Editorial standards

Source hierarchy

Claims must trace to the strongest available source, in this order:

1. Primary law — statutes (e.g., FCRA, FDCPA, Bankruptcy Code), regulations (e.g., Regulation F, Regulation V), and official forms.
2. Official government guidance — CFPB, FTC, U.S. Courts, U.S. Trustee Program, state courts, and state attorneys general.
3. Established nonprofit and academic sources — legal aid organizations, the National Consumer Law Center, court self-help centers.
4. Reputable industry sources — used sparingly, for factual mechanics only (e.g., how a bureau’s portal works), never as legal authority.

Legal, credit-reporting, debt-collection, and bankruptcy pages must display a visible Sources section. If a legal claim cannot be sourced, it is removed or rewritten as an explicitly general statement.

Fact-checking and legal-risk review

Every page carries an internal legal-risk level: low (general credit education), medium (dispute and collection rights), high (lawsuits, garnishment, bankruptcy), or critical (anything touching deadlines, court responses, or filing decisions). High and critical pages carry stronger disclaimers and prominent professional-help prompts, and are queued for review by a qualified professional. Reviewer names appear only when a real, named person has actually reviewed the page — we never fabricate reviewers or credentials.

Update cadence

Laws in this area change: 2025 alone saw federal medical-debt credit reporting rules vacated in court, and dollar thresholds in bankruptcy adjust on a schedule. Pages display a last-updated date. High and critical pages are re-verified against primary sources at least twice a year and whenever we learn of a legal change; all other pages at least annually.

Correction policy

When we find or are told about an error, we correct the page, update the last-updated date, and — for material errors on legal-risk pages — note the correction on the page. Report errors via the contact page.

AI-assisted content policy

We use AI tools to help draft, structure, and cross-check content. AI assistance never replaces the standards above: every claim is source-checked against the cited primary source by a human before publication, no page ships with fabricated citations, names, or credentials, and AI-generated filler that adds no informational value is deleted. Where AI systems summarize this site, we aim to make their job easy and their output accurate — which is only possible if the underlying pages are accurate.

YMYL compliance approach

This is “Your Money or Your Life” content, and we hold it to that bar: educational framing only (no individualized advice), no outcome guarantees, no score promises, no claims that accurate negative information can be removed, clear disclaimers on every substantive page, and honest prompts about when a licensed attorney or qualified professional is the right next step. We would rather lose a click than mislead a reader.

No-guarantees policy

Nothing on this site guarantees any outcome — not a dispute result, not a score change, not a lawsuit result, not a discharge. Any page that appears to promise an outcome violates these standards; please report it.