Our Methodology & Editorial Standards
Credit cards are a your-money / your-life topic, so we hold this site to a high bar: accurate, neutral, sourced to official authorities, and honest about how we make money. Here is exactly who we are, where our information comes from, how we research it, and how we keep it current.
Who’s behind this site
Credit Card IC (the Credit Card Information Center) is an independent publisher operated by VentureCorp Publishing. We are not a bank, a card issuer, a credit-repair company, or a financial advisor, and nothing on this site is financial advice. Our editorial team writes plain-English explanations of how credit cards work so a confusing, high-stakes topic is easier to navigate.
Because we are not affiliated with any single issuer, we have no incentive to favor one card over another — our job is to explain the categories clearly and point you to the official sources for the current numbers.
Where our data comes from
| Data | Source | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| How credit cards work, fees & consumer protections | CFPB — Credit Cards | The factual basis for our card-type and guide pages |
| APR & how interest is charged | CFPB — What does APR mean? | Our APR / interest guide |
| Building & rebuilding credit | CFPB — How do I build credit? | Our building-credit, secured, and student pages |
| Secured cards & balance transfers | CFPB — Secured cards | Our secured & balance-transfer category pages |
| Choosing & comparing a card | Federal Reserve — Choosing a Credit Card | Our comparison, choosing-a-card, and landscape pages |
We rely on primary, non-commercial U.S. government sources — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Reserve — rather than marketing material from issuers. Each card and guide page also lists the specific sources it draws on.
How we calculate
We compare credit-card types on stable, objective attributes — what a card is for, who it suits, whether it is a revolving credit line, whether it builds credit, and whether it is backed by a deposit — rather than on numbers that go stale. Our data study is built the same way: every figure is a direct count from that objective attribute table, never an estimate, a survey, or an invented statistic.
What we deliberately do not publish: specific APRs, fees, sign-up bonuses, or reward rates. These change constantly and vary by issuer, so quoting them would mislead more than it helps. Instead we explain how each term works and tell you to compare current offers and read the issuer's terms (the “Schumer box”) before applying.
How we compare partners
When we help you compare offers, our guidance does not change based on who pays us. We rank and describe card types on the merits and on the objective attributes above — placement is never for sale, and a partner relationship never changes what we tell you about a card. We make no “guaranteed approval,” rate, or credit-score promises, and we do not promote credit-repair or debt-relief schemes.
Independence & how we make money
Editorial independence. Our editorial team decides what we publish and how we describe each card type. No advertiser, partner, or issuer reviews or approves our content, and commercial relationships never influence our explanations or any comparison.
How we make money (FTC affiliate disclosure). Credit Card IC is free to read. We may earn a commission when you use our comparison form or click certain partner links and are matched with or apply for a card — at no extra cost to you. These are affiliate relationships, disclosed here in line with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's guidance. Earning a commission never changes the information we show you, the order in which we present card types, or our editorial judgment. We never sell your personal information.
Keeping it current
We review our card-type pages, guides, and this methodology on a regular schedule and whenever the underlying CFPB or Federal Reserve guidance changes. Each page carries a “last reviewed” date so you can see how current it is. Because issuers change their actual rates, fees, and offers frequently, we always direct you to confirm the current numbers with the issuer before you apply.
Corrections
We want every page to be accurate. If you spot an error or something that reads as out of date, please tell us and we will review and correct it promptly. Contact us →