StandWatch is built on a simple promise: tell veterans the truth about their money, even when the truth is "you're already in good shape, do nothing." This page lays out exactly how we research our guides, how our tools work, how we fix mistakes, and how the company keeps the lights on. No fine print, no spin.
StandWatch exists to help veterans and military families make confident financial decisions. Our guides are written to inform, not to sell. The standards below govern everything we publish.
No advertiser, lender, insurer, installer, or partner can pay to be featured, ranked higher, or written about more favorably. We decide what to cover and what to say based on what helps the reader — full stop. When a partner relationship exists, we disclose it plainly and it changes nothing about our editorial judgment.
We build our guides from primary sources — government agencies, regulators, official rate data, and companies' own published terms — not from other affiliate sites. Material facts carry a source. Figures carry a date. Where something varies by state, lender, or individual situation, we say so rather than implying a single universal answer.
StandWatch is an educational resource. We are not a lender, bank, broker, insurer, insurance producer, solar installer, or financial, tax, or legal advisor, and our content is general information, not personalized professional advice. We point readers to official sources and licensed professionals for decisions specific to their situation.
StandWatch is veteran-owned and operated. Our guides are researched, written, and reviewed in-house against primary sources before publication, and re-checked on a regular cycle. Each guide shows when it was last reviewed.
How our benchmarks, calculators, and Watch tools actually work — so you can judge the numbers for yourself.
Where we show a market benchmark (mortgage, auto, savings, and similar), it comes from a named public source — for example, Federal Reserve series, FDIC national rate data, or a company's own published rate page — with the observation or publication date shown. Some federal data series are released on a delay; when that's the case, we label the figure as a dated observation, not a live quote. We never scrape or misrepresent a delayed figure as real-time.
Our calculators are planning tools. Each shows its key assumptions near the result. They use the numbers you enter (your real usage, rate, balance, or premium) rather than national averages wherever possible, because your own figures produce a far more useful estimate than a one-size-fits-all average.
Our scan tool reads only the figures needed to compare your account against a benchmark — things like provider, balance, rate, payment, or kWh used. It is designed not to extract your name, account number, or other personal identifiers. It's powered by AI, which can make mistakes, so we tell you to verify the figures against your own statement.
When we name a partner or product, it's because it genuinely fits the reader's need — a real comparison marketplace, a strong rate, a legitimate veteran discount — judged on the merits. Compensation, where it exists, plays no role in that choice.
We'd rather be corrected than be wrong. If something on StandWatch is inaccurate, out of date, or unclear, we want to fix it quickly and openly.
Email support@standwatch.co with the page and what looks wrong. A link or screenshot helps. We read every report.
Because financial rules, rates, incentives, and company offers shift over time, we treat our guides as living documents — reviewed on a regular cycle, dated, and updated as the facts change. A guide showing a recent review date has been checked against current sources.
Straight answer: StandWatch is free for veterans, and we're funded by affiliate relationships — not by selling your data and not by charging you.
Some links on StandWatch are partner (affiliate) links. If you act through one — say, comparing quotes on a partner marketplace or opening an account — the partner may pay StandWatch a commission. StandWatch does not add a fee to the provider's price or rate. Offers, eligibility, pricing, and terms are controlled by the provider, so it's always worth comparing a partner offer against the provider's publicly available direct offer before you act.
Affiliate funding lets the guides stay free and keeps our incentives pointed the right way: we're paid when we genuinely help you find something better, not when we extract your data or push you toward whoever pays most. If we ever can't recommend something honestly, we don't run it — even if it would pay.