Answering Your Questions: Credit Card Insider is a Wealth of Financial Information

In a Nutshell: Credit Card Insider supplies financial advice and credit card reviews for everyday consumers. Industry experts come together to create a resource on credit cards that’s freely available to everyone on the web. From Editor’s Ratings to Q&A videos, Credit Card Insider produces helpful content to better inform readers and viewers about credit cards. //

In school, we’re taught math, science, English and history, but there isn’t a class that teaches students about credit cards and how to use them properly, and credit is a complicated subject matter. Those who don’t understand it could quickly find themselves in financial trouble.

In more ways than one, credit cards pave the way to a better financial future—but when it comes time to apply for and use a credit card, a simple Google search isn’t enough to steer us in the right direction.

Consumers need a place where they can go to ask, learn, and trust the information they receive about credit and debt, and John Ganotis created such a place in Credit Card Insider. His entrepreneurial skills, technical ability, and financial knowledge helped him to found the site he built to be a resource for unbiased financial information.

Our team recently sat down with John and spoke with him about his mission, how the site works, and the company’s growth in providing reliable information on the web for anyone who has, or wants, a credit card.

With a background in web development and a mind for innovation, John brings his own unique experiences to building a comprehensive financial resource. Credit Card Insider serves everyday consumers with reviews, tips, and answers about credit cards. From learning the basics to understanding more nuanced issues, readers get a full picture of all the ins and outs of credit on Credit Card Insider.

Discussing how the website got started, he recalls, “I thought that there was a lot of opportunity to educate people” and act as a counter to “myths about credit scores and credit cards.”

This easy-to-navigate website is filled with educative content, and the site’s founder takes pride in its integrity. If John recommends a credit card, it’ll be based on the card’s merits. All reviews and tips have the reader’s best interest in mind.

Currently a two-man team, John works alongside editor Brendan Harkness to maintain Credit Card Insider. “As far actually writing everything that’s on the site, and making all the day-to-day decisions about the site, we’re the two main guys now,” John says.

John and Brendan put in a lot of effort to make Credit Card Insider the best it can be to help as many people as possible.

John never forgets why he decided to create Credit Card Insider in the first place. Taking his responsibility as a financial advisor seriously, he uses his know-how to help others manage their finances. In fact, he spends a great deal of his day going through and answering the questions that regular people pose on the site.

“We really try to get as many people writing in with their feedback and questions as possible,” John states, and the website is proof of that. Multiple places solicit and encourage feedback. An “Ask” button, for instance, is always present in the upper right-hand corner of the page, so that anyone can send a specific question directly to Credit Card Insider.

If you put a valid email address along with your query, Credit Card Insider promises to answer you as soon as possible. Of course, this depends how many questions are flooding John’s inbox on any given day. Taking a personal interest in his audience, John speaks warmly about his daily plunge into a sea of questions.

“I’ve been trying to add more mechanisms to the site that will prompt people to ask questions, without annoying them,” he says.

Ultimately, this daily feedback makes Credit Card Insider better, showing “what people really want to learn about and care about” in terms of credit. All these online interactions with average individuals are used to gauge the usefulness of the site’s information. “If I send a page to someone and it wasn’t that helpful,” he says, “we need to consider that.” John isn’t afraid to replace outdated or ineffectual articles, especially if it’s in response to the people he’s trying to help.

“I welcome any feedback from people who are reading,” he emphasizes throughout our discussion. “Anyone can always go to the About page and email me from there or go hit the ‘Ask’ button in the top right corner of the page, and I answer all of those [questions]. I welcome any feedback, positive or negative.”

Credit Card Insider offers free financial assistance in multiple different forms; Comparative tools, “Best of” lists, and step-by-step guides provide valuable insight into the credit card industry. In the Learn section, Credit Card Insider puts together important and distinctly helpful guides to building and maintaining good credit. Actionable advice is the primary focus of this section, so that readers are specifically directed where to go and what to do to get the credit solution they need.

“We have a Learn section right now that’s gone through a number of iterations,” says John. “What we’re really trying to do there is create very focused, in-depth pages that cover different topics that pretty much anybody should understand.”

Changing to meet the expectations and needs of its audience, Credit Card Insider’s content has undergone much growth and evolution over the years. “Early on it was all text,” John says, “and then we started branching out into videos.” Credit Card Insider has seen considerable success with its video segments.

The video aspect of Credit Card Insider is a popular new feature, effectively directing viewers to the answers they seek. “People really liked the question-and-answer type of videos,” John says.

With a growing presence on YouTube, Credit Card Insider quickly and precisely answers common financial questions—most likely taken from the audience itself. As a general rule, Credit Card Insider’s channel addresses issues that matter to consumers and that haven’t been adequately covered elsewhere.

Credit Card Insider posts videos every week and sees an immediate impact with thousands of views on YouTube. By tackling credit topics in two- to five-minute chunks, Credit Card Insider makes complex subjects much easier to understand. John particularly praises the Credit Card Insider videos “that are a little more nuanced and not as cut-and-dry.” He points to “Does Having a 0% Utilization Hurt My Credit Score?” as an example, for which the idea came from a question posted in a comment on a previous video.

Both in articles and videos, Credit Card Insider makes credit information more accessible for average consumers. John knows how to do this well, creating a succinct and organized format on the web.

John’s entrepreneurial spirit thrives on new ventures that use technology to make life easier. His main challenge, he says, is to focus his energy into a single purpose. “Saying yes to too many things is a problem we had early on,” he reflects.

Now, however, the website has a clearly defined niche in credit content. More focused than ever, Credit Card Insider has pared itself down to the most essential points of credit card information.

“Very recently we’ve just been super focused and running it pretty lean,” John says. “As we grow, I think we need to be constantly evaluating what we should not be doing so that we stay more focused. That often means cutting out what’s not helpful and expanding what Credit Card Insider excels at,” he added.

To hone its brand, Credit Card Insider decided to specialize in instructive credit information. In a moment of clarity, John realized that “where we could really focus is around long-term content that’s educational.” More interested in key concepts than the latest news in the credit card industry, Credit Card Insider’s articles provide practical tips to benefit its readers. From the Insider Blog to the Learn space, Credit Card Insider offers a targeted and organized selection of personal finance advice for visitors.

“We’re creating a much more compelling and focused product,” John says with pride.

Credit Card Insider changes the way everyday people view their finances. Anyone can explore this site for expert breakdowns of credit data. Passionate about creating useful and original content, John designed the Credit Card Insider website with a single goal: to educate the uneducated.

Whatever your credit question, Credit Card Insider will go the extra mile to answer it for you. In videos, blog posts, articles, and reviews, the site sums up many different facets of credit cards in easy-to-understand terms. You don’t need to be confused or ignorant about credit any longer—the team at Credit Card Insider is here to help.

Enthusiastic and dedicated, the Credit Card Insider team works hard to “provide an educational resource to people so that they can learn how to make the most out of credit cards, instead of fearing them.”