Affiliate Disclosure

Last updated: January 15, 2026  |  Effective: January 15, 2026

Summary: Smart Card Advisor earns commissions when readers apply for and are approved for credit cards through links on our website. This compensation helps support our editorial operations. Our editorial content — including card ratings, reviews, and recommendations — is produced independently and is not influenced by our advertising relationships. This disclosure is provided in compliance with the Federal Trade Commission's Guidelines Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (16 C.F.R. Part 255).

1. How We Earn Commissions

Smart Card Advisor operates as an affiliate marketing website in the credit card and personal finance space. When you click on certain links on our website — typically links labeled "Apply Now," "Learn More," or "See Offer" on credit card review pages and comparison articles — you are directed to a credit card application page on the issuing bank's or card network's website.

If you complete an application through one of these links and are approved for the credit card, Smart Card Advisor receives a commission from the card issuer or from an affiliate network that manages the relationship on the issuer's behalf. The commission amount varies by card and by issuer. In most cases, the commission is a flat fee per approved application; in some cases, it may include a revenue-sharing component tied to cardholder spending.

Commissions paid to Smart Card Advisor are borne by the card issuer. They are not charged to you as an applicant, and they do not affect the terms of the credit card offered to you. The interest rates, fees, rewards rates, and benefits available to you are the same whether you apply through Smart Card Advisor or directly through the issuer's website.

2. How This Affects Our Content

Smart Card Advisor is committed to ensuring that our commercial relationships do not influence our editorial content. Specifically:

  • Our ratings are not for sale. Card issuers cannot pay to receive a higher rating, a more favorable review, or placement in our best-of lists. Our scoring methodology — described in full on our Editorial Policy page — is applied uniformly to all cards we review.
  • We review cards from non-partners. We regularly review and feature cards from issuers with whom we have no affiliate relationship. In some cases, the card that earns us zero commission may be the best choice for a given reader — and we say so.
  • Commission rates do not affect rankings. The commission we earn from one card versus another does not factor into our editorial ratings or how prominently we feature a card. A card with a high commission rate is no more likely to appear at the top of a comparison table than a card with a low commission rate.
  • We disclose affiliate links. Pages and articles that contain affiliate links include a disclosure banner at the top of the page. Affiliate links are the standard "Apply Now" and "Learn More" links in our card comparison tables and review pages. Non-affiliate links — such as links to issuer terms and conditions documents, government resources, and news articles — are not affiliate links and are not marked as such.

4. Our Advertising Partners

Smart Card Advisor currently maintains affiliate relationships with card issuers including, but not limited to, the following companies. This list is updated periodically as our partnerships change:

  • American Express
  • Bank of America
  • Barclays
  • Capital One
  • Chase
  • Citi
  • Discover
  • U.S. Bank
  • Wells Fargo

We also work with affiliate networks including Commission Junction (CJ Affiliate), Impact, and FlexOffers, which manage affiliate relationships with additional financial institutions on their behalf.

The fact that a company appears on this list does not guarantee that all of its credit card products will appear on Smart Card Advisor, nor does it guarantee any particular rating. Equally, companies that do not appear on this list may still have their products reviewed and featured on Smart Card Advisor, without any affiliate compensation to us.

6. FTC Compliance

This disclosure is provided in compliance with the Federal Trade Commission's Guidelines Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (16 C.F.R. Part 255) and the FTC's guidance on online disclosure of material connections.

The FTC requires that websites disclose any material connection between a reviewer and a product manufacturer or service provider, including affiliate compensation arrangements. This disclosure page, along with the per-page disclosure banners on our content pages, constitutes Smart Card Advisor's compliance with these requirements.

If you have questions about our affiliate relationships or our compliance with FTC disclosure requirements, please contact us at editorial@smartcardadvisor.com.

7. Questions About Our Affiliate Program

If you have questions about our affiliate disclosure or would like to inquire about partnering with Smart Card Advisor, please contact us through the following channels:

You may also find additional information about our editorial practices and commercial relationships on our Advertiser Disclosure page and our Editorial Policy page.