Every ranking on Money Shortlist is built the same way, and this page is the full description of that method. If a number is on a page, it comes from a document the provider published — and the data behind every frozen edition can be downloaded and checked.
Where the figures come from
- Providers’ own documents only: fee and commission tables (the PDF “tabela opłat i prowizji”), product and offer pages, interest-rate tables and promotion terms. Nothing from forums, press releases, other comparison sites or memory.
- A figure is accepted only when it appears literally on the source page. For every product we keep the exact quote from the provider’s page, the page address and the time it was read. When a fee table states something the offer page leaves out, the fee table fills the gap — it never overwrites a figure the offer page publishes.
- Nothing is guessed. If a provider does not publish a figure — a conversion rate, the fee once conditions are not met — the table shows “not disclosed”, and the missing information lowers the score instead of being estimated.
- Source pages are re-read automatically every day and compared with the previous version; rankings are rebuilt once a month as a new edition. Every ranking shows the date its data was checked and the date of the next scheduled check.
How the score is calculated
Each product gets a score out of 10. The score is a weighted sum of a few criteria, and the weights differ from ranking to ranking, because a deposit and a business account are not judged on the same things. Two examples: savings accounts and deposits weigh the interest rate at 60%, the balance the rate applies to at 20% and how long the rate lasts at 20%; business accounts for freelancers weigh fees at 45%, the sign-up bonus at 30% and the completeness of published conditions at 25%. The exact criteria and weights of a given ranking are printed on that ranking in the section “How we rate this ranking”, and they are part of its frozen source data.
Some rules apply everywhere:
- A bonus or rate advertised as “up to” counts half, because most people do not get the maximum.
- Published conditions count. An account whose fee-waiver conditions are stated in full scores higher on completeness than one where the bank does not say when the fee applies.
- The order follows the score only; products with the same score are listed alphabetically.
- One provider, one place in most rankings (two or three in some savings rankings, where the same bank offers different terms for different periods), so a single bank cannot fill the whole list.
- A fixed number of places. Products below the cut are not shown.
- Deposit protection is always shown for providers licensed outside Poland — which scheme, if any, covers the money.
What we do not rate
We compare published terms, not experience. We do not score the quality of a mobile app, customer service, branch networks or brand reputation, and we do not open test accounts. A high score means the published terms are good for the audience of that ranking — it does not mean the provider is right for you.
Investment products — funds, including money-market funds, shares, crypto and deposits tied to an investment programme — are not savings and are left out of savings rankings. We do not currently rank loans, credit cards, mortgages or insurance.
When a product drops out
A product leaves a ranking when the provider withdraws or changes the offer so that it no longer fits the ranking’s definition; when the key figure of the ranking — the rate for savings, the fee or bonus for accounts, the conversion fee for cards — is no longer published; or when it belongs to a group with its own ranking, so accounts for children or students are not compared with accounts for all adults. Marketing headlines such as “up to 3%” that summarise several plans are not treated as the rate of a specific product.
Editions, corrections and frozen data
A ranking is published by a person who reads and approves it. For 7 days after publication it can be corrected — a fixed figure, a product added or removed — and every correction is written to a public log under the ranking. After that the edition is frozen: its complete data set (every product, every criterion score and weight, the provider quotes and the fingerprints of the source pages) is published as JSON and CSV together with a SHA-256 checksum, and it is never changed again. A mistake found after freezing is fixed in the next monthly edition, with a note in the log. Anyone can download the file, compute the checksum and compare it with the one printed under the ranking.
Commission never affects the order
Some “See the offer” buttons are affiliate links, always marked with the label Affiliate link. Commission is not a criterion in any ranking and is not part of the data the score is calculated from; products with no affiliate programme are scored and ordered in exactly the same way. Details: Affiliate disclosure.
Mistakes
If a figure does not match the provider’s current document, write to redakcja@moneyshortlist.com with a link to the page and to the document. Within the correction window the edition is fixed and the correction logged; after it, the fix goes into the next edition. The rankings are edited by Seweryn Tchórzewski.
Content on this site is general information about financial products, not financial or investment advice. Always check the provider’s current terms before opening a product.