Methodology

How the Cash Efficiency Score is calculated

The Cash Efficiency Score (CES) is a 300-850 number scoring how efficiently your liquid cash, card spend, and account fees are working relative to the best widely-available terms today. It is not a credit score and has no relationship to your FICO or VantageScore — it never touches credit data.

Best savings APY benchmark

4.40%

Flat-rate cashback benchmark

2.5%

Formula

CES = 850 − (yield loss + rewards loss + fee penalty), clamped to [300, 850].

Yield loss (up to 330 points). Scales with how far your current savings APY sits below the best widely-available APY. A rate at or above the benchmark scores 0 points of loss; a rate near 0% scores close to the full 330.
Rewards loss (up to 165 points). Scales with how far your blended card rewards rate sits below the benchmark flat-rate cashback rate.
Fee penalty (up to 55 points). 5 points per dollar of monthly account fees (maintenance, overdraft, ATM), capped at 55.

The dollar figure shown alongside the score (“you’re losing $X/year”) is calculated separately from the point score: annual yield gap on your stated balance, plus annual rewards gap on your stated monthly spend, plus annualized fees — each floored at $0 so a factor that beats the benchmark never produces a negative number.

Score tiers

780-850

Elite

Yield, rewards, and fees are all close to the best widely-available terms.

660-779

Moderate

One or two factors have meaningful room to improve.

500-659

High drag

Multiple factors are costing real money every year.

300-499

Severe bleed

Yield, rewards, or fees (often all three) are far below available terms.

How this differs from our other checks

SwitchWize runs three separate, purpose-built checks — they measure different things and aren’t meant to be combined into one number.

Bank Gap Challenge — a 3-second check on your savings account specifically, versus the top market rate.
Cash Efficiency Score (this page) — a 60-second check across your savings yield, card rewards, and fees, scored 300-850.
Financial Health Score — a broader 0-100 check across net worth, debt, savings rate, and retirement pace, benchmarked against U.S. households your age.

Run the score: Cash Efficiency Score.

Public source posture

Refresh current-rate claims from primary sources before publishing a new monthly snapshot or changing headline numbers.