Fact-Checking Policy

Readers come to The Jolt Journal to understand technology and money. That only works if what we publish is right. This page explains how we check facts before a story goes out, and how we keep guides with prices and rates up to date.

Where our information comes from

• Primary sources first: official announcements, company filings and results, court documents, government and central bank data, and the published terms of the products we write about.
• We link to our sources in the text, at the point where we use them, so you can check a figure or a claim yourself without hunting for it.
• Other news outlets: when a story builds on another publication’s reporting, we say so and link to it.
• Anonymous sources are used only when there is no other way to report something important. We tell you why the source was not named.

What we check before publishing

• Names, job titles, dates and quotes.
• Numbers: prices, interest rates, fees, statistics and specifications, against the original source.
• Claims made by companies and public figures. When we cannot confirm a claim, we say it is a claim and who made it.
• Pictures and screenshots: where they come from and whether they show what we say they show.
• Headlines: a headline must say what the story actually shows. No question the story does not answer, and no exaggeration.

An editor approves every story

Nothing is published until an editor has read and approved it. Every story shows who it is by. Stories from one of our desks, such as the Tech Desk or the Finance Desk, also name the editor who approved them, for example “By the Jolt Journal Tech Desk · Edited by Hamza Khalid”.

Prices, rates and offers

Many of our guides and tools list interest rates, fees, prices and deals. These change often, so we date them:

• Each guide says when it was last checked, at the top of the story.
• Our trackers show the date each rate or price was last checked, row by row.
• We re-check these figures regularly, and as soon as we learn that one has changed. When we update a guide, we change its date.
• If a provider’s figure has changed since our date, the provider’s own page is the final word.

Reviews and buying guides

When a review is based on our own use of a product, it says so. When a guide compares products or services we have not tested ourselves, it explains what the comparison is based on, such as published prices, rates, fees and terms. Money from advertising or affiliate links never decides what we recommend or how we rank it.

If we get it wrong

Every story ends with a “Report an error” link. Use it, or our contact page, to tell us what is wrong. We fix mistakes openly, with a dated note on the story, and list every note on our Corrections page. Read our Corrections Policy and our Ethics & Independence standards.