How we're paid
Last updated
Who can pay Glisten, how those fees get counted, and the rules we hold ourselves to. The short version is on How Glisten makes money.
Right now, nobody pays us
As of November 2, 2026, no partner pays Glisten. No link on the site earns us anything yet, and every company we name is on the page because it's relevant to it. When that changes, this page will too.
We don't run display ads or publish sponsored articles.
Where the money would come from
If a partner program pays us, the company we link to pays the fee, usually through an affiliate network that tracks the referral. You never pay Glisten, and clicking our link doesn't change your price.
How referral fees are counted
Finance programs pay in a few different ways:
- Per click, when someone follows the link.
- Per lead, when someone fills out the partner's form, like a quote request.
- Per sign-up or sale, when someone opens an account or buys something.
- Per funded loan, when a lender funds the loan. This is often a flat amount or a share of the loan.
- Recurring, a monthly share for as long as the customer keeps paying the partner.
One partner might pay a lot more than another for the same visitor. The rules below are how we keep that from leaking into the pages.
Our rules
- A fee can't change what we publish: the requirements, rates and fees we show, where a company sits in a list, or what we say about it. How we order lists has the ordering rule.
- For insurance, we'll only take a per-click or per-lead fee. We won't take a cut of a policy you buy.
- We don't take paid mortgage offers. When we cover mortgages, those pages will be guides and calculators.
- If we ever sell a sponsored spot, it will be labelled "Sponsored" where it appears, and we'll list it here.
- Some offers won't be shown in every state.
- Glisten isn't a bank or a lender and doesn't make credit decisions. Each partner decides who it accepts.
What partners get from us
When you click a partner link, we add the page you clicked from to the link, and nothing else. Your name, your email and whatever you typed into a tool or the quiz stay with you. We don't sell or share your personal information; the privacy policy has the details.
Spotting a paid link
Each paid link has a short note right beside it. It isn't buried in the footer.
Something look off?
If anything here doesn't match what you see on the site, contact us and we'll look into it.