How We Rate
Every rating on this site is reproducible. Here is the exact framework.
Card ratings (0 to 10)
A card's score weighs five factors: earning power on real-world spend (30%), welcome bonus value at our point valuations (20%), benefits and credits measured against the annual fee assuming realistic usage, not perfect usage (25%), the value and flexibility of the rewards currency (15%), and protections plus quality of life such as travel insurance, FTF, and issuer service (10%). Invite-only status symbols score on math, which is why a Centurion rates below a $95 Hyatt card.
Point valuations
Our cents-per-point values reflect what a reasonably skilled member actually achieves through transfer partners, not theoretical maximums from one famous redemption and not the issuer's marketing floor. Valuations are reviewed when programs devalue and every page shows them consistently: the same number prices the bonus rankings, the portfolio calculator and every review.
Verification standard
Third-party news and specialist sites can alert us to a change, but they do not settle a financial claim. Before publication, we check the issuer, bank, loyalty program or merchant page that controls the offer. Each product page names that primary source and shows the date of the check.
After 45 days, current-offer numbers, rankings and application buttons are suppressed until another primary-source check is completed. At 120 days the page receives the stronger stale-record warning. Historical and discontinued products are labeled as references, not current opportunities.
Offer data
Every card carries its current public offer and a tracked offer history that powers the charts. Each recorded change remains in a dated table, and new records can attach the exact observation date and primary source. Completed checks append to a hash-chained evidence ledger rather than rewriting the prior event. Card and account histories are also available as public JSON and CSV data.
Legacy history without event-level evidence stays visible as an archive record and is never retroactively labeled verified. See the live coverage numbers on the data quality dashboard.
Images and visual evidence
Current card pages use locally stored issuer product art normalized to a consistent canvas. We do not republish article photography. When official product art is not available, the page uses a clearly labeled Credit Compound editorial illustration so a reader never mistakes a reconstruction for the real card.
Original analysis
We monitor the same market specialists serious rewards users read, then independently verify the facts and write our own analysis. Their headlines, excerpts, images and verdicts are never republished as Credit Compound work. Rankings come from our data, valuation model, product history and stated methodology.
What compensation can and cannot do
Affiliate relationships, where they exist, decide nothing editorial. They cannot move a rating, a ranking position, a verdict or a valuation. A card with no affiliate program competes on identical terms; several of our highest-rated cards pay us nothing. The full policy lives in our advertiser disclosure.
Corrections
Comments are open on every review, list and reference page. Documented corrections are applied with the data's verification date updated. The fastest way to flag something is right there on the page, or through the contact page.