Affiliate Disclosure

ComplaintRate is an independent data publisher. Our complaint-rate scores, enforcement tracking, fair-lending analysis, and institution profiles are all free to read. To sustain the cost of running the infrastructure, pulling and normalising federal data from 21 separate federal data layers, and expanding coverage across 4,977 US financial institutions, we participate in affiliate marketing programmes operated by a small number of financial-services partners.

When a reader clicks an affiliate link on ComplaintRate and opens an account with the partner, ComplaintRate receives a referral fee. The fee is paid by the partner, not by you. Your account terms and pricing are identical whether you use our link or go direct.

Our complaint-rate methodology is fixed, public, and automated. Scores are computed from federal data only — primarily CFPB consumer complaints normalised against FDIC deposit and customer-count data, layered with enforcement records from the OCC, Federal Reserve, CFPB enforcement database, FTC, NCUA, DOJ Civil Rights, HUD MRB, FinCEN, and HMDA fair-lending data. An institution cannot pay to improve its score. An institution cannot pay to be removed from a ranking. An institution cannot purchase placement in our recommendation engine.

Better-rated alternatives shown on institution pages are selected by the underlying complaint-rate data, not by commercial agreements. A partner institution with a poor complaint record is excluded from recommendations in the same way any other institution with a poor record would be. Wells Fargo and First Horizon Bank, for example, are hard-excluded from all recommendations regardless of any commercial relationship.

Full details of our scoring methodology, data sources, and confidence-tier system are published at /methodology.

ComplaintRate works with, or is in the process of onboarding with, the following affiliate programmes. This list changes as programmes are approved, declined, or terminated:

• Chime — via Impact.com
• SoFi — direct affiliate programme
• Ally Bank — via FlexOffers
• Capital One — via CJ Affiliate
• Marcus by Goldman Sachs — via CJ Affiliate
• Discover — via CJ Affiliate
• American Express — via CJ Affiliate

Every partner link on the site is tagged with the standard rel="sponsored" attribute as specified by Google and the FTC.

The individual or individuals responsible for ranking, scoring, and writing editorial copy do not receive compensation based on partner conversions. There is no commission-based incentive to recommend one institution over another within the editorial product. Commercial relationships are managed as a separate workstream from data analysis.

If a conflict between commercial interests and accurate reporting ever arises, the editorial position is that accurate reporting wins. We would rather lose a commercial relationship than misrepresent public-record data.

This disclosure is provided in compliance with the Federal Trade Commission’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, 16 CFR Part 255. In the United Kingdom, it is consistent with the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code on recognition of marketing communications and the Advertising Standards Authority’s guidance on affiliate marketing.

ComplaintRate does not provide investment advice, regulated financial advice, or legal advice. The ranking and scoring content on this site is a data-driven analysis of public federal records, provided for informational purposes only.

If you have any questions about this disclosure or about any specific affiliate relationship, please use the contact form or email us. We aim to reply within three business days.