How We Make Money
The College Investor is an independent, advertising-supported financial media company. This means that we primarily make money through advertising. Here is exactly how that works, and the rules that keep it from influencing what we tell you.
Last updated October 8, 2026
The Short Answer
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.
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 analysis and opinions on our site are those of The College Investor.
How We’re Different
Many financial sites are built to steer you toward whichever company pays them the most. We built our rules to work the other way.
How We Earn Money
In order to provide consumers with transparency, 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 or 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 ad reads, and longer episodes may also include a mid-roll ad read, 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.
Some ads on our video and podcast channels are placed automatically by third-party platforms, such as programmatic podcast advertising and YouTube’s advertising platform. We may not control which of these ads appear, and their appearance is not an endorsement.
Display Advertising
We also sell display advertising, both directly and through third parties, such as Raptive, our display advertising partner. These are what many people call “banner ads.” Because third-party partners place many of these ads automatically, 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.
Accuracy Of Information
The College Investor strives to keep its information accurate and up to date. The 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.
Learn how we research, review, and correct our content in our editorial guidelines.
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.
We pride ourselves on working with as many partners as possible, so you have plenty of choices. Because we work with so many companies, compensation becomes less of a factor, and we can honestly tell you to shop around and compare.
Below is a list of some of the companies we partner with, listed alphabetically. 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.
Banking 56 partners
- 22nd State Banking Company
- Ad Practitioners
- Alliant Credit Union
- Always Bank
- American Express National Bank
- Axos Bank
- Bankrate
- Barclays
- Baselane
- Believe
- Bluevine
- BMO
- Bread
- BrioDirect
- Capital One Bank
- CD Valet
- Centier Bank
- Chase Bank
- Chime
- CIT Bank
- Consumers Credit Union
- Current
- Dave
- Earnin
- Everbank
- Fifth Third Bank
- Found
- FVCbank
- Grasshopper
- Green Dot
- HSBC
- Ivy Bank
- KeyBank
- Lili
- Live Oak Bank
- Marcus
- Mercury
- MoneyGram
- Navy Federal Credit Union
- nbkc bank
- Novo
- Peak Bank
- PenFed Credit Union
- PNC
- Quinstreet
- Quontic Bank
- Raisin
- Relay
- Synchrony Bank
- TD Bank
- Tilt
- U.S. Bank
- Upgrade
- USAA
- Varo
- Western Alliance Bank
Credit 15 partners
- Austin Capital Bank
- Avant
- Bilt Rewards
- Brex
- Brigit
- Credible
- Credit Karma
- Credit Sesame
- Deserve
- FamZoo
- FICO
- Kikoff
- Petal
- Self
- SmartCredit
Education And Test Prep 5 partners
- Kaplan
- PrepScholar
- The Princeton Review
- Scholarship Owl
- Upromise
Estate Planning 3 partners
- LegalZoom
- Mama Bear Legal Forms
- Trust and Will
Gig Economy And Earning 26 partners
- Airbnb
- Bluehost
- Branded Surveys
- Care.com
- Decluttr
- DoorDash
- Etsy
- Fiverr
- Freecash
- Ibotta
- Instacart
- KashKick
- Lyft
- OhmConnect
- Pogo
- Prime Insights
- Prodege
- Protege
- Rakuten
- Rover
- Survey Junkie
- Survey Sampling International
- Swagbucks
- Toluna
- TopCashBack
- Uber
Insurance 12 partners
- Bestow
- Ethos
- Fabric
- Farmers Insurance
- Gabi
- GradGuard
- Ladder
- Lemonade
- Liberty Mutual
- Policygenius
- Pumpkin
- USAA
Investing 60 partners
- Acorns
- Alinea Invest
- APMEX
- Arrived
- Backer
- Beagle
- Benzinga
- Binance
- BitcoinIRA
- Cash App
- Charles Schwab
- Coinbase
- E*TRADE by Morgan Stanley
- Empower
- EquityMultiple
- eToro
- Facet
- FarmTogether
- Fidelity
- Fundrise
- Gemini
- Greenlight
- Interactive Brokers
- IRA Financial
- J.P. Morgan
- Kraken
- Ledn
- Lively
- M1 Finance
- Masterworks
- Mindful Trader
- Money Pickle
- Moomoo
- Morningstar
- Motley Fool
- MySolo401k
- Nabers 401k
- Nectarine
- Nexo
- Origin
- Public
- Questrade
- Realty Mogul
- Robinhood
- Rocket Dollar
- Roofstock
- Saving For College
- Seeking Alpha
- Stash
- tastytrade
- TradeStation
- Ubiquity 401k
- Vanguard
- Vaulted
- Wealthfront
- Wealthsimple
- Webull
- Wiser Advisor
- Yieldstreet
- Zacks Trade
Mortgage And Home 9 partners
- Hometap
- Longbridge Financial
- Nada
- Ownwell
- Point
- Splitero
- TurboTenant
- Unison
- Unlock
Other 29 partners
- AbeBooks
- Amazon
- AT&T Wireless
- BooksRun
- Boost Mobile
- Campus Books
- Cheers
- Chegg
- Copilot
- DeleteMe
- eCampus
- Hulu
- Knetbooks
- Ledger
- Mint Mobile
- Monarch
- Newton Group
- Nolo
- Proton
- Qapital
- Quicken
- Rocket Money
- Tello Mobile
- Tiller
- USA Today
- Verizon
- World of Books
- YNAB
- ZipRecruiter
Personal Loans 10 partners
- Cleo
- Klover
- Kora
- LendingClub
- LendingTree
- Lenme
- MoneyLion
- Prosper
- Uphold
- Upstart
Small Business 5 partners
- Avail
- FreshBooks
- Gusto
- Intuit QuickBooks
- Square
Student Loans 26 partners
- Abe Student Loans
- Ascent
- Brazos
- Citizens Bank
- College Ave
- Credible
- Earnest
- Edly
- Edvantage
- ELFI
- Funding U
- ISL Lending
- Juno
- LendKey
- Monogram
- MPOWER
- Nelnet
- Prodigy
- Purefy
- RISLA
- Sallie Mae
- Splash
- Stride
- Student Choice
- Student Loan Advice
- Student Loan Planner
Taxes 15 partners
- Cash App Taxes
- CoinLedger
- CoinTracker
- E-file.com
- ezTaxReturn
- FreeTaxUSA
- H&R Block
- Jackson Hewitt
- Koinly
- Liberty Tax
- TaxAct
- TaxSlayer
- TokenTax
- TurboTax
- ZenLedger
Companies We Will Never Work With Directly
There are several companies and organizations that we will never directly work with. These are companies that we have a negative opinion of and refuse to do business with directly. They include:
- GoBankingRates
- Pawp
- Revolut
- SoFi
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