Trust and transparency
Editorial policy and fact-checking standards
SmartDollar publishes Hong Kong financial comparisons only after checking material facts against primary sources. This policy explains how we source, review, update and correct content, and how commercial relationships and AI-assisted tools are kept separate from editorial decisions.
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Primary sources come first
We prioritise official issuer product pages, fee schedules, promotion terms, regulatory registers and government publications. Card records require a source URL before they can enter the public catalogue. Third-party reporting may provide context, but it does not replace the issuer for a product term or a regulator for a licensing claim.
What we check before publishing
An editor checks the product name, issuer, annual fee, waiver conditions, income requirement, foreign-currency fee, earn rates, reward caps, eligibility rules and offer dates that apply to the page. Unverified records remain drafts and are excluded from public pages, rankings, the sitemap and machine-readable feeds.
Freshness and change history
Published facts display a last-verified date beside the information they support. Temporary offers retain their validity windows, and expired offers may remain in a dated change history. A page's modification date reflects a source review or meaningful editorial change, not an automatic date refresh.
Editorial independence
Affiliate commission does not buy a higher ranking. Rankings use the published methodology and card facts; sponsored placements must be labelled. Commercial availability can affect whether an application link exists, but it must not change the factual comparison or conceal a better-ranked eligible card.
Use of AI-assisted tools
Automated tools may assist with research organisation, drafting, translation, testing or change detection. They do not approve financial facts for publication. A responsible editor must verify material claims and their sources before a record is published, and SmartDollar remains accountable for the finished content.
Corrections and reader feedback
Readers can report an error through the contact page. We check the report against the current primary source, correct confirmed errors promptly, and update the verification date when the underlying facts have been reviewed. Issuer terms remain the final source of truth at the time of application.