Maintaining the UK’s largest financial product database
Our database is home to 27,000 financial products, 18,000 funds and 4 million product features. To give you complete confidence in our data, our team of experts uses a robust methodology that draws on market analysis, consumer research and consultation with the financial services industry.
Star features and benefits
Central to our methodology is identifying the features and benefits that are most important to consumers when choosing a financial product. So you know our assessments are based on the things you’re looking for.
We combine market findings with our own insights and potential criteria, and use this as a basis for discussion with the industry. Then, using all of this knowledge, our experts choose the most important features and benefits for each product area and use them to score all the products in the market.
Simple scoring
We rate all financial products in the same way so it’s easy to see the difference between them. Our Star Ratings use a simple scale from 1 to 5 to quickly communicate product quality, making it easy for you to compare products side by side.
We use what we call ‘core criteria’ to decide whether a product can be given a Star Rating of 4 or 5. These are the features and benefits that a product must have to be considered for a higher rating. Products that don’t meet these criteria are automatically given a lower rating.
Always up to date
We complete this rigorous process every year to make sure new features are included in the scoring process where appropriate and the Star Ratings are as relevant as possible. We update our Star Ratings each year on 1 February. But any products launched or updated after this are scored against our criteria and given a Star Rating. So you can be sure our data is always fresh and accurate – whatever financial product you’re looking for.