The brains behind the awards
Each of our Nerds has a specialty – whether it's travel cards, robo-advisors, tax software or another product altogether. And they use serious brainpower to find, analyze and review the best products for consumers. 
BEST OF
AWARDS 2020
The smartest list for your wallet.
The search for the best of the best is over.
This year our Nerds spent countless hours – and drank just as many cups of coffee – researching personal finance products and crunching numbers. The end result is our list of Nerd-approved winners, which includes credit cards, banks and more.
An honest, straightforward opinionWe pride ourselves on our straightforward, unbiased and objective reviews of consumer finance products. And while some of our Best-Of Award winners are our partners, this in no way influences our review of their products.
76 smart money moves for your walletWhether you're looking for a rewards credit card to jump-start your next vacation, a mortgage lender who can help you get your dream home or simply better auto insurance, our list of winners has what you need.
Explore Awards winners
Frequently Asked Questions
NerdWallet's award winners are chosen through a rigorous evaluation process involving more than three dozen of our writers and editors. For each financial product, we assess the features that we believe are most important to consumers. NerdWallet's ratings formulas for credit cards, for example, consider the type of card being reviewed (such as cash back, travel or balance transfer) and the card's rates, fees, rewards and other features. For mortgages, our evaluation includes loan types, loan products, online capabilities, online rate information, customer service and complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. For more info, see our methodologies.
Our team of Nerdy experts is composed of writers and editors – based all across the country – who have years of experience reviewing and writing about personal finance products for consumers.
Writers and editors use comprehensive scoring formulas that assess each financial product’s key features, weighting them according to their importance to consumers.
Nope. Editorial team members are solely responsible for creating all product reviews and ratings, and these assessments reflect their opinions alone. Only products that meet the editorial team’s standards appear in our Best-Of Awards lists, meaning no company can “buy” an award.
NerdWallet’s awards are given annually to the best of the best. Our other lists of top financial products throughout the year may be longer than the list of award winners, offer additional consumer choices and get updated as products change, products are discontinued and new products emerge. The dates that this year's winners were selected: Auto Insurance, Nov. 1, 2019; Banking, Oct. 1, 2019; Credit Cards, Oct. 1, 2019; Investing, Oct. 17, 2019; Mortgages, Oct. 18, 2019; Personal Loans, Oct. 1, 2019; Student Loans, Sept. 1, 2019; Travel Rewards, Sept. 1, 2019; Taxes, Jan. 9, 2020.
Our 2019 Best-Of Award winners are still live and we encourage companies to continue to celebrate their wins from this year and past years.
