Rate1st.com Terms of Use

Rate1st.com, Inc.
1820 East Garry Ave. #213
Santa Ana, CA 92705
Tel: 1-877-728-3178
Fax: 1-949-612-1565

Terms of Use Agreement

Please read this Terms of Use Agreement ("Agreement") carefully. By utilizing Rate1st's services, you hereby agree to the terms and conditions below. Please note that these terms require binding arbitration to resolve any claims. If you do not agree with these terms, we encourage you to not use our services.

Security

Rate1st employs industry-standard security measures to ensure that your data is protected. True security is more than just technology. It requires a series of best practices to ensure secure procedures are followed. Rate1st's security technology and processes includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology to ensure that data submitted from your browser is transferred securely to our webservers, including login and registration.
• Confidential information, such as social security numbers, are stored in our database in encrypted format.
• Firewall technology and software security patches to minimize the risk of an unauthorized person accessing our system.
• Restricting the number of Rate1st employees with access to your information and requiring a separate permission to view confidential data such as social security numbers.
• Requiring explicit permission for each lender to view your information.
• Limiting the information that lenders may view during the proposal process to only the minimal information necessary. This generally means your confidential information is not shared with a lender until you have selected to move forward with that particular lender.

Although Rate1st has taken these reasonable and appropriate measures to ensure that your confidential information remains protected and is displayed only to parties with proper permissions, Rate1st cannot and does not guarantee that your personal and confidential information will not be intercepted, decrypted or otherwise accessed by unauthorized parties.

Loan Origination Services

Rate1st provides loan origination services to consumers and small businesses. This service is provided in accordance with all applicable laws and industry standards. Rate1st's services are intended to assist you in procuring a loan, such as a mortgage, home equity loan, or small business loan at the best rate and terms for which you qualify. Rate1st relies on the information you provide to be accurate and complete.

This service is based on you providing the necessary information in a loan application. Rate1st offers 3 types of applications: a simple contact form, a short application and a full application. In the event you submit a contact form or short application, a Rate1st professional will work with you to gather the additional information necessary to attain the loan terms from Rate1st lenders which best meet your needs. For customers submitting a full application, a Rate1st professional will likely still contact you prior to working with Rate1st lenders for your loan.

Rate1st is not simply a standard loan broker. We provide mortgage planning services to help you understand not just which loan best meets your individual needs, but also how the loan affects your overall personal wealth and financial situation. We work with you to understand and determine your needs, outline the proposed benefits and savings, and even calculate any projected tax benefits. Rate1st does not charge customers directly for its service. It is paid by its lender partners, generally upon the successful closing of a loan. Although Rate1st is working on behalf of a customer to select the best loan that meets their particular needs, Rate1st is neither acting as an advocate for the customer nor representing itself as such an advocate.

Lender Partners

To provide you with a loan that best meets your needs at the best rates and terms possible, Rate1st has relationships with lenders of all types and sizes. Each lender specifies their preferences for the types of loans in which they are interested. Preferences include such criteria as property location, borrower location, loan type, loan amount, customer credit history, length of loan and other factors.

To protect your information and ensure that your loan request is seen only by lenders that are interested in your particular loan and able to meet your needs, Rate1st explicitly grants access to your loan application to the appropriate lenders. Unlike other sites, Rate1st does not simply sell or even provide your contact information to lenders. You are therefore not forced to deal with every lender, answering the same questions several times and generally being harassed. Rate1st lenders are NOT given your contact information without your approval until after you have selected a particular lender with which to close your loan.

Credit Reports

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 pulls your credit report instead of requiring each lender to pull your credit report on their own. This not only protects your contact information from lenders, but also prevents your credit score from being negatively impacted by multiple credit requests.

Links to Third Parties

This site provides links to sites operated and owned by third parties that are not affiliated with Rate1st. These links are provided for your benefit and do not represent an endorsement of these sites. Rate1st makes no warranties or representations about the privacy policy, security policy, or terms of use of these sites. Please refer to these sites for their policies.

Watermark Capital, Inc.

Rate1st has partnered with Watermark Capital, Inc. to provide the licenses necessary for Rate1st to offer its services in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Watermark Capital is not given access to any of your personal or confidential data during the proposal process. For home loans, after you have selected an individual lender with which to close your loan, Watermark Capital provides underwriting services to ensure that the all of the proper documentation necessary to close your loan has been provided and is accurate. Please refer to Watermark Capital's website at http://www.watermarkhomeloans.com for more information and their Privacy Policy.

Data Retention

All loan applications submitted to Rate1st are stored in our secure database. To provide ongoing services and convenience, your loan application is generally not automatically deleted from our database. This enables you to return to Rate1st at a later date to re-activate an earlier loan request or submit a new loan request. However, if you would like your confidential information to be permanently deleted from our database, please contact support@rate1st.com to request this. Your contact information and other non-confidential data may still be retained to provide continued support and access to your account.

Disclaimers

Rate1st intends that the information contained in our website is accurate and reliable. However, errors do sometimes occur. This website and Rate1st's services are provided "as is" without any expressed or implied warranty by Rate1st, its employees, suppliers, partners or lending partners. Rate1st and its employees, suppliers, partners and lending partners are not liable for any direct, indirect, punitive, incidental, special or consequential damages arising out of or in any way connected to your use of this site, Rate1st's services, including any delays or inability to use this site, whether resulting in whole or in part, from breach of contract, tortious behavior, negligence, strict liability or otherwise, even if Rate1st has been advised of the possibility of damages. Use of this site is at your own risk and constitutes acceptance of this policy.

Dispute Resolution

Any and all claims arising out of or relating to this site and to the services provided by Rate1st shall be finally and exclusively settled by binding arbitration in Orange County, California under the rules of the American Arbitration Assocation. This means you waive your right to go to court to assert or defend your rights. To begin the arbitration process, the complaining party must submit a written demand. The costs of arbitration will be paid by the non-prevailing party. The arbitrators shall not have the power to aware damages in excess of actual compensatory damages. Should the arbitration clause herein become inapplicable or unenforceable, the jurisdiction and venue of any lawsuit shall exclusively be in Orange County, California. In the event of such a suit, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover reasonable attorneys' fees.