Rate1st.com Privacy Policy

Rate1st.com, Inc. ("Rate1st") respects the privacy of our customers and has created this privacy policy ("Policy") to demonstrate our commitment to protecting your privacy. Because we collect important and confidential information about you, we have established this Policy to communicate our information practices regarding the information we collect about you, how that information may be used, with whom that information may be shared and how you may access the information you provide us.

If you have any questions about this Policy, please contact us at support@rate1st.com or (877) RATE-1st.

Information We Collect About You

Provided by you: Rate1st collects the information necessary for you to receive a loan. This includes your contact information such as name, phone and email address; information about your home or prospective home; financial information about your income, expenses and current loans, and confidential information such as your social security number. We also collect information you provide about others, such as co-applicants for your loan, references or creditors.

Provided by 3rd parties: In addition to information provided by you, Rate1st may also collect information from third parties such as your references or creditors. Depending on the Rate1st service(s) you have requested, Rate1st may also pull the credit report of you, and your co-applicant if applicable, for the purpose of processing your loan. Credit reports will only be pulled with your consent. Rate1st uses a third-party intermediary to retrieve credit reports, but this intermediary is solely a link in the distribution chain, and is not permitted to store, retain, or use the information provided.

Cookies: Rate1st places temporary cookies on your computer, purely for the purpose of identifying you during your session as you complete your application and manage your account. The cookies do not contain any identifying information about you. Rate1st does not use permanent cookies which are written to your computer's hard disk and can be used to identify you as a returning visitor.

Other Technologies: Rate1st uses standard logging capabilities to track the usage of our site, including which pages you visit, how long you spent on each page and the order in which you visited each page. Such logs also store other standard information such as your browser type, IP address and operating system. This data is not linked to your personal session though. It is used solely to anonmyously track the aggregate usage of our site to help us better understand and serve our customers.

How We Use the Information We Collect

Any personal information collected about you is used solely to provide you with the services you requested from Rate1st, which generally means attaining a loan. This includes providing customer support, communicating with prospective lenders about your loan application, communicating with you about the status of your loan application, and performing other functions necessary to manage our business and provide our services to you.

Some information, such as demographic information like gender and race, are collected because we are required by law to do so. This information is used only in accordance with applicable law and is not used in making any credit decisions.

With Whom We Share Your Information

Rate1st uses your information solely to provide you with the services you have requested from Rate1st. We do not sell, rent or otherwise share your personal information with any third parties for the purposes of marketing other unrequested products and services to you.

Rate1st does share certain information about you with our lenders for the purposes of providing you with the best loan possible to meet your needs. However, your contact information such as your name, phone and email are not provided to lenders. Confidential information such as your social security number is also not shared with lenders. Lenders only view a limited number of non-identifying and non-confidential fields from your application as well as relevant data from your credit report and any references provided by third parties that you provided. To provide the most accurate quote possible though, it may be necessary to share the address of the property being financed.

In allowing lenders to view certain data from your credit report, Rate1st ensures that only a single party (Rate1st) is pulling your credit report, thereby preventing each lender from needing to pull your credit report for themselves. This not only enhances the security of your personal credit report, but also prevents your credit score from being negatively impacted by too many requests.

After you select a lender to work with to close your loan, Rate1st will provide your personal information to the lender. This information is necessary to complete the various paperwork and closing process.

Within Rate1st, only designated users have access to your data, including the Rate1st professional(s) assigned to manage your loan. In addition, customer service representatives will have access to certain data, such as your contact information, but not confidential data like your social security number.

If you reached this site via a partner, that partner may also have access to your information. For simple marketing partners, this generally means they will have access to your contact information, but not your confidential information on your application. For partners that use Rate1st as a software provided to manage their own loans, they will have full access to your personal and contact information, just as Rate1st does, so that they may provide their service to you.

Rate1st will also provide your information as appropriate in response to a court order or regulatory request, or during an investigation into fraud or illegal activity. When permitted, Rate1st will notify you about such a request before your information is provided. In the event that Rate1st is acquired in whole or in part by another company, your information may be shared with the acquiring company. However, this Policy would continue to be in effect.

How You Access Your Information

Upon submitting your application, you selected a username and password. You can use these to log into Rate1st at any time to view and update your information. Once you have submitted your application though, certain fields within the application cannot be changed to prevent lenders from submitting a proposal based on old information.

If you simply submitted a contact form which did not request a username and password, you may contact Customer Service to verify or update your information, or to be given access to your account.

Other Information

Links. The Site contains links to other web sites. Rate1st is not responsible for the privacy practices of these other web sites. Please check the policy statement of these others sites to understand their policies.

Partners. Other sites also have links to Rate1st to market our services to their customers or to use our system to manage loan applications of their own customers. Rate1st is not responsible for the privacy policies of these sites or partners. You need to read their privacy statements separately.