What pays for DubaiPoints — and what doesn't shape what we publish.

Today, nothing

Right now the site has no revenue.

It is funded out of pocket by its founder while the audience is being built. There are no live affiliate links, no sponsored articles, and no display advertising on any page as of the date above. If you click any outbound link on the site today and the merchant pays a referral fee for that click, that fee does not currently route to DubaiPoints — the integration to receive it doesn't exist yet.

Where revenue will eventually come from

Three sources, in order of likelihood.

Affiliate commission is the obvious one. When a reader applies for a card or opens an account through an outbound link, the bank may pay a referral fee. Every commercial outbound link will be marked with an asterisk (*) and that asterisk resolves to this page. The fee never changes the editorial verdict. We have rated cards from issuers we have an affiliate relationship with as the worst card on the page — and we will continue to do that.

Sponsored content is the second source. A bank, airline, or merchant may pay to publish a clearly-badged sponsored article. Sponsored articles carry a "Sponsored by [Partner]" attribution at the top, a distinct background tint, and they are excluded from any editorial "Best of" placement or the homepage Today's Best Deals rail. A sponsor cannot buy a position in our editorial — only a paid placement that's labelled as paid.

The newsletter is the third. One sponsor mention per send, clearly demarcated. The rest of the newsletter is editorial.

The firewall

Editorial decisions — what to cover, how to rate it, where it ranks in a comparison — are made independently of any commercial relationship. The editor publishes the verdict; the commercial side fits affiliate links and sponsorships around the verdict, never the other way around.

If a bank that pays a commission asks for a change to a review's tone, ranking, or wording, the answer is no. That is not a marketing line. The point of the firewall is that you, the reader, don't have to take our word for anything: you can read every review on the site and check whether the recommendation tracks with the published data. If a verdict ever stops tracking with the data — write to us. The corrections process is on the editorial policy page.

The asterisk

Whenever you see an asterisk (*) next to a link, product name, or "Apply" button, it means DubaiPoints may earn a commission if you click that link and apply for the product. The asterisk means one thing and only one thing on this site, on every page. There is no second meaning. There is no fine-print exception.

Things we won't do

Pop-ups that block mobile content. Auto-playing video ads. Hidden affiliate links. Email captures that fire before you've read a paragraph. Selling reader email addresses or browsing data — Cloudflare Web Analytics is the only third-party measurement tool on the site and it doesn't use cookies.

If we ever break one of these, write in. We'll fix it.