NerdWallet Reviews

Summary: I think the Nerd user who posted the review on 2025-05-07 really doesn’t understand the business model of NerdWallet. It exists primarily to promote financial products to users. It is free after all and has to make money somehow.

So if you go look for a lender for home, auto, or insurance, they are going to take your info and try and matchmake you to a lender. The lender pays a fee for the lead. You better expect follow-ups. This isn’t rocket science.

So while you can go here to get loan comparisons for example, it is so much more. You can compare credit cards, loans, and savings accounts. You can link your financial accounts like banks, investment accounts, and credit card accounts to easily track your spending and savings . You can review your credit score. Think of it as an almost one-stop shop for your financial life.

Positive: It is easy to use and navigate. It is an almost satisfactory replacement of Mint. If you’re looking for one place to combine your financial life in one place, NerdWallet deserves your attention.

I’m not going to tell you its features, you can easily find that info by doing a web search.

It uses Plaid as its banking API. In my experience, Plaid is more reliable the Empower’s Yodlee API. I also use Empower.

Negative: NerdWallet has pretty much stopped supporting its Desktop version in favor of its app. The app is fine but you’re reading on your phone, not a desktop.

Data updates at a reasonable cadence except for the credit reporting function. I think many credit bureaus report daily (Nerd uses TransUnion) but the account balances in the Credit Report can be 2 months old or more. I don’t know of a single financial institution that doesn’t report to the three credit bureaus at least monthly so there is something going on there.

Nerd gets its credit scores from TransUnion. My score is always way higher than the score lenders use, sometimes by as much as 60 points so I take my Nerd score with a huge grain of salt. This is just NerdWallet using the feed from TransUnion feed. I do wish they would offer access to the kind of reporting a lender uses, especially since they promote all kinds of financial products on their website.

The website appeal is rather humdrum. Empower’s site is much better in this regard. iI prefer its tools. It also has better tools and its customer support is better.

Summary: They can't be trusted with your information. I was relentlessly pursued by unknown banks that crashed my credit score.

Positive: NEVER GIVE NERDWALLET YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION!!!! I went on NerdWallet looking for a bank to refinance my car. I got flooded with calls texts and emails from banks I never heard of. All of them were ridiculous offers and the calls were relentless. They did so many credit checks that it had a major impact on my credit score.

Negative: I went on NerdWallet looking for a bank to refinance my car. I got flooded with calls texts and emails from banks I never heard of.