How We Make Money
(Affiliate and Advertising Disclosure)
The College Investor is an independent, advertising supported financial media company. This means that we primarily make money through advertising.
This compensation enables us to maintain our growing site, and provide current content, much of which we don’t receive compensation for. It also helps us support our team, who research and stay up-to-date on the latest news and trends for you.
The analysis and opinions on our site are those of The College Investor.
We partner with brands and companies in various ways, including sponsored content, affiliate relationships, podcast advertising, video advertising, and display advertising. However, our content and reviews are based on our analysis and opinions, regardless of compensation.
The College Investor strives to keep its information accurate and up to date. This information we present may be different than what you see when you visit a financial institution, service provider or specific product’s site. All financial products, shopping products and services are presented without warranty. We do our best to maintain updated information on all products and services we cover, but given the fast changing digital environment, it is hard to do in all circumstances.
In order to provide consumers with transparency and in that spirit, here is a more specific breakdown of how we make money:
Partner Or Affiliate Relationships
Some of the financial institutions with products on our site may pay us a referral fee when customers get approved for or purchase certain products using the link we provide. These are called affiliate links. All articles that feature affiliate links will be clearly labeled with a call-out box below the title and above the content.
When you click to apply for certain products and services through our site, we may receive compensation from the company that issues that product.
We say "may" because different partnerships may have different terms and conditions - we may be compensated when you click through to their website, we may be compensated when you open an account, or we may be compensated when you fund an account or purchase a product or service. It varies greatly across companies and brands.
Sponsored Content
Other companies may sponsor content created about their product or service - whereby we create an article or video and their product or service may be featured in it. All media that features sponsored content will be clearly labeled (using terms like "sponsored" or "created in partnership with").
We do not accept compensation for reviews; all reviews reflect our opinion of the product of service, however we may have an affiliate relationship with companies and services we review, and leads generated from a review may result in compensation. Our loyal readers know that we will always call a turd a turd, and simply being an advertising partner does not mean that a bad product will get any favor.
Video And Podcast Advertising
We also sell video and podcast advertising. Podcast advertising takes the form of pre-roll or mid-roll ad reads, where a brand will pay us to promote a product or service on our podcast. These podcast ads will be clearly differentiated from our show and disclosed as a partnership.
Video ads may be an entire sponsored video, or a product mention within a video. All videos with advertising will be marked or called out as sponsored or "in partnership with", depending on the medium. Depending on the platform, some videos may use hashtags to disclose the relationship - including #ad, #sponsored, or similar.
Display Advertising
We also sell display advertising, both directly and through third parties such as Google AdSense. These are what many people call "banner ads". Given that we use third-party services like Google AdSense for display advertising, what you see displayed may be based on your own web browsing history.
Our Own Products And Services
We may sometimes offer our own products and services for sale. The terms of those products may vary.
Our Partners
We appreciate your trust in using our site for information and using our links to apply for products. We strive to be transparent about which products we receive compensation for.
Please see below for a list of some of the financial institutions that we are partners with (this list is not inclusive of all partners due to the changing nature of our partners and the fact that some partners may be third-parties who maintain other relationships beyond our own):
- Ad Practitioners
- Alliant Credit Union
- Axos Bank
- Bank of America
- Bankrate
- Barclays
- Baselane
- Bluevine
- Bread
- Capital One
- Chase
- Chime
- CIBC
- CIT Bank
- Citibank
- Consumers Credit Union
- Current
- Dave
- Discover Bank
- Earnin
- Empower
- Green Dot
- HSBC
- Juno
- LendingClub
- Lili
- Marcus
- MoneyGram
- Navy Federal Credit Union
- nbkc
- Novo
- PenFed Credit Union
- Quinstreet
- Quontic Bank
- Raisin
- TD Bank
- Upgrade
- U.S. Bank
- USAA
- Varo
- Western Alliance Bank
- Austin Capital Bank
- Avant
- Bilt Rewards
- Brex
- Brigit
- Credible
- Credit Karma
- Credit Sesame
- Deserve
- FamZoo
- FICO
- Petal
- Self
- Tally
- LegalZoom
- Trust and Will
- AirBNB
- Bluehost
- Decluttr
- Doordash
- Etsy
- Fiverr
- Ibotta
- Instacart
- Lyft
- OhmConnect
- Protege
- Rakuten
- Rover
- Survey Junkie
- Swagbucks
- Uber
- Bestow
- Fabric
- Gabi
- GradGuard
- Ladder
- Lemonade
- Policy Genius
- Pumpkin
- USAA
- Acorns
- Acretrader
- Ally Invest
- Arrived
- Backer
- Betterment
- Bezinga
- BitcoinIRA
- CashApp
- Charles Schwab
- Chase
- Coinbase
- Crowdstreet
- Empower
- eToro
- E*TRADE by Morgan Stanley
- EquityMultiple
- Facet
- Fidelity
- Fundrise
- Gemini
- Interactive Brokers
- KuCoin
- Ledn
- M1 Finance
- Masterworks
- Morningstar
- Motley Fool
- MySolo401k
- Nabers 401k
- Nexo
- Realty Mogul
- RocketDollar
- Roofstock
- Saving For College
- Seeking Alpha
- Stash
- Streitwise
- Tradestation
- Ubiquity 401k
- Vanguard
- Vaulted
- Wealthfront
- Wealthsimple
- Webull
- Wiser Advisor
- Yieldsteet
- YouHodler
- Zacks Trade
- Hometap
- Point
- Unison
- Abebooks
- Amazon
- ATT Wireless
- Booksrun
- Campus Books
- Chegg
- Copilot
- eCampus
- Hulu
- Ledger
- Mint Mobile
- Monarch
- Newton Group
- Nolo
- Qapital
- Tally
- Tiller
- USA Today
- YNAB
- Verizon
- ZipRecruiter
- Kora
- LendingClub
- Lending Tree
- MoneyLion
- Propser
- Uphold
- Upstart
- Avail
- Freshbooks
- Gusto
- Intuit Quickbooks
- Square
- Ascent
- Brazos
- Citizens Bank
- College Ave
- Credible
- Earnest
- Edly
- Edvantage
- ELFI
- Funding U
- ISL Lending
- Laurel Road
- Lend-Grow
- LendKey
- MPower
- NelNet
- Prodigy
- Purefy
- RISLA
- Sallie Mae
- Splash
- Stride
- Student Choice
- Student Loan Advice
- Student Loan Planner
- CashApp Taxes
- CoinLedger
- Cointracker
- e-File
- ezTaxReturn
- FreeTaxUSA
- H&R Block
- Jackson Hewitt
- Koinly
- Liberty Tax
- TaxAct
- TaxSlayer
- TokenTax
- TurboTax
- ZenLedger
There are also several companies and organizations that we will NEVER work with. These are companies that we have a negative opinion of and refuse to do business with. They include:
- GoBankingRates
- Pawp
- SoFi
If you have any questions about our affiliate and advertising relationships, please feel free to ask.
Last Updated On May 4, 2024
