This article is brought to you and contributed by an outside writer.

There is a quiet shift happening in the housing market, and it has everything to do with us. Single women now make up a larger share of homebuyers than at almost any point on record.

According to the National Association of Realtors, single women accounted for 21 percent of all buyers in the most recent survey, more than double the 9 percent share held by single men. We are buying condos and starter homes and the houses we plan to grow old in, often on one income, frequently without waiting for anyone else to sign off on the decision.

That is genuinely good news, and it has been a long time coming.

Here is the part that gets far less attention:

Women, and single women especially, tend to pay more for the very mortgage that makes all of it possible. Not because we are worse borrowers. Because of how the system reads us on paper.

Single women pay higher mortgage rates

Research from the Urban Institute has tracked this pattern for years, and its 2025 update confirms the gap has not closed. Solo female borrowers are charged higher interest rates than solo male borrowers, and they are turned down more often, largely because they arrive with weaker credit profiles and a higher share of higher-priced loans.

That sounds like a neutral, math-based outcome until you look at what happens after the paperwork is signed. When researchers held credit scores, loan sizes, and loan-to-value ratios steady and compared genuinely similar borrowers, single women defaulted less often than single men.

The credit characteristics lenders lean on, in other words, overstate the risk women actually carry. We are paying a premium for a danger that never shows up.

Income’s role in the equation

Some of the gap traces back to income. Single female buyers report the lowest median household income of any group the Realtors track, and income shapes everything downstream, from the size of the loan to the debt-to-income ratio a lender sees to the interest rate that gets attached to it. Some of it is structural in ways no single person can fix from her own living room.

But a meaningful slice of it is fixable right there at the kitchen table, and that is the slice worth pouring your energy into.

What you can do about it

The most effective move is also the one most buyers skip:

Get more than one quote.

It sounds almost too obvious to bother with, yet it matters more than nearly anything else you will do.

Lenders quote different rates to the same person on the same afternoon, and that spread grows wider when overall rates are elevated. Freddie Mac found that during higher-rate stretches, borrowers who collected quotes from two lenders saved around $600 a year, while those who compared four or more saved upward of $1,200 a year.

Spread across a thirty-year loan, that is not a rounding error. That is a reliable car, or a year of daycare, or the emergency fund you keep promising yourself you will build.

How to shop for the best mortgage rate

To shop well, you need a baseline — some sense of what a normal rate looks like today so you can tell whether an offer is competitive or quietly padded. Checking a lender’s posted current mortgage rates before you talk to a soul gives you exactly that, usually broken out by loan type so you can see how a conventional thirty-year stacks up against an FHA or VA option.

Walk into the conversation already knowing the going range and the whole dynamic shifts. You stop asking what a lender is willing to give you and start checking whether what they offer measures up.

A few habits make the comparison cleaner:

• Pull all your quotes inside a short window, ideally a week or two, so the credit inquiries get bundled as a single event and your score barely flinches.
• Compare the APR rather than the headline interest rate, since the APR folds in the fees and points and tells you what the money actually costs.
• Do not be shy about saying out loud that you are shopping. Loan officers expect it, and the knowledge that you are holding other offers is frequently the thing that nudges the number in your favor.

Remember that refinancing is an option

There is a second place women tend to leave money on the table, and it arrives later. When rates fall, refinancing can shave a real amount off a monthly payment, yet the Urban Institute found that single women, and single women of color in particular, refinance less often than men even when the math plainly favors it.

If you locked in a high rate simply because that was the market on the day you bought, set a reminder to revisit it every time rates dip. The loan you signed is not a life sentence.

You are not to blame. You are also not powerless.

None of this is about blaming yourself for a gap you did not design. The disparity is real, it is well documented, and it deserves the policy attention it is slowly beginning to attract.

But while that larger repair grinds through the system, the leverage you hold as an individual buyer is very real. Knowing the going rate, gathering a handful of quotes, comparing the APR, and keeping an eye on refinancing are not glamorous. They are the boring, powerful kind of moves that quietly keep tens of thousands of dollars in your account over the life of a loan.

You are already buying homes in record numbers.

You may as well stop overpaying for them.

This article is in collaboration with ValuedVoice. 

Did you know that….

• 45% of American entrepreneurs are women?
• Since 2012, overall business growth has sat at 19%, but those owned by women have grown by 26%?
• Annual revenues of women-owned businesses have grown by 23% since 2012?

Pretty neat stats! (You can catch more of them from AEO.)

Unfortunately, women-owned businesses still have a harder time accessing capital and credit, which makes getting off the ground more difficult. Today, we’ll talk about some ways you can access funding, and some strategies to lower overhead when you’re building in a cash crunch.

Accessing funding

Getting access to credit is more difficult when you’re a woman starting a business. If you’re looking for a lender who will work with you, SBA lending to women-owned businesses has increased by about 70% since 2020.

Plus the SBA runs Women’s Business Centers across the country. These centers offer advice and training resources. A lot of times these resources are free, but when there is a charge it’s usually pretty low-cost.

There are certain VCs that specifically invest in women’s businesses, like Backstage Capital and the Female Founders Fund.

Another resource to explore is grant funding. Grants are money you don’t have to pay back — either through loan payments or returns for investors. If you’re an entrepreneur working in a creative field, Danielle Desir Corbett puts together a fantastic newsletter with a plethora of grant funding opportunities.

Saving on Costs

When I interviewed women entrepreneurs for The Feminist Financial Handbook, one of the key things I heard was that keeping your overhead low early on is absolutely key to success. One of the women relayed renting a physical space for her business, as well as hiring on one employee. The employee in particular was a pricey expense, and one that almost threw her under.

That’s not to say that employing people can’t or shouldn’t be a long-term goal. But a lot of times when you’re first getting started, you may feel like you need to hit that goal off the bat. When you take it on before your business is actually ready for it, the costs might impede the very growth you need to sustain it.

Aside from avoiding over-investing too early, there are other ways to save money. For example, if you need to purchase business insurance, check with your independent agent or the company that already holds your personal lines insurance. They may be able to bundle these insurance policies together so you can score a multi-policy discount.

Similarly, if you are running out of an office, you can bundle business phone and internet together to score lower rates — just like you would at home.

Networking

When you think about money as a small business owner, networking might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But the people you network with can have big impacts on your bottom line.

They can connect you with investors. They can clue you in to vendor discounts. They can introduce you to new customers and clients.

Don’t be overly concerned with connecting with the biggest names in your industry at the get-go. Maybe that’ll work out for you, but maybe the power imbalance will result in an opportunity squandered.

Start by connecting with people who are in a similar stage as you are. As you both grow and support each other (remember — this is a two-way street!), you’ll open up doors and opportunities together along the way.

 

The long-awaited day is here:

The first BCBS settlement payments are finally going out, nearly 4.5 years after the last claimants joined the class-action lawsuit.

People are DISAPPOINTED about the amounts they’re getting. Anecdotally, at the time of writing many people are reporting receiving ~0.005% of the qualified premiums they included in the suit. Anecdotes are not guarantees…it’s just what other people are saying they received so far.

If you have received a payment already, it’s highly likely that you opted to be paid via a prepaid Visa® card. This was advertised as the fastest way to get paid.

But there are some things you should know before you fill up a quarter tank of gas with your settlement money.

What to know about the BCBS Settlement prepaid Visa card

Any time you have a prepaid card, there are some things you need to be aware of. BCBS settlement payments are no exception.

This list is not all inclusive — it’s just top-of-line things I personally think are important to know as a veteran personal finance writer. If you want to get the full scoop, you can dive into the fine print of the cardholder agreement here.

Be mindful of fees

If you think your settlement payment is small now, be careful not to let it sit for too long. Because it could get smaller.

Fees are not uncommon on prepaid cards. The fees on the BCBS settlement cards are not the worst. But they are something to be mindful of.

Monthly inactivity fee

If you let your card sit inactive for 18 months in a row, you will start to be charged an inactivity fee. This fee is $0.75 per month.

Foreign transaction fee

If you spend on your card outside the U.S., you’ll incur a 3% foreign transaction fee. This is not outside the norm — many regular degular credit and debit cards have similar fee structures.

You’re also going to be subject to the card issuers’ (Visa’s) foreign exchange rates. In my experience, card issuer exchange rates tend to be bad. But I can’t speak for Visa’s rates specifically at any given point in time.

The cheapest way to spend your card money is in America, though.

Lost or Stolen Card Fee

If you lose your card or it gets stolen, you will have to pay for a replacement. The fee is $5.95.

Be sure to record your card information somewhere safe. If your card does disappear, you’ll need to provide this information to get the new one. You’ll also have to wait for up to 30 days for the replacement to be issued.

What if I don’t want my money on a card anymore?

Now, if you purposefully terminate and destroy the card, you can request that Choice Digital issue you a paper check for the remaining balance.

Be in careful contact with Choice Digital before you do any destruction, though. If you have any phone conversations, be sure to follow up with written correspondence and confirmation.  You can do this by snail mail, but it’s easier and equally valid to do it by email.

Your BCBS Settlement prepaid card does expire.

Check the expiration date when you enter the code to activate your card. If your card expires or is shut down due to inactivity (which, don’t forget, comes with fees), your balance doesn’t evaporate. You just won’t be able to use the card anymore.

At this point, you’d want to get in touch with Choice Digital to figure out next steps. If it expires and no one is in touch with you, eventually they have to send the remaining balance to the Unclaimed Funds department at your state treasury.

You can convert to a physical card.

If having a prepaid card is a pain, having a virtual prepaid card is worse. Yet, the default in this situation is digital.

You are able to convert your virtual card into a physical one. You have to call the support number on Choice Digital’s contact page to initiate the process.

You can’t use your prepaid card just anywhere.

Virtual prepaid cards can generally be used to pay online. The physical cards are a little more flexible, and can be used to pay in-person anywhere Visa cards are accepted — as long as the merchant accepts prepaid cards.

Regardless of which one you have, there are some restrictions on your card. You can’t use it to withdraw cash from an ATM, for example. While you can use it to pay for gas, you’re going to have to pay inside rather than at the pump.

Some other explicit restrictions on BCBS settlement prepaid cards include:

• Subscription fees
• Automatic bill pay
• Paying off your credit card balance
• Pharmacies
• Digital games
• Sports betting (or any gambling)
• Crypto
• Stocks or bonds
• Pawn shop purchases
• Dating app purchases
• Expensive fancy stuff, like high-end watches from a jewelry store

Again, not an exhaustive list. Check your card agreement when you activate to see every last thing you cannot buy.

Do not hold your breath and hope there’s enough money on your card.

You’re not supposed to be able to overdraw on your prepaid settlement card. If you swipe for a purchase that costs more than what you have on there, the idea is that the transaction shouldn’t get processed.

However, if for some reason it does go through when it shouldn’t, you are responsible for paying the difference back. Do the math before you press ‘pay.’

You’re giving away a lot of personal data when you use a third-party login.

Signing in with Google, LinkedIn or Facebook feels super easy. And it does reduce friction.

But it also gives away a lot of your personal data. Here’s how Choice Digital puts it in their Terms of Service:

“If you connect the Service with a third party service…you give us permission to access and use your information from that third party service as permitted by that service, and to store your login credentials for that service; all information we receive from such third party service will be deemed Registration Information.”

You don’t have protection like you would with a credit card.

A prepaid card is not a credit card. If you suspect a fraudulent charge on your credit account, the issuer usually refunds the purchase to you while they sort it out.

As a general rule, if money gets stolen off of a prepaid credit card, you’re not typically given that benefit of the doubt — especially not upfront with immediacy. The money that’s stolen is more likely to stay stolen.

Though you can contact Choice Digital to see what they can suss out for you. Part of that may require issuing you a new card, in which case you’re in ‘lost or stolen card’ territory.

The fine print is important

There’s a lot more in the cardholder agreement and terms of service, like the fact that you’re responsible for paying taxes on your settlement (even if the amount you got is too small for the lawyers to issue you a 1099.) By using the card, you’re also waiving your right to a jury trial should you hit any bumps in the road.

The fees could be worse.

It’s nice — albeit a little inconvenient — that you can turn your digital prepaid card into a physical one or even turn your balance into a paper check.

But this method of payment, while speedier in terms of issuance, is going to require a little extra homework as you go to use it.