Terms of service

1. Electronic agreement

You consent to receive communications from us electronically (including email and on-Site notices). You agree that electronic agreements, notices, and disclosures satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

2. Geographic scope and eligibility

The Site is directed to individuals and entities in the United States. We make no representation that Content (defined below) or tools are appropriate or available outside the U.S. If you access the Site from another jurisdiction, you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with local laws. If local law prohibits your use, you are not authorized to access the Site.

The Site is not intended for minors. You represent that you are at least eighteen (18) years old (or the age of majority where you live) and have legal capacity to agree to these Terms.

3. Changes to these Terms

We may change the Site, Content, tools, and these Terms at any time without prior notice. Changes take effect when posted. Each time you access the Site, you should review the current Terms. Continued use after changes are posted constitutes acceptance. If any change is not acceptable to you, you must stop using the Site.

4. Who we are; not a lender

Rateshive provides mortgage calculators, public benchmark context, educational articles, and related tools. We are not a bank, credit union, mortgage broker, loan correspondent, or lender. We do not originate, fund, broker, arrange, endorse, or guarantee loans; we do not set rates or make credit decisions; and we do not provide loan estimates, Loan Estimates, Closing Disclosures, or commitments to lend under Regulation Z or similar laws.

Any lending relationship is solely between you and a licensed provider. See About and Methodology for additional context.

5. No professional relationship or advice

Your use of the Site does not create any advisory, fiduciary, broker, agent, attorney-client, accountant-client, or lender-borrower relationship with Rateshive. We do not owe you any duty of care beyond those expressly stated in these Terms (and we disclaim duties to the maximum extent permitted by law).

Nothing on the Site is tailored to your financial situation. Content is general in nature; you must not construe it as legal, accounting, insurance, or other professional advice. You should evaluate all information in consultation with your attorney, tax advisor, insurance specialist, loan officer, or other qualified advisors.

6. Educational use only; assumption of risk; no reliance

All Site content, including articles, Learn guides, Market and Insights pages, charts, benchmarks, emails, rate alerts, and automated summaries, is provided for general informational and educational purposes only. It is not financial, legal, tax, insurance, real estate, or investment advice.

YOU USE THE SITE AT YOUR SOLE RISK. You are solely responsible for all decisions and transactions you make. You agree that you will not rely on the Site, Rateshive, or any Rateshive Party (defined below) as the sole or primary basis for any decision, and that you will independently verify all rates, fees, programs, timelines, and legal requirements with licensed professionals and official sources before acting.

7. Calculators, exports, and hypothetical results

Calculator, comparison, and planning tools produce hypothetical illustrations only, based on your inputs and simplifying assumptions disclosed (or inherent) on each page. Outputs are not loan estimates, disclosures, approvals, offers, or guarantees of future performance.

Results may omit, simplify, or misstate taxes, insurance, HOA dues, mortgage insurance, points, lender credits, overlays, appraisal values, title costs, recording fees, prepaids, escrows, opportunity cost, and other material factors. You assume all risk from using, sharing, exporting, or acting on any calculator output or PDF/report.

8. Market data, Insights, and communications

“Content” means all information, opinions, text, graphics, software, data, tools, emails, and other materials on or made available through the Site. Benchmarks, charts, and Insights may incorporate third-party or public data (for example government statistical releases). Data may be delayed, revised, rounded, interpolated, or displayed with errors. We do not guarantee timeliness, accuracy, completeness, or currency of Content.

We have no duty to update Content and may discontinue or change data sources at any time without liability.

Rate alerts, newsletters, and other emails are informational only. Delivery is not guaranteed. You are responsible for unsubscribing and for decisions you make based on any communication. We are not liable for missed, delayed, or erroneous alerts.

9. Scope of permitted use

Unless we give written permission, you may view, use, and download limited portions of Content only for your personal, non-commercial, informational use, provided you keep copyright and proprietary notices intact. You may not store, modify, reproduce, transmit, reverse engineer, frame, mirror, or distribute a substantial portion of the Site or Content, and you may not use systematic retrieval (scraping, harvesting, or bulk extraction) except as robots.txt or written permission allows.

Commercial use, reproduction, transmission, or distribution of Site materials without our prior written consent is prohibited.

10. Email and electronic submissions

Communications over the Internet (including email and forms) may not be secure and may be intercepted by third parties. Consider this before sending sensitive information. See our Privacy policy.

You agree not to submit materials that: (i) are unlawful, defamatory, threatening, obscene, or harassing; (ii) contain viruses or harmful components; (iii) incorporate others’ copyrighted or proprietary material without permission; or (iv) otherwise violate law or these Terms. We are not obligated to maintain confidentiality for unsolicited submissions except as stated in the Privacy policy or required by law.

11. Advertising, affiliates, and sponsors

The Site may display third-party advertisements (including Google AdSense), sponsored placements, or links to lenders and other businesses. We do not guarantee any offer, rate, product, or business mentioned in ads, listings, or outbound links. While we aim for quality, we do not accept responsibility for advertiser claims, referring-site materials, or third-party conduct. You use such information at your own risk.

As described on our Methodology page, Rateshive does not currently earn lender referral fees. If compensation arrangements change, we will disclose them clearly.

12. Third-party links

Links are provided for convenience only. We do not control, endorse, or guarantee third-party sites and disclaim all warranties, express and implied, regarding the accuracy, validity, legality, or reliability of information on linked sites. If you follow a link, you do so at your own risk and should read that site’s terms and privacy policies. We may terminate links at any time without liability.

You may link to our homepage in a fair and legal manner that does not damage our reputation or suggest endorsement, subject to our written linking standards if we publish them.

13. Acceptable use; unlawful use prohibited

As a condition of use, you warrant that you will use the Site only for lawful purposes permitted by these Terms. You agree not to:

• Violate any law or third-party rights;
• Access the Site without authorization or probe, scan, or test vulnerabilities;
• Scrape, crawl, harvest, or bulk-download content except as allowed by robots.txt or our written permission;
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code except where prohibited by law;
• Interfere with Site operation, impose unreasonable load, or introduce malware;
• Misrepresent Rateshive as a lender or imply guaranteed approval, rates, or outcomes;
• Submit false, misleading, or unauthorized information through any form; or
• Use the Site for high-risk activities where failure could lead to death, personal injury, or severe property damage;
• Obtain materials through means not intentionally provided by the Site; or
• Use the Site in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the Site or interfere with others’ use.

We may suspend or terminate access, remove content, monitor activity, and cooperate with authorities without liability to you.

14. Anti-spam

Harvesting email addresses from the Site through automated or manual means is prohibited. Posting or transmitting unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, or other solicitation to users is prohibited.

15. User submissions

If you submit feedback, contact messages, rate-alert signups, or information through forms (including Get started), you represent that you have the right to provide the information; that it is accurate and not misleading; that it does not violate these Terms or injure any person or entity; and that you control the rights necessary to grant the license below.

You grant Rateshive a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, distribute, perform, and display submissions in any media now known or later developed, for any purpose related to operating, improving, and promoting the Site, without compensation to you. Submissions are non-confidential. Do not submit proprietary business ideas you wish to keep private. We may remove submissions at any time without liability.

You are solely responsible for submissions you provide and any consequences that follow.

Personal data handling is described in our Privacy policy.

16. Intellectual property and DMCA

The Site and Content are owned by Rateshive or licensors and protected by U.S. and international intellectual property laws. No title or rights transfer to you through access. We respect others’ IP rights and may terminate access for repeat infringers where appropriate.

DMCA notice. If you believe Content infringes your copyright, send a written notice to our Copyright Agent at info@rateshive.com (subject: “DMCA Notice”) including: (1) your physical or electronic signature; (2) identification of the copyrighted work; (3) identification of the infringing material and its location on the Site; (4) your contact information; (5) a statement of good-faith belief that use is not authorized; and (6) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act for the owner.

17. Site changes and availability

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Site at any time without notice or liability. We do not guarantee continuous, secure, or error-free operation. You are responsible for your devices, networks, and security practices.

18. Disclaimer of warranties

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SITE AND ALL CONTENT, DATA, TOOLS, EMAILS, AND SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY. THE RATESHIVE PARTIES DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, CURRENCY, RELIABILITY, SYSTEMS INTEGRATION, AND QUIET ENJOYMENT.

WE DO NOT ENDORSE AND MAKE NO WARRANTY AS TO THE ACCURACY OR RELIABILITY OF CONTENT. WITHOUT LIMITATION, WE DO NOT WARRANT UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE OPERATION; THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED; THAT CONTENT IS CURRENT; OR THAT THE SITE OR CONTENT IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR HARMFUL COMPONENTS. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY RESULTS OR CONSEQUENCES OF USING THE SITE AND FOR TAKING PRECAUTIONS YOU DEEM NECESSARY.

Some jurisdictions do not allow disclaimer of implied warranties; in those jurisdictions, disclaimers apply to the fullest extent permitted.

19. Your sole responsibility

You are solely and exclusively responsible for your access to and use of the Site, for how you interpret Content, and for every action you take (including financial, housing, and legal decisions). You are solely responsible for your interactions with third parties, including lenders, advertisers, and other users.

You agree that Rateshive and the Rateshive Parties (defined below) are not responsible for any outcome, loss, injury, or harm connected with your use of the Site, your reliance on Content, calculator outputs, alerts, or third-party links, except where liability cannot be excluded under applicable law.

“Rateshive Parties” means Rateshive and its owners, operators, affiliates, licensors, and suppliers.

20. No liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Rateshive Parties are not liable for any damages or losses of any kind arising from or related to the Site or these Terms, including mistakes or delays in Content, calculator results, housing or mortgage outcomes, third-party conduct, or technical interruptions, even if we have been advised such harm is possible.

Where liability cannot be fully excluded, our total responsibility to you for any matter related to the Site is limited to the greater of (a) amounts you paid us for Site access in the prior twelve months, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars (US $100.00). Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations; in those places, our liability is limited to the fullest extent permitted.

21. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware and applicable U.S. federal law, except where mandatory protections in your jurisdiction cannot be waived. If a court with proper authority hears a matter related to the Site, it will be in New Castle County, Delaware, unless applicable law requires otherwise.

If you have a separate written agreement with Rateshive, that agreement is additional to these Terms unless it expressly supersedes a specific provision.

22. Force majeure

Rateshive is not liable for any delay or failure to perform resulting from events beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, labor disputes, internet or hosting failures, government actions, or failures of third-party data providers.

23. General provisions

• Entire agreement: these Terms and the Privacy policy are the entire agreement regarding the Site and supersede prior understandings.
• Changes: we may update these Terms at any time by posting a revised version. Continued use after the “Last updated” date constitutes acceptance. Material changes may also be noted on the Site where practicable.
• Severability: if any provision is held invalid, the remainder remains in effect; the invalid provision will be modified minimally to be enforceable.
• No waiver: failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver.
• Assignment: you may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them freely.
• No third-party beneficiaries: except Rateshive Parties, no person has rights under these Terms.
• Survival: provisions that by nature should continue (including your sole responsibility, disclaimers, and no-liability terms) remain in effect after you stop using the Site.
• Language: these Terms are in English; translations are for convenience only.

24. Contact

Questions about these Terms: info@rateshive.com or Contact.