How We Verify
This is a "your money, your rights" site about a federal law, so the standard has to be higher than "we read it somewhere." Here is exactly how every page is built, so you can check our work, and so a journalist, a legal-assistance attorney, or a skeptical reader can see the method behind the guidance. Our editorial policy covers who writes and how we correct; this page covers how we verify.
The one rule: primary law, at the moment of writing
Every statement about what the law requires is checked against the primary source at the time the page is written or updated, not from memory and not from another blog. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act lives at 50 U.S.C. §§ 3901–4043, and we read the operative section directly (via the U.S. House Office of the Law Revision Counsel and Cornell's Legal Information Institute) before we describe it. Regulations are read at their current text in the electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR). Enforcement facts, deadlines, and agency processes come from the source that owns them: the Department of Justice, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Defense, Military OneSource, and the VA.
Section by section, not vibe by vibe
Each protection on this site is pinned to the specific statute section that creates it, and we confirm the section number against the live U.S. Code before citing it, because section numbers are easy to get wrong second-hand. The 6% interest cap is § 3937. Residential and motor-vehicle lease termination is § 3955. The stay of proceedings is § 3932. Default-judgment protection is § 3931. Foreclosure protection is § 3953. When a guide tells you what a protection does, it names the section, so you can read the law yourself.
Facts that change get a date and a re-check
Some numbers move on a schedule, and treating them as fixed is how stale advice happens. The Justice Department's civil penalties, for example, are inflation-adjusted every year under 28 CFR 85.5. Guaranty and threshold figures shift; annual defense authorization acts amend the statute itself. We verify these at write time, cite the mechanism that changes them, and label the figure with the date or fiscal year it applies to, so you know whether to re-check it before you act.
How the dollar examples are calculated
The worked examples ("a $8,000 balance at 22% over 24 months yields roughly a $2,550 refund") are real arithmetic, not decoration: they apply the statutory 6% ceiling to the stated balance and term and show the interest difference. They are illustrative estimates that assume the facts stated, and they are labeled as estimates. Your actual number depends on your balance, rate, dates of service, and how your lender applies the cap. Use them to see the shape of the benefit, then run your own figures.
How the calculators work
Every tool on this site runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us or stored on a server, and the tools require no sign-up. Each calculator implements the rule it is named for: the lease-termination date calculator applies the § 3955 timing rule (termination takes effect 30 days after the next rent due date following proper notice); the SDP calculator applies the 10% Savings Deposit Program rate to eligible deployed deposits; the refund and savings estimators apply the 6% cap. The tools are estimators to help you plan, not legal determinations, and each shows its assumptions.
What makes us update a page
A guide gets revisited when the law or an authoritative source changes: an amendment in a National Defense Authorization Act, a revised regulation, new DOJ or CFPB guidance, a court decision that changes how a section is read, or a reader who sends us a source that contradicts us. Voluntary lender programs (the "some banks go below 6%" details) are the most perishable, so we date them and tell you to confirm the current policy with the lender before you rely on it.
What we deliberately do not do
We do not give legal advice, and we do not guarantee an outcome. We do not accept payment to cover, rank, or favor any lender or product; the bank comparisons are sorted by what the public record and each lender's own published policy show, never by who pays. And we do not print a legal figure we could not verify against its primary source, we leave it out and say so, rather than pad a page with a number we are not sure of. For advice on your specific situation, your installation Legal Assistance Office is free, confidential, and authoritative.
Found something that does not match the source? That is the most useful email we get. Send the article URL and the contradicting source through our contact page, and see our editorial policy for how corrections are handled.