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Affiliate Disclosure

Effective date: May 13, 2026 Last updated: May 13, 2026

Plain-English summary (this is also the entirety of the disclosure): Some of the Gold IRA companies we recommend pay us a commission if you sign up with them through one of our links. We disclose this on every page where it could matter. We recommend by fit and transparency, not by who pays the most — and we've turned down higher-paying offers more than once.

1. The honest version

GoldIRADecoder is a free fee-transparency tool. We pay our hosting, AI costs, and salary by two means:

  1. The $19.99 Lifetime upgrade (one-time payment, our primary revenue).
  2. Affiliate commissions from some of the Gold IRA companies we recommend, paid only when a user signs up with that company through one of our links.

This page exists because the U.S. Federal Trade Commission requires us to tell you that, and because we want you to be able to fully calibrate trust in our recommendations.

2. Which companies pay us commission

As of [DATE], we have or are pursuing affiliate relationships with:

Some of these are active partners; others are pending application. Affiliate status changes; the live status is reflected in our methodology page (where applicable).

We do not earn commissions from:

These companies still appear in our analysis and may be recommended when they are the best fit for your situation. The recommendation is independent of payout.

We will never refer leads to any company we have placed on our internal blacklist (currently: Red Rock Secured, due to active SEC enforcement action). This is true regardless of any payout offered.

3. How affiliate commissions work

When you click an affiliate link in a Decoder result, on a review page, or in any of our content, our partner can identify that you came from us. If you go on to open an account or make a purchase with that company within their cookie window (typically 30–90 days), they pay us a commission. This commission is paid by the partner — it does not increase what you pay them.

Commission amounts vary by company, ranging from approximately $25 to $200 per qualified lead, plus 2–10% of the purchase amount. The specific economics for any given company are negotiated independently and may change over time.

4. Why our recommendations are still trustworthy

We understand that "we earn commission" reasonably triggers skepticism. Here's how we keep the recommendations honest:

4.1 We recommend by fit, not by payout

The Decoder routes recommendations based on three criteria:

  1. Fit for your investment size — different providers serve different ranges (e.g., Augusta requires $50K minimum; Birch accepts $5K).
  2. Coverage for the metals you want — only Birch, Noble, Lear, and Preserve support all four (gold, silver, platinum, palladium).
  3. Transparency and BBB record — companies with weaker BBB ratings or a history of complaints are deprioritized regardless of payout.

The amount they pay us is not an input. We've turned down higher-paying offers when a lower-paying company was a better fit.

4.2 We recommend providers who don't pay us

When a non-paying provider is the best fit, we recommend them anyway. Patriot Gold Group, for example, is recommended for $250K+ investors despite our having no commission relationship — because their fee waiver above $250K makes them the right choice for that segment.

4.3 We list weaknesses, not just strengths

Every recommended company in a Decoder result and every review page lists its weaknesses honestly. If a company has aggressive sales tactics (Goldco), high annual fees (Birch), or limited metal selection (Augusta), we say so — even when they pay us.

4.4 We never recommend the company that quoted you

If your Decoder analysis is for Goldco, the recommended alternatives will never include Goldco. The recommendation framework is structurally designed so that we cannot earn commission from the same company being analyzed.

4.5 We publish our methodology

Our methodology page explains exactly how we rank, what our benchmark sources are, and how often we update the data. If you ever suspect a recommendation is influenced by payout rather than fit, the methodology page is the audit trail.

5. Where this disclosure appears

To meet FTC clear-and-conspicuous standards, this disclosure (or a shorter inline version pointing to it) appears in the following places:

If you encounter an affiliate link without an adjacent disclosure, that's a bug — please let us know at hello@goldiradecoder.com and we'll fix it.

6. Inline disclosure language (used throughout the site)

Where a full disclosure would be visually disruptive, we use this short form, which links to this page:

Some of the providers below pay us a commission if you sign up. We recommend by fit, not by payout. Full disclosure.

This short form satisfies the "clear and conspicuous" requirement while keeping the user experience clean.

7. Non-affiliate income disclosure

For complete transparency, here are the other ways we make money:

We do not sell user lists, user data, or behavioral profiles. Ever.

8. FTC compliance

This disclosure is provided in compliance with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides (16 CFR Part 255). If you have a question about our disclosure practices, contact us at hello@goldiradecoder.com.

If you believe we are out of compliance, please tell us — we'd rather hear it from you than from the FTC.

Operator: Niko Polydorou Contact: hello@goldiradecoder.com