Write down what happened, not what people should do

Short version: say what happened to you, be specific about when, and never post anything that identifies an account.

The thing that makes this archive worth reading is that every entry is somebody’s own experience. “My limit went from ₹40,000 to ₹1.1L in month eleven” is useful. “Limits usually go up around a year” is not, unless you can point at the stories it came from.

If you’re repeating something you read elsewhere, say so. If you’re unsure, say that too: “I have one data point and three contradictory answers from the same bank” is a completely respectable post.

Almost everything here has a shelf life. A route that worked in January may be excluded by March. Put a date on it, and if something you posted stops working, come back and say so. A dead trick that is marked dead is more useful than a live one that isn’t.

Card numbers, CVVs, expiry dates, OTPs, account numbers, customer IDs, net-banking credentials, statements or KYC documents, and screenshots with any of those visible. There is no reason to post them and this is a public archive.

Don’t post other people’s details either: no names of bank staff, no phone numbers, no photographs of anyone who didn’t ask to be here.

Referral codes, affiliate links, link shorteners and “DM me and I’ll send you a link” are not allowed, in posts or in replies. They’re the fastest way to turn a community into a marketplace, and a reader can no longer tell whether you are telling them what happened or selling them something.

CardLore looks for them as you post. Something that looks like one is published held: only you can see it until a moderator has looked. If it was a false alarm, they publish it as it is; if not, they remove it and tell you why.

Link to a bank’s own page for a card, the RBI, or anything else that helps. That is always welcome. Talking about how a referral programme worked for you is welcome too; posting your code is not.

If you work for a bank, or earn anything from a card or product you are writing about, say so: the composer has a disclosure for it, and it shows as a small label on your post. Nobody is turned away for disclosing; people are removed for hiding it.

People here are writing about rejection, debt, settlements and being out of work. That takes something. Disagree with a claim, not with the person who made it, and don’t moralise at someone who is telling you what happened to them.

Every post, reply and profile has a Report button. It goes to the moderators and nobody else, and the writer isn’t told who. A moderator can take a post down (its writer sees why, and it can be put back), remove a reply, or stop an account from posting.

CardLore is a record of what members say happened to them. Nobody verifies it, and it can’t tell you what will happen to you. Decisions about credit are yours, and so are the consequences.