MonitorBankRates Connector

Live U.S. bank and credit union rates nationally, by state, or by city with local branches, daily average rates by state, institution health grades, top mortgage lenders from federal HMDA data, loan payment calculators, and the MonitorBankRates housing and insurance indexes, available to Claude and other MCP clients as eight tools.

Overview

The MonitorBankRates connector is a remote MCP (Model Context Protocol) server. It is read-only: every tool answers a question from data MonitorBankRates already publishes, and no tool creates, changes, or deletes anything. Rates are collected daily from the published rate sheets of more than 8,000 banks and credit unions. Each result carries an as_of date, a source, and a url to the matching page on MonitorBankRates.com.

A typical session starts with list_rate_keys to learn the valid product keys, then calls get_best_rates or get_average_rates with one of those keys. Institution questions go through search_institutions to find a slug, then get_institution for the full picture. Lender questions use get_mortgage_lenders, payment questions use calculate_loan, and affordability or insurance cost questions use get_index.

Connect

Endpoint: https://mcp.monitorbankrates.com/mcp

Transport is Streamable HTTP. No account, API key, or sign in is needed.

Claude

Open Customize, then Connectors, choose Add custom connector, and paste the endpoint URL.

ChatGPT

Search for MonitorBankRates in the ChatGPT apps directory and add it.

Claude Code

claude mcp add monitorbankrates --transport http https://mcp.monitorbankrates.com/mcp

Other MCP clients

Add a remote server with the endpoint above. Most clients accept a configuration like this:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "monitorbankrates": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.monitorbankrates.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Tools

list_rate_keys

Lists every rate key accepted by get_best_rates and get_average_rates, with its label, product group, and whether it is measured as APY (deposits) or APR (loans). Also returns the list of U.S. state codes. Takes no parameters. Call this first if you are unsure which key to use.

get_best_rates

Top live rates for one product, nationally, for one state, or for one city. Returns one best quote per institution with the institution's health grade, minimum deposit, as-of date, and a link. City searches list banks and credit unions with branches in that city first, each with up to three branch addresses, then fill the rest from the state.

get_average_rates

National or state average rates, computed daily from every published rate MonitorBankRates tracks. Returns the latest value, the change over one week, one month, and three months, the number of institutions and quotes behind the average, and a daily history. Good for questions like "what are CD rates doing" or "average mortgage rate in Texas."

search_institutions

Searches the directory of banks and credit unions by name. Returns matches with type, home state, MBR health grade, the number of rates tracked, and the slug to pass to get_institution.

get_institution

Every current deposit and loan rate tracked for one institution, plus its MBR health letter grade, star rating, Texas ratio, the states it has branches in, and a link to its profile page.

get_mortgage_lenders

Mortgage lenders and brokers in a state or city, ranked by home loans closed in the latest federal HMDA (Home Mortgage Disclosure Act) data. Returns each lender's loans closed, market share, approval share, median loan, loan programs (Conventional, FHA, VA, USDA, Jumbo, HELOC), headquarters, and MBR health grade for banks and credit unions.

calculate_loan

Payment estimates at today's MonitorBankRates average rate for the state or nation, or at a rate you pass. Returns the inputs and assumptions used and a link to the matching MonitorBankRates calculator page.

get_index

MonitorBankRates proprietary indexes. hai is the MBR Housing Affordability Index, updated daily, where 100 means the median household exactly affords the median home at today's average 30-year rate and higher is more affordable; it returns the national score plus a state score, rank, and 90-day history when a state is given. hibi (Home Insurance Burden Index) and aibi (Auto Insurance Burden Index) are annual, where 100 is the U.S. average burden and higher is heavier, with state rankings.

With a city, hai adds the city's score, previous score, rank among cities in the state, and the inputs behind it: median home value, median household income, down payment, monthly principal and interest, income needed, and price to income ratio. hibi and aibi add a cost estimate for the area: typical annual and monthly premium, estimated monthly cost by insurer with the cheapest first, and the comparison to the state and national figures. Car insurance uses the state figure, since averages are published by state.

Product keys

Deposit keys are measured as APY, loan keys as APR. This list is also returned live by list_rate_keys, which is the authoritative version if the two ever differ.

Certificates of deposit (APY)

Savings, money market, and checking (APY)

Mortgages, refinance, and home equity (APR)

Auto, personal, and credit cards (APR)

State and city handling

Any tool with a state parameter accepts either the two-letter postal code (TX) or the state name (Texas), case-insensitive. All 50 states and the District of Columbia are supported; list_rate_keys returns the full code list.

For get_best_rates, a state returns institutions headquartered in that state or with branches there, so a national online bank appears only in national results while a regional bank appears in every state it serves. For get_average_rates, the state average is computed only from institutions operating in that state. For get_index, the state adds that state's score and rank alongside the national figure. Omit state everywhere for national results.

A city always needs a state. For get_best_rates, institutions with a branch in that city come first, flagged local with their branch addresses. For get_mortgage_lenders, the city list is used when one exists, otherwise the state list. For get_index, city results are added next to the state and national figures.

Response fields

Every response includes these top-level fields so a client can cite the data correctly:

Rate rows add institution, institution_type, health_grade, rate (APY or APR as noted by measure), min_deposit where applicable, and the product label. City searches add local and a branches list to each row. Average responses add the change over one week, one month, and three months, the institution and quote counts behind the number, and a dated history array.

Usage and attribution

The connector is free to use with attribution: display "Source: MonitorBankRates.com" and link to the url field. Always show the as_of date with any rate. Responses are cached briefly on the server; a cached flag marks responses served from that cache. Requests are rate-limited per client to keep the service responsive for everyone; a client that exceeds the limit receives an error and can retry after a short wait.

The connector does not provide financial advice. Rates are as published by each institution and may require membership, a minimum balance, or other qualifications noted on the linked page.

Find MonitorBankRates MCP

The MonitorBankRates connector is listed in the official MCP Registry as com.monitorbankrates/rates, on GitHub, Glama and MCP.so.

Privacy

The connector is read-only and stateless. It does not require an account, does not set cookies, and does not receive or store conversation content; a tool call carries only the parameters listed above. The server keeps standard request logs (timestamp, tool name, parameters, and the requesting IP address) for up to 30 days for abuse prevention and capacity planning, and retains nothing else. See the MonitorBankRates privacy policy for the full policy.