Methodology and sources

What is the Haeluotto methodology

This page explains how Haeluotto collects, checks and presents lenders’ data. We currently track 45 lenders and 91 products, of which 41 have a published rate (status 07/10/2026). All figures come from lenders’ own public pages and are updated every night. Below we explain which sources we use, how figures are checked, how banks’ margins are converted into total rates and what we do not do. The aim is that a reader can verify every figure on the lender’s own page and see when it was last checked.

How the data is collected

Each lender has its own reader that fetches the product’s public page, finds the rate, margin, annual percentage rate and representative example, and stores them in data files. The files are under version control, so every change is traceable.

Fetching

The reader fetches only the lender’s own official pages. Pages that need JavaScript run by a browser are opened with a browser. We do not use third-party comparison sites as a source.

Checking

The lender’s type and supervision are checked against the Finanssivalvonta register of supervised entities. Euribor values are fetched from a public source. Amounts, terms and collateral requirements are entered by hand only when confirmed on the lender’s own page, and they carry a verification date.

Error handling

If a page does not respond or a figure disappears we keep the previous value and do not replace it with a guess. If the number of products drops suddenly by more than a fifth the update is halted and checked by hand.

How rate and margin are handled

Banks often state the price only as a margin on top of a reference rate. We store the margin and the reference-rate tenor separately and compute the total rate with today’s Euribor: total rate is Euribor plus margin. That makes banks’ figures comparable with fixed-rate finance companies’ figures, and separates a rate change from the lender’s own decision.

How the order is determined

The default order of the tables is the published rate from, lowest to highest. Products with no published rate are at the end marked “negotiable / not published”. Commercial relationships do not affect the order, and any partnership is marked visibly. Haeluotto receives no commission from lenders for listing. See how the groups differ on the banks and finance companies pages, and the lender list for every profile.

What we do not do

• We do not guess a rate or fill gaps with averages.
• We do not publish customer reviews or star ratings.
• We do not process applications or make credit decisions.
• We do not compute the annual percentage rate ourselves; we show it only when the lender has published it in its representative example.

Data quality and limits

Machine reading can err if a lender changes the structure of its page. We therefore compare each new figure with the previous one and flag suspicious changes for checking. A published rate is always a starting price or the low end of a range, not a personal offer. Some lenders publish only an example rate for a certain amount, in which case the figure can differ from other products. We show the product’s own terms and the verification date so that a reader can easily confirm the data with the lender.

Independence and funding

Haeluotto is an independent comparison and information service. We are not a lender or a credit intermediary, we do not process applications and we do not make credit decisions. We do not charge lenders a commission for listing, and the order follows the published rate. If we introduce commercial partnerships in future, they will be marked visibly and will not affect the order of the tables.

Correcting errors

If you notice a wrong or outdated figure, tell us using the contact details on the about page. We correct the figure from the source once the change is visible on the lender’s public page, and the change is logged in version control. That way the correction history is preserved.

Pros and cons of the method

Advantages

• Figures are traceable to the lender’s own page and to the change history.
• Banks’ and finance companies’ prices can be compared on the same measure.
• Gaps are not filled with guesses.

Drawbacks

• A published starting price is not a personal offer.
• Many lenders publish no price at all.
• A machine-read figure can lag if the lender changes its page.

If an application is rejected: how to use the comparison

If a lender rejects an application, the comparison helps you find other options: check whether a smaller amount or a longer term is possible and compare lenders that publish their price. Do not apply everywhere at once, because each application may show in your credit record.

Supervision and official sources

The registration and supervision of lenders are checked against the Finanssivalvonta register of supervised entities. On price limits for consumer credit we follow the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority. Finanssivalvonta supervises banks and registered lenders; Haeluotto is not a supervised lender but a comparison and information service.

Update frequency and rate changes

Data is fetched every night. When a rate or margin a lender publishes changes, the change is logged in the market watch and appears in the market report. A mere move in the reference rate is not a lender’s rate change and is separated.