reviews of mortgage lenders in particular, with subscores for professionalism, knowledge, responsiveness, and the level of service. Users can also provide brief write-ups of their experiences. 

Matching Tools

For a more guided experience, Bankrate’s CardMatch and AdvisorMatch tools can consider your personal financial situation and goals to further steer you in the right direction.

Financial Education

Beyond product comparisons, Bankrate’s site has plenty of resources covering personal finance topics in general, including articles about: 

Banking: Opening CDs, starting saving, transferring money from one bank to another Mortgages: Getting the best mortgage rates, FHA vs. conventional loans, underwater mortgages Loans: Instant loans, unsecured loans, bad credit personal loans

Compared to BestMoney, Bankrate has far more calculators, some of which are highly specific:

Banking: Saving for college, saving a million dollars, saving income, CD ladder Mortgages: Adjustable-rate mortgage, balloon mortgage, interest-only mortgage, mortgage refinance break-evens Investing: Currency, annuity, asset allocation, mutual fund fees

Bankrate also publishes mortgage rate news articles that discuss rate trends and their causes. 

Cost and Privacy 

Nothing on Bankrate is paywalled, so you can research freely. However, with a Bankrate account, you can access mortgage rate alerts and member exclusives (including products). Bankrate’s team is also currently developing a member dashboard where you can save quotes and lenders. 

Advertising Disclosure

Bankrate has a section titled “How we make money” that details how the site may earn compensation when you click links or open accounts. It clearly states that it’s an advertising-supported comparison platform and that the compensation it receives may impact where products appear and in what order.

Deciding Between BestMoney and Bankrate for Your Financial Needs

Both BestMoney and Bankrate are solid jumping-off points when you need help making an important financial decision. They have many similarities, with each site covering a wide range of products and publishing reviews. 

However, their scopes are somewhat different. If you’re just starting your search, I’d suggest visiting BestMoney first. It’s user-friendly and is right in the sweet spot of providing enough useful information without being overly data-heavy. BestMoney also covers some products that Bankrate doesn’t, such as life insurance, pet insurance, gold IRAs, and tax relief companies.

Mortgage data is one area where Bankrate excels, though, with its resources here being far more extensive than BestMoney’s. It also has many more financial calculators than BestMoney.

Either way, it’s important to remember that financial decisions are complicated, and no one site will have everything you need. Be sure to visit many of them to get a well-rounded look at your options.

The post BestMoney vs Bankrate: Which Financial Comparison Site Is Better? appeared first on Penny Pinchin' Mom.