Recently added to section on Cookies:
Third party vendors, including Google, show our ads on sites on the internet.
Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to our website.
Users may opt out of Google's use of cookies by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page. To opt out of third party vendors.
There are two ways to obtain financing through our website. One is to have ERATE originate your loan and then broker your loan through a third party lender. The other is for ERATE to receive the personal information you input to our forms, or our affiliate forms, and then sell that information to 4 to 5 third party lenders who will compete for your loan. ERATE receives a commission through either process.
When you apply for a loan on the ERATE site you may be asked to enter both personal and non-personal information. We do not sell any personal information about you to any person or organization except: as authorized by you, to participating lenders. Participating third party lenders may contact you within 2 days either by email, phone or both. In order to get your loan
approved and closed through ERATE, we must share some of the information with certain non lender third
parties. These third parties are:
- Appraisal companies
- Credit agencies
- Mortgage insurance companies
- Title and Escrow companies
When you apply for a loan we collect the following
information: Your name, phone number, address, social security number, email
address, employer's name and address, income, assets, liabilities, and answers
to questions of both personal and financial matters. This information is the
same information that you would supply if you were applying for a loan by
filling out a paper loan application.
The user should expect
communication from the site with 24 hours. The communication will come in the
form of an email. In most but not all cases there will be communication via
telephone. Obviously if the user is obtaining financing, ERATE will use the
form of communication which the borrower prefers.
ERATE is licensed with the
Department of Real Estate as a California broker. Our parent company,
Progressive Capital Funding Corporation, is proud to have earned the ValueStar
(TM) certification for providing superior customer service, having been
independently audited for customer satisfaction.
We are approved with
many wholesale mortgage lenders and banks throughout the country, many of whom
you will be familiar with, offering lower rates on a wholesale basis to ERATE
than they would make available directly to you, the consumer. ERATE services
its first mortgage customers by searching our database of lenders to provide
you with the loan program best suited to meet your needs along with our most
competitive interest rates.
When you fill
out a loan application form, with your name, phone number, email address,
social security number, income, assets, liabilities, and answers to questions
of both personal and financial matters we use this information to get your loan
approved.
After you apply for a loan through ERATE we must share
both personal and financial information with:
- Appraisal companies
- Credit agencies
- Lenders
- Mortgage insurance companies
- Title and Escrow companies
ERATE must provide the above third parties with this
information in order to get your loan approved and closed. We only share your
information with third parties that play a role in getting your loan closed. In
addition to these third parties we need to contact your employer and companies
that hold your assets such as a bank. We ask that they verify information such
as income from your employer and asset balances from your bank. We do not
provide them with any information they don't already have.
Since ERATE
is a licensed mortgage broker we are required to let the California Department
of Real Estate audit customer loan files periodically. The purpose of these
audits is to ensure that we are complying with the regulations in place to
protect consumers.
Consumers are able to correct, access and update pertinent
personally identifiable information they have provided ERATE. The mechanisms
provided are either email, telephone or postal mail. The consumer should email
to update-my-info@erate.com or
call 1-800-587-3333 or mail information to ERATE, Update-my-info, 4675 Stevens
Creek Blvd, Suite 230, Santa Clara, CA 95051. Upon receiving and making the
requested changes we will send consumers a confirmation via email that we have
received and updated their information as requested.
In order to guard against the
unauthorized access and use of information, our site features Secured Socket
Layer (SSL) technology supported with digital certificates provided by
Verisign, Inc. SSL encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us.
Accordingly, when you apply for a loan online, all of your personal information
is encrypted, creating a secure connection between you and ERATE.
ERATE takes every precaution to protect our users'
information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your
information is protected both online and off-line.
When our loan
application asks users to enter sensitive information that information is
encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry -
Secured Socket Layer (SSL) technology supported with digital certificates
provided by Verisign, Inc. While on a secure page, such as our loan
application, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape
Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to
un-locked, or open, when you are just 'surfing'. To learn more about SSL,
follow this link While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information
online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information
off-line. All of our users' information, not just the sensitive information
mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the
information to perform a specific job (for example, our loan coordinator) are
granted access to personally identifiable information. Our employees must use
password-protected screen-savers when they leave their desk. When they return,
they must re-enter their password to re-gain access to your information.
Furthermore, ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy
practices. Every quarter, as well as any time new policies are added, our
employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on
privacy, and what they can do to ensure our customers' information is
protected.
If you have any questions about the security at our
website, you can send an email to security@erate.com
A cookie is a small text file that is
stored on a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes. We do use session
cookies on this site within the secure loan application. A session ID cookie
expires when you close your browser or after a period of inactivity while
visiting our site. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any
personally identifiable information you submit while on our site. We use
session cookies to maintain your session during the loan application process..
If your browser is set to decline cookies you may still use our site.
Third party vendors, including Google, show our ads on sites on the internet.
Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to our website.
Users may opt out of Google's use of cookies by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page. To opt out of third party vendors.
We use IP addresses to analyze
trends, administer the site, track user's movement, and gather broad
demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to
personally identifiable information.
A third
party, Myers Internet
Services, hosts the secure server on which the users information is stored.
Myers Internet Services has
access to the user information for purposes such as maintaining the site.
This web site contains links to other
sites. Please be aware that ERATE is not responsible for the privacy practices
of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our
site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that
collects personally identifiable information. The ERATE privacy statement
applies solely to information collected by the ERATE website.
If a user elects to use our
referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask them for the
friend's name and email address. ERATE will automatically send the friend a
one-time email inviting them to visit the site. ERATE stores this information
for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email. The friend may contact
ERATE at privacy@erate.com to request
the removal of this information from their database.
ERATE subscribes to Inman News to
provide additional content to its users. This content consists of a Glossary
and two columnists. These pages do not collect any personally identifiable
information. No information from these pages is gathered or shared.
We may disclose personal
information when required by law or in the good-faith belief that such action
is necessary in order to conform to the edicts of the law or comply with a
legal process served on our Web site.
If we decide to change
our privacy policy or security precautions, we will post a notification on our
homepage so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we
use it, and to whom we share it. If at any point we decide to use personally
identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it
was collected, we will notify users by way of an email. Users will have a
choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner.
We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the
information was collected.
If you have questions or concerns about our
Privacy Policy, you should contact Nancy Osborne, CEO by mailing a letter to
ERATE Privacy Policy, Attn. Nancy Osborne, 4675 Stevens Creek Blvd, Suite 230,
Santa Clara, CA 95051 or send an email to
privacypolicy@erate.com.
Protecting Your Identity from Identity Theft
What to do if you're a Victim of Identity Theft
Internet Identity Theft
More info on Identity Theft Protection
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