How we work

Every rate is read from the public page of the institution that posts it, and we keep that page's exact address — never the site's home page, always the page where the figure is written.

A rate cannot enter the repository without four things: the institution, the product as it names it, the source address and the date it was read. This is not an internal guideline but a schema rule: an incomplete entry makes the site fail to build.

We also record how the value was obtained. Most rates are read automatically; some institutions render theirs with scripts, and those rates are entered by hand. Those lines are marked as such, because manual entry does not carry the same guarantees.

An automated reader that lands on a rewritten page does not report an error: it returns a number. It happened — a modified page made it read “45” instead of “4.5”, and the rate published as-is.

Two checks now block that case. A mortgage rate outside the 0.5%–15% range is rejected: in Quebec, a value outside it signals a misread, not a bargain. And any rate that moves by more than half from one reading to the next fails the reading instead of publishing.

These checks run again when the site is built, not only when the reading happens: a catalogue damaged elsewhere cannot reach publication.

We publish the posted rate: the one the institution announces publicly. It is not the one it will grant. A posted rate is negotiable, and the gap between posted and granted is often the most profitable part of a conversation — ask for it.

A rate without a verifiable source is not published. Until a reading has taken place, the table shows empty cells rather than a plausible figure: an invented number on a comparison site is worse than a blank.

As of today, no financial institution pays QuebecTaux anything, in any form. The site takes no financing applications and forwards no files.

If that changes, it will be written here and on the pages concerned, before the first dollar is received: [compensation model to be completed]. A ranking will never be altered by a commercial agreement; an institution that paid us would appear in the same position as any other, with that agreement disclosed.

We do not accept payment to remove a product from a comparison, or to change how it is presented.

QuebecTaux is not a lender, a broker or an insurer, and gives no personalised advice. Calculator results are provided for information only: they are not an approval and not a rate offer.

Spotted a mistake? Report it through the Contact page: we correct it and we state the date of the correction.