Our writers

The people behind Daily Rate

Priya ShahFounding editorPriya founded Daily Rate after six years underwriting consumer loans and credit lines at a regional credit union, reading enough loan files to know where an advertised rate and the real cost tend to split. She still pulls current rate sheets herself before every card or loan comparison goes up, rather than relying on an aggregator's numbers. She lives outside Portland and reconciles her own bank statements by hand once a month.Harold BennerSavings and banking writerHarold spent eleven years managing a small-town bank branch before he started writing, which is where he learned how a quarter-point move in the federal funds rate actually works its way into a posted APY months later. He covers savings accounts and the mechanics connecting policy rates to what shows up on a statement. He keeps three different savings accounts open just to watch how their rates drift apart over time.Camille FerroBudgeting writerCamille has tracked every dollar of her own household spending by hand for the past four years, after a year of automated budgeting apps told her less about her actual habits than a notebook did. She covers budgeting methods and the saving habits that go with them, testing each one on her own finances before writing about it. She still keeps a stack of labeled envelopes in a kitchen drawer, mostly for travel cash.Daily Rate Rates DeskDaily mortgage rate reportThe Rates Desk publishes Daily Rate's weekday mortgage rate report and its one-minute video. Each report is drafted automatically from the Optimal Blue Mortgage Market Indices, the 10-year Treasury yield and Freddie Mac's weekly survey; every figure is checked against that data, and an editor reviews the report before it goes up.