How we compare loans

What Banknorden is

Banknorden is a free loan comparison service for Finland, Spain, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. We do not lend money and we do not make credit decisions. When you choose an offer, you apply directly with the lender, and the lender assesses your application and signs the agreement with you. This page explains which lenders we show, how offers are presented, how we earn money, and how our guides are written and reviewed.

Which lenders we show

The offers come from a partner network of lenders and brokers that run campaigns in each market. We do not check each partner's registration ourselves before its offer appears, so check the company in the official register before you apply – and note that some partners are brokers that pass your application on to lenders. Who supervises lenders differs by country. In Finland, banks are supervised by Finanssivalvonta, and other consumer lenders must be entered in the register of credit providers, which Finanssivalvonta has kept since 1 July 2023. In Spain, banks and specialised credit institutions are supervised by the Banco de España, but granting consumer loans is not reserved to supervised institutions, so many online lenders operate lawfully without its supervision. In Norway, lenders and loan brokers need a licence from Finanstilsynet. In Denmark, lenders are listed in Finanstilsynet's company register. In Sweden, lenders need authorisation from Finansinspektionen.

Our offers come from a partner network of lenders that run campaigns in each market. Not every lender in a country is included, so the offers we show are not a complete list of the market. Where a market has no campaigns for a particular kind of loan – for example car loans in some countries – we say so on the page and show general loan offers instead, clearly labelled as alternatives.

How offers are ordered

Offers appear in the order set by the offer feed we use. That order is not a quality ranking or a recommendation, and you should not read an offer's position on the page as advice. Compare the offers yourself on the numbers that matter: the effective annual rate, the total amount repayable and the terms. Every offer shows an effective rate and a representative example, so you can compare them on the same basis.

How we earn money

Banknorden is free to use. We earn a commission from some of the lenders shown on the site when a loan is applied for through us. The commission is how the site is funded. It is the reason this page tells you not to treat the order of offers as a ranking, and the reason our guides focus on how to compare costs rather than on recommending a particular lender.

How our content is written and reviewed

Each country section has its own editorial team byline. Our guides are drafted with the help of AI and are then checked, edited and approved by a person before they are published. We base factual statements on public sources – supervisors, consumer authorities and the legislation in each country – and we cite those sources on the page. We do not invent ratings, user reviews or statistics, and lender reviews state only facts that the lender itself publishes or that come from a cited source.

Content is reviewed by Steffen Lauenborg, founder of the Nordic personal-finance network that Banknorden belongs to and responsible editor for its content. He is Director of Seofy ApS, the company that runs the network. Conflict of interest: Seofy ApS earns commissions from some of the lenders shown on the site.

How we write lender reviews

Our lender reviews describe what each company publishes about itself – who it is, its registered details, the amounts and terms it offers, its representative example and how to complain – and what official registers show. We record the date we read each source. We do not publish ratings, scores, stars or user reviews. Where a company's own figures contradict each other, or a representative example does not add up, we say so on the page. Some companies that present themselves like lenders are in fact brokers that pass your application on to others; when that is the case, the review says so and explains where your data goes.

When a reviewed lender has a current offer in our feed, the review shows that offer. When it does not, the review says so and shows other offers from the same country instead, clearly labelled.

How we check facts

Before we write a country section, we build a register of the legal and official facts that the section relies on – interest caps, credit registers, the information a lender must give you, debt-collection and enforcement rules, and where to get free help. Each fact is read at the official source (legislation databases, supervisory and consumer authorities, public registers) and dated. Facts we cannot confirm at an official source are not published. Every page then draws on the same checked register, so that our pages do not contradict each other.

How information is kept up to date

Offer details – rates, amounts and representative examples – come from the offer feed and are shown as the lender provides them. Guides are reviewed when the rules they describe change, for example interest caps or marketing rules, and the date of the last review is shown on each page. Lender terms change, so always check the final terms and the standard European consumer credit information from the lender before you sign.

What we do not do

We do not give personal financial advice, and nothing on the site takes your individual situation into account. We do not collect loan applications ourselves or pass your application to several lenders at once – you apply with the lender you choose. We do not charge you any fee, and we do not ask for payment before you receive a loan. If anyone contacts you claiming to be Banknorden and asks for an upfront fee, it is not us.

Responsible borrowing

Borrowing costs money. We encourage readers to compare the effective rate and the total amount repayable, to borrow only what they need and can repay on time, and to seek free debt advice before borrowing if they are already struggling with payments. Where the rules in a market require a specific warning or notice next to offers, we show it.

Contact and corrections

If you find an error on the site, or if you think something on a page is unclear or misleading, please contact us through the contact page. We correct factual errors as soon as we can, and when a correction changes the meaning of a guide, we update the review date on the page.