# CardDeals Deal Ranking

CardDeals applies one deterministic ranking rule to the public website, REST deal API, and MCP tools.

## Ordering

Valid, in-stock deals are ordered by:

1. Higher `discount_percent`.
2. CardDeals-owned inventory when discounts tie.
3. Commission-earning providers when discounts still tie, in the fixed order CardCash, Card Depot, Sam's Club, Bitrefill.
4. Longer reported provider guarantee when discounts still tie.
5. Provider slug in ascending order as a deterministic final tie-breaker.

Offers with an invalid destination, unsupported provider host, invalid discount, or unavailable status are excluded before ranking. Provider-specific normalization may adjust a current coupon or remove duplicate products.

## Interpretation

Ranking is a price-comparison convenience. It is not a promise of inventory and does not mean that one seller is universally best. The buyer should confirm the current price, restrictions, delivery method, redemption method, refund policy, and guarantee terms on the destination page.

CardDeals may earn a commission from third-party links, and that compensation can affect the order: when two offers show the same discount, the provider CardDeals earns a commission on (rule 3 above) is listed first. Compensation never changes a discount percentage, whether an offer is returned, or the order of offers with different discounts. CardDeals-owned inventory wins only the first tie after equal discount percentages.