How we check Canadian deals

YieldMaple is a Canadian deal hub for credit cards, brokerages, savings, and banking — and our editorial process is built around one rule: a number belongs on the site only with an official source, the exact wording that supports it, and the date it was checked. When a figure in our facts registry can’t be confirmed on the provider’s own page, the site shows neutral wording instead of the number. Our match-me quizzes return a shortlist based on your answers — a starting point for comparison, not personalized advice.

Our 7-step review process

1. Start from the official source. Fees, rates, limits, and welcome offers come from the provider’s own website — product pages, fee schedules, offer terms and conditions, and legal or help-centre documents. Contribution limits and Canadian tax rules come from the CRA and other Government of Canada pages, and protection details from CDIC, CIPF, and CIRO. A figure taken from another comparison site never goes into our registry.
2. Save the evidence. The exact wording that supports each verified figure is saved with it, along with the page it came from and the date it was checked. For welcome offers, we also keep a dated copy of the offer page’s text.
3. Log it in the registry. Figures live in a central facts registry, and welcome offers in a central offers registry, instead of being retyped into each article. Pages built on the registry pull the numbers from there, so a fee that changes is corrected in one place. The facts registry currently holds 5,149 verified facts.
4. Re-check the wording. A script looks for each saved quote on the provider’s live page and flags any it can’t find. Pages that block automated checks are checked by hand in a browser. If a figure can’t be confirmed, it’s marked unverified and the site shows neutral wording in its place instead of a number.
5. Compare against alternatives. We compare each product with its closest Canadian competitors, using the same sourced data, so readers can see what they would give up by picking one over another.
6. Editorial review. New and rewritten articles go through an automated check that flags figures not traceable to the registry, first-person experience claims, and banned phrases, and are then reviewed before publication.
7. Publish with dated metadata. Every article shows the date it was published or last updated, every welcome offer on our deals page shows the date it was last checked, and every registry figure keeps its own verification date.

What this process is not: hands-on testing. YieldMaple’s reviews are built from the provider’s own documents, not from opening, funding, or using the accounts. Our rule is that a page may describe first-hand use only for a product the founder has actually used, and it must say so explicitly.

How we score products

Reviews carry a 1–5 editor’s rating. It’s an editorial summary, not a formula result: a judgment against the closest Canadian alternatives, based on what the provider publishes — not on a support call or a month of personal use. The areas it considers are:

• Fees & cost — what the published fee schedule says you’d pay over a typical year of use
• Product features — the account types, limits, and tools the provider documents
• Access & ease of use — account minimums, how funding and transfers work, and whether there’s an app, a website, or both
• Support — the support channels and hours the provider publishes
• Canadian fit — TFSA/RRSP/FHSA support, CDIC or CIPF coverage, CAD and USD handling, no US-only features

Credit cards also have a published scoring formula with fixed category weights. It is explained, along with how it relates to the star ratings now on our card reviews, in how we rate Canadian credit cards.

How we maintain deal listings

Welcome bonuses, signup offers, and promo rates change frequently. For each offer in our deal listings, we record the official page it was checked on, the date of that check, its end date (or “ongoing”), and the qualifying conditions from the provider’s own terms. Every offer now in our deal listings was last checked against the provider’s official page on October 11, 2026. Our Canadian deals page shows each offer’s end date and last-checked date, and offers are removed from it once their end date passes. In our deal listings, a points bonus only gets a dollar value when the issuer publishes a fixed redemption rate.

Deal lists are ordered by our editor. Offers from programs that pay YieldMaple can be placed more prominently — pinned at the top of a list, for example. Placement doesn’t change what we publish about an offer: its conditions, fees, and end date come from the provider’s own terms either way.

How we refresh long-form content

Canadian rates, fees, and product features change frequently. Every figure in the facts registry carries its own verification date. Once a month, a review script lists any figure that hasn’t been re-checked in 60 days and looks for each saved quote on the live source page. Quotes it can’t find, and pages it can’t read, are checked by hand; a figure that no longer matches the provider’s page is corrected or marked unverified. Each article shows the date it was published or last updated.

Some older articles still have figures typed straight into the text instead of pulled from the facts registry. We’re moving those pages onto the registry; until a page has been moved, check the provider’s own page before acting on a figure in it.

How our calculators work

Every calculator under /tools is built the same way, so its results can be checked:

• Rules live in dated data files, not in the code. Tax brackets, land transfer tax tables, insurance premiums, benefit amounts and points grids are stored as versioned files, each with its official source, the date the rule takes effect, the date we last checked it and a history of changes. When a rule changes, the file is updated and every page that uses it updates with it.
• The page shows its sources. Each calculator lists the rules it used, the date each was last verified and the next scheduled check. A rule we couldn’t confirm is flagged on the page instead of being used silently.
• Standard formulas, stated assumptions. Mortgage payments use the Canadian convention of interest compounded semi-annually; growth projections assume a steady return you choose; nothing is adjusted for inflation unless the calculator says so. Each calculator lists its own assumptions and limits under “How this calculator works”.
• Tested against worked examples. Each calculator’s maths is checked by automated tests against worked examples, including the official examples published by the government where one exists.
• Your inputs stay in your browser. Calculations run on your device. We don’t store your inputs, and analytics records only that a calculator was used, never the amounts you entered.

Results are estimates for planning and education. They aren’t a lender’s approval, a tax assessment or an immigration decision.

Our sources

Every numerical claim on YieldMaple should trace back to a primary source. We rely on:

• CRA and Government of Canada pages (TFSA / RRSP / FHSA contribution limits, deadlines, withdrawal rules)
• Provider websites (product pages, fee schedules, offer terms and conditions, legal documents, and help-centre articles)
• CDIC, CIPF, and CIRO (deposit and investor protection, and membership), from their own pages and each provider’s disclosures
• The IRS and US Treasury, for the US tax rules that apply to Canadians holding US investments

Each figure in the facts registry stores the exact official page it came from. Our sourced facts tables list the source for every row and the check date for every verified figure, and Canadian tax or contribution rules are sourced to the relevant CRA or Government of Canada page.

Editorial independence

YieldMaple is independently owned. No provider reviews or approves our coverage before it’s published. Programs that pay us can get more prominent placement, but they don’t get different facts: we publish the fees and drawbacks of products that pay us, and we say so when a product that pays us less (or nothing) is the better fit for the reader.

Full disclosure on the Affiliate Disclosure page.

What we will not do

• Claim we opened, funded, or tested an account when we haven’t
• Mass-generate AI-written reviews, or publish AI drafts without editorial review
• Fabricate ratings, testimonials, or quotations
• Accept payment to change a rating or remove negative content
• Tell you a product is the better fit because the commission is higher than alternatives
• Make specific personalized financial, tax, or legal recommendations — that is the role of a licensed professional

Submitting a correction

If you spot a factual error, outdated fee, or anything else that needs correcting, email yieldmaple@gmail.com. We aim to apply verified corrections within 1–3 business days, with the change dated on the article.

Editorial direction by Alex Francisco, Founder and Editor. Independently published from Ontario, Canada.