Editorial policy

This page sets out the rules WealthStem holds itself to. They exist so you can judge the content by a stated standard rather than by how confident it sounds.

The sourcing rule

A claim without a source cannot be published as a fact. Every rate, fee, threshold, limit and eligibility rule is traced to a primary source before it appears:

• Interest rates and charges — the bank or issuer's own published schedule.
• Regulation — the RBI circular, master direction or notification itself.
• Small savings rates — the Ministry of Finance quarterly notification, or NSI / India Post.
• Tax — the Income Tax Department, the Finance Act, or an official CBDT circular.

Each page lists what was consulted and the date it was read. Where we could not verify something, the page says so plainly instead of filling the gap with a plausible number. "We could not confirm this" is a fact about us and is more useful to you than a confident invention.

Dates, not vibes

Indian interest rates move on a quarterly cycle at minimum, and card fees and features change without notice. Every figure on this site therefore carries the date it was checked. A rate table with no date is a liability, and we would rather show you an old number honestly labelled than a fresh-looking number we have not re-verified.

Independence from commercial relationships

WealthStem earns commission on some product applications. The following rules are absolute:

• Commission has no bearing on whether a product is recommended or how it ranks.
• Comparison tables include the best options regardless of whether they pay us — including products with no affiliate programme at all.
• No advertiser, bank, issuer or network reviews content before publication. Ever.
• We do not publish sponsored posts, paid guest posts, or paid links inside editorial content, and we do not sell placement in a ranking.
• Pages with paid links disclose that above the fold, not in a footer.

How products get compared

Rankings are built from stated criteria, and the criteria appear on the page. Where a "best" list exists, it says what "best" means in that context and for whom — a card that is excellent for a high-spending frequent flyer may be a poor first card, and we say which we are judging it as.

We show real costs, not headline ones: joining fee and annual fee separately, the actual spend needed for a waiver, reward rates converted into rupee terms with the redemption assumption stated, and the caps that quietly limit them. Where a product's marketing implies a benefit its terms do not deliver, that gap is the story.

Advice, and the line we do not cross

Vinoth Kanna is not a SEBI-registered investment adviser. WealthStem publishes educational and comparative information about financial products. It does not recommend securities, does not offer portfolio advice, does not accept payment for recommending investments, and never tells any individual reader what to do with their money.

The distinction is not a formality. Personalised investment advice in India is a regulated activity, and anyone offering it for consideration must be registered. We stay well clear of that line, and when a question needs a personal answer we say so and point you to someone qualified to give it.

Use of AI

Research tools, including AI, are used to gather and cross-check material. No page is published on the strength of a model's output. Every figure is verified against a primary source by a person, every page is read and edited by Vinoth Kanna before it goes live, and responsibility for what appears rests with him rather than with a tool.

Corrections

When we get something wrong we fix the page and change its updated date. Material corrections — a wrong rate, a misstated rule, anything a reader could have acted on — are noted on the page rather than silently overwritten.

Report anything that looks wrong to hello@wealthstem.com. Corrections from readers are welcome and are not treated as an inconvenience.

Review cycle

Rate tables are re-verified monthly. Pages covering tax are reviewed after every Union Budget and whenever CBDT issues something that changes them. Card and loan pages are reviewed at least twice a year, and immediately when an issuer announces a change we become aware of. The updated date on each page reflects the last time its substance was checked, not the last time a typo was fixed.