Editorial policy

Our conflict of interest, stated first

We sell a credit builder. Every comparison, guide and review on this site is written by a company with a commercial interest in one of the answers. No editorial policy removes that, and you should not read anything here as independent.

What we can do is make the bias legible and hold ourselves to rules that make it harder to act on. That is what the rest of this page is.

The rules we write to

• Name where a competitor wins. Every comparison page carries a section stating what the other product does better. On cost per tradeline, we say plainly that savings-linked competitors usually beat us.
• Never pick the flattering reading. Where sources disagree on a competitor’s terms, we say they disagree rather than choosing the number that suits us.
• Research, do not recall. Competitor pricing and regulatory figures are checked against published sources at the time of writing, not written from memory.
• Ceilings are not averages. Where we quote a maximum — the rewards cap, for example — we say it is a maximum and that most members will not reach it.
• Recommend against ourselves when that is the answer. Several pages end by telling a reader to choose a competitor or a secured card.

Who reviews what

Guidance touching credit scoring, consumer law or product terms is reviewed before publication by someone with relevant professional background. Bylines name the reviewer and the month of last review.

A byline means the named person wrote or reviewed that page and stands behind its accuracy. Where a page carries a professional designation, that designation is current and verifiable through the issuing body’s public register.

Pages covering consumer law, reporting periods or product terms carry a review date as well as an author. If more than twelve months have passed since the last review of a page that quotes figures, we either re-check the figures or remove them.

Sources and dating

Regulatory figures cite the statute where one exists — reporting periods on our rebuilding guide cite the Fair Credit Reporting Act directly. Competitor terms cite the provider’s published pricing, corroborated against independent reviews.

Every page carries a last-reviewed date. Credit-builder pricing changes frequently, so we tell readers to confirm current terms with the provider rather than relying on our snapshot.

Member reviews

Reviews displayed on this site are member submissions. We do not offer compensation in exchange for a review, and critical reviews are published unedited alongside positive ones.

• Reviews are submitted by members with an active or completed account. We do not solicit reviews from anyone else.
• No compensation, discount, reward or account benefit is offered in exchange for a review, favourable or otherwise.
• Critical reviews are published unedited. We do not filter by rating, and we do not remove a review because it is unflattering.
• Score changes quoted alongside a review are self-reported by that member and are not verified by us. They are labelled as such wherever they appear.
• Reviews are edited only to remove personal information, and never to change the substance of what was said.

These commitments exist partly because they are right and partly because the FTC Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials makes fabricated or incentivised reviews a matter of civil penalty. Where review content is displayed under a third-party platform’s branding, it is served by that platform’s own integration rather than reproduced by us.

Corrections

If something here is factually wrong, we would rather fix it than defend it. Material corrections are made in place and the last-reviewed date is updated. Where a correction changes the substance of a recommendation, we note what changed rather than quietly editing.

Advertising and referral fees

We do not sell advertising space on this site, and no third party pays for placement or for favourable treatment in a comparison.

We do receive referral fees when a member activates a qualifying partner offer through our rewards programme. That relationship is disclosed on the rewards page, which also tells readers not to open credit for the sake of a reward.