We research and analyze your questions and concerns — everything from the credit cards that offer instant approval to what the average person spends on food each month.
The following guidelines were designed to keep us accountable to you and our profession.
Journalistic Integrity at First Quarter Finance
Content
Our main goal is to consistently provide you with the best information available. We also strive to make our content as user-friendly as possible.
We provide information, not advice. We do not offer advice because each individual’s situation is unique, and a qualified professional should be contacted before making any decisions.
We publish articles content the clock — and our content is maintained by a staff of editors who keep the information current. You’ll find that our original reporting covers everything from banking and investing to money orders to gift cards. We employ professional writers, editors, and reviewers the appropriate skill sets to help bring you the most trustworthy information.
You can find more about our hard-working and terrific team on our About page.
Accuracy
We believe if something isn’t cited, it isn’t true. We follow strict academic-level standards to ensure what we write is unbiased, comprehensive, actionable, and credible.
Policies and facts can change over time, so we work with a review schedule to continually review and update articles as necessary. The average article has received over 25 updates since publication. The date field only gets updated if we have reviewed the article entirely and confirmed everything is up-to-date.
Additionally, the companies we cover often monitor our articles. If notified by them, we make adjustments to ensure the facts are up-to-date. This means both users and organizations hold First Quarter Finance to high standards.
Our editors also ensure our content is ethical and appropriate for all ages. You can confidently share our content with family, friends, and coworkers.
Some companies and/or their “reputation management” firms ask for information we provide to be taken down or reworded. They don’t like customers to know they charge high interest, have a poor reputation, or that it’s hard to cancel. The information we provide is accurate, that’s not their issue. They are simply trying to hide the truth from their customers and potential customers. They are trying to curate the internet. First Quarter Finance stands strong in our agreement in the first amendment. Therefore, we do not let companies dictate what we can and cannot say. Maybe someday we’ll publish the list of companies that have tried, and failed, to remove or manipulate our content.
We are constantly improving our workflows to keep friction between you and your mission to a minimum. But we are human and can’t make warranties regarding the accuracy of the information. If you have a question, comment, or concern about a published article, please let us know right away by using our Contact page. We review content often, but we very much value your attentiveness. For questions extremely specific to your situation, please seek the help of our partner, JustAnswer (paid partner link).
Sources
You shouldn’t have to question where we get our information, so we include attribution throughout our content. Sometimes that looks like a link to a company’s return policy on its website. Other times, we’ll state that that we spoke with company representatives. We don’t just ask the question once — all of our writers call upon multiple sources to confirm our findings. Writers are required to cross-check their sources and prove to you that they’ve done so.
Advertisers
Advertisers have no influence on our content. We do not accept guest or sponsored posts. All of our content is created and edited by our qualified staff. This ensures you get answers with no hidden agendas. You may be used to viewing online articles that try to coerce you into doing or thinking something that’s not in your best interest. That does not happen at FQF because we are ethical.
All affiliate partnerships are disclosed at the top of the article as well as beside every affiliate link within the article. A link within the article will be labeled as a “(paid partner link)” since the term “affiliate” isn’t as easily understood. Affiliate link opportunities are included only after the article has been written. This keeps writers from giving preferential treatment to a paid company. Writers do not know who we have an affiliate relationship with and who we do not. This ensures FQF is supported but also that our content is not biased.
You can find out more about our relationship with advertisers in the Advertising Policy section of our Terms of Use page.
Feedback
We take your feedback seriously — especially if an article does not address your question or needs updated.
To express any questions or concerns, please use our Contact page, or write to us at:
More Holdings LLC
7400 Tallgrass Parkway, 307A
Lincoln, NE 68521
Beyond these guidelines, all FQF staffers are required to sign an ethics contract which details our commitment to journalistic integrity. A breach of the contract is grounds for termination.
We encourage you to find out more about us on our About page.
Cathy Desmet
Joseph Cho
Maria R. Riegger, Esq.
Kait Scirri
Lindsey Desmet