Methodology: how we compare exchangers
Contents
my-banks.info is an information aggregator: we show exchanger rates and calculate scores using the formulas below. We do not carry out exchanges, do not hold funds and do not pass on orders. The order of results does not depend on affiliate payouts (partner links): the scoring service has no access to partnership data, and an automated test checks this.
Where rates come from
Only from feeds that the exchanger itself publishes for monitoring services (rates.xml / JSON format): with its consent to monitoring, or from a standard open file marked «Collected automatically» (see below). We do not scrape other aggregators, and the rates in the tables and the ranking do not depend on them. Next to every number you see «Data from the exchanger's feed» and the update time. How we poll feeds — see the page for exchangers.
Collected automatically. Rates are taken from the open file the exchanger publishes for monitoring sites; the exchanger has not confirmed its participation yet. The data may differ from the exchanger’s website.
«Collected automatically». Many exchangers publish a standard rates file for monitoring services at an
open address (for example, /request-exportxml.xml of the Premium Exchanger engine). We find such a file
automatically, respecting robots.txt, and poll it the same way as a feed given with consent: once every
15 minutes, never bypassing any protection. Until the exchanger
confirms its participation, its rates and its page are marked «Collected automatically»: the data may differ from the
exchanger's website. In the ranking such offers take part on the same terms — the formula is the same for everyone. The
exchanger can confirm its participation or opt out — then we stop polling (how to switch monitoring off).
Below the main table there may be a separate group «Offers according to BestChange»: rates of exchangers without their own feed in our monitoring, received from the BestChange partner API (not by scraping its website). This group is not mixed with the ranking and does not affect it; inside it the order is by the amount you get only; reliability is not used in this group (the pages of such exchangers carry a separate informational score — reliability according to BestChange). Every link from it is marked advertising (partner links): the label «Advertising / partner link» in the header of the group, and the badge «BCL» next to the button of a row — a BestChange partner link.
References
The «Rates today» block on the home page and the «Market reference» on direction pages are a reference for comparison, not exchanger rates. The official NBU rate and the average selling rate of cash currency (NBU statistics) come from the open API of bigenergy.com.ua, which takes them from the NBU open data. Cryptocurrency prices in US dollars are CoinMarketCap data via bigenergy.com.ua; the hryvnia price is recalculated by bigenergy at the official NBU rate. We refresh them every 10 minutes; every block shows the source and the date of the data, and data older than 2 days are marked «data as of <date>». These numbers take no part in the ranking, the benefit or the rate checks, and they are not a forecast.
How much you get
For the amount A you give and the rate r (how many units you get for one unit given):
We take fees into account if the exchanger lists them in the feed (as a number or a percentage of the amount); otherwise they are already in the rate. You pay the network fee for sending cryptocurrency — it is not in the exchanger's feed.
Who qualifies for the amount
An offer takes part in the comparison if all of the following hold:
- the data is fresh (see below) and the exchanger is active in monitoring;
- the amount is between the exchanger's minimum and maximum;
- the exchanger's reserve is not less than the amount you get;
- there is no open feed error.
The rest are in the collapsed list «Not suitable for this amount» with the reason.
Data freshness
The exchanger updates its feed, and we poll it every 60–3600 seconds (usually 900). If the feed has not been updated for longer than 3 polling intervals, the row turns grey with the mark data outdated and is not compared with others. After 24 hours without a successful poll the exchanger automatically disappears from the results until the feed recovers.
Rank
Benefit weighs 60%, reliability 40%. The table is sorted by rank by default; you can switch to «best rate» (the amount you get) or to reliability. We recalculate reliability once a day and after important events (an approved review, a decision on a complaint or a rate check). Until any exchanger of the direction has a score, the table is sorted by the amount you get, and this is stated above it. An exchanger without a score next to scored ones counts with reliability 0.
A rate that is too good does not come first. An offer marked Rate far better than the market — check the terms. The rate is noticeably better than the median of other exchangers. This happens with a feed error or before a scam: check the terms and reviews. cannot be No. 1 by rank: we put its rank slightly below the best other offer. The restriction is lifted when an operator has checked the rate on the exchanger's website, or after 6 hours without «Rate doesn't match» reports if the exchanger's reliability is at least 0.70. In the «best rate» mode such an offer stays in its place with the mark.
Benefit
How much you lose compared with the best offer of reliable exchangers (reliability from 0.50 and without the mark «Rate far better than the market»):
A loss of 3% or more gives zero points. The same loss is shown in the table as the percentage «vs the best».
Reliability
A weighted sum of seven components from 0 to 1 (the weights add up to 1):
| Component | Weight | What we take into account |
|---|---|---|
| Feed availability | 0.20 | share of successful feed polls over 30 days (no polls — 0) |
| Reviews | 0.20 | Bayesian average of approved reviews over a year: (C·m + sum of ratings) / (C + n), where m = 3.5, C = 10, then (x − 1) / 4; fewer than 5 reviews — the neutral value m |
| Complaints | 0.15 | 1 − min(1, 3·open complaints / max(10, approved reviews)) over 90 days; a complaint resolved by the exchanger is not penalised |
| Time in monitoring | 0.10 | months in monitoring / 24, at most 1; the declared founding year is not taken into account |
| Reserves | 0.10 | share of directions where the median reserve over 30 days covers the typical amount |
| Rate stability | 0.10 | 1 − share of hours over 30 days with an open rate check (rate too good, jump, «rate doesn't match») |
| Transparency | 0.15 | legal entity and country 0.25; rules and AML/KYC policy 0.25; entry in a public register 0.35; payouts not from private persons' cards 0.15 |
A new exchanger (less than 30 days in monitoring) has the mark «New», and its reliability is at most 0.60. Confirmed non-payment, fraudulent actions or a long feed outage mean removal from the results (an operator's decision, not the formula).
Reliability according to BestChange
An exchanger that is not in our monitoring yet (no feed) has no own data on feed availability, reserves or rate stability. So that its page still carries a clear score, we compute a separate external reliability — only from the facts BestChange publishes in its API (synced daily): age, time in their monitoring, reviews, claims, reserve, «verified» mark. Aggregates of BestChange — their rating and position in their list — are not used.
| Component | Weight | What we count |
|---|---|---|
| Exchanger age | 0.20 | min(1, months of work / 60) — as BestChange states it |
| In the BestChange monitoring | 0.20 | min(1, months in the BestChange monitoring / 36) |
| Reviews on BestChange | 0.25 | p = (positive + C·m) / (positive + neutral + C), where m = 0.90, C = 20; then (p − 0.50) / (1 − 0.50), from 0 to 1 |
| Claims on BestChange | 0.20 | 1 − min(1, 5·(open + 0.50·closed) / max(20, positive + neutral)) |
| Reserve according to BestChange | 0.05 | min(1, log10(reserve + 1) / 7), USD; the weight is low because the scale saturates |
| Verified by BestChange | 0.10 | 1 if BestChange gives the exchanger its verify mark («verified», a green tick next to the name; the API documentation does not explain it), else 0. It is not the AML clarity level of BestChange: that level is not in the API and we do not use it |
An exchanger BestChange marks as inactive gets at most 0.30. No link to BestChange — «no data».
What we show. The «Reliability» card carries one number with its source: our own score when the exchanger is in our monitoring («Own data of my-banks.info»), otherwise the external one («According to BestChange as of the sync date»). Components without data are marked «no data», not zero. The external score is informational: it is not part of the ranking and does not change the order in the rate tables — an automated test checks this. Sorting the exchanger catalog «by reliability» uses the same single number.
Rate checks
- Rate far better than the market — check the terms. The rate is noticeably better than the median of other exchangers. This happens with a feed error or before a scam: check the terms and reviews. — the amount you get exceeds the market median by max(1.5%, 3·MAD/median) (if there are at least three offers), or the leader is ahead of the second by more than 1.5%. Such a rate does not become the «best» benchmark and is never No. 1 by rank (see above). The mark is removed when the rate returns to the market.
- A rate jump of more than 5% between two updates while the median of other exchangers changed by less than 1% — an informational mark that counts towards stability.
- «Rate doesn't match»: if within 24 hours at least 3 independent visitors reported the rate of a direction, an operator checks the exchanger's website; a confirmed mismatch lowers stability.
- A zero reserve or one below the minimum amount — the offer does not qualify for the amount, without a penalty.
- A feed error (impossible numbers, broken format) — the offer is temporarily not compared.
- Payouts from private persons' cards — the mark Payout to a private person's card. The exchanger pays by a transfer from an individual's card (P2P). The bank may block the recipient's card or ask about the origin of the funds. and lower transparency.
Reviews
We publish a review only after email confirmation and manual moderation. Only approved reviews count towards reliability. Protection against manipulation: one review from one address about an exchanger every 30 days; reviews from addresses on the exchanger's own domain are not accepted; near-identical texts and a burst of positive reviews (more than 5 a day for an exchanger that usually gets fewer than one a day) are held for a separate check. Reviews are users' opinions; my-banks.info does not verify them. How we process emails — see the Privacy policy.
What has changed
- : the «Rates today» block — the NBU rate and cryptocurrency prices as a reference. The formulas have not changed.
- : rates from standard open files of exchangers that have not confirmed their participation yet are marked «Collected automatically». The formulas have not changed.
- , version 2.0: the «Reliability» card with components on the page of every exchanger; for exchangers outside our monitoring — external reliability from the BestChange facts (see above), informational only. The formula of our own reliability and of the ranking did not change.
- , version 1.0: launched reliability, benefit and rank by the formulas above; reviews with email confirmation and moderation; the checks «rate too good», «rate jump», «rate doesn't match». Before that (version 0.1) the table was sorted by the amount you get only.
Not launched yet
- The check of feeds against the NBU rate (a deviation above 10% is a feed error).
The information on the site is not financial advice. The decision to exchange is yours.