Transparency

CoverageCritic.com intends to be far more transparent than most other organizations evaluating consumer products and services.

Conflicts of interest

It’s common for evaluators of products or services to make disclosures along the lines of:

We receive commissions from some companies, but we are unbiased and would never let financial incentives impact the content we publish.
In most cases, I think these disclosures are disingenuous. Even when disclosures of this sort are meant sincerely, they’re rarely accurate. People are not fully aware of their biases. A person cannot simply choose not to be biased.

I’m not impartial. I aim to avoid letting financial incentives affect how positively or negatively I view companies, but I won’t always get that right. If you think conflicts of interest are adversely affecting the quality of my content, please let me know. While I regularly discuss, recommend, and review companies I don’t have financial relationships with, I want to acknowledge that the quantity of content I publish about a company will often be impacted by the financial incentives involved.

Below, I list companies I receive commissions from with details about the arrangements.

I don’t guarantee that this information is accurate or up-to-date. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Wireless service providers

AT&T Mobility

Last updated: 6/25/2019

I’m a member of an AT&T Mobility affiliate program. As I understand it, the following, one-time commissions are offered:[1]

  • $60 for a regular postpaid line
  • $40 for a postpaid data-only line
  • $8 for the purchase of an upgrade

I don’t believe any commissions are offered on prepaid service.

Sprint

Last updated: 5/21/2019

I’m a member of a Sprint affiliate program. I’m unclear on how the program’s payout structure works. I believe there is a $64 commission for new service contracts that involve the purchase of a device. I don’t know if I receive commissions when customers bring their own devices.

Mint Mobile

Last updated: 6/24/2019

I’m a member of a Mint Mobile affiliate program that offers commissions of $20 per sale.[2]

Ting

Last updated: 5/6/2019

Ting offers me a $25 commission for every new line of service activated.

View affiliate program information on Ting’s website.

Total Wireless

Last updated: 6/5/2019

I’m a member of a Total Wireless affiliate program that offers a $24 commission on “top tier item sales” and a 6.4% commission on some other types of purchases.[3]

Verizon Wireless

Last updated: 5/21/2019

As I understand it, the following commission structure is used in Verizon’s affiliate program:[4]

  • $80 for new, postpaid service contracts
  • $24 for prepaid service or additional postpaid lines
  • 12% on accessories

Xfinity Mobile

Last updated: 1/13/2020

I’m a member of an Xfinity Mobile affiliate program that offers a $75 commission for new customers I refer.

Other

I’m currently trialing Skimlinks. Skimlinks has partnerships with a lot of merchants and automatically converts some of my non-affiliate links to affiliate links. Details about the merchants Skimlinks works with can be found here.

Openness about limitations

I’m not an expert about every wireless-related topic. When my evaluation approaches have limitations, I aim to publicly acknowledge the limitations.

Rigor and references

I try to defend the claims made on CoverageCritic.com with detailed explanations or references to other sources. I regularly use footnotes to expand on my thoughts, cite sources, and/or explain calculations.

Footnotes

  1. My impression is based on information available within my account on an affiliate platform.
  2. More details can be found on Mint’s web page about the affiliate program.
  3. This is based on information available within my account on an affiliate platform. Some purchases appear to be non-commissionable. I’m not entirely sure what constitutes “top tier item sales.”
  4. My impression is based on information found within my account on an affiliate platform.