How Money Guide selects and labels partner offers
Where a link is marked * or labelled Ad, it is a partner advertisement: we receive commission at no extra cost to you. Links without a * or Ad label earn us nothing. How we make money.
In short: An offer is listed because it is relevant and currently available, not because it pays the most. A * and rel="sponsored" appear only when a real tracking URL exists. Credit, investment and pension introductions are structurally blocked while we are not FCA-authorised — the build fails if someone pastes those links in.
Skip this if: Skip this if you want this month's bonus table — use /offers/. This page is the selection and disclosure method.
Last reviewed:
What can appear as an offer?
Partner offers are limited to products we can lawfully introduce without FCA authorisation: typically current-account switch incentives, cash savings products, and similar non-credit, non-investment placements where a live affiliate programme exists. If the programme has not approved us, the link is not marked * and we do not claim commission.
Editorial pages may mention a product category without a partner link. Absence of a * means we earn nothing if you go direct. That is the intended default.
Does payment change the ranking?
No. Commission does not decide inclusion, order, or the wording of caveats. When the free or official option wins — switching via CASS without a bonus, using MoneyHelper, claiming a government scheme — the page says so. A higher payout cannot bury a cheaper official route.
Scores and 'best buy' framing are refused unless we publish a public ratings methodology. Until that exists, comparison tables are criterion-by-criterion, not a single paid league table.
How are affiliate links labelled?
Visible * on the link or adjacent label, plus rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" on paid outbound URLs, in line with ASA/CAP and Google's paid-link rules. Instant Deed Poll and SwiftWill editorial citations are a disclosed dofollow exception still marked *; other programmes keep sponsored. The label is generated from whether a tracking URL exists — we cannot mark a link as earning commission if it does not.
The /out/ redirector is disallowed in robots.txt so crawlers do not index tracking hops. Humans who click a labelled link still go through it.
What is structurally forbidden?
Credit broking (introducing customers to lenders for commission), investment promotions and pension promotions by an unauthorised publisher. A build guard refuses those tracking URLs if they are pasted into a regulated slot. Credit-card and loan guides remain educational information only.
We also refuse supplier aggregateRating in structured data, invented 'up to' savings, and listing a defunct bonus as if it were live.
Common questions
Why are some comparison tables without apply buttons?
Because we do not have a live partner programme, or the product sits inside the FCA perimeter. The table is still useful as a decision aid — go direct to the provider or an authorised broker.
Do you accept display ads?
No. Funding is affiliate commission on labelled links plus the public-good information service. There is no paywall.
How do I report a mislabelled link?
Email [email protected] with the URL. A * without a live programme, or a paid link without a label, is treated as a correction.