CreditCostGuide
Editorial Standards | CreditCostGuide
How CreditCostGuide writes, reviews, fact-checks, and corrects every financial guide and calculator. Sourcing rules, AI usage, affiliate policy, and correction policy in one place.
Editorial Standards
What you can expect from every page on CreditCostGuide
This page is a concrete description of how content gets to the reader on CreditCostGuide. It is meant to be specific, not aspirational: every claim below is implemented in the public codebase that builds the site and in the editor byline you see at the bottom of each page.
Last reviewed: May 2026. The site is a single-editor independent publisher run by Javi Pérez, based in Almería, Spain.
1 · Who writes
Single editor, named, verifiable
Javi Pérez is the founder and sole editor. There are no anonymous writers, no guest contributors, and no rotating bylines. Javi’s LinkedIn is public at https://www.linkedin.com/in/javi-perez-guides; the same identity appears in every JSON-LD Person node on the site.
What Javi is not: Javi Pérez is not a licensed financial advisor, CPA, CFP, loan officer, tax professional, or attorney. This content is educational only and does not replace advice from a qualified professional. The honest answer to “why should I trust this site?” is not because of a credential, but because every numeric claim is verifiable against the primary regulator linked next to it.
2 · How drafts get produced
AI-assisted drafting, human editorial review, public sources
Long-form drafts on CreditCostGuide are produced with large-language-model assistance. Every draft passes through a fixed pre-publish review:
- Source verification: every numeric claim is checked against the link in the page’s Sources & Methodology block. If a source no longer supports the claim, the claim is removed or updated.
- Voice and accuracy edit: Javi rewrites or rephrases for clarity, removes filler, and confirms each example is internally consistent.
- Anti-templating check: recycled scenarios, identical example figures across pages, and stock phrasing are stripped. Each page has unique copy on each section.
- Disclaimer check: the non-advice disclaimer is verified to appear in the editor byline and (where relevant) in the page body.
What AI is not used for: inventing statistics, attributing quotes to people, fabricating personal anecdotes, or creating credentials. Examples that look personal (“a borrower I worked with”) are not used.
3 · Sourcing hierarchy
Primary regulators first, industry data second
- CFPB — consumer protections, complaint data, disclosure forms (Loan Estimate, etc.).
- Federal Reserve — rate context (G.19), surveys, household debt and credit reports.
- FDIC — deposit rate caps, national rate tables, deposit insurance.
- BLS — inflation, CPI, household expenditure data.
- FTC — consumer protection guidance, scam awareness, free credit-report sourcing.
- SEC — investment-product disclosures where relevant.
- U.S. Department of Education / StudentAid.gov — federal student-loan rules.
- Industry data (Experian, FICO, NerdWallet, LendingTree) — cited explicitly when used, never substituted for the regulators above on regulated products.
4 · Update cycle
What gets reviewed, and when
- Every 90 days at most: a full review of each indexable page.
- Monthly: rate-sensitive numbers (mortgage averages, credit-card APR averages, FDIC weekly rates) against the underlying federal data series.
- Within 5 business days: regulatory changes that affect a page (CFPB rulemakings, Fed policy actions, FDIC rate updates).
- Within 5 business days: reader-reported errors, with the page’s dateModified bumped and the change reflected in the editor byline.
5 · Calculator math
Closed-form formulas, no hidden assumptions
Every calculator on the site uses standard, publicly documented mathematics:
- Loan payment: fixed-rate amortization
P = A · r / (1 − (1 + r)−n). - Credit-card payoff: month-by-month simulation with monthly interest = balance × (APR / 12).
- Mortgage: amortization formula plus a flat add-on for taxes, insurance, and PMI.
- Debt payoff comparison: dual simulation of avalanche (highest APR first) and snowball (smallest balance first).
- Refinance break-even: closing costs ÷ monthly payment savings.
All calculator math runs locally in the reader’s browser. No inputs are sent to any server. No localStorage. No tracking of input values.
6 · Monetization
How CreditCostGuide is funded — with explicit limits
The site is reader-supported through two clearly disclosed channels:
- Display advertising through Google AdSense. Ads are served by Google and are not selected, ordered, or curated by the editor.
- Affiliate partnerships — currently only SmartCredit via CJ Affiliate. Affiliate links are marked
rel="nofollow sponsored", opened in a new tab, and disclosed on every page they appear.
What we do not accept: paid placements inside editorial content, sponsored guides, “guest posts” from third parties (with or without payment), reviewer-credibility credentials in exchange for compensation, or backlink swaps inside the indexable content set.
If an existing affiliate partnership ever creates a conflict with an editorial position, the partnership is dropped, not the editorial position.
7 · Corrections
How to flag an error
Email [email protected] with:
- The page URL.
- The specific paragraph or sentence in question.
- The source you believe is correct (where applicable).
Verified corrections are applied within five business days. The page’s dateModified is bumped on publish, and the editor byline reflects the change. We do not silently revise published numbers; when a fix is meaningful, it is acknowledged in the byline note for that update cycle.
FAQ
Common questions
Who writes the content on CreditCostGuide?
Javi Pérez is the founder, sole editor, and only person who publishes content on the site. There are no other writers, contributors, or guest authors. Every page is written, fact-checked, and signed off by Javi.
What role does AI play in the content?
Large-language-model assistance is used to draft long-form sections. Every draft is reviewed and edited by Javi before publishing. AI is not used to fabricate statistics, attribute quotes to people, or invent personal experiences. Numeric claims are checked against the primary regulator linked in the page's Sources block.
How are corrections handled?
Email [email protected] with the URL and the specific paragraph. Verified corrections are applied within five business days, the page's dateModified field is bumped, and the editor byline notes the change cycle. We do not silently rewrite published numbers.
Does CreditCostGuide accept paid placements?
No paid placements in editorial content. Affiliate links (currently SmartCredit via CJ Affiliate) are marked rel="nofollow sponsored", disclosed on every page they appear, and never override editorial recommendations. If a partnership would conflict with neutrality, the partnership is dropped, not the editorial position.
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