Credit Cards Methodology
How Truva will score and compare Philippine credit cards once the category True Value Score becomes active.
The right card is not the one with the loudest reward claim. It is the one whose economics still make sense after the fine print.
Credit cards are especially vulnerable to bad comparison design because temporary promos, flashy categories, and vague reward marketing can make a weak long-term product look strong. Truva's card methodology is meant to punish that distortion, not reward it.
Core inputs
What the future card True Value Score will care about
Annual-fee economics
A card should be judged on net value after annual fees, not on a welcome-promo screenshot that disappears after a quarter.
Waiver realism
Fee-waiver rules matter only if normal users can actually meet them. Unrealistic waiver thresholds deserve less credit.
Rewards usefulness
Rewards should map to something clear and valuable: cashback, transferable points, miles, or a redemption path that is easy to explain.
Redemption friction
A high earn rate can still underperform if the rewards are hard to use, opaque, or buried behind thresholds that most cardholders never reach.
Approval fit
Eligibility, minimum-income fit, and issuer positioning belong in the comparison because the best card on paper is useless if the reader is a poor fit.
Why score activation is delayed
Card rankings are easy to get wrong when the framework quietly favors whichever products have the easiest marketing story. That is why Truva is publishing the methodology before publishing a live score.
Once the methodology is stable, the card pages can expose a True Value Score with a clearer conscience because readers already know what is being rewarded and what is being penalized.
Guardrails
A sponsored placement should never guarantee favorable editorial language.
Promo windows can be referenced, but long-term value should carry more weight than temporary campaign copy.
The same issuer should not dominate a ranking unless the underlying economics and usefulness justify it.
Related trust pages
Pair the scoring rules with the disclosure rules
The methodology explains how cards will be evaluated. The editorial-integrity page explains how sponsored placements and partner-supported content are labeled.