How we rate brokers and financial products
Our ratings score fees, platform quality, safety and service on a fixed rubric; here is the weighting, the evidence we use and what a score does not tell you.
A rating out of five looks simple. Behind it is a rubric that we have revised three times, a set of tests that take a reviewer most of a week and a list of things the score deliberately ignores. This post lays out the method so that readers can decide how much weight to give it.
Four categories, fixed weights
Every product is scored in four categories: fees, platform, safety and service. Fees carry 35 per cent of the total, platform 30, safety 20 and service 15. The weights are the same for every product in a category, so a broker review and another broker review are comparable. They are not the same across categories; a payments provider is scored on a different rubric from a bank, though the four headings are shared.
The weights reflect what we think matters most to a typical reader over several years of use. Fees come first because they compound and because they are the factor most often misunderstood. Safety is weighted below fees not because it matters less but because regulated products in the markets we cover mostly clear the same bar; differences are at the margin.
What we test
Fees are assessed from the published schedule, then checked by opening an account and running a set of standard transactions, so that we see what is actually charged rather than what is advertised. We include foreign-exchange spreads, inactivity charges, withdrawal fees and the cost of the most common trades or transfers.
Platform scores come from a scripted set of tasks performed on web and mobile: placing and amending orders, finding statements, exporting data, setting alerts. Reviewers note what took longer than it should and what could not be done at all.
Safety covers regulatory status, the protection scheme that applies, how client money is held and the firm's history of enforcement actions and outages. Service is tested by raising three queries of varying difficulty through the firm's standard channels and timing the responses.
What the score ignores
We do not score on promotions, sign-up bonuses or introductory rates, because they are temporary and because they are the easiest way to game a rating. We do not score on the range of exotic products; a broker that offers fewer instruments is not marked down unless the omission would matter to a typical user. And we do not adjust scores for the size or reputation of the firm.
Fictional products on this site
While the site is in development, the reviews published here cover fictional products with invented names. The rubric and process described above are real and will be applied to real products when the reviews desk goes live. No fictional review should be read as describing any actual firm.
Independence
Some reviews carry affiliate links. The commission we earn does not vary with the score, reviewers do not know which products carry links, and the commercial team has no access to draft reviews. Ratings are revisited annually or when a product changes materially, and the date of the last review is shown on every page.