Where the data comes from
We take figures from official sources: benefit terms published directly by card issuers (Amex, Chase, Capital One, and others), and federal and state agency pages for government programs, from sites like medicaid.gov, ssa.gov, usda.gov and healthcare.gov. When a private organization runs a program, such as a donor’s deposits into children’s accounts, we use that organization’s own page. For a dated event such as a court ruling, we may rely on a news report; when we do, we link it and name the outlet in the page’s sources. Most pages link their sources, so you can open the same page we read and verify what we found.
How the checkers work
The benefits checker, the card checker and the calculators run in your own browser. You choose your state and situation, or tick the cards you have, and the page matches your choices against figures we have already checked against official sources. There are no accounts, no sign-up and no saved profiles.
Your answers are not sent to us. Our visit counts record that a tool was used, never what you chose or typed; see our privacy policy.
How we verify what we show you
Most pages link to the primary sources behind their figures, so you can verify them by reading the same pages we read. Some pages don't have source links yet; if you find one, confirm the figure on the agency's or issuer's own page before you act on it, and tell us at support@benefitguardian.org. If we can't find a benefit in a primary source, we don't show it, and if we can't verify a figure, we remove it rather than guess. No confidence scores, no guessed figures — just sourced facts.
Editorial standards
- • Benefit figures come from the primary source — the issuer’s own terms or the program’s own page — not from a third-party summary or comparison site.
- • Most pages show the date their figures were last checked against the source. Where a page has no date yet, confirm the figure on the official page before you act on it.
- • No card issuer or government program pays us: no commissions, referral fees or sponsorships. The site’s one affiliate link is the “Amazon deals” link in the menu, labelled as an affiliate link; it has no bearing on what we show or how it is ranked.
- • Corrections are welcome, and we fix a confirmed error as soon as we have checked it against the official source. Found an error? Email support@benefitguardian.org.
A worked example: the Amex Platinum Uber Cash credit
Here is exactly how one benefit travels from an official source to a page on this site.
- Source. We read American Express’s official Platinum Card page for the Uber Cash benefit — the issuer’s own page, not a third-party write-up.
- What we record. Platinum Card Members get $15 in Uber Cash each month, plus a bonus $20 in December — up to $200 in Uber Cash per year — for rides and orders in the U.S., once they add the Card to their Uber account and select an Amex Card for the transaction (American Express).
- How it’s published. We add it to the Amex Platinum guide and the card checker, each with a link to that source.
- What you see. The benefit appears with a link back to that exact Amex page, so you can confirm it yourself.
This is the receipt. It is the path we aim for with every benefit, from official source to the page you read.
Last verified against American Express’s official Platinum Card page: October 12, 2026. Benefit terms can change; if this figure ever drifts from Amex’s current terms, that is exactly what the last-verified date is here to flag.
Limitations
We're honest about what we don't do. A few things to know:
- • The card checker covers the cards we have verified so far. A card marked “verification in progress” has no published total yet, and a card we haven't added won't show benefits even if they exist on the issuer's pages.
- • Some card guides were filled by an automated extraction from the issuer’s own pages. Those guides say so, and their dates mark the extraction, not a same-day human check, so confirm a figure on the linked issuer page before you rely on it.
- • Some benefits require user action to redeem — activating an Amex Offer, mailing in a rebate form, scheduling a call with a benefits administrator. We surface the benefit; you redeem it.
- • We do not auto-claim, auto-apply, or auto-redeem any benefit on your behalf. Every action stays in your hands.
- • Government program eligibility is a guide, not a determination. Final eligibility is decided by the program's administering agency.
Keeping the data current
We re-check figures against their official sources, and when we find that a source has changed, we update the figure and the page’s date. Some figures change on the agency’s own schedule: USDA adjusts SNAP maximum allotments, deductions and income limits at the beginning of each federal fiscal year, and Social Security and SSI benefits increased 2.8 percent in 2026 with the cost-of-living adjustment. A page can fall behind after a change like that until we re-check it, so check the page’s date and confirm a figure on the agency’s or issuer’s own page before you act on it.
Last updated: October 12, 2026