A customer messages asking which of two accounts she should open. She has some money from a house sale, she may need it in a year or she may not, and she wants someone to tell her what to do.
Answering that question is advice. Explaining the difference between the accounts is not, and the gap between those two sentences is where the whole issue sits.
Myth 1: comparing two products is just information
Reality: it depends entirely on how it is done. Setting out the features of each side by side is factual. Saying which suits her, or which most people in her position choose, is a recommendation.
Myth 2: qualifying the answer makes it safe
Reality: adding that it is only a suggestion does not change what it is. A customer who acts on it has been advised, whatever the wording around it said.
Myth 3: the customer is asking for advice, so refusing is unhelpful
Reality: routing her to someone who can advise, or to independent guidance, is more helpful than an answer from a source that cannot know her circumstances.
Myth 4: rates can be discussed freely
Reality: published rates are factual and must be current. An outdated rate stated by an assistant is a serious problem, which is why answers must come from live published pages rather than anything remembered.
Myth 5: eligibility can be assessed
Reality: explaining published eligibility criteria is fine. Telling someone they qualify is a decision for the institution's own process.
Myth 6: tax questions are adjacent
Reality: they are firmly outside. How interest is taxed, allowances and what someone should do about them belong with a tax adviser or official guidance.
Myth 7: general financial education is risky
Reality: explaining what a notice period means, what access restrictions are, how interest is paid and what happens at maturity is genuinely useful and entirely factual. Customers are badly served by institutions too cautious to explain their own products.
Myth 8: there is nothing an assistant adds
Reality: at ten at night it can explain the difference between an easy access and a fixed term account, what notice means, how to apply, what identification is needed and where to get advice. That is substantial and none of it crosses the line.
What to publish
Each product with its rate, term, access conditions, minimum and maximum, how interest is paid, what happens at maturity, eligibility criteria, how to apply and where to get independent guidance.
Route the choice to a person
Anyone asking which product suits them should reach an adviser or independent guidance. Making that route obvious is the useful response, which is the boundary held throughout what a bank website assistant must never do.
The same restraint applies to other arrangements
It is covered in trust enquiries that must never become advice.
Helping someone choose has limits everywhere
The comparison is in an AI shopping assistant for product fit, and member institutions field the same mix as in member questions credit unions answer every day.
Getting started
Publish each product's terms and eligibility, then explain features at any hour while every choice goes to an adviser. SpideyChat for financial firms answers only from your published pages and never recommends. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about answers on the features page.