A rating is a claim, and a claim you can't check is just decoration. So the Zap Rating works the other way around: every score is derived from published rate data through the same fixed thresholds, and those thresholds are printed on this page. Take any rating card on the site, look up the product's typical pricing, run it through the tables below, and you will land on the same bolts we show. The inputs come from regulator material with named sources, CFPB research, the NCUA rule book, the Federal Reserve's G.19 release, and they are dated so you know exactly which figures a score was computed from.
Three Axes, One Direction
Each product is scored 1 to 5 on three axes. Cost measures what borrowing actually costs once the pricing is annualised, so fee-based products can't hide behind a small sticker number. Speed measures typical time from application to usable money. Risk measures what the structure of the loan can do to you beyond its price. On every axis, higher is better for the borrower: cheaper, faster, safer. There is deliberately no blended overall score, because averaging a 5 on speed against a 1 on cost would manufacture a middling number that describes nothing.
The Cost Thresholds
Cost is scored from the product's typical APR, or its fee converted to an APR-equivalent for products quoted as flat fees. The bands are anchored to real regulatory lines: 28% is the NCUA ceiling for Payday Alternative Loans, and 36% is the benchmark used by the Military Lending Act and most state rate-cap reforms.
| Typical APR (or fee-equivalent) | Cost score |
|---|---|
| 28% APR or below | 5/5 |
| over 28%, up to 36% APR | 4/5 |
| over 36%, up to 100% APR | 3/5 |
| over 100%, up to 200% APR | 2/5 |
| over 200% APR | 1/5 |
The Speed Thresholds
Speed is scored on the typical time to money from published ranges, not on a lender's best-case marketing claim. Instant products that put funds in hand the same hour score 5; anything that takes several business days sits at the bottom.
| Typical time to money | Speed score |
|---|---|
| within 1 hour | 5/5 |
| 1 to 24 hours | 4/5 |
| 24 to 48 hours | 3/5 |
| 48 to 72 hours | 2/5 |
| more than 72 hours | 1/5 |
How Risk Is Scored
Risk is the one axis that takes structural judgment rather than a threshold lookup, so the anchors are spelled out. The question is never "might this go badly" but "what does the contract's architecture do when it does": is there collateral you can lose, does the loan amortise or land as a single balloon payment, and does the product contain a mechanism that re-charges you when you can't pay.
- Score 5, structurally benign. Unsecured, amortising installments, rate-capped by rule. Miss a payment and you face a late fee and a credit mark, not a spiral.
- Score 3, structurally neutral. Unsecured but revolving or auto-debited: the product can compound or overdraw you, yet nothing is repossessed and no fee re-charges on a fixed cycle.
- Score 1, structurally severe. Collateral you can lose, such as a title loan against your car, or a single balloon repayment whose rollover mechanism repeats the full fee while the principal stands still.
A Worked Example: Scoring the Payday Loan
Here is the live rating card the site shows, followed by the arithmetic behind it:
Zap Rating
Payday loan
- Cost
- 1/5
- Speed
- 4/5
- Risk
- 1/5
Scores follow a fixed rubric — how we rate.
Cost: 1/5. The typical payday fee annualises to about 391% APR. That clears the top band of the cost table, over 200%, by a wide margin, so the threshold lookup returns 1. No judgment involved; the number does all the work.
Speed: 4/5. Typical time to money is about 24 hours online, with storefronts often faster. That falls in the same-day band of the speed table, which returns 4. It is a genuinely fast product, and the rubric says so even though the same product bottoms out on the other two axes.
Risk: 1/5. Judgment axis, worst anchor. Repayment is a single balloon on your next payday, and where state law permits, the rollover re-charges the entire fee without touching principal. That is the debt-cycle mechanism the CFPB has documented for years, and it is exactly what the 1 anchor describes.
What Would Move a Score
The rubric is fixed; the inputs are not. A payday loan in a state with an all-in 36% cap prices at that ceiling, which lands in the second band and scores 4 on cost instead of 1. The state-by-state table in our payday loans guide shows where those caps already exist. Likewise, if the Fed's G.19 average card rate crossed a band boundary, the credit-card cost score would shift on the next review. Scores move when the data column moves, and only then.
Review Cadence
Every figure on the site carries its vintage: the data column currently reads "as of June 2026", and this rubric was last reviewed in June 2026. Reviews follow the publication rhythm of the underlying sources, monthly for the G.19 release, and as issued for CFPB research and state statute changes. To watch the rubric's cost math run on live inputs, change the fee inside the payday loan calculator or the title loan calculator and see the annualised rate the thresholds are applied to.