Why this site exists
Short-term borrowing on a phone is a huge category - tens of millions of US consumers use a cash-advance, earned-wage, or personal-loan app each month - and the information around it is mostly either lender marketing or SEO-driven lead-gen sites pretending to be editorial. We wanted a third thing: a site that treats the reader like a reader, shows real cost math, flags when a lender’s disclosure is incomplete, and never collects a loan application on its own pages.
Every loan app we list operates a real iOS and/or Android application, verified against its App Store or Google Play listing before publication. Web-only lenders do not appear on our comparison page, even when we cover them elsewhere.
How we rank
Our full methodology lives on the comparison page. The short version: we rank apps by what it actually costs to borrow $500 over a typical repayment window, adjusted for state availability, subscription fees, Lightning/Express fees, and tip defaults. We do not let partners buy their rank.
What we will not do
- We will not run a loan application funnel. We never collect your SSN, DOB, bank login, or income on this site.
- We will not promote apps that fail an App Store or Google Play listing check.
- We will not feature a lender solely because we have an affiliate relationship. Rank is editorial.
- We will not scrub or soft-pedal critical coverage to preserve partnerships. When we flag a problem, it stays flagged until the lender fixes it.
How we fund the site
Some outbound links are affiliate or sponsored links. If a reader clicks and signs up, the partner may pay us a referral fee. That fee does not come out of the reader’s pocket and it does not change the editorial ranking of products on this site. Sponsored outbound links are marked with rel="nofollow sponsored noopener".
Corrections
If we get something wrong, tell us. Use the contact form. Confirmed corrections get a dated “Corrected” line at the bottom of the article or product card.
