Spam is supposed to be a thing of the past, but it’s not—and today it comes weaponized with manifold data-grabbing threats—from ransomware to keystroke recorders and beyond. Your email has never been more dangerous. There was a time in the early 2000s when email spam and malicious botnets were viewed as mere nuisances. A confident... Read More
Are you trying to rebuild your credit? Fingerhut, an online mail-order retailer, says it wants to help you with its FreshStart program. It’s a new twist on the catalog card or magazine offers of yesteryear. The program, which involves a special credit card used to shop from Fingerhut’s online product catalog, is designed for customers... Read More
[Disclosure: Cards from our partners are mentioned below.] In past years, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card has been the go-to premium travel credit card. The card comes with a generous sign-up bonus and extra points on travel and restaurant purchases—all for a very reasonable annual fee of $95, which is waived the first year. Then Chase released... Read More
The personal information of 143 million people was compromised in the recent Equifax data breach, and since then it seems like everyone and their dog is talking about protecting themselves with credit monitoring. If only it were that simple. Credit monitoring services, like any service, have their pros and cons. Before you enroll in... Read More
If it’s time to purchase a new vehicle, you may be wondering about one obstacle that could get in your way: your credit. Maybe you’re unsure how good your credit is and you don’t know what credit score is needed to buy a car either. Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer to this question. No matter... Read More
Giving to charity doesn’t require a lot of disposable income. If you want to make the world a better place, you can still contribute without cutting a big check. Here are 13 ways to give to charity on a budget. 1. Donate Your Time Many charitable organizations survive through the efforts of volunteers. Volunteering is... Read More
[Disclosure: Cards from our partners are reviewed below.] If you’re already daydreaming about next year’s vacation, take notice: the Discover it Miles credit card could help you make it happen. Discover’s flexible rewards program and impressive sign-up bonus can take a big bite out of your travel expenses. Here’s how you can use the Discover... Read More
[Disclosure: Cards from our partners are reviewed below.] Spoiling your grandkids can get expensive, especially if you’re on a fixed income. But some credit cards can help out financially, earning rewards as you treat your grandchildren to ice cream or take them out on adventures. Here are four credit cards that can help you spoil... Read More
[Disclosure: Cards from our partners are reviewed below.] With cooler weather and better planting conditions, fall is the perfect time of year for a landscaping project. But whether you’re sprucing up your garden or aiming to improve your home’s curb appeal, the expense of a large outdoor project can be daunting. Some credit cards can... Read More
Credit cards play a significant role in your financial life—from establishing credit to determining your buying power and more. While credit cards have become an integral part of society and even have their perks, you may be wondering how many credit cards you should keep and if it would be wise to get another one.... Read More
Certain credit cards and other financial products mentioned in this and other sponsored content on Credit.com are Partners with Credit.com. Credit.com receives compensation if our users apply for and ultimately sign up for any financial products or cards offered.
Hello, Reader!
Thanks for checking out Credit.com. We hope you find the site and the journalism we produce useful. We wanted to take some time to tell you a bit about ourselves.
Our People
The Credit.com editorial team is staffed by a team of editors and reporters, each with many years of financial reporting experience. We’ve worked for places like the New York Times, American Banker, Frontline, TheStreet.com, Business Insider, ABC News, NBC News, CNBC and many others. We also employ a few freelancers and more than 50 contributors (these are typically subject matter experts from the worlds of finance, academia, politics, business and elsewhere).
Our Reporting
We take great pains to ensure that the articles, video and graphics you see on Credit.com are thoroughly reported and fact-checked. Each story is read by two separate editors, and we adhere to the highest editorial standards. We’re not perfect, however, and if you see something that you think is wrong, please email us at editorial team [at] credit [dot] com,
The Credit.com editorial team is committed to providing our readers and viewers with sound, well-reported and understandable information designed to inform and empower. We won’t tell you what to do. We will, however, do our best to explain the consequences of various actions, thereby arming you with the information you need to make decisions that are in your best interests. We also write about things relating to money and finance we think are interesting and want to share.
In addition to appearing on Credit.com, our articles are syndicated to dozens of other news sites. We have more than 100 partners, including MSN, ABC News, CBS News, Yahoo, Marketwatch, Scripps, Money Magazine and many others. This network operates similarly to the Associated Press or Reuters, except we focus almost exclusively on issues relating to personal finance. These are not advertorial or paid placements, rather we provide these articles to our partners in most cases for free. These relationships create more awareness of Credit.com in general and they result in more traffic to us as well.
Our Business Model
Credit.com’s journalism is largely supported by an e-commerce business model. Rather than rely on revenue from display ad impressions, Credit.com maintains a financial marketplace separate from its editorial pages. When someone navigates to those pages, and applies for a credit card, for example, Credit.com will get paid what is essentially a finder’s fee if that person ends up getting the card. That doesn’t mean, however, that our editorial decisions are informed by the products available in our marketplace. The editorial team chooses what to write about and how to write about it independently of the decisions and priorities of the business side of the company. In fact, we maintain a strict and important firewall between the editorial and business departments. Our mission as journalists is to serve the reader, not the advertiser. In that sense, we are no different from any other news organization that is supported by ad revenue.
Visitors to Credit.com are also able to register for a free Credit.com account, which gives them access to a tool called The Credit Report Card. This tool provides users with two free credit scores and a breakdown of the information in their Experian credit report, updated twice monthly. Again, this tool is entirely free, and we mention that frequently in our articles, because we think that it’s a good thing for users to have access to data like this. Separate from its educational value, there is also a business angle to the Credit Report Card. Registered users can be matched with products and services for which they are most likely to qualify. In other words, if you register and you find that your credit is less than stellar, Credit.com won’t recommend a high-end platinum credit card that requires an excellent credit score You’d likely get rejected, and that’s no good for you or Credit.com. You’d be no closer to getting a product you need, there’d be a wasted inquiry on your credit report, and Credit.com wouldn’t get paid. These are essentially what are commonly referred to as "targeted ads" in the world of the Internet. Despite all of this, however, even if you never apply for any product, the Credit Report Card will remain free, and none of this will impact how the editorial team reports on credit and credit scores.
Your Stories
Lastly, much of what we do is informed by our own experiences as well as the experiences of our readers. We want to tell your stories if you’re interested in sharing them. Please email us at story ideas [at] credit [dot] com with ideas or visit us on Facebook or Twitter.
Thanks for stopping by.
- The Credit.com Editorial Team
Trae Bodge
Jeff Rose
Kali Geldis
Bob Sullivan
Scott Sheldon
Tracie Fobes
Karin Price Mueller
Christine DiGangi
Brooke Niemeyer
Jeanne Kelly
Mia Taylor
Brian Acton
Jim Wang
Jill Krasny
Adam Levin
Cheryl Lock
Brian Kuhn
Constance Brinkley-Badgett
Myles Ma
Michael Schreiber
Nick Jarman
Clark Randall
Gerri Detweiler
Paige DiFiore
