Teach Money With Numbers Nobody Paid to Place
Your community gets quoted retail. You counter with the actual market: live mortgage, auto, and savings rates from 3,700+ credit unions, each number traced to the lender's own page — plus the membership path that gets your client in the door. No affiliate revenue. No lead selling. Ever.
What does RateAPI give a counseling or advocacy organization?
A live, unbiased view of the lending market your clients are walking into — and the specific institutions that will treat them best. Financial education dates fast: the rate sheet in your workshop deck was true last quarter. RateAPI reads rates from 3,700+ credit unions daily, ranks them by true cost with zero pay-to-rank, and pairs every recommendation with verified membership eligibility — who can join, by what path, at what cost.
- Free to teach with: state pages, rate check, and credit union profiles are open — every number links to its source.
- Eligibility included: "join a credit union" becomes "here are the three you qualify for, and here's how."
- Embeddable: put live rates on your own site with the rate widget — no ads, no lead capture.
Read the methodology and the transparency page — they exist so you can vet us before you put our numbers in front of your community.
The People Who Most Need Fair Numbers Get the Worst Ones
First-time buyers and first-generation wealth builders get quoted whatever the first lender says, and most "compare rates" sites they Google are ranked by who paid — advertising wearing an education costume. A counselor's credibility is the antidote, but credibility needs current data, and current data has been the expensive part.
Credit unions — member-owned, often the fairest pricing in a market — are the institutions your clients can least easily discover: 3,700+ of them, each with its own site, its own membership rules, and no marketing budget.
That discovery problem is exactly what RateAPI automated. The whole market, read daily from the source, ranked by what it actually costs, with the join-path attached — free to use in a counseling session today.
A Client Scenario In, the Fair Market Out
// A counseling client: first home, $220,000, GeorgiaPOST https://api.rateapi.dev/v1/decisions { "decision_type": "financing", "context": { "geo": { "state": "GA" } }, "product_request": { "product_type": "mortgage", "intent": "purchase", "amount": 220000, "term_months": 360 }}{ "summary": { "recommended_action": "financing_available", "best_apr": 6.12, "estimated_monthly_payment": 1337, "total_providers_analyzed": 594 }, "actions": [{ "offers": [ { "rank": 1, "credit_union_name": "Example Credit Union", "apr": 6.12, "term_months": 360, "monthly_payment": 1337 } // each offer links to the lender page it was read from ] }]}Built for Education, Not Extraction
Zero Pay-to-Rank
No affiliate revenue, no placement, no lead selling. Rankings are by APR including fees — the number your client will actually pay.
Membership Paths
Verified eligibility for every credit union: geography, employer, association, or open charter, plus the cost to join — from the institution's own page.
Source on Every Number
Each rate links to the lender page it was read from. Teach clients to verify — the habit matters more than any single rate.
Embeddable Widget
Live rates on your organization's own site — current numbers for your community, with no ads and no data capture attached.
Savings Side Too
CDs, money market, and savings APYs across the same institutions — wealth building is deposits and credit, and the data covers both.
Free Where It Counts
The site's rate pages, profiles, and calculators are free without limits. The API free tier covers most counseling workflows; community tools that need more, talk to us.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions from counselors and community organizations
Why does it matter that RateAPI takes no affiliate money?
Because most rate content online is advertising wearing an education costume: comparison sites are paid by lenders, and placement follows payment. A counselor who shows a client a pay-to-rank list is unknowingly relaying ads. RateAPI takes zero affiliate revenue, sells no leads, and ranks by true cost only — so the numbers you teach with have no thumb on the scale.
How do membership eligibility checks help my clients?
Credit unions often have the best rates, but "join a credit union" is useless advice without the how. RateAPI tracks who can join each credit union — by geography, employer, association, place of worship, or open charter — plus the cost to join, verified from the institution's own membership page. You can hand a client the specific institutions they qualify for and the path in.
Do we need a developer to use this?
No. The state and city rate pages, the rate-check tool, and the credit union profiles on this site are free to use in sessions and workshops as they are — every number links to its source page, which makes them teaching tools. The API and embeddable widget are there when your organization wants rates inside its own site or intake tools.
Can we embed live rates on our organization's website?
Yes. The embeddable rate widget shows live, source-verified rates for your state or product focus on your own pages, so your community sees current numbers instead of a PDF from last quarter. It carries no ads and no lead capture — it is data, not a funnel.
Is there a free tier for nonprofits and counselors?
The free tier (20 requests/month, instant key, no sales call) covers many counseling workflows, and the site itself is free without limit. If your organization needs more volume for a community tool, reach out — community education is a use we want to support.
Where does the data come from?
Every rate is read directly from the lender's own published rate pages, re-verified daily, timestamped, and stored with the source URL. Nothing is self-reported by lenders and nothing is paid placement. The methodology page documents exactly how collection and ranking work.
Put the Real Market in Front of Your Community
The rate pages are free to use today. A free API key (20 requests/month, email required) adds programmatic access — no signup form, no sales calls.