Editorial standards & corrections policy
Effective 24 July 2026. A ranking is only as trustworthy as the figures behind it — so here is exactly how every price, fee and cost on TrueTotal is sourced, dated and graded, what we will never do to a number, and how we fix one when we get it wrong.
Every figure sourced, dated and graded
Nothing appears as a bare number. Every price, fee and cost carries a source and the date it was observed, and one of three confidence grades that says plainly how sure we are:
FACT — published by an authority or the operator itself.
SOURCED — observed from a live feed at a known date.
ASSUMPTION — a stated benchmark — never faked, always labelled.
The grade shown for a whole result is the lowest across all of its figures: if a single component is an ASSUMPTION, the entire result reads ASSUMPTION. We never let one solid number launder a shaky one — the headline is always the weakest link, on purpose. The full mechanics live in our methodology.
What we never do
Honesty is a set of hard lines, not a tone of voice. On TrueTotal we never:
invent a price, a fee, a statistic, a company detail, a review or an affiliate ID.
dress an unknown fact up as a plausible-looking placeholder — unknowns are shown as pending.
sell a ranking, a score or a placement, or let commission change either.
let an affiliate link move the order or the figures — every paid link is disclosed.
present illustrative sample data as if it were a live, confirmed offer.
A fact we don't have is shown as pending, never as a realistic-looking guess a reader could mistake for the real thing. Rankings are never for sale, and affiliate links are disclosed and never change the order or the figures — the full, plain-English version is in our affiliate disclosure.
How our numbers are built
The true total is an identity, not an opinion:
Each hidden cost — taxes, fees, fuel, insurance, gratuities, transfers and the rest — carries its own source and its own date, and its own grade. Nothing is bundled into a round number to make it look tidy. Where a figure is drawn from illustrative sample data rather than a live feed, it is clearly labelled as such and stays labelled until a real feed replaces it. The complete method — the decomposition, the verifiability score and the ranking parameters — is published in our methodology.
Independence
TrueTotal is brand-neutral. We favour no seller, no operator and no partner. Placement cannot be bought — there is no paid tier, no promoted slot, no pay-to-rank. The order results appear in is decided by the true total and by verifiable quality signals, applied equally to everyone. Whether an outbound link earns us a referral or not has zero effect on where a listing ranks or on any figure we show.
Corrections policy
We will get figures wrong sometimes — a fee schedule changes, a source moves, a number is transcribed badly. When that happens we correct it quickly and in the open, rather than defend it.
How to report one — email corrections@truetotalcalculator.com with the listing and the figure, or use our report an error form.
What happens next — we acknowledge your report, trace the figure back to its source, and either confirm it or fix it. We aim to do this promptly.
How the fix shows up — a corrected figure is re-sourced and re-graded, and carries a fresh observation date so you can see it has been updated.
We commit to acknowledging every report and fixing confirmed errors promptly. A correction is a normal part of keeping the numbers honest — not something to be quietly buried.
Updates & freshness
Every figure records the date it was observed. We re-check and re-date figures as feeds update, and a price that ages past its freshness window is flagged as stale rather than shown as if it were current — the age travels with the number.
Because prices move, the figures on TrueTotal are guidance to help you decide, not a live quote. Always confirm the final price with the seller before you buy.
This describes the standards TrueTotal holds itself to today; it evolves as feeds go live and the method improves. It is a good-faith description of how the system works, not a legal guarantee of any specific number.