Our goal at The Motley Fool is complete transparency, and that makes it especially important that you understand how we review offers on our site, how we display those offers on our site, and what it means when we partner with a product issuer.
Our reviews
The most important thing for you to know about our reviews is this: They are not based on commercial relationships. We appreciate our commercial partners, but we do not change the opinions in our reviews based on pressure from any partner. So when you see that a product on our site is well reviewed, you can be sure that that’s because we believe that it’s a good product, not because someone’s paid us to say that it’s a good product.
The Motley Fool has spent more than 25 years building trust with investors around the world by providing unbiased information and views aimed at helping investors make better investing decisions. In our reviews of personal finance products, we are carrying on that tradition of providing unbiased information and views, with the goal of helping our readers improve their financial lives.
Our reviews are based on factors that we believe are important to the average user of that product. Which means that it’s important to keep this in mind: Our opinions and views will not be a perfect fit for everyone.
While our hope is that these reviews will be useful to as many people as possible, everyone’s situation is a bit different. So we hope you find these reviews as a useful starting point to find great products, but do make sure to read the details, both on The Motley Fool and the issuer’s website, to make sure that the product is indeed a good fit for your circumstances.
To help with this, we provide information on our pages to help you understand the important features of each product that you should take into consideration when choosing a product in that category. We endeavor to keep all product information on our site up to date, but issuers do change product terms (sometimes abruptly), so it’s important to confirm all terms and conditions on the issuers website at the time of your application.
Look for the *
The offers from affiliated partners are clearly marked in numerous ways, including a * next to the product name. This lets you know that we may receive compensation if you sign up for a product from that provider.
As noted above, partnerships do not affect our ratings. That means that the reviews that you see on the products reflect our view on that product, not our commercial relationship with the partner.
Should a product from one of our partners be a good fit for you, that’s great! We view that as a win-win. But if not, simply scroll through the page and you’ll find other top-rated products. We do not choose the products that we feature on The Motley Fool based on commercial relationships. Instead, we look for products that we’d feel comfortable recommending… whether or not that particular company partners with us.
Why we work with partners
We partner with the financial companies that are behind some of the products that are listed on The Motley Fool. These may be credit card issuers, online brokers, banks, etc.
We appreciate our partners because, by supporting us, they are helping us bring financial information and education to readers like you. When you see an * on our site, that means that we partner with that company and when you click that link and sign up for a product, we may get paid for that.
So if you find a product from one of our partners that fits your needs, you should feel free to use the link on our site. Not only does that help us (thanks!), but you can feel comfortable because these links take you directly to the issuer’s website where you can securely apply.