By visiting, using and/or submitting information to www.interest.com, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Agreement of Terms of Use (the "Agreement") and Interest.com's Privacy Policy, located at: http://home-equity.interest.com/content/general/privacystatement.asp (the "Privacy Policy").

This Agreement contains an agreement to arbitrate all claims and disclaimers of warranties and liability.

Your Compliance with this Agreement

You represent that you have the capacity to be bound by this Agreement, or if you are acting on behalf of a company or other entity, you have the authority to bind such company or entity.  In order to determine your compliance with this Agreement, Interest.com may monitor your access and use of www.interest.com in accordance with Interest.com’s Privacy Policy.

Your Access and Use of www.interest.com

Your right to access and use www.interest.com is personal to you and is not transferable by you to any other person or entity. You are only entitled to access and use www.interest.com for lawful purposes and pursuant to the terms and conditions of this Agreement and Interest.com’s Privacy Policy.

Your access and use of www.interest.com may be interrupted from time to time for any of several reasons, including, without limitation, the malfunction of equipment, periodic updating, maintenance or repair of www.interest.com or other actions that Interest.com, in its sole discretion, may elect to take. Interest.com reserves the right to suspend or discontinue the availability of www.interest.com and/or any portion or feature of www.interest.com at any time in its sole discretion and without prior notice.

Any action by you that, in Interest.com's sole discretion: (i) violates the terms and conditions of this Agreement and/or Interest.com’s Privacy Policy; (ii) restricts, inhibits or prevents any access, use or enjoyment of www.interest.com ; or (iii) through the use of www.interest.com, defames, abuses, harasses, offends or threatens, shall not be permitted, and may result in your loss of the right to access and use www.interest.com.  You shall not metatag, provide links to or frame www.interest.com without the prior express written permission of Interest.com.

Public Forums

www.interest.com may act as a venue, through its chat rooms, bulletin boards and other forums (collectively, the “Forums”), allowing the public to contribute information and make statements. Interest.com is not involved in the actual transmission of information and statements provided for in the Forums.  As a result, Interest.com does not approve or endorse any information or statements in the Forums, and you hereby acknowledge and agree that Interest.com has no control over the quality, correctness, timeliness, safety, truth, accuracy or legality of any information provided for by you or any other person or entity in the Forums.  You may find information posted in the Forums by other users to be offensive, harmful, inaccurate or deceptive.  Please use caution and common sense, and do not rely solely on information or statements published in the Forums.  Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, and although Interest.com does not regularly review information provided for in the Forums, Interest.com reserves the right, but not the obligation, to remove or edit any information in the Forums.

Immediately report problems with the Forums to Interest.com at webmaster@interest.com.

Transmissions, Submissions and Postings to www.interest.com

If you transmit, submit or post information to www.interest.com that is not Federally trademarked and/or copyrighted, you automatically grant Interest.com and its affiliates the worldwide, fully-paid, royalty-free, exclusive right and license to use, copy, format, adapt, publish and/or incorporate any or all such information in any media whatsoever, including, without limitation, the Content (as defined below).  Provided that you have obtained prior written permission from Interest.com to transmit, submit or post information to www.interest.com that is Federally trademarked and/or copyrighted, you automatically grant Interest.com and its affiliates the worldwide, fully-paid, royalty-free right to use, copy, format, adapt, publish and/or incorporate any or all such information in any media whatsoever, including, without limitation, the Content.

You shall not transmit, submit or post the following to www.interest.com:

• Information that infringes Interest.com’s or any third party’s copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary rights;
• Information that violates any law, statute, ordinance or regulation;
• Information that is trade libelous, unlawfully threatening, unlawfully harassing, defamatory, obscene, explicit or vulgar, or otherwise injurious to Interest.com or third parties or that infringes on Interest.com’s or any third party’s rights of publicity or privacy;
• Information that contains any viruses, worms, Trojan horses, trap doors, back doors, easter eggs, time bombs, cancelbots or other code or computer programming routines that contain contaminating or destructive properties or that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information;
• Information containing or constituting chain letters, mass mailings, political campaigning, or any form of “spam”;
• Information that is false, inaccurate or misleading;
• Commercial advertisements or solicitations without written permission from Interest.com; or
• Federally Trademarked and/or Copyrighted information without written permission from Interest.com.

Although Interest.com does not regularly review your transmissions, submissions or postings, Interest.com reserves the right (but not the obligation) to edit, refuse to post or remove your transmissions, submissions or postings.  Pursuant to Interest.com’s Privacy Policy, Interest.com may review transmissions, submissions or postings made by you to determine, in its sole discretion, your compliance with this Agreement.

Interest.com's Intellectual Property Rights

The names "Interest.com", "bankrate.com", and "bankrate.com and design", and Interest.com’s graphics, logos, page headers, button icons, scripts, and service names are trademarks or trade dress of Interest.com or its subsidiaries, in the United States and/or other countries (collectively, the “Proprietary Marks”).  You may not use the Proprietary Marks without the prior express written permission of Interest.com, which permission may be withheld in Interest.com's sole discretion. Interest.com makes no proprietary claim to any third-party names, trademarks or service marks appearing on www.interest.com. Any third-party names, trademarks, and service marks are property of their respective owners.

The information, advice, data, software and content viewable on, contained in, or downloadable from, www.interest.com (collectively, the "Content"), including, without limitation, all text, graphics, charts, pictures, photographs, images, line art, icons, renditions and floor plans, are copyrighted by, or otherwise licensed to, Interest.com or its Content suppliers.  Interest.com also owns a copyright of a collective work in the selection, coordination, arrangement, presentation, display and enhancement of the Content (the “Collective Work”). All software used on www.interest.com (the “Software”) is the property of Interest.com or its software vendors and is protected by United States and international copyright laws.  Viewing, reading, printing, downloading or otherwise using the Content and/or the Collective Work does not entitle you to any ownership or intellectual property rights to the Content, the Collective Work or the Software. 

You shall be solely responsible for any damage resulting from your infringement of Interest.com's or any third party's intellectual property rights regarding the Trademarks, the Content, the Collective Work, the Software and/or any other harm incurred by Interest.com or its affiliates as a direct or indirect result of your copying, distributing, redistributing, transmitting, publishing or using the same for purposes that are contrary to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

Your Use of the Content

Interest.com grants you a limited license to access, print, download or otherwise make personal use the Content and the Collective Work in the form of: (i) one machine-readable copy; (ii) one backup copy; and (iii) one print copy, for your non-commercial use; provided, however, that you shall not delete any proprietary notices or materials with regard to the foregoing manifestations of the Content and the Collective Work. You may not modify the Content or the Collective Work or utilize them for any commercial purpose or any other public display, performance, sale, or rental, decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble the Content and the Collective Work, or transfer the Content or the Collective Work to another person or entity.   

Except as otherwise permitted under the copyright laws of the United States, no other copying, distribution, redistribution, transmission, publication or use, other than the non-commercial use of the Content and the Collective Work as permitted by this Agreement, is permitted by you without the express prior written permission of Interest.com, which permission may be withheld in Interest.com's sole discretion.

You may not use any meta tags or any other “hidden text” utilizing Interest.com’s name or trademarks without the express written permission of Interest.com, which permission may be withheld in Interest.com's sole discretion.

Access and Interference

www.interest.com contains robot exclusion headers. You agree that you will not use any robot, spider, scraper, deep link or other similar automated data gathering or extraction tools, program, algorithm or methodology to access, acquire, copy or monitor www.interest.com or any portion of www.interest.com or for any other purpose, without Interest.com’s express written permission which may be withheld in Interest.com’s sole discretion.  Additionally, you agree that you will not: (i) take any action that imposes, or may impose in Interest.com’s sole discretion an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on Interest.com’s infrastructure; (ii) copy, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute or publicly display any content (except for your personal information) from www.interest.com without the prior written permission of Interest.com and the appropriate third party, as applicable; (iii) interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of www.interest.com or any activities conducted on www.interest.com; or (iv) bypass Interest.com’s robot exclusion headers or other measures Interest.com may use to prevent or restrict access to www.interest.com.

Electronic Communications

When you visit www.interest.com or send email to Interest.com, you are communicating with Interest.com electronically.  You consent to receive communications from Interest.com electronically.  Although Interest.com may choose to communicate with you by regular mail, Interest.com may also choose to communicate with you by e-mail or by posting notices on www.interest.com.  You agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures and other communications that Interest.com provides to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

Your Responsibility for Equipment and Related Costs

You are responsible for obtaining and maintaining all telephone, computer hardware, Internet access services and other equipment or services needed to access and use www.interest.com, and all costs and fees associated with Internet access or long distance charges incurred with regard to your access and use of www.interest.com.

Third Party Links

There may be provided on www.interest.com links to other Web sites belonging to Interest.com’s advertisers, business partners, affiliates and other third parties.  Such links do not constitute an endorsement by Interest.com of those Web sites, nor the products or services listed on those Web sites.  Interest.com is not responsible for the activities or policies of those Web sites.  Interest.com does not endorse or recommend the products of any particular advertiser, business partner, affiliate or other third party.  Interest.com does not guarantee that the loan terms or rates offered by any particular advertiser, business partner, affiliate or other third party on www.interest.com are the best terms or lowest rates available in the market.

Copyright Infringement

It is Interest.com’s policy to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, title 17, United States Code, Section 512, including, without limitation, responding to notices of alleged copyright infringement, and other applicable intellectual property laws.  Interest.com shall in appropriate circumstances disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who may infringe or repeatedly infringe the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of Interest.com and/or others.

Notifications (each a “Notification”) of claimed copyright infringement should be sent by either express mail or U.S. mail to Interest.com’s designated agent.  Interest.com’s designated agent contact information is set forth below:

Address of designated agent to Which Notification Should be Sent:
Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart, P.A.
777 S. Flagler Drive, Suite 500 E
West Palm Beach, FL  33401
Attention: David Bates

Facsimile number of designated agent: 561.671.2555

Email address of designated agent: dbates at gunster * com

Pursuant to Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c)(3), to be effective, the Notification must include the following:

1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner (“Complaining Party”) of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single Notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit Interest.com to locate the material;
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit Interest.com to contact the Complaining Party, such as an address, telephone number, and if available, an electronic mail address at which the Complaining Party may be contacted;
5. A statement that the Complaining Party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
6. A statement that the information in the Notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the Complaining Party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Upon receipt of the written Notification containing the information as outlined in 1 through 6 above, and pursuant to Title 17, United States Code, Section 512:

1. Interest.com will remove or disable access to the material that is alleged to be infringing;
2. Interest.com will forward the written Notification to the alleged infringer ("Subscriber"); and
3. Interest.com will take reasonable steps to promptly notify the Subscriber that Interest.com has removed or disabled access to the material.

Counter Notification:

Pursuant to Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(g)(3), a Subscriber may counter a Notification by providing a written communication (“Counter Notification”) to Interest.com 's designated agent that includes substantially the following:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the Subscriber;
2. Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled;
3. A statement under penalty of perjury that the Subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled; and
4. The Subscriber's name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the Subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if the Subscriber's address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which Interest.com may be found, and that the Subscriber will accept service of process from the person who provided the Counter Notification or an agent of such person

Upon receipt of a Counter Notification containing the information as outlined in 1 through 4 above, and pursuant to Title 17, United States Code, Section 512:

1. Interest.com will promptly provide the Complaining Party with a copy of the Counter Notification;
2. Interest.com will inform the Complaining Party that Interest.com will replace the removed material or cease disabling access to the removed material within ten (10) business days; and
3. Interest.com will replace the removed material or cease disabling access to the removed material not less than ten (10), nor more than fourteen (14) business days following receipt of the Counter Notification, provided Interest.com’s designated agent has not received notice from the Complaining Party that an action has been filed seeking a court order to restrain the Subscriber from engaging in infringing activity relating to the removed material on Interest.com’s network or system.

Interest.com Makes No Representations or Warranties Regarding the Content

The Content and all services and products associated with  WWW.INTEREST.COM are provided to you on an "as-is" and “as available” basis.  Interest.com makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation of WWW.INTEREST.COM or the information, content, materials, products or services included on or associated with WWW.INTEREST.COM.  You expressly agree that your use of WWW.INTEREST.COM and all products and services included on or associated with WWW.INTEREST.COM is at your sole risk.

Interest.com does not make any representations, warranties or guarantees, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, correctness, or completeness of the Content or the services and products associated with WWW.INTEREST.COM, nor the safety, reliability, title, timeliness, completeness, merchantability, conformity or fitness for a particular purpose of the Content or the services and products associated with WWW.INTEREST.COM. It is your sole responsibility to independently evaluate the accuracy, correctness or completeness of the Content and the services and products associated with WWW.INTEREST.COM.  Interest.com makes no representation, warranty or guarantee that the Content that may be available for downloading from WWW.INTEREST.COM is free of infection from any viruses, worms, Trojan horses, trap doors, back doors, easter eggs, time bombs, cancelbots or other code or computer programming routines that contain contaminating or destructive properties or that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information. 

The Content is intended only to assist you with financial decisions and is broad in scope and does not consider your personal financial situation. Your personal financial situation is unique and the information and advice may not be appropriate for your situation.  Accordingly, before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy, Interest.com recommends that you obtain additional information and advice of your accountant and other financial advisors who are fully aware of your individual circumstances.

Limitations on Interest.com's Liability

Interest.com shall in no event be responsible to, or liable to, you, or any third party, whether in contract, warranty, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, for any damages, including, but not limited to, special, incidental, indirect or consequential damages that include, but are not limited to, damages for any loss of profit, revenue or business, as a direct or indirect result of: (i) your breach or violation of the terms and conditions of this Agreement; (ii) your access and use of WWW.INTEREST.COM; (iii) your DELAY IN ACCESSING OR inability to access or use WWW.INTEREST.COM for any reason; (iv) your downloading of any of the Content or the Collective Work for your use; (v) your reliance upon or use of the Content or the Collective Work, OR (VI) ANY INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OBTAINED THROUGH WWW.INTEREST.COM, OR OTHERWISE ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF WWW.INTEREST.COM, WHETHER RESULTING IN WHOLE OR IN PART, FROM BREACH OF CONTRACT, TORTUOUS BEHAVIOR, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF INTEREST.COM AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAD BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGES.

Certain state laws do not allow limitations on implied warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain damages.  If these laws apply to you, some or all of the above disclaimers, exclusions or limitations may not apply to you.

Your Indemnification of Interest.com

You shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless Interest.com and its officers, directors, shareholders, employees, independent contractors, agents, representatives and affiliates from and against all claims and expenses, including, but not limited to, attorneys' fees, arising out of, or attributable to: (i) any breach or violation of this Agreement by you; (ii) your failure to provide accurate, complete and current personally identifiable information requested or required by Interest.com; (iii) your access or use of www.interest.com; and/or (iv) access or use of www.interest.com under any password that may be issued to you.

Amendments of this Agreement

Interest.com reserves the right to update, amend and/or change this Agreement at any time in its sole discretion and without notice. Updates to this Agreement will be posted here. You are encouraged to revisit this Agreement from time to time in order to review any changes that have been made. Interest.com’s last update was December 1, 2007. Your continued access and use of www.interest.com following the posting of any such changes shall automatically be deemed your acceptance of all changes.

Interest.com's Remedies

You acknowledge that Interest.com may be irreparably damaged if this Agreement is not specifically enforced, and damages at law would be an inadequate remedy. Therefore, in the event of a breach or threatened breach of any provision of this Agreement by you, Interest.com shall be entitled, in addition to all rights and remedies, to an injunction restraining such breach or threatened breach, without being required to show any actual damage or to post an injunction bond, and/or to a decree for specific performance of the provisions of this Agreement.  For purposes of this Section, you agree that any action or proceeding with regard to such injunction restraining such breach or threatened breach shall be brought in the courts of record of Palm Beach County, Florida, or the United States District Court, Southern District of Florida. You consent to the jurisdiction of such court and waive any objection to the laying of the venue of any such action or proceeding in such court. You agree that service of any court paper may be effected on such party by mail or in such other manner as may be provided under applicable laws, rules of procedure or local rules.

Governing Law; Arbitration

This Agreement is to be governed by and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the State of Florida, without regard for principles of conflicts of laws. Any civil action, claim, dispute or proceeding arising out of or relating to this Agreement, except for an injunctive action regarding a breach or threatened breach of any provision of this Agreement by you as provided above, shall be referred to final and binding arbitration, before a single arbitrator, under the commercial arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association in Palm Beach County, Florida.

THEREFORE, YOU DO NOT HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO GO TO COURT TO ASSERT OR DEFEND YOUR RIGHTS AND YOU GIVE UP YOUR RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN OR BRING CLASS ACTIONS. By usinG WWW.INTEREST.COM you consent to these restrictions.

You and Interest.com shall select the arbitrator, and if you and Interest.com are unable to reach agreement on selection of the arbitrator within thirty (30) days after the notice of arbitration is served, then the American Arbitration Association shall select the arbitrator. Arbitration shall not commence until the party requesting it has deposited One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) with the arbitrator for the arbitrator's fees and costs. The party requesting arbitration shall advance such sums as are required from time to time by the arbitrator to pay the arbitrator's fees and costs until the prevailing party is determined or the parties have agreed in writing to an alternate allocation of fees and costs. 

Should a Dispute arise and should the arbitration provisions herein become inapplicable or unenforceable, or in any instance of any lawsuit between you and Interest.com, jurisdiction over and venue of any suit shall be exclusively in the state and federal courts sitting in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Judgment upon any award rendered by the arbitrator shall be final, binding and conclusive upon you and Interest.com and your and Interest.com's respective administrators, executors, legal representatives, successors and assigns, and may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Notwithstanding the previous sentence, in no event shall either you or Interest.com be entitled to punitive damages and both you and Interest.com hereby waive your and Interest.com's respective rights to any punitive, special, indirect or consequential damages, including, but not limited to, damages for any loss of profit, revenue or business.

Miscellaneous

If any portion of this Agreement is deemed unlawful, void or unenforceable by any arbitrator or court of competent jurisdiction, this Agreement as a whole shall not be deemed unlawful, void or unenforceable, but only that portion of this Agreement that is unlawful, void or unenforceable shall be stricken from this Agreement.

The headings contained in this Agreement are for convenience of reference only, are not to be considered a part of this Agreement, and shall not limit or otherwise affect in any way the meaning or interpretation of this Agreement.

All covenants, agreements, representations and warranties made in this Agreement, as may be amended by Interest.com from time to time, shall survive your acceptance of this Agreement and the termination of this Agreement.

This Agreement and Interest.com’s Privacy Policy represent the entire understanding and agreement between you and Interest.com regarding the subject matter of the same, and supersede all other previous agreements, understandings and/or representations regarding the same.

If you have questions, comments, concerns or feedback regarding this Agreement or www.interest.com, please contact us via any of the methods set forth below:

• Via telephone: (561)630-2400
• Via fax: (561)625-4540
• Via mail: 11760 US HWY 1 Suite 200, North Palm Beach, FL 33408
• Via email: webmaster@interest.com