What is the Finder Score?
The Finder Score ranks personal loan offers and car loan offers based on their competitiveness.
We evaluate all of the personal loans available in our database and give them a score out of 10. The higher the score, the more competitive the current offer.
We've factored in and weighted the features that would be important for a typical borrower.
Why did we come up with the Finder Score?
To make comparing easy
Comparing loans can be hard work. We thought that there should be an easier, more objective and faster way to make sense of all costs.
Because the advertised rate isn't everything
To find the best personal or car loan you need to consider the costs as well as the value you'll get in return. The Finder Score can help you do that.
Because we want to help
Finder is editorially independent. The Finder Score is designed to help you make an informed decision and get better value for money.
A 'Finder Score' is Finder's unique way of evaluating the range of financial and telecommunications products available in Australia to help you make the best choice. A product's 'Finder Score' is a unique score out of 10 that reflects the merit of that product in a given category at one point in time.
Finder uses a sophisticated data-led methodology, derived from Finder's awards program, which compares thousands of products across numerous features every month to determine a product's Finder Score. This process first involves applying a selection criteria designed by Finder's experts to ensure only the products relevant to a particular category are compared. Secondly, products are scored out of 10 for each of a number of feature and cost metrics based on Finder's dynamic scoring system. Final scores are a weighted sum of all feature and cost metric scores. The final scores are then converted into a Finder Score from 0 to 10, awarding 10 to the highest scoring product.
When data points are categorical, products are given a fixed score out of 10. When data points are numeric, they receive a percentile rank which corresponds to a score out of 10. Final scores are a sum of all the feature and cost metric scores. The final score is transformed into a Finder Score out of 10 by taking the ratio of a product's final score to the highest final score in a given category.
A Finder Score allows a consumer to quickly view the merits of a product for their needs. Rather than scanning and filtering numerous data points, a Finder Score allows a consumer to see a single evaluation of a product for a particular purpose and make an informed financial decision.
Personal & Car Loans
A Finder Score for was caculated for 2 categories of personal loans and 3 categories or car loans, with each category corresponding to a particular consumer need. Cost metric scores were then weighted in the following way for each of the categories.
| Secured and Unsecured Personal Loans | New, Used and Electric Vehicle Loans | |
|---|---|---|
| Interest Rate | 70% | 80% |
| Application Fee | 15% | 10% |
| Monthly Fee | 15% | 10% |
Score Eligibility
Products are included in the categories if they are currently available in the market and meet the following criteria:
- Rates: Has interest rate & comparison rate data available
- Fees: Has monthly fee, application fee and other fee data available