Give Your Members a Real Auto-Buying Advocate
Why This Works for Your CU
Aligns With Your Mission
Your member is negotiating with a dealer whose F&I office pays that dealer 30-70% of profit. Real Talk is on the member’s side — always. Our audit tells them what they can walk back, what statute the dealer just violated, and how to hold the line before signing.
Reduces Your Loan Risk
Deals we audit have documented add-on markups, clean fee disclosures, and lower probability of downstream member complaints. The audit report is delivered before your member signs the retail installment contract — you get better collateral on paper you fund.
Zero Editorial Interference
Signed firewall covenant. Your CU has no editorial input. Zero. We do not suppress dealer names in aggregate publications for CU partners. We do not soften findings. That is what makes the audit credible — and referrable to your members.
Two Pilot Structures
Tier A · Member Benefit
- Free deal audits for all active members
- CU-branded landing page routes members to Real Talk
- PDF in minutes, English + Spanish
- Members pay $0. CU pays flat monthly.
- Minimum 12-month pilot commitment
- Discount for member count > 25,000
Tier B · Per-Audit
- CU markets Real Talk to members
- Members submit deals directly, CU is invoiced monthly per audit
- Same minutes-level turnaround, EN + ES
- No monthly minimum; pay only for use
- Ideal for CUs with < 5,000 active auto-loan members
The Editorial Firewall Covenant
Non-Negotiable — Required Before Any Dollar Changes Hands
Every CU partnership begins with a signed Editorial Firewall Covenant. Core terms:
1. Zero editorial input. The CU has no ability to review, suppress, edit, delay, or influence any published Real Talk content, audit finding, or aggregate publication.
2. No suppression of dealer names. If a dealer we have written about is a member-preferred vendor of the CU, we do not remove or edit prior coverage.
3. Public disclosure. The pilot is listed publicly on the funding policy page including CU name, contract term, and per-member rate.
4. Immediate audit termination clause. If Real Talk is ever asked to soften a finding, we terminate the pilot at no cost to either party and publish the request on our corrections log.
5. Legal review. The covenant is reviewed by both parties’ counsel before signing.
How the Audit Actually Works
Member submits their Buyers Order or Retail Installment Contract via a CU-branded intake page. We use Google Doc AI + a 130-rule engine covering 20 US states to check every dollar figure against state statute (doc fee caps, TAVT/sales tax rules, F&I product markups, GAP pricing) and every disclosure against federal law (Truth in Lending, FTC Used Car Rule, Regulation Z, Military Lending Act, SCRA). Every rule fire cites the primary source. Every primary source has an accessed-on date. Automated, statute-mapped PDF back in minutes. Manny handles escalations on request. English + Spanish.
Why Real Talk Is the Only Partner Who Can Do This Ethically
Every other consumer-auto site takes dealer money in some form: dealer advertising, F&I product-provider referral fees, extended-warranty affiliate commissions, or indirect-lender lead-generation fees. That means their editorial can be softened by their revenue base. Real Talk’s public funding policy refuses all of the above. We take consumer subscriptions, CU flat-fee licensing (this program), insurer white-label tooling, regulator grants, and press syndication. That is the entire revenue base. So when we tell your member the dealer is charging 00 above the state doc-fee cap, there is no dealer relationship on our side to blur that finding.
Start a Pilot Conversation
Reply to any email or reach out directly. I read every inbound personally and reply within 24 hours.
Manny Ruiz
Retired U.S. Army SFC (Ret. 2016) · Senior All-Source Intelligence Analyst
Founder, Real Talk Media Group LLC · LinkedIn
Verified by a Named Human
Retired U.S. Army Sergeant First Class (SFC, Ret. 2016)
Senior All-Source Intelligence Analyst
Dealer-side career: sales floor through sales manager
LinkedIn · About page
Phone: 762-815-7105
Corrections: reply to any published page with the URL and the specific claim — corrections logged in writing within 5 business days.
Registered agent: Northwest Registered Agent Service
No sponsors. No dealer money. Ever.