How we rate financial products.
Seven per-product methodology pages — credit cards, loans, banking, mutual funds, insurance, brokers, and tax tools. Each has its own rubric because the products genuinely behave differently. This hub explains the principles common to all of them — editorial independence, data provenance, versioning, and no paid placements — then sends you to the page that matters.
Seven rubrics. One scoring scale.
Credit cards
Score depends on segment. Cashback is 70% net rewards rate; premium card is 50% realised lounge / dining value. NerdWallet-grounded, India-adapted.
Loans
Anchored to RBI MCLR + Repo-Linked-Rate disclosures + IBA loan price comparator. Effective APR matters more than headline rate.
Banking (FDs, savings, RDs)
DICGC ₹5L coverage scoped per-bank. Sovereign products separate scale because the safety floor is different.
Mutual funds
Risk-adjusted returns over headline returns. SEBI 2018 scheme categorisation enforced. Expense ratio + tracking error in index funds.
Insurance
IRDAI claim settlement ratio + claim-paid-on-time % weighted heaviest. Premium is the easy comparison; payout reliability is the real one.
Demat brokers
SEBI SCORES complaint ratio + NSE/BSE technical-glitch logs over per-order fees. Expiry-day uptime is existential.
Tax tools + content
Different framing — we don't rate products, we rate calculator quality. IT Act anchored. Budget-update SLA: 24 hours.
What every rubric shares.
Per-product rubrics, not one-size-fits-all
Credit-card cashback rate is meaningless to a home-loan borrower. Each product type has its own physics, and we publish a separate methodology for each — with weights and formulas chosen for that segment specifically.
Editorial-commercial separation
Editorial analysts who set ratings are organisationally separated from the partnerships team. Affiliate compensation cannot influence score, rank, or recommendation. No paid placements anywhere in our rankings.
Reproducible + versioned
Every score is deterministic — same inputs always produce the same output. When we update a rubric, the previous version is archived and timestamped. You can audit our scoring trail.
Data-provenance for every value
Every numeric input we use — interest rate, claim ratio, expense ratio, complaint count — has a source URL and fetched-at timestamp. We refresh per source's update frequency (daily / weekly / monthly / annually).
Money doesn't move scores.
We earn affiliate commissions when readers apply through our links. That revenue funds the editorial team. It does not — at any point, in any product type — change a score, rank, or "Our Take" verdict.
Editorial analysts are organisationally separate from the partnerships team. Affiliate availability is a UI decision ("Apply Now" button shown vs hidden) — it never reaches the rubric.
No bank, AMC, lender, broker, or insurer can pay to rank higher. The top-ranked product on every list is always the highest-scoring product by that segment's published rubric.
Who owns each rubric.
RBI Master Direction on Credit Cards · Issuer T&Cs · ICRA / CRISIL bank ratings · CIBIL / Experian bureau data
RBI MCLR + Repo-Linked-Rate disclosures · IBA loan price comparator · Lender T&Cs · CIBIL / Experian / CRIF / Equifax bureau data
DICGC ₹5L coverage list · RBI bank-rate disclosures · India Post sovereign-product circulars · Bank tariff schedules
AMFI scheme data · ValueResearch / Morningstar fund analytics · SEBI scheme categorisation · NSE/BSE active-client + glitch logs · SEBI SCORES portal
IRDAI annual report (CSR + claim-paid-on-time) · IRDAI consumer-grievance system · Insurer policy schedules + brochures
Income Tax Act + Finance Act amendments · CBDT circulars + clarifications · ITR forms (CBDT-released utility) · Cost Inflation Index notification · GST Council notifications
Adjustments applied across rubrics.
Beyond per-segment factor weights, we apply standardised adjustments where evidence warrants. These shift a product's score within ±1.0 stars.
- ·Recent regulator penalty / show-cause order on a provider
- ·Major operational incident in last 12 months (technical glitch, fund mis-use, data leak)
- ·Audited certifications + transparent disclosures
- ·Customer-experience signals (NPS, persistency, complaint ratio)
Each per-product methodology page lists its specific adjustments and the magnitude per signal.
When scores get refreshed.
- Daily: live-data feeds (FD rates, NAVs, GSec yields, GST notifications).
- Weekly / monthly: per-source schedules — issuer rate cards, AMFI / IRDAI / SEBI portals.
- Quarterly: in-house product audits + ITR-form alignment + GST rate audits.
- Annually: full rubric refresh after regulator annual reports + Cost Inflation Index + Finance Act passage.
- Event-triggered: regulator penalty / major incident → re-score within 7 days.
- Versioning: each rubric is versioned (v1.0, v1.1...). Previous versions are archived; we never silently change weights.
Information, not advice.
- Not a SEBI-registered investment advisor. InvestingPro.in is a financial comparison + information platform, not a registered IA under SEBI (Investment Advisers) Regulations, 2013.
- For information only. Rankings, scores, comparisons, and calculators are general information and educational tools — not personalised financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.
- Past performance does not predict future results. Mutual fund and investment-product rankings reflect historical data only.
- Consult a qualified advisor. Before any financial decision, consult a SEBI-registered IA, tax advisor, or qualified professional who can assess your individual circumstances.