Who is FreeRateUpdate?

What company operates FreeRateUpdate.com?

Both licences are public. You can look up FreeRateUpdate.com LLC on the NMLS Consumer Access page for NMLS #1154338, and the California entity on the NMLS Consumer Access page for NMLS #1452444. The state-by-state list of the licences we hold, with each state's licence number, is on our Licensing Disclosure page.

What does FreeRateUpdate do?

We help people who are shopping for a mortgage, a refinance, or a home equity loan reach lenders and brokers who are licensed to do that business. When you use a rate finder or form on this site, the information you give us is used to connect you with lenders and brokers in the FreeRateUpdate network. We are not the lender: we do not make loans, we do not issue loan commitments, and we do not set the rate or the terms any lender offers you.

We also publish rate information, calculators, answers to common mortgage questions, and profiles of the lenders and brokers in our network.

How we are paid. FreeRateUpdate is a marketing lead generator, as defined in our General Terms, and lenders compensate us for the services we provide to them. That is the whole business model, and it is why we hold ourselves to the next rule.

We do not identify which lender offers the lowest rate. Where we publish rates from our network, we publish them only as network-wide figures. We do not name the lender behind any particular rate, and we do not claim to have the best rate available anywhere. Rates, fees, and eligibility differ by lender and by borrower, and the only number that applies to you is the one a lender quotes you after reviewing your situation.

Who writes and reviews the content on this site?

Our content comes from the people who do this work for a living. The answers, guidance, and lender content we publish are grounded in the expertise of the licensed loan officers and brokers who operate in the FreeRateUpdate network. We do not publish under an invented house byline, and we do not have an anonymous "editorial team" persona standing in for a person.

Review is a separate, second step, and it is deliberately strict:

1. Content is written and published.
2. A licensed mortgage professional reviews a specific version of a page and approves it. Only then does that page carry a visible line naming the reviewer and her NMLS number ("Biography reviewed by Paige Sutton, NMLS #1888684") and the matching reviewedBy structured data.

The consequence is the part that matters: a page that has not been reviewed carries no reviewer byline at all. The byline is not a site-wide badge. It appears only on the pages that reviewer has actually approved, it is tied to the exact version she approved, and the name shown is the name registered with NMLS so it can be checked against her licence record. If the approved version changes, the byline goes away until it is reviewed again.

Paige Sutton is a licensed mortgage professional, NMLS #1888684. Her licence record is public on NMLS Consumer Access.

Where does the data FreeRateUpdate publishes come from?

Some of what we publish is our own first-party data, and we describe how each set is built rather than asking you to take the numbers on faith.

• Median home values of rate shoppers. The property values people report to us while they are actively shopping mortgage and home-equity rates, aggregated by state and nationally over a rolling twelve-month window. It is a median, not an average. A state with too few responses to be meaningful is suppressed rather than published thin.
• Network "As Low As" rates. The lowest rates and APRs we can verify are being advertised by lenders and brokers in our network, captured as a daily snapshot. Published as network-wide figures only, never attributed to a specific lender. "As low as" is the literal claim: it is the bottom of what our network advertises, not a rate anyone is offered by default.
• Reference series. Where we chart our figures against an outside benchmark, such as the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey or U.S. Treasury yields, the outside series is published with its source named.

Dates are held to the same standard. The "last updated" date on a page, the date in its structured data, and the date in our sitemap all come from one resolved timestamp for that page. When we cannot establish a real date for something, we publish no date rather than a plausible guess.

Has FreeRateUpdate been covered or rated by anyone independent?

Yes, and we would rather point you at the sources than describe ourselves. Each item below links to the organisation that published it, so you can read it there instead of here.

Industry and press coverage

• HousingWire: 9 top places to buy mortgage leads in 2026 (October 27, 2025) FreeRateUpdate.com was ranked third among mortgage lead sources, behind LendingTree and Bankrate.
• HousingWire: Just 16 mortgage lenders, brokers make Inc. 5000 list in 2023 (August 17, 2023) FreeRateUpdate.com was reported at No. 1,273 on the 2023 Inc. 5000 with 464% three-year growth, one of only 16 mortgage lenders and brokers on that list.
• Mortech, a Zillow Group business: Mortech announces integration with FreeRateUpdate.com (September 3, 2020) FreeRateUpdate.com was described as a mortgage rate marketplace in the announcement of a technology integration between the two companies.
• Los Angeles Times: Mortgage rates down slightly, Freddie Mac says (February 18, 2010) FreeRateUpdate.com was cited on the rates available to borrowers who shop around.
• Los Angeles Times: Mortgage rates remain near record lows for modern era (March 4, 2010) FreeRateUpdate's rate research was cited alongside the Freddie Mac survey.
• Los Angeles Times: Little change in mortgage rates (April 29, 2010) FreeRateUpdate.com's tracking of wholesale loan rates available to brokers was cited.
• Los Angeles Times: Mortgage interest rates dip lower still (May 20, 2010) FreeRateUpdate's wholesale mortgage rate tracking was cited.
• Los Angeles Times: More record lows for mortgage rates? (September 23, 2010) FreeRateUpdate.com's survey of rates available through mortgage brokers was cited.
• Los Angeles Times: Fixed mortgage rates edge higher; key variable rate drops (October 28, 2010) FreeRateUpdate.com was cited on where 30-year loan rates stood.
• Los Angeles Times: Mortgage rates this year were lowest since 1955, Freddie Mac says (December 30, 2010) FreeRateUpdate.com's reading of the industry's internal pricing documents was cited.

The Los Angeles Times cited FreeRateUpdate's rate research in seven separate pieces during 2010, all by staff writer E. Scott Reckard.

Inc. 5000

FreeRateUpdate has been named to the Inc. 5000, Inc. Magazine's list of the fastest-growing private companies in America, in eight years. The strongest listing is No. 283 in 2014, and the listings span 2014 to 2023, across two very different rate environments. The years are not consecutive: there is no listing for 2019 or 2020.

Source: Inc.'s company profile for FreeRateUpdate.com. The 2023 listing is separately covered by HousingWire, linked above.

Ratings and reviews

• Better Business Bureau profile for FreeRateUpdate.com LLC BBB Accredited since 2010, rated A+.
• FreeRateUpdate reviews on Trustpilot Consumer reviews, published and scored by Trustpilot rather than by us. We reply to them, including the critical ones.

We deliberately do not reprint a review score on this page. A number typed into our own HTML is out of date the moment it moves; the links go to the parties who actually maintain the ratings.

How do I contact FreeRateUpdate or read its policies?

To reach a person, see our Contact page for the phone number and the hours our call center is open. Lenders and brokers who want to work with us should use Business Inquiries/Support.

Our policies and required disclosures:

• Privacy Policy
• CPRA Policy
• GLBA Policy
• General Terms
• Licensing Disclosure
• * Advertising Disclosure
• Privacy Preferences
• California Collection Notice
• NMLS Consumer Access Page
• California NMLS Consumer Access Page