1) What drives the default order
The overall score weighs cost, likelihood of approval, user experience, and compliance fit. Commercial relationships cannot change this order.
OverallScore = 35% Cost + 25% Eligibility + 15% Speed + 15% Terms + 5% Reputation + 5% State Fit
- Cost (35%) – normalized estimate of APR plus fees using representative loan baskets for each product type.
- Eligibility (25%) – predicted approval odds based on credit indicators, income, KYC signals, and state fit. Lenders are removed if their stated criteria disqualify the user.
- Speed (15%) – expected time from application to decision/funding (instant, same-day, 1–3 days, etc.).
- Terms (15%) – flexibility around repayment, fees, hardship options, prepayment policies, and rollover limits.
- Reputation (5%) – recent complaint volume, enforcement actions, and BBB standing. Each input is capped so no single metric dominates.
- State Fit (5%) – checks that the product is legal and configured for the borrower’s state (amount caps, fee caps, cooling-off rules).
Normalization & data hygiene
- • Winsorize extreme values and convert each factor to a 0–100 score via min–max scaling within its loan class (installment, payday, line of credit, etc.).
- • Missing data never yields an advantage—unpublished metrics are imputed conservatively (20th percentile of peers) and flagged as “info not provided.”
- • Cost scoring uses standardized baskets (e.g., $500/3 months for payday, $2,000/12 months for installment) and we disclose the selected basket on the results page.