Affiliate disclosure

BlockColumn is free to read, and it stays that way because some of the links on it earn us money. This page explains which links those are, what we earn, and — just as important — what that money does not buy.

How we make money

Two ways, both disclosed:

• Affiliate links. Some outbound links to a provider are affiliate links. If you open an account or a card after clicking one, we may receive a commission from that provider. It costs you nothing extra, and the price and terms you get are the same as if you had gone direct.
• Sponsorships and advertising. A provider can pay for a clearly marked placement, such as a labelled slot in a list or an advertising unit. Anything a provider has paid for is visibly labelled as sponsored or as advertising, every time, so you always know what is paid and what is not.

What that money does not buy

Commercial relationships do not touch our editorial judgement, and the site is built so that they cannot:

• Scores and rankings are computed, not sold. A platform’s score comes from the weighted factors set out in our rating methodology. There is no line in that calculation for how much a provider pays, and paying more cannot lift a score or a rank.
• Paid slots are never mixed into editorial picks. A sponsored placement sits in its own labelled slot. Our “best for” picks and the order of our rankings are editorial, and a sponsor cannot buy its way into them.
• Partners get no preview, veto or influence. Providers do not see reviews before publication, cannot approve or block what we write, and cannot ask for an unfavourable fact to be softened or removed. An affiliate partner and a card that scores badly are treated exactly alike.

The short version

We may earn a commission when you sign up through a link on this page, at no cost to you. It never affects our scores, our rankings, or which products we cover. When a provider has paid for a placement, we label it. Everything else is independent editorial.

If a link’s status is ever unclear, or you spot something that looks like an undisclosed placement, tell us and we will clarify or fix it.