What Makes our Site Unique |
We firmly believe our site is one of the best credit card related sites on the Web. The vast majority of other credit card related sites are strictly advertising based. Following are some of the reasons that our site enjoys such a consumer friendly national reputation. As always, we welcome media or press inquiries.
 We are an independent organization that is not owned or governed by any bank or financial institution. Our primary consumer focus is rating credit cards and educating consumers about credit cards. We currently offer numerous "card reports" that rate cards in several categories. To the best of our knowledge, our site is the most comprehensive free source for comparing card offers. One of our most unique reports is the cardholder reviews report, which allows consumers to rate cards based on personal experiences. We currently offer over 19,000 consumer reviews of about 925 credit cards. New reviews are added daily!
We also offer staff reviews of over 500 credit cards in 60 different categories, including a searchable database containing detailed information relating to credit card terms and conditions.
Finally, through a unique partnership with BankRate, we offer access to card data from approximately 4,800 financial institutions in all 50 states. Currently, this data consists of 700 unique credit card offers. BankRate has been tracking the banking industry since 1976. Please note that this data is strictly related to actual credit card terms and does not include any consumer or staff card reviews. |
We list and rate all credit cards, regardless of whether a particular card advertises on our site. In fact, about 95% of the cards listed on our site are not advertisers (i.e. we do NOT earn ANY financial compensation from 95% of the cards on our site). Almost all other credit card related sites ONLY list cards that generate revenue (we only know of a few sites that list cards that do not generate revenue). These sites are typically only concerned with "making a quick buck".
Furthermore, cards that advertise on our site are not given preferential treatment (i.e. are not rated higher just because they advertise on our site). For example, the Plains Commerce Bank Visa, one of the cards that recently advertised in the "Poor Credit Section" of our site, received our lowest rating (1 star). Few sites offer such an objective view of their advertisers.
On a related note, we are proud to provide all of the data (card terms and conditions) for the credit card and atm/debit card surveys published by the New York State Banking Department, the oldest bank regulatory agency in the nation. |
We clearly distinguish all advertisements on our site. We do this in order to make sure that consumers are fully aware of who our advertisers are. We distinguish advertisers on our site by including the phrase Site Sponsor/Sponsor Link or Featured Card(s) beside each graphical or text ad. We would prefer to not have any ads on our site, but realize that we must have some form of revenue in order to exist "in the real world". We decided to allow advertisements on our site because we do not want to solicit donations from visitors to our site (as we have done in the past) and because we do not want to charge for our services, like some similar organizations do (see our About Us section for more information).
To access our "non-sponsor" cards, please visit the card reports section of our site. At the end of each "Card Reports" category (the first few cards listed in each category are from our advertisers), you will see the following two sentences: "The cards listed above are our featured credit cards. Click here to search all cards in this category." |
We offer an active (50,000+ posts) forum/message board for consumers to share information regarding credit cards and credit in general. We are proud that our forum is the only forum featured in the "Credit Cards" section of The Open Directory Project, the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web (and the source for the Google Directory). We are also proud that our forum is actively monitored and that select posts are responded to by employees of CardRatings.com (board monitors).
Our board has grown in popularity since it was introduced in May of 2000 and we hope that trend continues. Our board is consumer driven and consumer focused. In short, our board is truly a community and support group! |
We are proud to offer a popular monthly ezine (email newsletter). Our premium newsletter includes insider credit card tips and expert analysis. Such tips could save you 1000s of dollars in credit card interest charges and/or help you increase your credit card rebate by 1000s of dollars!
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We are also proud of our online credit card calculators. Our calculators are user friendly and convenient. They represent the latest in "Web technology" and can be quite habit forming! We have made a large investment in our calculators, with the hope that they will help consumers make informed decisions regarding credit card offerings. |
We make every effort to make our site as consumer friendly as possible. We do not allow any commercial banner ads on our site. In fact, some of the banners ads on our site support various non-profit organizations at no cost to these organizations. We are also proud to announce that we do not allow "pop-under" or "pop-up" ads. We strictly limit the size and location of all other ads- almost all of the ads on our site are small, unobtrusive text ads. |
We carefully screen advertisers or sponsors. We don't hesitate to reject advertising requests that are not consumer friendly. For example, you will not see any ads on our site for any paid "credit card search services". These services are marketed to consumers that have a poor credit history. Such services usually charge around $30 just for helping consumers find a credit card (the "initial search results" are usually free, but there is a fee for "detailed search results"). Another drawback is that the credit cards associated with such services often have unattractive terms.
The fee for such services can be avoided by simply using the free resources on our site! Please let us know if you have any problems with our site sponsors. We also encourage you to post any negative experiences that you have with any of our sponsors (and non-sponsors alike) using our cardholder reviews report and our community message board (both are public forums). Finally, please carefully read all the terms and conditions of products and services offered by sponsors (and non-sponsors alike). |
We alert consumers about important terms and conditions of cards that we list on our site. We highlight such terms by using a red font. We have not yet found another site that offers similar disclosures. We take pride in "exposing the fine print". |
We offer free, original content for educational purposes to educators, finance related websites, and other interested parties. Very few credit related sites offer original content (opting instead to borrow content from other sources in order to save money and time). Current content examples include select articles (written by CardRatings.com staff members), our message board, credit card news stories and staff credit card reviews.
We are very proud that our credit card news section will soon be included in the Google News index. We are also proud that our original content is featured by The Open Directory Project, the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web (and the source for the Google Directory).
Please contact us if you are interested in using any content found on our site. You can find out more information about our free content by clicking here. |
We offer consumers unique educational opportunities by periodically offering free Teleseminars and Webinars on various consumer credit related topics. Utilizing such cutting edge technology allows consumers to learn about credit issues from the comfort of their home. We recently hosted 3 credit seminars (click to listen) that were led by Gerri Detweiller, a nationally acclaimed credit expert and author of "The Ultimate Credit Handbook" (Plume, 1993, revised 2003), which was featured in Money magazine as one of the five best new personal finance books of the year when released. We aren't aware of any other organization that offers this type of unique learning experience. On a related note, we are also proud to have been official 2005-2006 sponsors of Gerri's Consumer Advocacy Radio Show.
 We also seek to educate consumers through more traditional forms of communication.
For example, our founder, Curtis Arnold,
just recently signed a publishing agreement with Prentice
Hall, the world's leading educational and professional publisher. More book details forthcoming!
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We encourage consumers to contact us with any questions regarding credit cards, including comments regarding sponsors. If we are unable to answer a given question, then we will refer the inquirer to other resources. We do our best to respond to all inquiries within 48 hours (often within 24 hours). Select inquiries on our message board are responded to by our board monitor. |
We have developed a community outreach program in order to help educate the public regarding credit cards (through mediums other than the internet). We volunteer on a regular basis to share our knowledge of credit cards in public settings, such as college campuses, meetings of community service organizations, etc.
Special thanks to Professor Mary Ann Campbell, CFP for allowing us to recently address her undergraduate personal finance class at the University of Central Arkansas. Among other accomplishments, Mary Ann has served as the presidentially appointed Chair of the National Women's Business Council.
We are proud to be participating in the 3rd annual Financial Literacy Day on the Hill on April 24th in Washington, D.C.
This event is organized by Junior Achievement, the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, and the National Council on Economic Education. Please drop by our booth and say hi if you are attending the event!
We are also proud to participate in financial education efforts by being a National Partner of the Jump$tart Coalition for Financial Literacy. Curtis Arnold, our founder, is currently serving as co-chair of the Arkansas chapter of Jump$tart. Jump$tart is a national non-profit organization that provides personal finance education to K-12 and college students. We were proud to have promoted Jump$tart during Financial Literacy for Youth Month (April 2003, April 2005 April 2006 and April 2007). Special thanks to everyone who visited our booth at the Arkansas State Capitol.
We are also very proud sponsors of The Money Camp which was developed by a group of individuals who had the financial background and experience to see the importance and relevance in teaching children (and adults) about money.
Finally, we are thankful to the late Lt. Governor Win Rockefeller for signing Jump$tart's proclamation during the 2005 legislative session, to former Governor Mike Huckabee for signing the proclamation during the 2006 legislative session and to current Governor Mike Beebe for signing the proclamation during the 2007 legislative session.
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We are not another "fly by night" Internet company. Consumers have been trusting us for unbiased credit card information since August 1998. While this may not sound like a long time in normal human years, it is a long time when measured in "internet years"! |
We keep the content on our site as new and updated as possible. Our site is unique because we disclose when our credit card descriptions were last updated (month and year). We strive to update our "card reports" on a monthly basis. We are also very committed to expanding our existing content.
 We are proud to offer RSS feeds that provide free syndicated consumer credit content. We aren't aware of any other website that offers similar RSS content specifically related to credit cards. |
We invest a large amount of our advertising revenue "back into our site". In addition to covering operational expenses, advertising revenue is used to expand the offerings of our site. |
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