DD Checker Methodology

How we source, score, and attribute every data point.

Where the data comes from

Every direct-deposit data point in our checker is sourced from a public Reddit thread — primarily the weekly Data Points threads in r/churning and r/bankbonuses. We do not aggregate from Doctor of Credit, Dannydealguru, or any other curated database. The original commenter and thread URL are stored with every entry and shown in the UI.

What you can verify

  • Click any evidence row → opens the original Reddit comment
  • The Reddit username who reported it is shown
  • The subreddit and date the comment was posted are stored
  • If a data point is removed from Reddit, our entry remains but you can confirm it's gone

What we don't do

  • We don't pretend to verify these ourselves. Every entry is a community-reported data point, not a tested transaction. Treat them as evidence, not guarantees.
  • We don't scrape from Doctor of Credit. DoC has spent over a decade curating community data. Rebuilding their work without attribution wouldn't be ethical. They have their own DD list — go read it directly if you want their data.
  • We don't hide our limitations. Our dataset is smaller than DoC's because we only include data we can attribute. Smaller and verifiable beats larger and anonymous.

Confidence scoring

Each pair (source institution → destination bank) gets a confidence score based on:

  • Recency. Exponential decay with a 365-day half-life. A data point from last month weighs more than one from two years ago.
  • Source quality. Community reports from established usernames carry more weight than first-comment accounts.
  • Evidence clustering. Multiple independent reports of the same outcome increase confidence; the same person reporting twice does not.
  • Conflict guard. If a recent report (last 90 days) contradicts older evidence, confidence is capped — banks change their DD criteria over time.
  • Verdict thresholds. “Likely works” requires a meaningful evidence weight AND multiple independent reporters. We say “not enough data” instead of guessing.

Why we rebuilt the dataset

An earlier version of this tool included data scraped from Doctor of Credit without source attribution. We removed all of that data on April 26, 2026 and rebuilt from scratch using only public Reddit threads with full attribution. This means our coverage is currently smaller than it was — we'd rather grow honestly than scale on someone else's work.

How the dataset grows

  • Weekly Reddit scrape. Our scraper runs on a schedule and pulls new data points from r/churning and r/bankbonuses Data Points threads.
  • User submissions (coming soon). A submission form will let users report their own DD outcomes. Each submission will require an account, a screenshot, and will be visible publicly with the submitter's display name.
  • Backfill. We periodically walk older threads to fill gaps in historical coverage.

Found a bad entry?

If you spot a data point that looks wrong, conflicts with your experience, or where our scraper misinterpreted the comment — let us know. Email hello@bonusclerk.com with the entry ID (visible on each evidence row) and we'll review it.

Last updated: April 26, 2026. See also: DD Checker, About BonusClerk.