Where the data comes from
Every benefit in our database comes from an official source: terms and conditions published directly by card issuers (Amex, Chase, Capital One, and others), official program pages for memberships like Costco and AAA, and government program documentation from sites like medicaid.gov and ssa.gov. Every benefit row in our system stores the source URL it was extracted from. When you see a benefit in your vault, the citation link goes back to the primary source so you can verify what we found.
How the scan works
When you add your cards and memberships, we look them up in our cached benefit database. The cache is populated by a monthly extraction process that reads the official source pages, parses out the benefit details, and stores them as structured rows tied to each card or service. When your scan runs, we pull the relevant rows for the items you own, filter government programs against your profile (income, household, eligibility flags), and present the result as your personalized vault.
No data leaves our system to a third party during a scan.
How we verify what we show you
Every benefit in your vault links back to the primary source where we found it. You can verify what we found by reading the same page we read. If we can't find a benefit in a primary source, we don't show it. No confidence scores, no estimates — just sourced facts.
Editorial standards
- • Every benefit is verified against its primary source — the issuer’s own terms or the program’s own government page — never a third-party summary.
- • Every benefit is stamped with the date it was last verified against that source.
- • No affiliate revenue, referral fees, or issuer sponsorships influence what we show or how it is ranked. We earn none.
- • Corrections are welcomed and fixed at the next refresh. 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 your vault.
- Source. We read American Express’s official Platinum Card benefit terms for the Uber Cash benefit — the issuer’s own page, not a third-party write-up.
- What we extract. Platinum Card Members get $15 in Uber Cash each month, plus a bonus $20 in December — up to $200 in Uber Cash per year — valid on U.S. rides and Uber Eats orders, with enrollment required.
- How it’s stored. We save it as a structured row tied to the Amex Platinum, with the source URL and the date we last verified it.
- What you see. The benefit appears in your vault with a link back to that exact Amex page, so you can confirm it yourself.
This is the receipt. Every benefit follows this same path from official source to your vault.
Last verified against American Express’s official Platinum Card benefit terms: May 31, 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:
- • Our scans cover what's in our cache. Cards or memberships we haven't yet extracted won't return benefits even if they exist on the source pages.
- • 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
Our cached benefit database is refreshed monthly through a re-extraction pass against the original source URLs. When card issuers update their terms (typically once or twice a year), the next refresh picks up those changes. Each benefit row links back to its source so you can always verify against the current version of the official document.
Last updated: May 17, 2026