How we make money

Last updated: 15 May 2026

Transparency is a core value at HoldingCost. We believe you have a right to know how this site generates revenue, and how that revenue model does — and does not — affect the numbers we show you.

Today: display advertising only (setup in progress)

Display advertising via Google AdSense is the only revenue source HoldingCost intends to monetise at launch. Setup with Google AdSense is in progress; until that completes, no ads are served on this site. Once approval is granted and the AdSense loader is wired in, ads will appear in the slot inventory described below — gated by the consent flow we describe in our privacy policy and our cookie policy.

We are an independent, self-funded business. We do not take payment for content placement, calculator outputs, default values, rankings, or search positioning.

When ads are live, they appear in fixed-dimension slots reserved in the page layout before any ad script runs (so the surrounding content never shifts). The slots are:

Leaderboards above and below each calculator (320×50 mobile, 728×90 desktop).
A medium rectangle in the sidebar of guide and glossary pages (300×250).
A skyscraper in each page margin on wide screens (160×600, rendered only at viewports ≥1700px).
An anchor at the bottom of the screen on mobile only (320×50, dismissable per session).

Calculator inputs and result cards never contain ads. Pages without ads regardless of the slot inventory: the homepage, the FAQ, all legal pages, our About and Contact pages, our index pages (/calculators/, /guides/, /glossary/, and each pillar hub), the 404 error page, and embedded calculator pages.

Ad scripts only fire after you have granted advertising consent through the consent flow described in our privacy policy. Today, every visitor — regardless of country — sees HoldingCost's custom four-category consent banner; the four categories are Necessary, Analytics, Advertising storage, and Personalised ads.

Once display advertising is approved and live, the consent flow becomes region-specific:

Visitors in the EEA, United Kingdom, and Switzerland will see Google's Privacy & Messaging Consumer Management Platform — certified to IAB Transparency & Consent Framework v2.3 — which manages consent collection and the IAB TCF signals end-to-end.
All other visitors will continue to see HoldingCost's custom four-category consent banner.

Without granted advertising consent, the ad-network loader script does not run. The consent UI is reachable from the "Privacy choices" link in our footer at any time.

Personalised advertising — currently disabled

HoldingCost does not currently serve personalised advertising. The "Personalised ads" toggle in our consent banner is currently hidden, and the Consent Mode v2 personalisation signals are set to denied for every visitor. Should we enable personalised advertising in future, the consent banner will re-prompt you for fresh consent before any personalised ad is served.

Affiliate referrals — not currently active

HoldingCost does not currently maintain any affiliate or referral relationships with lenders, brokers, or financial product providers. No "Apply now" or "Get a quote" button on this site is paid. Should we add affiliate relationships in future, this page will be updated, the relevant disclosures will appear next to the affiliate link itself, and you will be re-prompted for consent where it applies.

Lead generation and sponsored placements — not currently active

HoldingCost does not currently operate any lead-capture forms, contact-broker buttons, or sponsored-placement programmes. We do not sell user data and we do not collect personally-identifying information. Should this change, the consent model will be extended (with a fresh re-prompt) and this page will be updated accordingly.

Our commitment to neutrality

Advertising never influences our calculator results, defaults, rankings, or recommendations. The mathematics in our engines is open, versioned, and documented. The advertising layer of the site is architecturally separated from the engine layer, so advertising code and engine code cannot share state. No advertiser can pay to alter what our calculators output.

Questions

If you have questions about our revenue model, or believe a result has been influenced by a commercial relationship, see our contact page.