Honesty is the conversion strategy.
The usual referral site leads with the ceiling number and hides the conditions. This one is built the other way round: the payout most people really collect comes first, and no ceiling appears without the condition attached to it.
The method
For every offer we read the actual program terms, not the marketing page. The guide leads with the number most people really collect. The advertised maximum appears next to its condition in the same sentence, never alone. Every trap that can shrink or void the bonus is listed as a checklist before any sign-up button. Each entry carries the date we last verified the terms.
Reading both documents has a side effect: you catch the companies whose own two pages disagree with each other about their own offer. Five of them do, including one help article that gives two different answers for the maximum on a single referral. Where that happens we quote both versions, say which one is binding, and plan around the less generous of the two.
Always and never
We always
- Lead with the realistic payout and label every ceiling with its condition.
- Put every trap above the button, in plain words, never in an accordion.
- Stamp every guide and every row with the date we last verified its terms.
- Say when the direct path is just as good, and when our link is provably better.
- Give a verdict with a reason: worth it, worth it if, or think twice.
We never
- Use countdowns, fake scarcity, or invented member counts.
- Hide that a reward is a credit, a discount, or a volatile token.
- Rank an offer higher because it pays us more.
- Recommend borrowing, subscribing, or parking money just to farm a bonus.
- Delete an offer we dislike. It stays listed, marked think twice, with the reason.
How we are paid
Most of the time there is no link to give in the first place. Of the 265 programs we have examined, 85 forbid a site like this one from posting their link at all and 84 more never mint a shareable code. So the terms of 169 offers bar a link here or make one impossible. Of those, 2 still carry a link of ours: Robinhood and Ledger. Their terms ask for personal use, not commercial use, and do not penalize you for arriving through us. Why codes from deal sites fail quotes each clause and says when the link comes off. We carry a referral link on 10 guides in all. Every other guide sends you to a friend or to the front door, because that is the route the terms actually pay.
- Programs whose terms bar a link here or leave none to post169 of 265
- Guides that carry a referral link of ours10 of 265
Counted against every program on this site whose terms we have read.
A reward is also not always mutual. In our July 27, 2026 audit of 118 programs, fifteen paid you nothing at all if you were the one signing up, and three more published a reward figure, but not one for you. Where that is true the guide leads with it and says so plainly.
Fair questions
What is Fine Print Doctor?
An independent guide to sign-up and referral bonuses. Every offer page reads the actual program terms, shows the realistic payout next to the advertised ceiling, and lists the fine-print conditions that quietly shrink or void the bonus, so you collect the full amount instead of the default minimum.
Why do most people collect less than the advertised bonus?
Because the advertised number is usually a ceiling behind conditions in small text: deposit tiers, holding periods, excluded actions, and hidden deadlines. Complete only the obvious step and you get the minimum. Our guides map every payout condition so nothing is left unclaimed.
How does Fine Print Doctor make money?
Some guides contain a personal referral link. If you sign up through one and qualify, the program pays this site a referral reward at no cost to you, and your own bonus is never smaller for it. Every page discloses this, and the guidance never depends on it: ceilings are labeled as ceilings and every trap is listed before any signup button.
Are sign-up bonuses taxable?
In the US, bank, brokerage, and crypto bonuses are generally taxable income at their value when received, and platforms may issue tax forms. Note the date and dollar value when a bonus lands. General information, not tax advice.
The verification log
The first full re-verification against live terms ran in July 2026, and each guide now shows the date of its own latest examination. A few entries from that July pass:
Jul 21, 2026 · Nexo: Day 15 funding deadline re-checked
Jul 19, 2026 · Coinbase: wheel odds re-verified, 99% land $10 to $100
Jul 19, 2026 · Kraken: Maine and New York still excluded
Jul 17, 2026 · Moomoo: forfeiture clause added to the guide
Re-reading the terms is how we catch a company changing them. It is not how we catch ourselves being wrong, so the times we published a figure or a clause incorrectly are logged separately, in full, and never removed: see Corrections.
What the reading turned up
Three pages here are not offers at all. They are what falls out of the method once the same reading is run across every program at once.