How review scores are calculated

At CreditCards.com, our team of credit card experts strives to offer objective, useful comparative information that will help you choose the right card for you.

This mission and our editorial guidelines mean we rate and review cards independently, with no influence from advertisers or card issuers.

We also base our assessments on quantifiable factors like a card’s rewards value and rates and fees, as well as how they compare with those of others in its card category.

For card features that require a more subjective assessment, such as the quality of a card’s perks and benefits, we draw on our own knowledge of the cards landscape as leading experts in the industry for over 17 years.

Read on for more detail on our ratings methodology and how our card scoring system works, with a category-by-category breakdown of the criteria considered and how we decided which elements we consider most important in each card category.

Ratings methodology

We researched over 300 credit cards across card categories, including rewards, cash back, luxury, balance transfer, low interest, credit-building, student and business to compile a comprehensive (and ever-growing) database of card details.

We then surveyed a panel of credit cards experts and beginners to create a list of the key factors we believe are most relevant for cardholders in each card category. Based on this feedback, we weighted these factors by level of importance and scored each factor based on a model of the average credit card holder.

We assigned each card a primary card category based on our assessment of its most common use case and gave it an overall rating of 1-5 stars for that category (with 5 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest). We also rated cards from 1-5 in any applicable secondary categories. For example, for a card that was primarily a cash back card but also offered a 0% introductory APR on balance transfers, we designated its primary category as cash back and its secondary category as balance transfer and assigned a 1-5 score for each category based on the scoring criteria relevant to that category.

By default on reviews and category pages, we display a card’s primary category rating. If you navigate to a card review from a specific reviews category page, however, you will see the rating that corresponds most closely to that category.

Our scores are frequently updated as card offers change so that you always have a clear sense of each card’s strengths and weaknesses compared to others like it and how it stacks up not only in the marketplace today but also in the context of its previous offers.

Rewards and cash back cards

The rewards category includes any card that earns points or miles, such as travel rewards cards, airline cards and flexible rewards cards that allow you to redeem points in a variety of ways, including travel, cash back, gift cards, merchandise and more. Meanwhile, as their name implies, cash back cards earn cash back instead of points or miles.

We break down rewards, luxury and cash back cards ratings into four key categories: Rewards value, redemption and flexibility, perks and benefits and customer experience.

Rewards value (highest influence)

Rewards value measures how a card’s ongoing rewards – including rewards rate, average reward redemption value, sign-up bonus and annual or one-time bonuses and credits – compare with its annual fee. In other words, how much value you can get out of a card and how this stacks up against the cost of holding the card. We also use this category to score the individual elements that can impact your ability to maximize your rewards, such as annual fee and APR.

We give the rewards value score the greatest weighting in the rewards and cash back categories.

To find a card’s estimated rewards value, we start by calculating an average rewards rate based on the average person’s spending (assuming $1,325 per month of spend, averaged over three years, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics). We then multiply this rate by an assumed annual card spend of $15,900 per year, add in the value of any ongoing bonuses and the sign-up bonus averaged over three years and subtract the annual fee averaged over three years.

We take this estimated rewards value and assign a score based on how it compares to other cards in the rewards category.

We evaluate a card’s annual fee in two ways: on its own and as part of a card’s estimated rewards value. That’s because while the presence of an annual fee alone shouldn’t be a deal-breaker for the right cardholder, it always introduces some level of risk.

That said, a high annual fee has less weighting than potential value offered by rewards, especially on luxury cards.

Rewards and cash back card users generally don’t want to carry a balance, so APR is only a small part of the rating for these categories. We assign a score depending on how the average APR compares to other rewards cards.

Redemption and flexibility (medium influence)

This scoring factor assesses how easy it is to use the rewards or cash back you earn. After all, points and cash back aren’t useful if you can’t redeem them. We assign a score for each card’s redemption and flexibility based on factors like rewards expiration dates, restrictions, blackout dates, limits, minimum redemption thresholds, redemption options and ability to transfer points on a scale of 1-5.

Features (medium influence)

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. We break down these tiers as follows:

Tier 1 has less than standard card features (a “bare-bones” card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits.
Tier 2 includes the basic card benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges.
Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection.
Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs.
Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

Issuer customer experience (low influence)

Finally, we evaluate how each issuer has fared in J.D. Power’s annual Credit Card Satisfaction Study, Consumer Reports ratings and/or Better Business Bureau rankings to assign a score for customer service. This is generally only a small factor in our scoring system, but it can serve as a tipping point when sizing up multiple card options.

Student cards

The student card category evaluates cards specifically designed for students. Though students can apply for ordinary credit cards and credit-building cards, student credit cards tend to offer features uniquely tailored to and valuable for this group of cardholders. These cards can also include features that are difficult for people with a limited credit history to find if they are not students, such as rewards programs.

The key factors we evaluate on student cards include introductory offer, interest and fees, features and customer experience.

Introductory offer (low influence)

From textbooks and software to laptops and travel, students have a lot of expenses, many of which are piled on at the beginning or end of a term. This makes payment flexibility an important consideration for students. As students are typically new to credit, they may also be carrying a balance from previous credit mishaps, so the presence and length of an introductory APR period on new purchases or balance transfers plays a modest role in our scoring of these cards.

We evaluate the availability and length of such offers and compare them against other student cards to assign a 1-5 score.

Interest and fees (highest influence)

In addition to being generally inexperienced with credit, students are notoriously short on cash, so a card’s ongoing cost will be paramount. This is far and away the most important scoring factor for student cards.

We compare each student card’s annual fee against others in its category and assign a 1-5 rating, then score cards based on the presence of foreign transaction fees, late fees that aren’t waived the first time you pay late and whether a penalty APR is assessed. We also calculate each card’s average APR and compare this against other cards in the category.

These ratings are combined into a single 1-5 star rating of the card’s ongoing and potential cost.

Features (high influence)

As with rewards cards, we assess the features included with student cards to see where in our tier list they fall – whether they are stripped-down basic cards or offer more valuable and unique perks relevant to students.

Bundled into this category is also the presence of a rewards program and the estimated rewards value that the program offers – how much the average cardholder can expect to earn from the card’s ongoing rewards, sign-up and annual bonus compared against other cards in this category.

These scores are combined into a single 1-5 star rating of the card’s features.

Issuer customer experience (low influence)

As with rewards cards, we evaluate how each student card issuer has fared in J.D. Power’s annual Credit Card Satisfaction Study, Consumer Reports ratings and/or Better Business Bureau rankings to assign a score for customer service.

Credit-building cards

While any credit card that reports to the national credit bureaus could be considered a credit-building card, we reserve this category for those cards that are specifically designed for people with a limited credit history or damaged credit history who are hoping to build or rebuild their credit.

That’s because not only does this type of credit-building card tend to lack some of the more attractive features you’ll find on top rewards cards, but they also tend to come with higher costs, either in the form of annual or monthly maintenance fees, higher APRs or a security deposit that’s required upfront.

Credit-builders also have different priorities than general cardholders, so our scoring system favors those cards that make it as easy as possible to build credit.

With this in mind, the key scoring factors we consider for this category include cost of membership, ease of building credit, APR, features and issuer customer experience.

Cost of membership (highest influence)

Unfortunately, credit-building cards are often burdened with fees, with many cards charging activation fees, annual fees and monthly maintenance fees and some even increasing their cost after your first year.

Since credit-builders have enough to worry about as they work to rebuild or establish their credit, we consider the cost of holding a credit-building card to be the single most important ranking factor, weighted just slightly more heavily than the ease of building credit.

To assign a score, we tally up a credit-building card’s total ongoing cost based on all its fees, assuming a worst-case scenario when fee ranges are presented in card terms. We then subtract the average rewards value of the card (should it have a rewards program) to arrive at an average cost of membership. We then compare this amount to that of other credit-building cards and assign a 1-5 rating based on its percentile rank.

Ease of building credit (high influence)

The second most important scoring factor for a credit-building card is how easy it is to build credit with the card. We judge this based on two key factors: the card’s starting limit (in the case of an unsecured card) or maximum limit (in the case of a secured card) and its minimum required deposit.

A card’s credit limit will play a big part in the ease with which you can build credit due to its impact on credit utilization, so secured cards can sometimes have an advantage here; they typically allow you to set your own credit limit based on your deposit. On the other hand, requiring credit-builders to put up and tie up money in a deposit to get started is inherently limiting, so having no or a low deposit requirement will help a card’s score in this category.

We compare these card elements against those of other credit-building cards to assign a 1-5 rating.

APR (medium influence)

Along with ongoing cost in the form of fees, we also consider the relative standing of each card’s average APR. This is given greater weight in the credit-building category than in rewards, cash back, student and business categories.

That’s because credit-builders are likely to either have little experience with credit (and, hence, be at greater risk of falling into debt and being burdened with high interest charges) or have made financial missteps in the past (and be at risk of gathering debt and interest charges once more).

We calculate each card’s average APR and compare this against other cards in the category to assign a 1-5 rating.

Features (low influence)

Unlike other card categories, we limit our scoring of features in the credit-building category to those features that will most benefit credit-builders. After all, a perk like purchase protection is certainly welcome when looking for a credit-building card, but it won’t help you boost your score.

The specific features we look for when scoring a credit-building card include the presence of a rewards program, the inclusion of free credit score access or other credit education and personal finance tools, the ability to be preapproved or prequalify for the card with only a soft pull of your credit report and guidelines on how and when you can increase your credit limit.

We rate each of these features and compile them into an overall 1-5 rating for the card’s features.

Issuer customer experience (low influence)

We evaluate how each card issuer has fared in J.D. Power’s annual Credit Card Satisfaction Study, Consumer Reports ratings and/or Better Business Bureau rankings to assign a score for customer service.

Low interest and balance transfer cards

There is a great deal of overlap between 0% intro APR credit cards, low interest cards and dedicated balance transfer cards. Indeed, many cards have both low interest and balance transfer ratings.

The scoring systems for these card types are broadly similar, with a few key differences in weighting between the low interest and balance transfer categories.

The key areas we evaluate with these card types are rates and fees (including a card’s APR), features and perks and issuer customer experience.

Rates and fees (highest influence)

When you’re in the market for a card that will help you save on interest – whether that’s because you need to carry a balance long-term, finance new purchases, or get some room to breathe and pay off debt with a balance transfer – your new card’s rates and fees will be the single most important consideration, as these will determine how much you can save long-term.

We evaluate each balance transfer and low interest card’s introductory APR on new purchases and balance transfers (if available) in terms of both rate and period length, as well as the presence of potentially costly fees like foreign transaction fees, balance transfer fees, penalty APRs and cash advance fees. We also compare each card’s low-end ongoing APR against others in its category to give you a best-case scenario rating for carrying a balance long-term or beyond any promotional periods.

In assigning a low interest card rating, we weight a card’s ongoing APR and introductory APR offer on new purchases a bit more heavily than with balance transfer cards, while our balance transfer rating, as you might expect, factors in the introductory balance transfer offer and balance transfer fee more heavily.

This is to ensure that cardholders transferring a balance are giving themselves as much room as possible to chip away at debt at as low a cost as possible. Meanwhile, those browsing low interest cards can focus more on payment flexibility for large purchases and the cost of carrying a balance long term.

We compare and rank each of these card elements and compile them into an overall 1-5 rating for the card’s rates and fees.

Features (low influence)

As with rewards cards, we assess the features included with low interest and balance transfer cards to see where in our tier list they fall. We also note the presence of a rewards program. While not a priority with this type of card, it is certainly a plus.

Issuer customer experience (low influence)

Business cards

Our rating system for business cards overlaps heavily with our system for rewards cards, with a few key differences. Notably, we assume a different average spending for small-business owners and note the presence of additional features especially useful to small-business owners, such as a 0% introductory APR offer.

We break down business card ratings as follows: rewards value, redemption and flexibility, perks and benefits and customer experience.

Rewards value (highest influence)

As with rewards cards, we use rewards value to assess how a card’s ongoing rewards, rewards rate, average reward redemption value, sign-up bonus and annual or one-time bonuses and credits compare with its annual fee.

To calculate the average rewards rate, we gathered data on average business spending to determine both category and overall spend. We assume the average business cardholder spends $4,000 per month, with the following spending approximations:

63% on general purchases
12% on dining and entertainment purchases
11% on gas
3% on computer and internet services
3% on office supplies
3% on travel and transport
2% on insurance
2% on telecommunications
1% on utilities.

We take this estimated rewards value and assign a score based on how it compares to other cards in the business category.

We also assess the card’s average APR compared to other cards and note whether the card comes with a 0% introductory offer on new purchases or balance transfers, either of which could be a big help for small-business owners. An introductory APR on purchases could also help small-business owners to earn rewards on large purchases they may otherwise have put off.

Redemption and flexibility (low influence)

As with rewards cards, this scoring factor assesses how easy it is to use the rewards or cash back you earn on your business card. We assign a score for each card’s redemption and flexibility based on factors like rewards expiration dates, restrictions, blackout dates, limits, minimum redemption thresholds, redemption options and ability to transfer points on a scale of 1-5.

Features (low influence)

We score the features included with business cards on a scale of 1-5 based on where in our tier list they fall, making special note of business-centric perks and benefits like free employee cards, easily shareable virtual card numbers and budgeting tools.

Issuer customer experience (low influence)

We evaluate how each issuer has fared in J.D. Power’s annual Credit Card Satisfaction Study, Consumer Reports ratings and/or Better Business Bureau rankings to assign a score for customer service.