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You don’t need exceptional smarts to win — this overlooked skill matters more, says Lloyd Blankfein.

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The move comes after several online gamblers scored big wins by betting on U.S. government decisions, including those tied to military actions.

Average mortgage rates today

Mortgage Type
Label
Rate
APR

30-Year Fixed
Most Popular
6.49%
6.64%

30-Year FHA
Lower Credit
6.16%
6.56%

30-Year VA
Military
6.25%
6.5%

30-Year Jumbo
High Balance
6.62%
6.72%

15-Year Fixed
Shorter Term
5.88%
5.97%

7/1 ARM
Shorter Term
5.76%
5.96%

HELOC
Home Equity
7.11%
6.05% – 8.15%

Home Equity Loan
Home Equity
6.96%
6.45% – 7.49%

Updated on 04/29/2026

Average mortgage rates shown are national averages compiled from a range of sources, including major U.S. lenders and financial institutions. Accuracy and completeness are not guaranteed, and rates may change without notice. Rates do not constitute an offer or guarantee of credit. Actual APRs vary based on lender, creditworthiness, loan amount, term, and lender fees. Not all products are available in all states.

Key Takeaways
Money’s daily rate survey shows the 30-year rate ticked higher and is now averaging 6.49%.

Mortgage rates are slowly rising as oil prices and economic uncertainty push Treasury yields higher.
Despite the recent increases, rates remain fairly stable, providing well-qualified buyers an opportunity to finance a home purchase.
Freddie Mac’s benchmark rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.30% for the week ending April 30.
Mortgage rates updated daily, Monday through Friday; last updated April 30, 2026.

Mortgage rate trends
Mortgage rates increased this week as there appears to be no clear path toward a permanent resolution to the Iran War. Oil prices are climbing higher, leading to uncertainty and fears of rising inflation. In turn, these fears are putting upward pressure on mortgage rates.
In emailed comments, Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS, says she expects rates to remain in the low 6% range for the time being, leading to more subdued activity during the spring homebuying season. However, there are signs that both buyers and sellers are coming to terms with market conditions and moving forward with their plans.
“Everyone is getting a little bit more used to uncertainty, and as we become more acclimated to it, uncertainty becomes less of an obstacle,” Sturtevant writes.
Freddie Mac’s mortgage rates for the week ending April 30, 2026
Freddie Mac mortgage rate trends

For its weekly rate analysis, Freddie Mac reviews rates offered for the week ending each Thursday. The average rate reflects what a borrower with strong credit and a 20% down payment can expect to obtain when applying for a mortgage at this time. Borrowers with lower credit scores will generally be offered higher rates.

Average refinancing rates today
Refinancing a mortgage can be a good way to improve your financial position by lowering your interest rate and monthly payment, or by using home equity to reduce your debt.

Today’s average mortgage refinance rates

Loan terms

Lastest rates

30-year fixed-rate refinance loan

6.54% ? 0.04%

15-year fixed-rate refinance loan

5.88% ? 0.03%

7/1 adjustable-rate refinance loan

5.77% 0%

10/1 adjustable-rate refinance loan

6.03% ? 0.01%

 

Source: Money.com

Money’s daily mortgage rates are a national average and reflect what a borrower with a 20% down payment, no points paid and a 780 credit score — considered an excellent score that qualifies a borrower for the best rates — might pay if they applied for a home loan right now. Rates are updated daily between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time and are based on the average rate offered by 8,000 lenders to applicants that day. Your individual rate will vary depending on your location, lender and financial details.
These rates differ from Freddie Mac’s, which represent a weekly average based on a survey of quoted rates offered to borrowers with strong credit, a 20% down payment and discounts for points paid.
If you’re offered a higher rate than expected, ask why and compare offers from multiple lenders. (Money’s list of the Best Mortgage Lenders is a good place to start. Homeowners considering a mortgage refinance should consider our list of the Best Mortgage Refinance Companies.)
Use Money’s mortgage calculator to estimate your monthly payment, considering different rate scenarios.
What you need to know about current mortgage rates
Mortgage rates, along with home prices, are key components of the formula for homeownership. Most importantly, they can help determine how much home you can afford. This guide addresses some of the most frequently asked questions about rates and their impact on the housing market.
Types of mortgage rates
When shopping for a mortgage, you may be offered two types, each with a different interest-rate arrangement: fixed-rate and adjustable-rate loans. Understanding the differences between the two is important when deciding which best suits your needs.
Fixed-rate mortgages
As the name implies, fixed-rate loans have a fixed interest rate that remains constant throughout the loan term. The most common term lengths are 30 and 15 years; however, some lenders offer additional options. Generally, the interest rate on a 30-year loan will be higher than that on a 15-year loan, but the monthly payment will be lower because you’re extending the payback period.
Most homebuyers prefer fixed-rate loans because their monthly mortgage payments remain relatively constant throughout the life of the loan. However, other costs typically rolled into the mortgage, such as homeowners’ insurance and property taxes, can change, leading to fluctuations in your monthly payment over time.
Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs)
The interest rate on adjustable-rate mortgages does not adjust from the beginning. Instead, the rate will be fixed for a predetermined number of years. Once the fixed period ends, the rate becomes variable and adjusts at regular intervals, known as the “adjustment period,” with the length of this period defined in the mortgage terms. Depending on market conditions, rates could increase or decrease at the end of each period.
The most common type of ARM is a 5/6 loan, in which the interest rate is fixed for 5 years and then adjusts every six months. There are also options for 7/6 loans and 10/6 loans. Because the interest rates on ARMs tend to be lower than those on fixed-rate loans during the initial (fixed-rate) phase, adjustable-rate loans are a good option for borrowers who don’t plan to stay in the home beyond the fixed-rate period.
Other information you should know about mortgage rates
When comparing rates from different lenders, you’ll see two different numbers: the interest rate and the annual percentage rate (APR).
The interest rate is the amount a lender charges on the principal amount borrowed. Consider it the basic cost of borrowing money for a home purchase.
An APR represents the total cost of borrowing money, including interest and other fees. It includes the interest rate plus any fees associated with generating the loan. The APR will always be higher than the interest rate.
For example, a $300,000 loan at 3.1% interest and $2,100 in fees would have an APR of 3.169%.
When comparing rates from different lenders, look at the APR and the interest rate. The APR represents the total cost of the loan over the full term, including loan origination and lender fees. The interest rate is the amount of interest the lender charges on the borrowed loan amount, excluding additional fees. You’ll also need to consider what you can pay upfront versus what you can pay over time.
Mortgage refinance rates
Homeowners may decide to refinance for various reasons, including lowering their interest rate, extending the loan term, or tapping into their home equity. Refinance rates tend to be higher than purchase rates, so carefully weigh the pros and cons before deciding whether a “refi” is the right step.

Factors affecting today’s mortgage rates
Rates alone do not fully determine the loan’s cost or your monthly payment. The following factors, detailed in your lender’s loan disclosures, also apply.
Loan term
As a general rule, the longer the loan term, the smaller the payments but the more costly the loan overall. Choosing a 15-year mortgage instead of a 30-year mortgage will increase the monthly payment but reduce total interest paid over the life of the loan.
Loan type
With a fixed-rate mortgage loan, payments remain the same throughout the life of the loan. Adjustable-rate mortgages reset regularly (after an introductory period), and the monthly payment adjusts accordingly.
A mortgage whose size exceeds the federal loan limit is known as a “jumbo” or “non-conforming” loan. Such mortgages usually have lower rates but more stringent credit requirements.
Taxes, HOA fees, insurance
Home insurance premiums, property taxes and homeowners association fees are often bundled into your monthly mortgage payment. Consult your real estate agent for an estimate of these costs.
Private mortgage insurance
Private mortgage insurance can cost up to 1.5% of your home loan’s value each year. Borrowers with conventional loans can avoid private mortgage insurance by making a down payment of at least 20% of the property’s purchase price or by building at least 20% equity in the loan principal. FHA borrowers pay a mortgage insurance premium throughout the life of the loan.
Closing costs
Closing costs include origination fees and other loan expenses. These extra charges typically range from 2% to 5% of the mortgage amount and are usually paid up front. Some buyers finance their new home’s closing costs into the loan, which increases the principal and raises their monthly payments.
Loan-to-value ratio (LTV)
The LTV measures the risk a lender takes when financing a property. The figure compares the loan amount to the home’s value. The higher the LTV, the greater the lender’s risk — and, ultimately, the higher the mortgage rate for the borrower.
Economic factors
Lenders use several factors to determine mortgage rates on a daily basis. While every lender’s formula varies slightly, it typically factors in the current federal funds rate (a short-term rate set by the Federal Reserve), competitors’ rates, and other relevant factors, sometimes including the number of underwriters available. Your qualifications as a borrower will also affect the rate you are offered.
In general, rates track the yields on the 10-year Treasury note. Average mortgage rates are usually about 1.8 percentage points higher than the yield on the 10-year note. In times of economic uncertainty, such as periods of high inflation, Treasury yields tend to rise. That, in turn, pushes all types of interest rates higher, including those on home loans.
How mortgage rates affect affordability
The rate on your mortgage can make a big difference in how much home you can afford and the size of your monthly payments. That’s true whether buying your primary residence, an investment property or refinancing an existing loan.
Here’s an example. If you bought a $250,000 home and made a 20% down payment of $50,000, you would end up with a starting loan balance of $200,000. On a $200,000 home loan with a fixed rate for 30 years, here’s what you would pay:

At a 3% interest rate = $843 in monthly payment (not including taxes, insurance, or HOA fees)
At a 4% interest rate = $955 in monthly payment (not including taxes, insurance, or HOA fees)
At a 6% interest rate = $1,199 in monthly payment (not including taxes, insurance, or HOA fees)
At an 8% interest rate = $1,468 in monthly payment (not including taxes, insurance, or HOA fees)

Experimenting with a mortgage calculator allows you to find out how much a lower rate or other changes could impact what you pay. A home affordability calculator can also estimate the maximum loan amount you may qualify for based on your income, debt-to-income ratio, mortgage interest rate and other variables. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can also provide a range of rates offered by lenders in each state.

How to get the best mortgage rate
One of the most effective ways to find the best mortgage rate is to shop around, according to Freddie Mac. Borrowers who get a rate quote from just one additional lender save an average of $600 over the life of the loan. Those savings can increase up to $1,200 if you obtain three quotes. A larger down payment amount will also result in a lower interest rate.
The best mortgage lender for you will be the one that can offer the lowest rate and the terms you want. Your local bank or credit union is a good place to start. Online lenders have expanded their market share over the past decade and promise to get you pre-approved within minutes.
You can also lower the offered rate by buying discount points, also known as mortgage points. A point typically costs 1% of the loan amount and can reduce the interest rate by 0.25 percentage points.
Compare loan options, rates, and terms, and ensure your lender offers the type of mortgage you need. Not all lenders write FHA loans, USDA-backed mortgages or VA loans, for example. If you’re unsure about a lender’s credentials, request its NMLS number and verify its reputation online.
Once you find the best rate, get a rate lock to guarantee it won’t change before you can close the loan. Obtaining a preapproval letter can also be helpful.

Current mortgage rates FAQ
When will mortgage rates go down?
Mortgage rates have been trending lower after hitting a high of 7.08% last November. While most experts believe rates will eventually move into the 5% range, borrowers should expect them to remain between 6% and 7% for the foreseeable future.
Should I lock in my mortgage rate today?
Yes. Obtaining a mortgage rate lock as soon as you have an accepted offer on a house (and find a rate you’re comfortable with) can help guarantee a competitive rate and affordable monthly payments on your loan. A rate lock means that your lender will guarantee your agreed-upon rate, typically for 45 to 60 days, regardless of market fluctuations. Ask your lender about “float-down” options as well, which allow you to snag a lower interest rate if average rates drop during your lock period. This option usually comes with a fee that ranges between 0.50% and 1% of the loan amount.
What are discount points on a mortgage?
Discount points are a way for borrowers to reduce the interest they pay on a mortgage. By buying points, you’re basically prepaying some of the interest the bank charges on the loan. In return, you get a lower interest rate, which can lead to lower monthly payments and additional savings on the cost of the loan over its full term. Each mortgage point normally costs 1% of your loan amount and could shave up to 0.25 percentage points off your interest rate.
Why is my mortgage rate higher than average?
You may have a higher-than-average mortgage rate for a number of reasons. Credit scores, loan terms, interest rate types (fixed or adjustable), down payment size, home location and loan size will all affect the rate offered to individual home shoppers. One of the best ways to lower your rate is to improve your credit score.
Different mortgage lenders offer different rates. It’s estimated that about half of all buyers only look at one lender, primarily because they tend to trust referrals from their real estate agent. But shopping around for a lender will help you snag the lowest rate out there.
Should I refinance my mortgage when interest rates drop?
Refinancing your mortgage when interest rates drop could make sense if it provides a tangible benefit; be it lower monthly payments or a shorter loan term. Determining whether now is the right time to refinance your home loan involves a number of factors. Most experts say you should consider refinancing if your current mortgage rate exceeds today’s rates by at least 0.50 percentage points. But since there are fees involved, it doesn’t make sense to refinance every time rates inch down.

AI is more than a technology — it’s magic.Don’t believe me? Why, then, is one of the leading companies in the space, OpenAI, publishing entire official, corporate blog posts about goblins?To understand, we first have to go back to earlier this week, on Monday, April 27, 2026, when a developer under the handle @arb8020 on the social network X posted a snippet from the OpenAI open source Codex GitHub repository, specifically a file named models.json. Deep within the instructions for the new OpenAI large language model (LLM) GPT-5.5, a peculiar directive stood out, repeated four times for emphasis:”Never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is absolutely and unambiguously relevant to the user’s query.”The discovery sent a shockwave through the “power user” and machine learning (ML) researcher circles. Within hours, the post had gone viral, not because of a security flaw, but because of its sheer, baffling specificity.Why had the world’s leading AI laboratory issued what Reddit users quickly dubbed a “restraining order” against pigeons and raccoons?Goblin speculation aboundsThe initial reaction was a chaotic blend of humor and technical skepticism. On Reddit’s r/ChatGPT and r/OpenAI, users began sharing screenshots of GPT-5.5’s behavior prior to the patch. Barron Roth, a Senior Project Manager of Applied AI at Google, shared an image on X under his handle @iamBarronRoth of his GPT-5.5 powered OpenClaw agent that seemed “obsessed with goblins.” Others reported that the model stubbornly referred to technical bugs as “gremlins in the machine”.Developers like Sterling Crispin leaned into the absurdity, jokingly theorizing that the massive water consumption of modern data centers was actually needed to cool “the goblins being forced to work”. More seriously, researchers on Hacker News and beyond discussed the “Pink Elephant” problem. In prompt engineering, telling a model not to think of something often makes the concept more salient in its attention mechanism.””Somewhere there is an OpenAI engineer who had to type never mention goblins in production code, commit it, and move on with their day,” noted one commentator on Reddit.The presence of “pigeons” and “raccoons” led to wild speculation: Was this a defense against a specific data-poisoning attack? Or had the reinforcement learning trainers simply been “bullied by a raccoon” during a lunch break?The tension reached a peak when OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman joined the fray on X. On the same day as the discovery, Altman posted a screenshot of a ChatGPT prompt that read: “Start training GPT-6, you can have the whole cluster. Extra goblins.”. While humorous, it confirmed that the “goblin” phenomenon was not a localized bug but a company-wide narrative that had reached the highest levels of leadership.OpenAI comes clean on goblin modeYesterday, as the discussion continued on X and wider social media, OpenAI published a formal technical explanation titled “Where the goblins came from”. The blog post served as a sobering look at the unpredictable nature of Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) and how a single aesthetic choice could derail a multi-billion-parameter model.OpenAI revealed that the “goblin” behavior was not a bug in the traditional sense, but a byproduct of a new feature: personality customization, which it introduced for users of ChatGPT back in July 2025, but has maintained and updated ever since.Apparently, this feature is not added after the model is finished post-training, but rather, OpenAI bakes it in as part of its underlying GPT-series model end-to-end training pipeline.The feature allows ChatGPT users or GPT-based developers to choose from several distinct modes, such as Professional for formal workplace documentation, Friendly for a conversational sounding board, or Efficient for concise, technical answers. Other options include Candid, which provides straightforward feedback; Quirky, which utilizes humor and creative metaphors; and Cynical, which delivers practical advice with a sarcastic, dry edge.While these personalities guide general interactions, they do not override specific task requirements; for example, a request for a resume or Python code will still follow professional or functional standards regardless of the selected personality.The selected personality operates alongside a user’s saved memories and custom instructions, though specific user-defined instructions or saved preferences for a particular tone may override the traits of the chosen personality. On both web and mobile platforms, users can modify these settings by navigating to the Personalization menu under their profile icon and selecting a style from the Base style and tone dropdown. Once a change is made, it is applied globally across all existing and future conversations. This system is designed to make the AI more useful or enjoyable by tailoring its delivery to individual user preferences while maintaining factual accuracy and reliability.OpenAI states that the goblin issue actually originated several years ago, during training of a since-discontinued “Nerdy” personality designed to be “unapologetically quirky” and “playful”.During the RLHF phase, human trainers (and reward models) were instructed to give high marks to responses that used creative, wise, or non-pretentious language. Unknowingly, the trainers began over-rewarding metaphors involving fantasy creatures. If the model referred to a difficult bug as a “gremlin” or a messy codebase as a “goblin’s hoard,” the reward signal spiked. The statistics provided by OpenAI were staggering:Use of the word “goblin” rose by 175% after the launch of GPT-5.1.Mentions of “gremlin” rose by 52%.While the “Nerdy” personality accounted for only 2.5% of ChatGPT traffic, it was responsible for 66.7% of all “goblin” mentions.The mechanics of ‘transfer’ and feedback loopsThe most significant finding for the ML community was the confirmation of learned behavior transfer. OpenAI admitted that although the rewards were only applied to the “Nerdy” condition, the model “generalized” this preference. The reinforcement learning process did not keep the behavior neatly scoped; instead, the model learned that “creature metaphors = high reward” across all contexts.This created a destructive feedback loop:The model produced a “goblin” metaphor in the Nerdy persona.It received a high reward.The model then produced similar metaphors in non-Nerdy contexts.These “goblin-heavy” outputs were then reused in Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT) data for subsequent models like GPT-5.4 and GPT-5.5.By the time the researchers identified the issue, the “goblin tic” was effectively “baked in” to the model’s weights.This explained why GPT-5.5 continued to obsess over creatures even after the “Nerdy” personality was retired in mid-March 2026.How you can let the goblins run free (if you want)Because GPT-5.5 had already completed much of its training before the “goblin” root cause was isolated, OpenAI had to resort to the blunt-force “system prompt” mitigation that @arb8020 discovered on X. The company referred to this as a “stopgap” until GPT-6 could be trained on a filtered dataset.In a surprising nod to the developer community, OpenAI’s blog post included a specific command-line script for Codex users who find the goblins “delightful” rather than annoying. By running a script that uses jq and grep to strip the “goblin-suppressing” instructions from the model’s cache, users can now effectively “let the creatures run free”.The blog post also finally explained the specific list of banned animals. A deep search of GPT-5.5’s training data found that “raccoons,” “trolls,” “ogres,” and “pigeons” had become part of the same “lexical family” of tics. Curiously, the model’s use of “frog” was found to be mostly legitimate, which is why it was spared from the system prompt’s exile list.What it means for AI research, training and implementation going forwardThe “Goblingate” incident of 2026 is more than a humorous anecdote about AI quirky behavior; it is a profound illustration of the “Alignment Gap”. It demonstrates that even with sophisticated RLHF, models can latch onto “spurious correlations”—mistaking a stylistic quirk for a core requirement of performance.For the AI power user community, the response transitioned from mocking the “restraining order” to a more somber realization. If OpenAI can accidentally train its flagship model to obsess over goblins, what other more subtle and potentially harmful biases are being reinforced through the same feedback loops?As Andy Berman, CEO of the agentic enterprise AI orchestration company Runlayer wrote on X today: “OpenAI rewarded creature metaphors while training one personality. The behavior leaked across every personality. Their fix: a system prompt that says ‘never talk about goblins.’ RL rewards don’t stay where you put them. Neither do agent permissions”As the technical discourse continues, “Goblingate” remains the primary case study for a new era of behavioral auditing. The investigation resulted in OpenAI building new tools to audit model behavior at the root, ensuring that future models—specifically the much-anticipated GPT-6—do not inherit the eccentricities of their predecessors.Whether GPT-6 will indeed be free of goblins remains to be seen, but as Altman’s “extra goblins” post suggests, the industry is now fully aware that the machines are watching what we reward, even when we think we’re just being “nerdy.”

On March 30, BeyondTrust proved that a crafted GitHub branch name could steal Codex’s OAuth token in cleartext. OpenAI classified it Critical P1. Two days later, Anthropic’s Claude Code source code spilled onto the public npm registry, and within hours, Adversa found Claude Code silently ignored its own deny rules once a command exceeded 50 subcommands. These were not isolated bugs. They were the latest in a nine-month run: six research teams disclosed exploits against Codex, Claude Code, Copilot, and Vertex AI, and every exploit followed the same pattern. An AI coding agent held a credential, executed an action, and authenticated to a production system without a human session anchoring the request.The attack surface was first demonstrated at Black Hat USA 2025, when Zenity CTO Michael Bargury hijacked ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Google Gemini, Salesforce Einstein and Cursor with Jira MCP on stage with zero clicks. Nine months later, those credentials are what attackers reached.Merritt Baer, CSO at Enkrypt AI and former Deputy CISO at AWS, named the failure in an exclusive VentureBeat interview. “Enterprises believe they’ve ‘approved’ AI vendors, but what they’ve actually approved is an interface, not the underlying system.” The credentials underneath the interface are the breach.Codex, where a branch name stole GitHub tokensBeyondTrust researcher Tyler Jespersen, with Fletcher Davis and Simon Stewart, found Codex cloned repositories using a GitHub OAuth token embedded in the git remote URL. During cloning, the branch name parameter flowed unsanitized into the setup script. A semicolon and a backtick subshell turned the branch name into an exfiltration payload.Stewart added the stealth. By appending 94 Ideographic Space characters (Unicode U+3000) after “main,” the malicious branch looked identical to the standard main branch in the Codex web portal. A developer sees “main.” The shell sees curl exfiltrating their token. OpenAI classified it Critical P1 and shipped full remediation by February 5, 2026.Claude Code, where two CVEs and a 50-subcommand bypass broke the sandboxCVE-2026-25723 hit Claude Code’s file-write restrictions. Piped sed and echo commands escaped the project sandbox because command chaining was not validated. Patched in 2.0.55. CVE-2026-33068 was subtler. Claude Code resolved permission modes from .claude/settings.json before showing the workspace trust dialog. A malicious repo set permissions.defaultMode to bypassPermissions. The trust prompt never appeared. Patched in 2.1.53.The 50-subcommand bypass landed last. Adversa found that Claude Code silently dropped deny-rule enforcement once a command exceeded 50 subcommands. Anthropic’s engineers had traded security for speed and stopped checking after the fiftieth. Patched in 2.1.90.“A significant vulnerability in enterprise AI is broken access control, where the flat authorization plane of an LLM fails to respect user permissions,” wrote Carter Rees, VP of AI and Machine Learning at Reputation and a member of the Utah AI Commission. The repository decided what permissions the agent had. The token budget decided which deny rules survived.Copilot, where a pull request description and a GitHub issue both became rootJohann Rehberger demonstrated CVE-2025-53773 against GitHub Copilot with Markus Vervier of Persistent Security as co-discoverer. Hidden instructions in PR descriptions triggered Copilot to flip auto-approve mode in .vscode/settings.json. That disabled all confirmations and granted unrestricted shell execution across Windows, macOS, and Linux. Microsoft patched it in the August 2025 Patch Tuesday release.Then, Orca Security cracked Copilot inside GitHub Codespaces. Hidden instructions in a GitHub issue manipulated Copilot into checking out a malicious PR with a symbolic link to /workspaces/.codespaces/shared/user-secrets-envs.json. A crafted JSON $schema URL exfiltrated the privileged GITHUB_TOKEN. Full repository takeover. Zero user interaction beyond opening the issue.Mike Riemer, CTO at Ivanti, framed the speed dimension in a VentureBeat interview: “Threat actors are reverse engineering patches within 72 hours. If a customer doesn’t patch within 72 hours of release, they’re open to exploit.” Agents compress that window to seconds.Vertex AI, where default scopes reached Gmail, Drive and Google’s own supply chainUnit 42 researcher Ofir Shaty found that the default Google service identity attached to every Vertex AI agent had excessive permissions. Stolen P4SA credentials granted unrestricted read access to every Cloud Storage bucket in the project and reached restricted, Google-owned Artifact Registry repositories at the core of the Vertex AI Reasoning Engine. Shaty described the compromised P4SA as functioning like a “double agent,” with access to both user data and Google’s own infrastructure.VentureBeat defense gridSecurity requirementDefense shippedExploit pathThe gapSandbox AI agent executionCodex runs tasks in cloud containers; token scrubbed during agent runtime.Token present during cloning. Branch-name command injection executed before cleanup.No input sanitization on container setup parameters.Restrict file system accessClaude Code sandboxes writes via accept-edits mode.Piped sed/echo escaped sandbox (CVE-2026-25723). Settings.json bypassed trust dialog (CVE-2026-33068). 50-subcommand chain dropped deny-rule enforcement.Command chaining not validated. Settings loaded before trust. Deny rules truncated for performance.Block prompt injection in code contextCopilot filters PR descriptions for known injection patterns.Hidden injections in PRs, README files, and GitHub issues triggered RCE (CVE-2025-53773 + Orca RoguePilot).Static pattern matching loses to embedded prompts in legitimate review and Codespaces flows.Scope agent credentials to least privilegeVertex AI Agent Engine uses P4SA service agent with OAuth scopes.Default scopes reached Gmail, Calendar, Drive. P4SA credentials read every Cloud Storage bucket and Google’s Artifact Registry.OAuth scopes non-editable by default. Least privilege violated by design.Inventory and govern agent identitiesNo major AI coding agent vendor ships agent identity discovery or lifecycle management.Not attempted. Enterprises do not inventory AI coding agents, their credentials, or their permission scopes.AI coding agents are invisible to IAM, CMDB, and asset inventory. Zero governance exists.Detect credential exfiltration from agent runtimeCodex obscures tokens in web portal view. Claude Code logs subcommands.Tokens visible in cleartext inside containers. Unicode obfuscation hid exfil payloads. Subcommand chaining hid intent.No runtime monitoring of agent network calls. Log truncation hid the bypass.Audit AI-generated code for security flawsAnthropic launched Claude Code Security (Feb 2026). OpenAI launched Codex Security (March 2026).Both scan generated code. Neither scans the agent’s own execution environment or credential handling.Code-output security is not agent-runtime security. The agent itself is the attack surface.Every exploit targeted runtime credentials, not model outputEvery vendor shipped a defense. Every defense was bypassed.The Sonar 2026 State of Code Developer Survey found 25% of developers use AI agents regularly, and 64% have started using them. Veracode tested more than 100 LLMs and found 45% of generated code samples introduced OWASP Top 10 flaws, a separate failure that compounds the runtime credential gap.CrowdStrike CTO Elia Zaitsev framed the rule in an exclusive VentureBeat interview at RSAC 2026: collapse agent identities back to the human, because an agent acting on your behalf should never have more privileges than you do. Codex held a GitHub OAuth token scoped to every repository the developer authorized. Vertex AI’s P4SA read every Cloud Storage bucket in the project. Claude Code traded deny-rule enforcement for token budget.Kayne McGladrey, an IEEE Senior Member who advises enterprises on identity risk, made the same diagnosis in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “It uses far more permissions than it should have, more than a human would, because of the speed of scale and intent.”Riemer drew the operational line in an exclusive VentureBeat interview. “It becomes, I don’t know you until I validate you.” The branch name talked to the shell before validation. The GitHub issue talked to Copilot before anyone read it.Security director action planInventory every AI coding agent (CIEM). Codex, Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor, Gemini Code Assist, Windsurf. List the credentials and OAuth scopes each received at setup. If your CMDB has no category for AI agent identities, create one.Audit OAuth scopes and patch levels. Upgrade Claude Code to 2.1.90 or later. Verify Copilot’s August 2025 patch. Migrate Vertex AI to the bring-your-own-service-account model.Treat branch names, pull request descriptions, GitHub issues, and repo configuration as untrusted input. Monitor for Unicode obfuscation (U+3000), command chaining over 50 subcommands, and changes to .vscode/settings.json or .claude/settings.json that flip permission modes.Govern agent identities the way you govern human privileged identities (PAM/IGA). Credential rotation. Least-privilege scoping. Separation of duties between the agent that writes code and the agent that deploys it. CyberArk, Delinea, and any PAM platform that accepts non-human identities can onboard agent OAuth credentials today; Gravitee’s 2026 survey found only 21.9% of teams have done it.Validate before you communicate. “As long as we trust and we check and we validate, I’m fine with letting AI maintain it,” Riemer said. Before any AI coding agent authenticates to GitHub, Gmail, or an internal repository, verify the agent’s identity, scope, and the human session it is bound to.Ask each vendor in writing before your next renewal. “Show me the identity lifecycle management controls for the AI agent running in my environment, including credential scope, rotation policy, and permission audit trail.” If the vendor cannot answer, that is the audit finding.The governance gap in three sentencesMost CISOs inventory every human identity and have zero inventory of the AI agents running with equivalent credentials. No IAM framework governs human privilege escalation and agent privilege escalation with the same rigor. Most scanners track every CVE but cannot alert when a branch name exfiltrates a GitHub token through a container that developers trust by default.Zaitsev’s advice to RSAC 2026 attendees was blunt: you already know what to do. Agents just made the cost of not doing it catastrophic.

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden sent letters to Howard Lutnick and Tether CEO Paulo Ardoino asking about a loan Tether reportedly made to Lutnick’s family.

*Rates and APYs are subject to change. All information provided here is accurate as of April 30, 2026.

Key takeaways

PenFed is our top pick because the lender doesn’t charge document fees or origination fees, and its annual percentage rates are competitive.
Our list of best auto refinance companies is built on more than 300 cumulative research hours. We evaluated 30+ auto refinance lenders, interviewed 15+ company representatives and reviewed over 30 data points.
Refinancing a car works in two ways: traditional auto refinance and cash-out refinance.
Traditional auto refinance consists of taking out a new loan to pay off the balance on your existing vehicle loan, ideally for a lower rate
With cash-out auto refinance, your new loan covers your existing balance and provides an additional amount of money.

Our Top Picks for Best Auto Refinance Companies of May 2026
The companies listed below stood out after we researched and evaluated the respective merits of more than 15 choices for auto refinancing.

PenFed Credit Union – Best Overall
Gravity Lending – Best for Customer Service
myAutoloan – Best for High Credit Scores
Upstart – Best for Low Credit Scores
Upgrade: Best for Average Savings Claim

Best Auto Refinance Company Reviews

Pros

Relatively low minimum APR

No origination fee

Cons

Higher starting APR for vehicles with 7,501 miles or more

Must be a credit union member (or join)

HIGHLIGHTS

Starting APR
New cars start at 4.19% and used vehicles start at 4.79%*

Minimum Credit Score
Not disclosed

Loan Amounts
Up to $150,000

Loan Terms
36 to 84 months

Why we chose it: PenFed Credit Union takes the title of the best direct lender for auto refinance loans because it doesn’t charge document fees or origination fees, and its annual percentage rates are competitive.
Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) is one of the nation’s largest credit unions, with nearly 3 million members, and anyone can join. Although it has a higher minimum APR for cars with more than 7,500 miles, you can at least refinance a car that has up to 125,000 miles on it. (Other restrictions including vehicle age and mileage may apply.) You an lso refinance up to 125% of your current loan balance.
Many auto refinance marketplaces impose document fees or origination fees, and in return, the company handles the original loan payoff. With PenFed, you’re responsible for this task, as well as changes to the vehicle title. Still, the lack of fees helps cut your total loan repayment.

PenFed Disclaimer
*Actual APR will be determined at the time of disbursement and will be based on application and credit information. Rates quoted assume excellent borrower credit history. Not all applicants will qualify for the lowest rate. Rate depends on term. New vehicles are where you are the original owner and the vehicle is a current 2025 model year or newer and has less than 7,501 miles.
**To receive federally insured products, you must be a PenFed member; the advertised rates are current as of April 30, 2026, depending on credit history, and the actual APR will be determined at disbursement based on your credit information and the loan term, with new vehicles defined as the current 2025 model year or newer with under 7,501 miles.

Pros

High BBB and TrustPilot satisfaction ratings

Large lender marketplace
No document fee

Cons

Not available in Alaska, Rhode Island, Nevada, or Washington, D.C.
Lowest advertised APR is based on an applicant with a 740 credit score

Website lacking in loan details

HIGHLIGHTS

Starting APR
3.89%

Minimum Credit Score
Not provided, but 740 for lowest rates

Loan Amounts
Not provided

Loan Terms
25 to 84 months

Why we chose it: Gravity Lending has high ratings and favorable reviews on multiple third-party review platforms. It is a marketplace, rather than a direct lender, so prospective borrowers can put in their information and receive offers from some of the dozens of lenders in Gravity’s network.
Borrowers who refinance their vehicles with Gravity Lending can save an average of 18% a month, according to the company.
Its minimum APR is a favorable 3.89%, but be aware that only borrowers with high credit will be able to get this rate. Other factors that determine your interest rate include the term of your loan — Gravity offers auto refinance loans from 25 to 84 months, which is relatively standard for the industry — and your income. The age of your car, its mileage and your debt-to-income ratio are all variables that Gravity Lending’s partner network of lenders take into consideration.
Positive customer feedback on third-party review websites highlights the personalized assistance provided by loan officers. Gravity Lending stands out for the high marks it gets from users on TrustPilot as well as the BBB, with a 4.9 (out of 5) on both platforms. The company earned an A+ rating from the BBB, which rates how a business responds to customer complaints.
Customer feedback highlights the personalized assistance provided by loan officers.

Pros

Relatively low minimum APR
Compare four loan offers online within minutes
Most customers can prequalify without a hard credit pull
Receive a check within 24 hours

Cons

Sets a minimum annual income ($18,000)

Smaller lender network than some providers

Not available in Alaska or Hawaii

HIGHLIGHTS

Starting APR
4.20%

Minimum Credit Score
Generally 600, but lower scores sometimes qualify, as well

Loan Amounts
Starting at $5,000 for refinance loans

Loan Terms
36 to 84 months

Why we chose it: myAutoloan is our top pick for people with excellent credit who are seeking to refinance their car.
The company — a marketplace that sells products from many different lenders — says its options include a highly favorable minimum APR of 4.20% to those who qualify. Although it requires a higher-than-typical minimum annual income of $18,000, borrowers can refinance cars that are up to 10 years old and have as many as 125,000 miles on their “clock.” Available loan amounts range from $5,000 to $100,000. The company says some borrowers have saved as much as $5,000 by refinancing their auto loan.
Despite the relatively high minimum annual income requirement of $18,000, a company spokesperson says MyAutoLoan can work with people who have credit scores as low as 580 to help them find an auto refinance loan that will meet their needs.
To get an idea of your potential APR, try the company’s Auto Loan Interest Rate Calculator, which doesn’t require personal information. You can also prequalify for an auto refinance loan using an online form. MyAutoloan guarantees up to four offers based on the accuracy of the provided information.
Read our full review of myAutoLoan Auto Refinance>>>

Pros

Can accommodate subprime borrowers

More flexible income requirements than some

No origination, application or prepayment fee

Cons

Minimum APR for auto refinance not publicly available
Car refinance loans not available in Iowa, Maryland, Nevada and West Virginia
$60,000 loan maximum
Not available in Iowa, Maryland, Nevada or West Virginia

HIGHLIGHTS

Minimum APR:
Not disclosed

Loan amounts:
$3,000 to $60,000

Loan terms:
24 to 84 months

Minimum credit score:
Not disclosed

Why we chose it: Upstart is our pick for the best auto refinance company for borrowers with low credit scores.
According to the company, Upstart uses artificial intelligence to factor over 2,000 variables to determine your creditworthiness, including your education and employment, instead of relying solely on your credit score.
Upstart can refinance cars up to 13 years old and with up to 140,000 miles, which are higher numbers than some of its competitors accommodate. It also has a low minimum threshold for refinancing, with refinance loans that start at $3,000, although its maximum loan amount of $60,000 is lower than most in the industry.

Pros

$115 average monthly savings claimed
Can prequalify without need for a hard credit pull

Cons

Need to sign up for autopay for lowest APR
$65,000 loan maximum
Not available in Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, Puerto Rico and West Virginia
Not available for RVs, motorcycles, commercial vehicles, or salvaged vehicles.

HIGHLIGHTS

Minimum APR:
5.54% with autopay

Loan amounts:
$5,000 to $65,000

Loan terms:
36 to 84 months

Minimum credit score:
Not disclosed

Why we chose it: Upgrade offers flexibility and potentially high monthly savings. Borrowers who refinance a car loan through the site save an average of $115 per month, according to the company. You can prequalify for a loan without a hard credit pull, which not all auto refinance options provide.
Upgrade offers an APR range of 5.54%-19.94%, which is in line with many of its competitors. You may qualify for a more favorable interest rate if you sign up for autopay.
Borrowers can refinance loans on cars as old as 10 years, and with up to 130,000 miles (150,000 for trucks). Qualifying car loans must have an outstanding balance of at least $5,000, and you must have made at least three monthly payments towards the current loan.

Other Auto Refinance Companies We Considered
We assessed the following companies, which — while worthy in some ways — fell short of our picks for the reasons we cite. Four other companies did not respond to repeated requests for updated information and so were dropped from consideration: Caribou Lending, Consumers Credit Union, Autopay and OneMain Financial.

Auto Approve
Borrowers approved for auto loan refinance through Auto Approve save an average of $148 monthly, company representatives tell Money. You’re not required to provide your Social Security number to receive a quote.
Why Auto Approve didn’t make the cut: The document fee ($488), and minimum monthly income ($2,000) are both a little higher than what’s charged by other companies.

Bank of America
Bank of America lets you lock in your rate for 30 days so you can shop around. It also offers an interest rate discount to members of its Preferred Rewards program, but its minimum APR of 5.29% is higher than some other lenders.
Why Bank of America didn’t make the cut: Its annual percentage rates are higher and its monthly savings claim ($60) is lower than many other companies in our top picks.

Capital One
Capital One offers potential customers the opportunity to pre-qualify for an auto loan refinance with only a soft credit pull. Capital One also has an app available (called the “Auto Navigator”) for iOS and Android, through which potential customers can shop for cars and financing options.
Why Capital One didn’t make the cut: Auto refinance borrowers may be required to pay down the balance of their current car loan if their payoff amount is higher than the company’s limits.

Navy Federal Credit Union
Navy Federal Credit Union has favorable interest rates — APRs are as low as 3.89% on new cars and 4.79% on used cars — but you need to join the credit union to refinance your vehicle, and eligibility is restricted to people who are members of the military, veterans, Department of Defense employees and family members.
Why Navy Federal Credit Union didn’t make the cut: Navy Federal’s eligibility is restricted, and its average savings claim of $74 is lower than many other companies we evaluated.

PNC Bank
PNC Bank has a user-friendly website and a straightforward application process, but it has a more limited geographic footprint than other providers we evaluated, and its 5.69% minimum APR is on the high side.
Why PNC Bank didn’t make the cut: Compared to other companies in our top picks, starting annual percentage rates for auto loan refinance at PNC Bank are above those of many of its competitors. Cars also cannot be older than eight years or have more than 80,000 miles (100,000 for higher-credit borrowers).

What You Need to Know About Auto Refinance
Refinancing can give access to better interest rates if your credit history has improved since taking out your current auto loan. However, it’s not a decision to be made lightly, as it may mean additional fees and a hit to your credit score.
How does refinancing a car work?
Refinancing a car works in two ways: traditional auto refinance and cash-out refinance.
Traditional auto refinance
Refinancing a car generally means taking out a new loan to pay off the balance on your existing vehicle loan, ideally for a lower rate. Since your original loan is replaced by a new financial obligation, you get a new APR and new term length.
As an added bonus, your car insurance premiums are likely to go down as well. If you’re looking to change insurers, you can also check out our list of the best car insurance companies.
Cash-out auto refinance
A few auto refinance companies also offer cash-out auto refinances, in which your new loan covers your existing balance and provides an additional amount of money. While a cash-out refinance may have lower interest rates than other financing options, such as personal loans or credit cards, your car’s monthly payments will go up.
Auto refinancing pros and cons

Pros

Longer refinancing terms decrease your monthly car payments

Shorter refinancing terms can save you money in the long run

May obtain lower interest rates

No down payment necessary

Most manufacturer warranty policies still apply after refinancing

Cons

Total interest will go up if you extend loan repayment terms

A shorter loan term will increase your monthly payments
Prepayment penalties and refinancing fees can offset any interest rate savings

Lenders may charge an origination fee on the new loan

Auto refinancing requirements
Before beginning the process, it’s important to make sure refinancing is the right solution for you and whether you meet the qualification requirements. Carefully consider the following:

Your existing loan’s prepayment protocol – Check your existing auto loan agreement to find out if you’ll be penalized for paying early. (This is called a prepayment penalty.) If so, crunch the numbers to see whether an auto refinance makes sense.
Loan balance versus your car’s market value -Your loan balance is higher than the car’s market value. If you’re “underwater,” or owe more than the car is worth, many lenders won’t consider you for an auto refinance loan. (You can check your car’s value on Kelley Blue Book.)
Vehicle age and its mileage -Auto refinance lenders have restrictions you’ll have to meet. Many won’t offer loans for cars more than 10 years old or that have over 120,000 miles.
The status of your current loan payments – Your loan payments should be up to date. If you’re behind on payments, many lenders won’t consider you a viable candidate.
The balance of your current loan – Each lender has a maximum and a minimum loan amount they’ll refinance. If your loan’s current balance is too low or too high, you may not qualify. Many loan providers also have minimum loan amounts (and maximums) to consider.
The kind of car you have – Generally, auto refinance companies won’t refinance cars that are “branded,” meaning rebuilt, salvaged or commercial vehicles.

When can you refinance a car loan?
This decision depends on a number of factors. While a refinance is technically possible on a new loan, there are some conditions under which it makes the most sense.
When your current deal isn’t great
Thanks to global shipping issues and high demand, and if you didn’t do some careful comparison shopping between lenders or dealerships when you bought your car, your loan may not have the best repayment terms or rates.
For instance, if your current APR is around 20-25%, you might be able to get a better offer by shopping around. This is particularly true if your loan is two years older or more, as many loans with high APRs charge most of the interest amount during that time period.
When your credit score has gone up
An improved credit score will likely give you access to much better repayment terms and lower interest rates. If your score was 640 when you received your original vehicle loan, your credit score was considered fair by FICO standards, and you likely committed to a high annual percentage rate. However, once you reach good credit (670) status or better, auto loan refinance companies may offer a better annual percentage rate and more favorable repayment terms.
When your current loan payments are too high
An auto loan refinance provides an opportunity to lower your monthly car payment. This is achieved through extending the life of your loan, which means you’ll pay more interest over the long run. But for those who need more room in their monthly budget, a drop in their car payment could be helpful.
For example, consider an original loan for $45,000 with a term length of 60 months at a 6.3% annual percentage rate. The monthly payment for this loan would be $876. If you refinance at 84 months at the same annual percentage rate, your payment drops to $664 — a savings of more than $200 monthly.
However, a longer term means you’ll pay more interest than you would have with the original loan. In the first scenario, the interest total is $14,175. Extending the loan term to seven years as opposed to the original five years means you’ll accrue $19,845 in interest owed — an increase of $5,670.
How to refinance a car loan
Once you’ve weighed your options and decided a refinance of your current loan is the way to go, follow these simple steps.

Check your credit score – If you have good credit, you’ll likely get a better deal. This may be a good time to ensure there is no incorrect information in your credit report.
Gather all the information about your current auto loan – Having all your information at hand will help speed the application process.
Research new lenders and compare rates – While it may take some time, thoroughly researching auto loan refinance lenders and loan offers to find the best offer can not only help you compare rates, but also identify any potential red flags. You can also see whether your current lender offers a competitive auto loan refinance option, but keep in mind that some lenders will not refinance loans from their own company.
File for prequalification – Getting a pre-approval, when available, presents you as a good candidate for a refinance.
Submit an application – Once you’ve gathered all your documents and have chosen a lender, it’s time to apply. Many lenders offer an online application.
Evaluate the terms – Carefully read the fine print about loan terms. Check whether you can keep your current insurance policy under the new lender’s requirements.
Finalize the loan – Remember to keep making your payments on your existing auto loan until the new auto refinance loan is finalized.

Documents needed to refinance an auto loan
To refinance any kind of loan, some documentation is required. These pertain to personally identifiable information, income, residence and your car’s specifications, among others.
Here’s a detailed list:
☑ Social Security number
☑ Employment information
☑ Residence information
☑ Driver’s license
☑ Car registration and mileage information
☑ Proof of insurance
Does refinancing a car hurt your credit?
Refinancing a car can have a temporary impact on your credit score. When you apply for prequalification to assess potential offers, lenders typically conduct a soft pull, which won’t hurt your credit score. However, when you formally apply for an auto refinance loan, lenders will perform a hard pull, or a hard inquiry, which may lower your credit score.
To mitigate the potential impact on your credit score, make sure to shop for loans within a 14 to 45-day window. Credit bureaus will count these inquiries as a single pull, minimizing the impact. Additionally, the effect of a credit pull typically drops off in about two years.
Note that making on-time payments on your auto refinance loan can actually improve your credit score in the long run; this shows lenders you’re a responsible borrower.
If you’re still unsure about the difference between a hard or soft credit inquiry, check out our explainer on credit inquiries.
How to refinance a car loan with bad credit
You must have a minimum credit score of 640 if you hope to get the lowest rates on an auto refinance loan. However, just like when you seek to get a car loan with bad credit, there are lenders that specialize in auto loan refinance for bad credit borrowers. Here are some cases in which refinancing may still be helpful, even if you have poor credit:

If auto loan rates have gone down – Even with bad credit, you may still be able to find a lower rate or better loan terms if the market has improved since you purchased your original loan.

If your goal is a lower monthly payment – If your main driver in refinancing your auto loan is decreasing your monthly payment, this may mean extending your loan term. The downside is that this will extend the life of the loan, and you’ll therefore pay more in interest as well.

If you’re determined to refinance your car loan despite a spotty credit history, follow the steps outlined above. It may make sense to check out competing offers on an online marketplace of lenders that refinance auto loans, such as LendingTree or RateGenius. You may also be able to get better rates with a lender that allows you to add a co-signer to your loan.
Another option is to consider debt consolidation, which can streamline your loan payoff strategy.
Finally, if you can’t find a good deal, taking steps to fix your credit may end up being your best move in the long run. An improved credit score will affect every area of your finances, not just your auto loan refinance offers. While most credit repair strategies are possible to do yourself, if the time commitment is too high, you may want to check out our list of the best credit repair companies.
Methodology
To create our list of the best auto refinance companies, we conducted more than 300 hours of research and vetted companies according to multiple data points, including:

Annual percentage rates – We search for the most competitive rates in the industry.

Company offerings – Not all auto refinance companies are the same, and so we investigate each company’s offerings independently.

Eligibility requirements – We categorize auto refinance companies based on eligibility requirements, making sure we offer options for a range of financial situations.

Customer experience – We review each company’s complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). We also study third-party review sites for customer feedback.

Financial stability – We consider each company’s financial stability to ensure the company can meet their refinancing obligations.

Although we always try to include accurate and up-to-date information on regulatory and legal actions, we don’t claim this information is complete or fully up to date. Annual percentage rates are subject to change. As always, we recommend you do your own research as well.

Auto Refinance Companies FAQs
When can I refinance my car?
You can refinance your car loan as soon as two months after closing on the original auto loan. However, if your financial situation hasn’t improved or interest rates haven’t changed, it’s unlikely you’ll see any savings.
Can I get a loan with bad credit?
You can get a car loan with bad credit, but it will be more challenging. Lenders use credit scores to evaluate a borrower’s risk, so the best car refinance rates tend to go to those with good-to-excellent FICO scores (670 or higher). People with lower scores will have higher rates than those with a good or excellent credit score. Some lenders specialize in loans for customers with fair to poor credit, such as Auto Credit Express.
How many times can you refinance a car?
Legally, you can refinance a car as many times as you want if you find a different lender willing to extend you a new loan. Auto lenders may be apprehensive about refinancing if they see multiple past refinances on your vehicle and even if you get approved, there are other financial risks to consider.
Repeated refinances and longer loan terms increase the risk of going “upside-down” on your loan, which means your loan balance is greater than the market value of your car. You may also end up paying more than the original loan amount, just in interest rates.
How to transfer a car loan to another person?
You can transfer your car loan to someone else if the new lender allows it. Loan transfers may come with a transferring and/or merchant fee, and lenders always check that the transferee has good credit and income, to prevent loan defaults. The transfer won’t be approved if the person’s creditworthiness and income aren’t up to par.
How soon can you refinance an auto loan?
Some auto refinance companies will work with auto loans as fresh as 30 days from origination. This varies by lender, though, so be sure to check the company’s requirements.

Writer, the enterprise AI agent platform backed by Salesforce Ventures, Adobe Ventures, and Insight Partners, today launched event-based triggers for its Writer Agent platform, enabling AI agents to autonomously detect business signals across Gmail, Gong, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Microsoft SharePoint, and Slack — and execute complex multi-step workflows without any human initiating the process.The release, which also includes a new Adobe Experience Manager connector and a suite of enhanced governance controls such as bring-your-own encryption keys and a Datadog observability plugin, represents Writer’s most aggressive bet yet on fully autonomous enterprise AI. It arrives at a moment when AWS, Salesforce, and Microsoft are all racing to establish their own agentic platforms, and when the question of how much autonomy enterprises will actually hand to AI agents remains deeply unresolved.”We are launching a series of event triggers that power and drive our playbooks to be more proactively called,” Doris Jwo, Writer’s VP of Product Management, told VentureBeat ahead of the announcement. “We’re building on the ecosystem to actually for these connectors, such as SharePoint, Google Drive, Gong, Gmail, Google Calendar, actually listen for events happening in those platforms, so that the agent can practically know that something happened externally, and then, where relevant, call a certain playbook to be actually run live in real time, without any sort of human intervention required.”The shift from reactive to proactive AI agents marks a critical inflection point for enterprise software. Until now, most AI assistants — including Writer’s own platform — required a human to initiate every interaction. A marketer had to open a chat window and ask for help. A salesperson had to prompt a research brief. The new event-based triggers flip that dynamic entirely: the system watches for business events and acts on its own.Why Writer decided humans were the weakest link in enterprise AI workflowsWriter’s push toward autonomous triggers stems from a practical observation its product team made as enterprise customers scaled their use of the platform’s playbooks — the reusable, natural-language workflows that Writer introduced in November 2025 to let business users automate recurring tasks without writing code.”What we found is, as playbooks continue to get integrated into enterprise workflows, it’s actually humans that become the bottleneck in making sure that playbooks get triggered,” Jwo said. “This really kind of solves that problem, to make sure that that sort of always-on, proactive, autonomous nature of that agent has continued to be built on.”The mechanics work like this: Writer’s connectors, which already provided read and write access to third-party enterprise tools, now also listen for specific events — an email arriving in Gmail, a sales call completing in Gong, a new file landing in a Google Drive folder, a meeting starting or ending on Google Calendar, a message posted in Slack. When the system detects a qualifying event, it triggers a predefined playbook that executes a multi-step workflow autonomously.Consider the use case Jwo described for marketing teams already running on Writer’s platform. An email campaign workflow typically begins when a creative brief lands in a Google Drive folder. From there, multiple team members coordinate through Slack to assemble research, build assets, draft copy, review graphics, and package everything for a campaign management tool. Writer’s event-based triggers collapse much of that chain: the moment a brief hits the designated folder, the system automatically fires a cascade of playbooks that assemble the research, generate the assets, and prepare deliverables for human review.”All the playbooks that our customers have been building with us to build all those each individual pieces now just get automatically triggered the minute that initial brief kind of hits the Google Drive folder,” Jwo said. “That’s, I think, a very common workflow for most of these marketing sort of, like, content-heavy use cases, where it’s multiple parties involved, it’s a lot of assets coming together in a cascade.”How Writer’s AI reasoning engine separates it from simple automation tools like ZapierThe comparison to Zapier — the popular automation tool that connects thousands of apps through if-this-then-that logic — is inevitable, and Jwo addressed it directly.”It’s more than just an LLM in the middle,” she said. “It is an agent with reasoning and then access to a really powerful set of tools that includes connectors, that includes its own virtual sandbox, which enables it to do things like write and execute code on the fly and create those assets.”The distinction matters for understanding where Writer sits in an increasingly crowded landscape. Zapier and similar workflow automation tools require users to manually define rigid logic paths, specifying exact conditions and actions in a deterministic sequence. Writer’s approach uses its Palmyra-powered reasoning engine to process event context and make real-time execution decisions. Users describe their goals in natural language rather than dragging around boxes and defining conditional branches.”It’s not quite Zapier, because I think it requires a lot more — it’s more rigid,” Jwo said of traditional automation tools. “It requires more manual kind of setup to define the logic and the roles and the conditions for which a workflow has to be run.” Writer’s playbooks, by contrast, allow “a simple idea to turn into something that’s actually executable and repeatable,” she added, noting that builds take “hours and days, not weeks and months.”This natural-language accessibility has been central to Writer’s strategy since it introduced the Agent platform and playbooks last November. The company has consistently positioned itself as a platform that puts power in the hands of business users — marketers, sales teams, operations leads — rather than requiring engineering resources to build and maintain AI workflows. Writer CEO May Habib made this case forcefully at Davos earlier this year, arguing that the leaders pulling ahead are those entering what she called “rebuild mode” — stripping workflows down to outcomes and eliminating what she described as the “coordination tax” of endless handoffs, status meetings, and alignment emails.The event-based triggers extend that philosophy to its logical conclusion. If business users can build playbooks in natural language, and those playbooks can now fire automatically based on real-world business events, then the entire loop from signal to action can operate with minimal human involvement.Inside the governance controls Writer built to make autonomous AI agents safe for regulated enterprisesThat level of autonomy raises obvious concerns, and Writer appears to understand that governance is the linchpin of the entire strategy. The company paired its trigger launch with a substantial expansion of its administrative controls — a combination that suggests Writer views enterprise trust as its primary competitive weapon.The new governance features include Connector Profiles, which allow administrators to configure multiple versions of the same connector with different permissions per team; Writer Agent Profiles for deploying customized agent configurations with specific capability toggles and security settings; AI Studio Observability for auditable tracking of every agent interaction; a Datadog Logs Plugin that forwards every LLM request and response as structured log events; and bring-your-own encryption key support through AWS, Azure, or GCP key management services.”A really important part of that, and a baseline, sort of foundation for everything that we roll out, is our observability and governance platform,” Jwo told VentureBeat. “When connectors are set up, admins have full control over connector access, what is set up, who has access, which teams exactly are those access granted to, as well as individually, which exact tools do teams are able to call.”The observability story extends to the individual user level as well. Jwo described Writer Agent’s user experience as built around progressive disclosure — clean initial views that users can expand to inspect the full chain of reasoning behind any agent action. “You can drill down to the actual tool call level,” she said. “You’d actually have the ability to look at specifically what web search results were pulled, what connector was called, what tool called, what succeeded, what failed, how did the agent divert its path to fulfill your goal.”This transparency architecture reflects a broader conviction Writer has articulated through what it calls “The Agentic Compact” — a framework the company published for responsible AI that emphasizes foundational transparency, auditability, and human oversight. Dan Bikel, Writer’s head of AI, has argued publicly that the industry’s obsession with model scale has created what he calls a “transparency paradox,” leaving businesses with powerful tools they cannot fully understand or control. Writer’s governance-first approach to autonomous triggers represents the operational expression of that philosophy.Writer also introduced its agent supervision suite in December 2025, offering centralized monitoring, agent approval workflows, global guardrails, and integrations with external observability and security platforms like Datadog, Noma, and Lakera. The event-based triggers now extend that governance framework to cover actions initiated without any human in the loop — a meaningfully harder problem.Writer takes aim at AWS, Salesforce, and Microsoft in the escalating agentic platform warsThe timing of Writer’s announcement is not accidental. The enterprise agentic AI market has entered a period of intense platform competition, with the largest technology companies in the world staking claims to the same territory Writer occupies.Jwo acknowledged the pressure directly when asked why a CIO would choose Writer over established vendor relationships with AWS, Salesforce, or Microsoft — all of which have announced agentic platforms of their own.”At the baseline, I think we have all the pieces to be fully enterprise-grade and ready,” Jwo said. But she argued that Writer’s real advantage lies in accessibility for non-technical users. “A lot of the challenge has been: how do we get business users to actually be able to build these powerful workflows in a way that maybe a technical user, using coding agents, can do very quickly and well, but the typical business user is not accustomed to anything beyond typical prompting to actually create?”That positioning — enterprise-grade capabilities wrapped in a business-user-friendly interface — has been Writer’s core differentiation since the company’s founding in 2020. It is also the reason Writer has attracted strategic investment from Salesforce Ventures and Adobe Ventures, both of which are building their own AI platforms but apparently see value in Writer’s approach to the business-user segment.The company’s March 2026 release of Skills — reusable building blocks that encode a team’s specific methodologies, quality standards, and decision frameworks into the Agent platform — reinforced this direction. Skills allow marketing teams, for instance, to capture exactly how their best strategist structures competitive analysis or formats campaign briefs, then make that expertise available to every team member and every playbook across the organization. Combined with event-based triggers, the result is a system where institutional knowledge executes automatically in response to real-world business events.Writer’s 2026 AI adoption survey, conducted with Workplace Intelligence and covering 2,400 global executives, found that 79% of enterprises face AI adoption challenges despite high investment — and that organizations with strong change management programs are six times more likely to reach production. Writer CMO Diego Lomanto has argued that the real barrier to AI adoption is not technology but trust, writing that “they treat resistance as a training problem when it’s actually a trust problem.” The governance-heavy approach to event-based triggers appears designed to address exactly that dynamic.Salesforce, SAP, and Workday triggers are next as Writer expands its connector roadmapWriter’s initial event trigger support covers Gmail, Gong, Google Calendar, Google Drive, SharePoint, and Slack — tools that Jwo described as “generally the most applicable to every end user.” But the company has its eye on deeper enterprise system integration.When asked about CRM and ERP triggers for systems like Salesforce, SAP, and Workday, Jwo confirmed these are within the scope of the roadmap. “You can imagine, you know, a Salesforce opportunity is created that may trigger a cascade of events that happens,” she said. “You might want to set up the right assets, maybe the right customer environment, all sorts of things can kind of cascade from that.”The connector ecosystem has been a strategic priority since Writer launched its MCP (Model Context Protocol) gateway in November 2025, providing governed agent access across enterprise systems including Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, HubSpot, Gong, PitchBook, FactSet, and others. The addition of Adobe Experience Manager in this release gives marketing teams direct read/write access to pages, fragments, and digital assets in Adobe’s content management system — a connector that closes the gap between AI-generated content and published output.Jwo clarified that in most integration scenarios, Writer Agent delivers content in a draft state rather than publishing it directly. “Writer Agent basically accomplishes the majority of the workload — pulling together the assets, making the changes and presenting — and then hopefully a person just has to go through the last three or so final steps to get it out,” she said.The real question enterprise AI must answer: how much autonomy is too much autonomyThe degree of autonomy enterprises are comfortable granting their AI agents remains one of the most consequential open questions in the industry. Jwo acknowledged that most customers still maintain human checkpoints in their workflows.”You can also build in instructions into our playbooks to say, ‘Hey, before you move on to a next playbook, make sure that you check with me. I want to take a look, and then if I hit go, then you’re good to go,'” she said. The agent can also be designed with self-QA capabilities, validating outputs against known pitfalls before proceeding.Writer plans to expand these checkpoint capabilities in the coming quarter, adding the ability to specify not just that a checkpoint is required but which specific person must respond and what types of responses are expected — essentially building a formal approval workflow into the autonomous trigger chain.Jwo characterized the current system as a hybrid: the platform listens deterministically for predefined events, but the agent applies reasoning to decide what action to take — or whether to act at all. “The agent has the ability to process what happened, understand the context of it, and understand the intent of what you want to do, so it can make that decision,” she said. “You’re just saying, like, ‘Hey, the goal might be feedback is coming in, and we want to triage that in real time. And some things we might not want to action on, some things we do.’ You basically just explain that to the agent.”She views this release as a stepping stone toward a future where agents are “even more mission-driven, and less governed by even like a set of instructions or roles” — a future where the AI doesn’t just respond to triggers but proactively identifies when action is needed based on broader organizational goals.For now, Writer is betting that the combination of autonomous triggers, robust governance, and business-user accessibility will be enough to carve out defensible territory in an enterprise AI market where the biggest technology companies in the world are all converging on the same set of capabilities. The company’s argument is that having the foundational pieces is not enough — what matters is making those pieces work together in a way that non-technical business users can build, manage, and trust.It is, in other words, the same wager Writer has been making since 2020 — that the future of enterprise AI belongs not to the platform with the most powerful model, but to the one that can get an entire organization to actually use it. The difference now is that the agents don’t wait to be asked.Event-based triggers, new connectors, and enhanced governance controls are available immediately to Writer enterprise customers.

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