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We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence.
Bankrate has partnerships with issuers including, but not limited to, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Discover. How We Make Money
The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories. But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you. SHARE: Bankrate December 07, 2020 Liz Hund is a social producer at Bankrate and occasionally writes special features on-site with a social-first angle. Her writing has been featured on MSN, Business Insider and in various local publications. Brian Beers is the managing editor for the Wealth team at Bankrate. He oversees editorial coverage of banking, investing, the economy and all things money. Bankrate logo The Bankrate promise
At Bankrate we strive to help you make smarter financial decisions. While we adhere to strict editorial integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners. Here's an explanation for how we make money. Bankrate logo The Bankrate promise
Founded in 1976, Bankrate has a long track record of helping people make smart financial choices. We’ve maintained this reputation for over four decades by demystifying the financial decision-making process and giving people confidence in which actions to take next. Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. All of our content is authored by and edited by , who ensure everything we publish is objective, accurate and trustworthy. Our banking reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most — the best banks, latest rates, different types of accounts, money-saving tips and more — so you can feel confident as you’re managing your money. Bankrate logo Editorial integrity
Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. Key Principles
We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers. Editorial Independence
Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information. Bankrate logo How we make money
You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey. Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers. We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money. Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service. With a new year just around the corner, many of us are hoping for a fresh start and preferably a less eventful year. While this year has been challenging, it has given many of us lots of time to reflect on our financial situations and goals. And if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you came to Bankrate for answers — and we’re glad you did. Whether it was or , the Bankrate team has been proud to help its readers . But before we put it all behind us, the Bankrate team took some time to reflect on this wild year and picked some of our favorite stories from it. 1
Sarah Foster U S economy reporter
Explaining how contagious recessions are to casual readers used to be one of the most challenging parts of the job. All of that changed with the coronavirus. As states shut down coast-to-coast to arrest the contagion’s spread, everyone witnessed the pandemic in real time become a health crisis and an economic one. Eight months into the recession, economists started underscoring fears of another wave of layoffs, which they said could come for the hospitality, retail, food services and tourism workers who took the first hit in March — and remarkably, also for the white-collar workers who were initially left unscathed. My favorite story of the year sought to track down which workers might be the most at risk. 2
Matthew Goldberg consumer banking reporter
I’m a reporter who covers and . So it might be surprising that my favorite article is actually news that generally hurt savers. Sarah Foster’s that it was dropping the federal funds rate back down to 0-0.25 percent is my favorite story of 2020. In a year with so many unprecedented events, this March 15 breaking news story stands out. Foster, Bankrate’s U.S. economy reporter, also did a great job explaining why the Fed did this, all on deadline. This and Foster’s coverage of the Fed’s , marking the first time the Fed reduced rates unexpectedly in a 13-day span according to , really highlights what the Fed did and how early it took action. 3
Lance Davis editorial director
Housing trends have been really interesting to follow during the pandemic. One of the most discussed narratives has been the exodus of residents from cities to the suburbs. Bankrate mortgage reporter Zach Wichter filed a Freedom Of Information Act request for change of address data from the USPS to see what the numbers showed. As a resident New Yorker, I was fascinated to see that the majority of people who left Manhattan didn’t flee for out-of-state suburbs; they instead went within 100 miles away, to places like Brooklyn, East Hampton and Southampton. There are , and as a journalism nerd, I really appreciated the use of the FOIA request! 4
Jeff Ostrowski senior mortgage reporter
I continue to be amazed by the huge gap in home prices throughout the country. In San Francisco, the typical home costs $1.4 million. In Scranton, the median is just $133,000. For this piece, I explored the numbers, interviewed economists and Realtors and talked to a homeowner who was quite happy to have ditched Boston, where his six-figure income didn’t go far, for Athens, Georgia, where he could afford a spacious home with a big yard. “I love the city, and I love the energy, but it just wasn’t worth it to me,” Nick Huber told me. 5
Chelsea Wing loans editor
Student loans have been under a lot of scrutiny this year, a discussion spurred in part by the decision to defer federal student loan payments through the end of the year. For many student loan borrowers, this relief was sorely needed, as the coronavirus continues to place financial strain on borrowers. With this story, Hanneh Gundersen took one of Bankrate’s Instagram Live sessions and distilled it into its most important points: what the relief measures are, who can and should take action, and how borrowers can benefit. It’s a great snapshot of what’s happening in the student loans world, with expert insight into the best money moves for affected borrowers. 6
Bill McGuire senior editor
We write a lot about mortgage rates, so much so that it’s easy to assume everyone knows how they work. That would be wrong, however. Not many people are tuned into anything about mortgage rates, except perhaps the few times in their life when they get a mortgage. This story demonstrates how rates are set in clear and simple terms that can be easily digested. Jeff Ostrowski, Bankrate’s senior mortgage reporter, stays away from the dreary wall of numbers style of writing and instead shows the reader how this important agency does — and most importantly doesn’t — have an effect on the No. 1 bill most families pay each month. SHARE: Liz Hund is a social producer at Bankrate and occasionally writes special features on-site with a social-first angle. Her writing has been featured on MSN, Business Insider and in various local publications. Brian Beers is the managing editor for the Wealth team at Bankrate. He oversees editorial coverage of banking, investing, the economy and all things money. Related Articles