How we check offers and rates
Last updated
Every figure on WalletReturn comes from the provider’s own website and terms. This page explains how often we check each kind of figure and what happens when one changes.
Where the numbers come from
We read the provider’s own pages: the card issuer’s product page and offer terms, the bank’s rate and fee pages, the brokerage’s pricing page and the lender’s posted rates. We don’t use comparison sites, forums or ads as sources.
When a headline and the legal terms disagree, the legal terms win.
How often we check
- Credit card welcome offers
- Each offer has a review date no more than seven days after its last check, or sooner if the offer ends sooner. A daily check works through the offers coming due. Offers that changed, ended or couldn’t be read are checked again two days later.
- Savings, chequing and GIC rates
- Each account is checked against the bank’s page about once a week, and every rate is refreshed each Monday.
- Investing fees and offers
- Refreshed each Monday from each platform’s own pricing and offer pages.
- Mortgage rates
- Each lender’s own rate page is read at least once every seven days. Mortgage pages are information only.
- Bank of Canada and prime rates
- The Bank of Canada policy rate and the big banks’ prime rate are checked each Monday.
What happens after a check
- Unchanged
- The date the figure was checked moves forward.
- Changed
- We record the new terms with the old and new values. The page changes after the update is reviewed and approved. Card offer changes since October 30, 2026 are listed in the corrections log.
- Ended or not confirmed
- If an offer ends with no replacement, or its review date passes before we can confirm it, we stop counting the welcome bonus. First-year value then shows only the card’s ongoing value until a current offer is confirmed.
- Page couldn’t be read
- We try again two days later. Until the offer is confirmed, the rule above applies once its review date passes.
How values are calculated
Values assume $2,000 a month of typical spending. First-year value is the welcome bonus plus a year of rewards, minus the annual fee; net annual rewards is a year of rewards minus the annual fee. Commission never changes the order.
Found something wrong?
Tell us through the contact page, with the product’s name and a link to the provider’s page. We check it against the provider’s own page, and if we got it wrong, we fix it and note it in the corrections log.