About Smarts
Know the catch before you sign.
Smarts is smart money in plain English. We show you what your options really cost, where the catch is and which one fits your situation. Brian Meiggs has been writing about personal finance for more than 10 years, and he runs Smarts with his company, MeiggsMedia.
What you can count on
Four promises. Hold us to them.
The catch, up front
Read a guide once and you’ll know what it costs, who can get it and where the catch is. No digging.
Your situation first
You don’t shop for a product name. You need $300 before payday, or cash from your house without a new monthly payment. We start there.
Ratings nobody can buy
A rating is our editors’ call. No company can set one or pay to change it.
Numbers from the source
Rates, fees, limits and eligibility rules come from the company’s own pages. Every guide shows when it was last updated, so you know how fresh it is.
What you will find here
Start with the situation closest to yours.
Who is behind Smarts
Brian Meiggs founded Smarts and runs it from Northern Virginia, through his company, MeiggsMedia. He has been writing about personal finance for more than 10 years.
His name is on most of the guides here, and he answers for what the site publishes.
In 2026 he was named to the Northern Virginia 40 Under 40 by Leadership Center of Arlington and Leadership Fairfax. Reporters have quoted him as the founder of Smarts in GOBankingRates and in articles carried by Yahoo Finance.
Where our numbers come from
Every rate, fee, limit and eligibility rule in a guide comes from the company’s own site and disclosures, or from whoever first published the data. We don’t copy numbers from other comparison sites. If a company doesn’t publish a figure, we say so instead of guessing.
Every guide shows when it was last updated. Rates and terms change often, so check the company’s site before you apply.
Some guides rate companies out of 5. Those ratings are our editors’ opinion. Companies can’t set them, and payment never changes them.
How we make money
Smarts is free to read. Some companies pay us when you click or apply, which can affect which ones we feature and where. It never changes our ratings or what we say about a company.
The full version is on our how we make money page.
See something wrong or out of date?
Tell us. Send the address of the guide and what looks off, and we’ll check it against the source and fix what’s wrong.