Section 1 (applies to all products and services)
1 General
1.1 Access to and use of this website is subject to these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. By accessing and using this Website you agree to be bound by and to act in accordance with these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these Terms of Use or our Privacy Policy, you are not permitted to access and use this Website and you should cease such access and/or use immediately.
1.2 If you breach any term of these Terms of Use, your right to access and use this Website shall cease immediately.
1.3 We reserve the right to amend these Terms of Use from time to time without notice by amending this page. The amended Terms of Use will be effective from the date they are posted on this Website. As these Terms of Use may be amended from time to time, you should check them whenever you visit this Website. Your continued use of this Website will constitute your acceptance of the amended Terms of Use.
1.4 We may terminate these Terms of Use and/or the products or services offered by LowestRates.ca at any time without notice to you if, in our sole judgment, you breach any term or condition of these Terms of Use. Upon termination, you must discontinue all use of the information contained on the Site and destroy the materials you have obtained from LowestRates.ca, including all related documentation and copies.
2 Our Service
2.1 We provide an independent online service which enables you to research and compare mortgage, insurance, credit card, financial and other products or services provided by third parties while using this Website. Our comparison service is free for you to use. We do not add any fees or commissions to the products or services you compare. Instead, we will introduce you to other parties who provide these products or services. We are paid by charging those third party providers a fee and/or commission.
2.2 Please be aware that nothing on this website is an endorsement by us in respect to a product or service we refer to. Rather, this website holds lists of recommendations that can help advise various products and services, and information is provided for general purposes only. Information should not be relied upon, as it is provided for you to select the product or service that you feel is most appropriate to meet your needs. You should always check the suitability, adequacy and appropriateness of the product or service that is of interest to you and it is your sole decision whether to obtain or refrain from obtaining any product or service. If you are in any doubt as to the suitability, adequacy or appropriateness of any product or service referred to on this website, we suggest that you seek independent professional advice before you obtain any product or service via this website.
2.3 Please be aware that nothing on this website is, or shall be deemed to constitute, an offer by us or any third party to sell to you any product or service. Nor will we enter into any contract with you in respect of any product or service. By submitting your details, you are making an offer to obtain the relevant product or service from the relevant third party on its terms and conditions that may be accepted or rejected. The contract for the product or service will only be concluded once your offer has been accepted. Please note that acceptance of your payment where possible on this Website does not constitute acceptance of your offer. You will receive confirmation when your offer has been accepted.
2.4 When you apply for a credit card through LowestRates.ca, we may receive compensation from the credit card company. That said, our card reviews are always based on objective analysis and are written either by a staff writer or by one of our carefully vetted freelancers. LowestRates.ca maintains editorial independence from affiliates.
2.5 We aim to provide uninterrupted access to this Website but we give no warranty as to the uninterrupted availability of this Website. We reserve the right to suspend, restrict or terminate your access to this Website at any time.
2.6 We reserve the right to add, amend, delete, edit, remove or modify any information, content, material or data displayed on this Website and without notice from time to time.
3 Permitted use
3.1 You are only permitted to access and use this Website for your personal, non-commercial purposes, meaning this Website may only be accessed and used directly by a private individual or by a business to seek a product or service directly for that individual or business and on their own behalf. Access to and use of this website other than for your personal, non-commercial purposes is strictly prohibited.
3.2 You are not permitted to use this Website:
- In any unlawful, fraudulent or commercial manner.
- To harm, threaten, abuse, embarrass, defame, libel, intimidate or harass another person, or in a way that invades another person's privacy or is obscene, offensive, hateful, indecent, inappropriate, objectionable, unacceptable, discriminatory or damaging as determined by us.
- To create, check, confirm, update, modify or amend your own or another person's databases, records or directories.
- To tamper with, modify, reverse engineer or amend any part of this Website.
- In a way that interferes with, disrupts or imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large burden on our communications and technical systems as determined by us.
- Using any automated software, process, program, robot, web crawler, spider, data mining, trawling or other 'screen scraping' software, process, program or system.
3.3 You may operate a link to this website provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, as determined by us. You must not operate a link to this website in such a way as to suggest or imply any form of association, approval or endorsement by us. We reserve the right to require you to immediately remove any link to this Website at any time and we may withdraw any linking permission at any time.
4 Intellectual property rights
4.1 The copyright in the information, content, material or data displayed on this Website belongs to us or our licensors. You may temporarily print, copy, download or store extracts of information, content, material or data displayed on this Website for your own personal use, subject to the following conditions:
- It may not be used for any commercial purposes and may not be commercially exploited, published, distributed, extracted, reutilized or reproduced without our prior written consent.
- You may not use any automated software, process, program or system, robot, web crawler, spider, data mining, trawling or other 'screen scraping' software, process, program or system.
- It may not be sold or transferred to any third party.
- The copy must retain any copyright or other intellectual property notices contained in the original material.
- Images displayed on this Website are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced or appropriated in any manner without the prior written consent of their respective owner(s).
- No logos, trade marks or service marks displayed on this Website may be printed or downloaded, except as part of the text of which they form part.
- You must not modify the paper or digital copies of such information, content, material or data.
- It may not be excerpted, utilized, used, reproduced, published, reformatted and/or displayed on any other website without our prior written consent.
- The status of us and our licensors as the authors of such information, content, material or data must be acknowledged.
4.2 All intellectual property rights including, without limitation, all copyright, design rights, patents, inventions, logos, business names, trading names, service marks and trade marks, internet domain names, moral rights, rights in databases, data, source codes, software, specifications, know how, processes and business methods (in all cases whether registered or unregistered and including all rights to apply for registration) in and relating to this Website (including information, content, material or data displayed on it) belong to us or our licensors and all such rights are reserved.
4.3 Except as set out elsewhere in these Terms of Use, none of the intellectual property rights belonging to us or our licensors in and relating to this website (including information, content, material or data displayed on it) may be used, copied, modified, published, extracted, utilized, transmitted, displayed, sold, excerpted, reverse engineered, made available, reproduced, reformatted or distributed by you without our prior written consent.
4.4 All rights in LowestRates.ca are owned by us.
4.5 You shall retain ownership of any views, opinions, reviews, ratings, comments, content or material you submit, display, distribute, upload, post, share, publish or otherwise make publicly available on or through this Website ("User Content"). You grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, worldwide, royalty free and unlimited license to use, modify, keep, share, sell, save, copy, distribute, publish, display, excerpt, reproduce, utilize, extract, make available and transmit such User Content in any manner and for any purpose. Sections 5, 6 and 7 are important and you should read them carefully as they exclude or limit our liability to you and detail your responsibilities.
5 Limits to our liability
5.1 Nothing in these Terms of Use excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or for our fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
5.2 While we use reasonable endeavors to ensure information on this website is accurate, up to date and will correct errors after becoming aware - we do not check, monitor, review, verify or endorse, and are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur in connection with, any information, content, material or data collected from or provided by third parties which is displayed on or is otherwise available from this Website or any third party websites. Such information, content, material or data may be inaccurate, incomplete or out of date. It is your responsibility to check that such information, content, material or data is accurate, complete, correct and up to date.
5.3 Any views, opinions, advice, reviews, ratings or comments on this website or any third party websites which are made by third parties (including User Content as described in paragraph 4.5) do not represent our views, opinions or advice, should not be relied upon by you and are not checked, monitored, reviewed, verified or endorsed by us. We are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur in connection with such views, opinions, advice, reviews, ratings or comments including in relation to their accuracy, truthfulness or completeness.
5.4 We do not give any warranty or guarantee that this Website, any third party website or any information, content, material or data on this Website or any third party website is free from viruses, spyware, malicious software, trojans, worms, logic bombs or anything else which may have a contaminating, harmful or destructive effect on any technology. You must ensure that you use appropriate virus checking software. We are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur in this regard where caused by any third party.
5.5 We are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur in connection with your use of this Website which is caused by any event beyond our reasonable control including the electronic transmission of information, content, material and data over the internet and the interception or decryption of it by others.
5.6 We are not responsible or liable for any indirect loss or damage you may suffer or incur in connection with your use of this website (including any loss of savings you expect to make, loss of business or business opportunity, or loss of profit or revenue) or for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur in connection with your use of this Website which was not foreseeable by us when you used this Website.
5.7 We are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur in connection with any inability to access and use this Website for any reason.
6 Disclaimer of Warranties.
6.1 Use of this website and/or the services is at your own risk. Neither the Materials, Submissions nor the Third Party Content have been verified or authenticated in whole or in part by LowestRates.ca, and they may include inaccuracies or typographical or other errors. LowestRates.ca does not warrant the accuracy or timeliness of the Materials, Submissions or the Third Party Content contained on this Site. LowestRates.ca has no liability for any errors or omissions in the Materials, Submissions and/or the Third Party Content, whether provided by LowestRates.ca or our licensors.
LowestRates.ca, FOR ITSELF AND ITS LICENSORS, MAKES NO EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, OR GUARANTEES IN CONNECTION WITH THIS SITE, THE SERVICES, ANY MATERIALS, SUBMISSIONS OR THIRD PARTY CONTENT, RELATING TO THE QUALITY, SUITABILITY, TRUTH, ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY INFORMATION OR MATERIAL CONTAINED OR PRESENTED ON THIS SITE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE MATERIALS, THE THIRD PARTY CONTENT AND THE SUBMISSIONS OF OTHER USERS OF THIS SITE. UNLESS OTHERWISE EXPLICITLY STATED, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THIS SITE, THE SERVICES, MATERIALS, THIRD PARTY CONTENT, SUBMISSIONS, AND ANY INFORMATION OR MATERIAL CONTAINED OR PRESENTED ON THIS SITE IS PROVIDED TO YOU ON AN “AS IS,” “AS AVAILABLE” AND “WHERE-IS” BASIS WITH NO WARRANTY OF IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. LowestRates.ca DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY WARRANTIES AGAINST VIRUSES, SPYWARE OR MALWARE THAT MAY BE INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER.
7 Exclusion of our liability in respect of third party advice, assistance, websites and products or services
7.1 You can apply for a number of products and services via this website. These products and services are not provided by us but are instead provided by third parties over whom we do not have control. It is your responsibility to satisfy yourself that you wish to obtain any product or service before doing so. We are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur in connection with any product or service you obtain after using this Website or for any acts, omissions, errors or defaults of any third party in connection with that product or service.
7.2 Please be aware that the information and descriptions of products and services on this website may not represent the complete descriptions of all the features and terms and conditions of those products and services. You must ensure that you carefully read all the features and terms and conditions of any product or service before applying.
7.3 If you apply for and obtain any product or service, you will be contracting with a Third Party who will be providing that product or service to you on their own terms and conditions. It is your responsibility to ensure that you understand and agree with those terms and conditions before entering into a contract to obtain that product or service. We are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur in connection with the terms and conditions applying to any contract entered into by you with any third party in relation to any product or service or for any acts, omissions, errors or defaults of any third party in connection with those terms and conditions.
7.4 We provide links from this Website and from emails sent to you as part of our service to the websites of third parties. These websites are owned and operated by Third Parties over whom we do not have control. You access and use these third party websites at your sole risk and your sole discretion. You are solely responsible for any use of these third party websites and for any decision to obtain or refrain from obtaining any of the products or services available on such Third Party websites. Any links to third party websites are provided for your interest and convenience only. We do not endorse, recommend or accept responsibility for such third parties, their products or services, their websites or for any information, opinions or views given or advice provided by such third parties (whether on their websites or otherwise). We are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur in connection with your use of any third party websites or for any acts, omissions, errors or defaults of any Third Party in connection with their website.
7.5 Your use of any third party website will be governed by the terms and conditions of use and privacy policy applicable to that website. Such terms and conditions of use and privacy policy will be different from these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. It is your responsibility to ensure that you understand and agree with the terms and conditions of use and privacy policy of any Third Party website before using that website. We are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur in connection with the terms and conditions of use or the privacy policy applying to any Third Party website or for any acts, omissions, errors or defaults of any third party in connection with those terms and conditions of use and/or privacy policy.
7.6 Any views, opinions, advice or assistance which is given or provided to you by a Third Party after you have used this website do not represent our views, opinions, advice or assistance and are not checked, monitored, reviewed, verified or endorsed by us. We do not endorse, recommend or take responsibility for any third party who provides you with any views, opinions advice or assistance. You act or refrain from acting on any third party's views, opinions, advice or assistance at your sole risk and sole discretion and you are solely responsible for any decision to act or refrain from acting on such views, opinions, advice or assistance. We are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur in connection with such views, opinions, advice or assistance including in relation to their accuracy, truthfulness or completeness or for any acts, omissions, errors or defaults of any third party in connection with such views, opinions, advice or assistance.
7.7 Please be aware that while this website provides information on a wide range of products or services, there may be other products or services available on the market which are not shown on this website and which may be more appropriate or suitable for you than those shown here.
8 Your responsibilities
8.1 You must take all reasonable precautions (including using appropriate virus checking software) to ensure that any information, content, material or data you provide (including User Content as described in paragraph 4.5) is free from viruses, spyware, malicious software, trojans, worms, logic bombs and anything else which may have a contaminating, harmful or destructive effect on any part of this website or the websites of third parties or any other technology.
8.2 You may complete a registration process as part of your use of this website which may include the creation of a username, password and/or other identification information. Any username, password and/or other identification information must be kept confidential by you and must not be disclosed to, or shared with, anyone. Where you do disclose to or share with anyone your username, password and/or other identification information, you are solely responsible for all activities undertaken on this Website using your username, password and/or other identification information.
8.3 You must check and ensure that all information, content, material or data you provide on this website is correct, complete, accurate and not misleading and that you disclose all relevant facts. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur if any information, content, material or data you provide on this Website is not correct, complete and accurate or if it is misleading or if you fail to disclose all relevant facts.
8.4 Before you obtain any product or service from a Third Party, you must check all of the information, content, material or data held by the Third Party about you to ensure it is correct, complete, accurate and not misleading and that you have disclosed all relevant facts. It is your responsibility to identify and correct any mistakes or errors in the information, content, material or data held by the third party about you before you obtain any product or service. Failure to do so could invalidate the product or service provided by the third party. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur if any information, content, material or data held by the third party about you is not correct, complete and accurate or if it is misleading or if you have failed to disclose all relevant facts.
8.5 You must get permission from any other person about whom you propose to provide information before you provide it. In submitting any other person's details, you are confirming to us that you have their permission to do so and that they understand how their details will be used.
8.6 You are solely responsible and liable for your conduct on this Website and for your User Content. You must ensure that:
- You own your User Content or otherwise have the right to grant the license set out in paragraph 4.5.
- Your User Content does not violate or infringe any privacy rights, intellectual property rights (such as copyright, database rights and trade marks) or other rights of any third party (including any right of confidentiality).
- Your User Content does not violate or infringe any law.
- Your User Content is true, complete, accurate and not misleading where it relates to facts, or is genuinely held where it relates to an opinion.
- Your User Content is not harmful, fraudulent, threatening, defamatory, embarrassing, distressing, infringing, abusive, inflammatory, intimidating, harassing, libelous, stalking, profane, obscene, indecent, inappropriate, hateful, discriminatory or racially, ethnically, sexually or otherwise objectionable.
8.7 You agree that you will be liable to us for any damage, loss, claim, demand, liability or expense (including reasonable legal fees) that we may suffer or incur arising out of or in connection with your conduct on this Website and/or your User Content.
9 Privacy
9.1 We are committed to protecting your privacy and we treat your privacy very seriously. We process information about you in line with our Privacy Policy. By using this Website, you agree to the way in which we process and deal with your personal information.
10 Miscellaneous
10.1 This website is only intended for use by residents of Canada. We make no warranty or representation that any product or service referred to on this Website and/or any service we provide is available or otherwise appropriate for use outside of Canada. If you choose to use this Website from locations outside of Canada, you do so at your sole risk and you are responsible for compliance with all applicable local laws.
10.2 If any provision of these Terms of Use is held to be unlawful, invalid or unenforceable, that provision shall be deemed deleted from these Terms of Use and the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions of these Terms of Use shall not be affected.
10.3 These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between you and us relating to your access to and use of this Website and supersedes any prior agreements (including any previous terms of use of this Website).
10.4 No failure or delay by us in exercising any right under these Terms of Use will operate as a waiver of that right nor will any single or partial exercise by us of any right preclude any further exercise of any right.
11 Governing law
These Terms of Use and your use of the Site are governed in all respects by the laws of the Province of Ontario, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of laws. Any dispute concerning the Site or these Terms of Use shall be subject to the exclusive venue of a court of competent jurisdiction in the Province of Ontario.
In the event that a court of competent jurisdiction holds any provision of these Terms of Use to be invalid or unenforceable, then such provision shall be severable from and shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions.
Section 2 (Additional Terms)
Some products or services require additional terms and conditions to those set out above and these are detailed below:
12 Insurance Products
Our insurance service allows you to search for and compare various types of insurance products from different insurance providers.
You will need to answer a number of questions on this website in order to compare or obtain a quote for any insurance product. These questions are designed to ensure that we and all relevant insurance providers have all the information necessary to provide you with appropriate and timely information relating to the products in which you are interested. The level of coverage and the amount you will pay will be determined by the answers you provide to these questions. It is therefore very important that you answer all of the questions truthfully, completely and accurately and that you disclose all relevant facts. Failure to do so could invalidate the insurance product you purchase meaning you have no insurance coverage. If your insurance product is invalid, claims may not be paid and you could be responsible for any third party costs if any event occurs where you would otherwise have been covered by the insurance product.
In order to apply for an insurance product, you must contact the relevant insurance provider. We will give you a direct link to their website and/or a dedicated telephone number along with any identification needed to access your details.
Before you apply for any insurance product, it is very important that you check all of the information held by the insurance provider about you to ensure it is true, correct, complete and accurate, that it is not misleading and that you have disclosed all relevant facts. It is your responsibility to identify and correct any mistakes or errors in the information held by the insurance provider about you before you apply for any product. Failure to correct any mistakes or errors in the information held by the insurance provider about you or a failure to disclose all relevant facts could invalidate your chosen insurance product.
The information you provide may be used to carry out certain credit checks through licensed credit-referencing agencies. This is used as part of the underwriting process for some of the insurance providers and a record of this search will be made although this will not adversely affect your credit profile.
Some insurance providers may pass loyalty scheme data to their insurance underwriters in order to assess and rate your cover and determine your premiums. If you are in any doubt as to whether any information is relevant or required to be disclosed or that something may be incorrect you should disclose it to your proposed insurance provider before you apply for the insurance product. If you do not provide all such information or if you fail to tell your proposed insurance provider about any circumstances likely to influence their assessment of the risks involved, your proposed insurance provider may be able to treat your insurance policy as invalid.
Most insurance providers make certain assumptions about you. These will be different to any assumptions made by us about you. It is your responsibility to check the assumptions made by insurance providers as they form part of your contract with your selected insurance provider. If any assumption made by an insurance provider is incorrect, you must inform the insurance provider before you apply for any insurance product. Failure to do so could invalidate the insurance product.
You agree that we may use your data to send you a renewal quote when your annual policy is due to expire to remind you of this and to highlight how we could continue saving you money. This may include performing a new quote for you based on the information you have previously provided. It is very important that you check all of the information about you is true, correct, complete and accurate, that it is not misleading and that you have disclosed all relevant facts before you apply for any insurance product. It is your responsibility to identify and correct any mistakes or errors in the information about you before you apply for any product.
It is very important before you apply for any insurance product that you carefully read the terms and conditions of the product, the insurance provider's terms and conditions and any other documentation that applies to the insurance product. You must familiarize yourself with all the details of the insurance product, for example, the restrictions, exclusions, conditions and obligations which apply to the insurance product. It is your responsibility to ensure that the insurance product matches your requirements and that you agree to the terms and conditions of the insurance product before you apply for it. We accept no responsibility or liability whatsoever for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur in the event that any insurance product you apply for does not meet your requirements or is not suitable for you.
Direct Rate Insurance Services Inc. O/A LowestRates.ca in British Columbia is licenced with the Insurance Council of BC to conduct general and life insurance activities.
13 Financial Products
Our financial service allows you to search for and compare various types of products from different product providers.
You will need to answer a number of questions on this website in order to compare any financial product. These questions are designed to ensure that we and all relevant product providers have all the information necessary to provide you with appropriate and timely information relating to the products in which you are interested. It is very important that you answer all of the questions truthfully, completely and accurately and that you disclose all relevant facts.
In order to apply for a financial product or service, you must contact the relevant product provider.
Before you apply for any financial product or service, it is very important that you check all of the information held by the product provider about you to ensure it is correct, complete and accurate. It is your responsibility to identify and correct any mistakes or errors in the information held by the product provider about you before you apply for any financial product or service.
If you are in any doubt as to whether any information is relevant or required to be disclosed or that something may be incorrect you should disclose it to your proposed product provider before you apply for the money product.
It is very important before you apply for any financial product or service that you carefully read the terms and conditions of the product, the product provider's terms and conditions and any other documentation that applies to the product. You must familiarize yourself with all the details of the product, for example, the interest rate, any early redemption charges, restrictions, exclusions, conditions and obligations which apply to the product. It is your responsibility to ensure that the product matches your requirements and that you agree to the terms and conditions of the product before you apply for it. We accept no responsibility or liability whatsoever for any loss or damage you may suffer or incur in the event that any product you apply for does not meet your requirements or is not suitable for you.
14 User generated content (including discussion forums and user reviews)
You agree that any User Content (as described in paragraph 4.5 of Section 1) will comply with this paragraph 15 and the User Content Standards.
You are not permitted to use this website to:
- Collect email addresses or other contact information of others for the purposes of sending unsolicited emails or other unsolicited communications.
- Promote or encourage illegal activity.
- Do anything that is unlawful, harmful, fraudulent, threatening, defamatory, embarrassing, distressing, infringing, abusive, inflammatory, intimidating, harassing, libelous, stalking, profane, obscene, indecent, inappropriate, hateful, discriminatory or racially, ethnically, sexually or otherwise objectionable or for the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way.
- Do anything which violates the rights of others (such as rights of privacy).
- Impersonate any other person or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent yourself.
- Upload, post, transmit, distribute, share, store or otherwise make publicly available any personal information of any other person including names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.
- Upload, post, transmit, distribute, modify, reproduce, share, store or otherwise make publicly available any information, material, data or content that infringes any patent, trade mark, trade secret, copyright or other intellectual property right of any other person.
- Send any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, 'junk mail', 'spam', 'chain letters' or any other form of such solicitation.
- Post links to alternative community groups or forums except with our prior written consent.
We reserve the right, but have no obligation, to review or monitor any User Content. We are not responsible or liable for the review or monitoring of any User Content.
We reserve the right to close, delete, edit, refuse to post, amend, modify or remove (without notice) any User Content at our sole discretion for any reason, including without limitation User Content that in our sole opinion breaches these Terms of Use.
You agree that any information you provide to us about yourself will be true, accurate and complete, and that you will ensure that this information is kept accurate and up-to-date at all times.
We advise you to think very carefully before posting or uploading any personally identifiable information about you on this Website.
The Terms of Use were last updated: December 15, 2020
