Affiliate & Advertising Disclosure

PointAlchemy is operated by Point Alchemy, LLC. This page explains how we make money and how that affects (and does not affect) the content you see on the site. It is published in compliance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR Part 255 (“Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”) and the consumer protection provisions of the Credit CARD Act of 2009.

1. How we make money

PointAlchemy earns revenue from two sources:

• Subscriptions. Our Plus and Pro plans are paid monthly or annually. Subscription revenue is the primary funding source for the product and is what allows us to operate independently of any single issuer or network.
• Credit card affiliate commissions.When you click an “Apply” button on PointAlchemy and you are subsequently approved for that credit card, we may receive a one-time commission from the card issuer or from an affiliate network we partner with (such as Bankrate, CardRatings, or Impact). The commission amount varies by card and is set by the network — we do not negotiate it on a per-user basis. Approval decisions are made entirely by the card issuer; PointAlchemy does not participate in underwriting and cannot guarantee approval.

2. How compensation affects what you see

It does not affect rankings or recommendations. Our recommendation engine ranks credit cards by the value they would add to your specific portfolio — using your spending patterns, owned-card overlap, point valuations, transfer-partner alignment, and welcome offer math. The same card ranking algorithm runs whether or not we earn a commission for that card, and whether or not we have any affiliate relationship for it. Cards we have no commercial relationship with are eligible to rank #1 in your recommendations and frequently do.

It does affect which cards have an Apply button.When we have an active affiliate link for a card, the Apply button routes through a tracked URL so the issuer or network can attribute the click. When we do not have an affiliate link, the Apply button (when shown) routes directly to the issuer's public application page with no tracking. In both cases, the URL you land on is the issuer's real application page — we do not insert interstitial pages or modify the application itself.

It does not affect content, education, or accuracy. Card benefit details, transfer ratios, point valuations, rule explanations, and editorial articles are produced independently of any commercial relationship. Where we are wrong, we update the underlying data; we do not adjust accuracy to favor a partner.

3. Networks and partners we work with

We may earn commissions through one or more of the following affiliate networks. Membership in a network changes over time; we update this list as relationships begin or end.

• Bankrate Credit Card Affiliate Network
• CardRatings
• Red Ventures (CreditCards.com)
• Impact
• CJ Affiliate
• Direct issuer affiliate programs (e.g., American Express)

We are not exclusive to any single network and routinely route traffic for a given card through whichever partner currently offers the best terms. The commission we earn is paid by the network or issuer; you pay nothing extra and the terms of your card application are unchanged.

4. Editorial independence

No issuer, network, or third party reviews our content before publication, and no partner has the ability to require us to recommend, suppress, or change coverage of any card. If a partner asks us to remove an accurate statement about a card and we refuse, we accept the risk that they will end the relationship. That has not happened, but it is the principle we operate under.

5. Approval is never guaranteed

PointAlchemy's Pro tier surfaces issuer-published rules (Chase 5/24, Amex 90-day rules, Citi 24-month bonus cooldowns, BofA 2/3/4, Capital One 1-in-6, Wells Fargo 6-month rules) so you can make an informed decision about which card fits your situation. These rules are based on issuer disclosures and patterns documented by the rewards-credit-card community. They do not guarantee approval — issuers also evaluate income, credit history, utilization, internal scoring, and other factors that PointAlchemy does not have visibility into. We help you avoid the most common avoidable denials; we do not override the underwriter.

6. Identifying affiliate links

Per FTC guidance, links that may earn us a commission are tagged withrel="sponsored" at the HTML level. Apply buttons on PointAlchemy carry a small disclosure tooltip when an affiliate relationship exists. You can also identify affiliate links by their destination — they route through/api/go/ on this domain before redirecting to the card issuer.

7. Questions

If anything on this page is unclear or you believe we have made an error, email us at hello@pointalchemy.com or visit our contact page. We respond to every question and update this page when our practices change.