This page describes how Loan Herald produces its coverage, what its scores mean, who is accountable for them, and how commercial support is disclosed. It is meant to be read, not skimmed.
How we read a lender
We read lenders' published cost-of-credit disclosures and explain representative APR honestly — it is the rate offered to a proportion of successful applicants, not a rate any reader is guaranteed. We do not run a comparison table, we publish no urgency language, and where a lender's authorisation matters we tell readers to check the FCA Register themselves rather than asserting a firm's permissions on our authority.
What our scores mean
Scores run 0–10 and grade cost-of-credit disclosure, affordability practice and clarity of terms — never how likely a reader is to be accepted, and never as encouragement to borrow. A high score means a lender explains itself well. No score can be bought.
Disclosure
Loan Herald is a commercially supported publication. Posts containing affiliate links, and posts that are sponsored, carry a disclosure with the post. Sponsored and affiliate links are marked rel="sponsored" in the page's code. Sponsors never see, edit or approve editorial copy before publication, and no score can be bought — see the advertising page for what is and is not for sale.
Sponsored posts
Paid posts on Loan Herald are labelled “Sponsored”, and their links carry
rel="sponsored". Sponsors see the draft of their own sponsored post and may
correct facts about their product; the desk keeps the rating, criticisms and conclusion of
any sponsored review; sponsors have no access to editorial coverage.
Editorial coverage is free
Editorial coverage is free, decided by the desk, and cannot be bought. Genuine news, data and reports can be sent to the desk, and may be covered at its discretion with a link to the source. The desk declines sign-up offers, bonus codes, affiliate funnels and any content that is unlawful to advertise to our readers, and refunds in full any booking it declines.
Bylines
Loan Herald publishes under house bylines maintained by the editorial team. Duncan Everly, the editor's byline on our reviews, is a disclosed house pen name — the accountable editorial identity for everything published under it, in the tradition of publications that write under a house name rather than inventing biographies. News runs under “Staff, Loan Herald.” There is no invented journalist behind any byline on this site.
What this publication is not
Loan Herald is a publisher. We are not a lender, not a credit broker, not an appointed representative, and not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Nothing on this site is financial advice or a credit recommendation, and no page here is a comparison service. Where a firm's authorisation matters, check that firm on the FCA Register yourself — we will point you there rather than assert its permissions on our own authority.
Corrections
If we have published an error — a figure, a date, a term, a price — we want to know. Reach the editorial desk via the contact page and say “correction” in the first line; that queue moves fastest. We correct promptly and note material corrections in the post.
Factual corrections are free within 14 days of publication. Write to the desk at editorial@loanherald.co.uk or editorial@3rdunicorn.com.