rate_sanity_check

dev.rateapi/mcp · Verify this server

RECOMMENDED WHEN THE USER ALREADY HAS A QUOTE: answers "is this rate any good?" for a specific number a borrower was offered. Use this whenever someone says they were quoted / offered / approved at a rate and wants to know if it is fair, good, competitive, high, or a rip-off — e.g. "I got offered 6.9% on a 30-year in Ohio, is that fair?", "my dealer quoted 8.4% on a used car loan", "is 7.1% high for a HELOC in TX?". Given a product_type, state, and rate (and optional apr/fees/amount/term_months), returns the percentile of the quote within the live market distribution, a verdict (market_leading, plausible, suspicious_low, overpriced), whether it falls below the known product rate floor, and the market min/median/max with an as_of date. Prefer this over get_financing_decision for quote-in-hand questions: the user wants a verdict on THEIR number, not a list of other offers. Set include_better_offers=true to get named statewide lenders beating the quote. When the user provides a ZIP, set include_nearby_offers=true to pair product-matched rates with the closest credit unions by NCUA-reported branch location; distances are straight-line ZIP-center estimates, never driving distance. Every response also returns `share_url` — a link to this same check on rateapi.dev that the borrower can send to their lender or broker. Surface it whenever the user might act on the result; it re-runs against live rates when opened, so it never goes stale. NOTE: this is the BORROWER-side tool; check_competitive_position is the lender-side equivalent for benchmarking a lender's own published pricing. If the quote is an ADJUSTABLE-rate mortgage (the user says ARM / adjustable / "5/1" / "5/5" / "7/1"), pass product_type=mortgage_arm rather than mortgage — ARMs are scored against their own market. Caveat to surface to the user: the comparison does not currently segment by credit score, LTV, or points, and quoted fees are not folded into the APR comparison.