How We Check Facts
A practical guide is only as good as the information under it. This page sets out where our facts come from, how we test them and what we deliberately leave out.
Sources we prefer
We start from the people closest to the subject and work outwards.
| Topic | First port of call |
|---|---|
| Cars | Vehicle handbooks, manufacturer guidance and official road safety advice |
| Money and credit | Official consumer finance guidance, regulator publications and the published terms of the products discussed |
| Business | Government guidance for small firms and standard accounting definitions |
| Tech and streaming | The provider's or developer's own documentation and support pages |
| Travel | Official travel and transport information for the destination |
Forums, social media posts and other blogs can point us towards a question, but they are not treated as proof of an answer.
How a claim is tested
- Two independent confirmations for anything a reader might act on, ideally including the original source.
- Hands-on checks where that is safe and possible, such as following menu steps on a device or reading the placard in a door frame.
- Date awareness. We note when guidance was published, because rules and features change.
- Country awareness. Credit scoring, tax and road rules vary. When advice differs by country, we say so rather than picking one.
What we leave out
We do not publish figures we cannot stand behind. That means no invented statistics, no made-up studies or quotes, and no specific interest rates, prices or returns presented as if they apply to everyone. Where a number would depend on your lender, your car or your country, the article explains how to find your own figure instead. Our credit score guide is a good example: it explains what lenders look at without pretending one model fits all.
We also leave out claims of expertise we do not have. Our writers work under pen names and none holds a licence to give financial, legal or mechanical advice, so every relevant article points readers towards an independent professional for decisions about their own situation.
Safety comes before brevity
On practical tasks, warnings are part of the facts. Articles such as checking tire pressure include the points at which you should stop and get help, and those notes stay in even when an article is trimmed.
When we get it wrong
Checks reduce errors but cannot remove them entirely. If you find one, the process for reporting it is on Updates and Corrections, and the wider way we work is described in From the Garage Bench.
Desk rules
Rules of thumb behind our checks
A few principles that shape what reaches the page.
A vehicle handbook outranks any general car guide, ours included.
Credit scoring differs between countries and between agencies, so no single score explains every file.
Book values on a balance sheet can sit a long way from what an asset would actually sell for.
Apps and set-top boxes rearrange their menus often, which makes the provider's own help pages the freshest source.
A figure that depends on your lender, your car or your country is better looked up at the source than copied from an article.