Julie Bandy joined the Bankrate editorial team in 1999 as an assignment editor. Over the past 10 years, she coordinated a redesign of Bankrate's popular newsletter and alerts program; oversaw the creation of a Frugal Living channel and was the lead editor for the launch of Bankrate’s Financial Literacy series, now in its third year.

In June 2007, Julie was promoted to editor in chief. She and her team of reporters, editors and copy editors have won three national awards over the past two years, including the Sigma Delta Chi award for Deadline Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists for coverage of the Federal Open Market Committee. Most recently, she has led her team through the site redesign.

Prior to joining Bankrate, she was an editor and a member of the launch team for the national magazine Country Weekly. She and her family live in northern Palm Beach County.

Julie earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at St. Mary’s Dominican College in New Orleans.

Ellen Cannon has covered personal finance topics for more than 20 years, including 10 years with Bloomberg L.P. As a print journalist, she specialized in magazine startups, most notably Entertainment Weekly and the Australian edition of People magazine, as well as all of Bloomberg's publications.

At Bankrate, she writes Plastic Rap, a blog about the credit card business, and oversees stories on credit cards, college financing, banking and other personal finance topics.

Ellen also does weekly Bankrate Personal Finance Minutes for XM satellite radio, monthly TV spots for the West Palm Beach ABC affiliate, and has appeared on CNN, Bloomberg TV and MSNBC.

Ellen has a Bachelor's degree in English and journalism from the University of Delaware in Newark, Del.

Roger has worked as a broadcast, print and electronic-media reporter and editor for more than 40 years.

A graduate of the University of Miami, Capettini started his career in radio news for two Miami stations before enlisting in the Army and teaching journalism at the U.S. Department of Defense during the Vietnam War.

He joined Bankrate.com in 2003 as assistant managing editor. Prior to that, Capettini was a reporter and then metro editor at Paddock Publications in Chicago; assistant city editor at the Fort Lauderdale News; city editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel; news editor at American Media; and executive editor at Country Weekly Magazine.

He has also been a licensed Florida real estate broker and Realtor since 1978.

Barbara Mlotek Whelehan has been covering personal finance topics for 15-plus years. During her seven-year tenure as senior editor of Mutual Funds Magazine, she interviewed hundreds of portfolio managers as well as financial planners, analysts and top-level corporate management of major fund firms.

She wrote several cover stories, including two which garnered Silver awards from the Florida Magazine Association in 1996 and 1997. Prior to joining Mutual Funds Magazine, she served as managing editor of Delta SKY Magazine.

Barbara Whelehan has worked at Bankrate for four years and currently edits the Financial Literacy Series and oversees stories on retirement, insurance, estate planning and other personal finance topics. She also writes Boomer Bucks, a regular column that addresses various topics of interest to baby boomers.

Barbara earned a Certificate of Specialization in Financial Planning from Nova Southeastern University's School of Business and Entrepreneurship.

In addition to her duties at Bankrate, Judy is a Certified Financial Planner and the author of "The Dilemmas of Family Wealth: Insights on Succession, Cohesion and Legacy," published in 2006 by Bloomberg Press.

At Bankrate, she writes Your Wealth, a blog about financial planning, investing and general observations on wealth. She edits stories about mortgages, banking, investing and other personal finance topics. Judy also records weekly Bankrate Personal Finance Minutes for XM satellite radio.

Prior to joining Bankrate, she was a freelance financial writer for magazines including "Worth," "Town & Country," "Ladies Home Journal" and "Vive." Before that, she was a vice president at Asset Management Advisors, a multi-family office and affiliate of SunTrust Banks Inc. She also spent 12 years as a newspaper reporter and editor.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

For the past nine years, Chris has worked exclusively in online publishing. He was editor of the Twin Cities Internet Guide and Directory and national night editor for Internet Broadcasting Systems. Most recently, he worked as a medical editor for NBC Universal's iVillage Total Health Web site.

At Bankrate, Chris works with writers and columnists who cover many different personal finance topics for the Web site. He also writes and reports on real estate and housing issues.

Chris attended the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., where he earned a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Stephen joined Bankrate in 2009 from The Palm Beach Post, where he was a business writer, bureau chief and assistant metro editor for more than 20 years. While at The Post, he was a four-time winner in business writing in the Society of Professional Journalist's Sunshine State Awards for his coverage of the Tyco International scandal and identity-theft crisis, among other stories.

After working at three newspapers in the Midwest, Stephen was awarded a Kiplinger Fellowship in Public Affairs Reporting at The Ohio State University. He taught beginning journalism and received a master's degree in journalism.

He also has studied at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland, attending four programs since 2002 aimed at defining news coverage of prominent issues. Most recently, he took part in sessions examining the effects of the financial crisis. Stephen earned bachelor's degrees in journalism and photography at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Laura has been with Bankrate.com since December 1998. Her reporting duties focus primarily on checking, savings and money market accounts, as well as deposit products and retirement planning.

Laura was honored in 2006 by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers with the Best in Business Enterprise Real-Time Reporting award for her article "Suspicious Activity Reports." She also received the Deadline Reporting Online award from the Society of Professional Journalists for "Fed Alert" in 2004.

Prior to coming to Bankrate, Laura spent 18 years in television news as a reporter and special projects producer.

She graduated in 1979 with a Bachelors of Business Administration from Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y.

Holden Lewis covers mortgages and real estate for Bankrate.com. Holden's award-winning weblog, Mortgage Matters, explains how mortgage rates and real estate are affected by economic and political developments. The blog is written in easy-to-understand language for people who are not professionals in the mortgage or real estate industries.

Lewis has won a slew of awards for his reporting and blogging for Bankrate.

In 2007, he was the first person to win the National Association of Real Estate Editors' Best Blog Award.

After graduating from the University of North Texas, Lewis worked for the Associated Press, where he reported from the United States and Mexico, and then as a reporter and editor for The Blade in Toledo, Ohio. He moved to Florida in 1999 to write about personal finance for Bankrate.com. He lives in Jupiter, Fla., with his wife and son.

Leslie writes about credit cards and scores, identity theft and scams, in addition to various personal finance topics. She contributes regularly to the Plastic Rap blog about credit cards. Before joining Bankrate, she interned at a publishing company in Northern Florida. She graduated from the University of Florida with dual bachelor’s degrees in English and psychology, along with a minor in sociology. She is based in Bankrate's New York office.

Steve joined Bankrate in 2008.

Prior to joining the Financial Literacy team, he wrote about the credit union industry as a staff writer with the Credit Union Journal in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Earlier on, Steve was a freelance writer for The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Scripps-Howard News and other area publications.

Steve earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.

He lives in Palm City, Fla. where his pursuits include sport fishing and photography.

As a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College with a degree in creative writing, Sheyna Steiner despaired of ever finding long-term gainful employment. After a couple of stints as a writer's assistant in Los Angeles, time served in customer service at a discount brokerage/mutual fund company and other sundry jobs, she came to work at Bankrate as an editorial assistant. In that capacity, she wrote on a wide range of topics, which included interviews with Frugal $ense contest winners and she churning out Financial Literacy work sheets for the enjoyment of a .pdf starved populace.

In January 2008 she became a full-fledged staff writer, working primarily on the Financial Literacy series.

Claes Bell graduated from Florida State University with degrees in history and writing, after serving as a staff writer and assistant Arts & Entertainment editor for The FSView and Florida Flambeau. He took a three-year hiatus from journalism to teach intensive reading at two Palm Beach County high schools before returning as a sports desk clerk for The Palm Beach Post, a freelance copy editor for Bankrate and a freelance writer published on Bankrate and in Boca Raton Magazine. He joined Bankrate full time as a copy editor in September 2007. In February 2009, he was promoted to reporter.

Dani Arthur graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor's of Science degree from the University of Indianapolis, with a major in elementary education and minors in reading and learning disabilities. After graduating, she taught middle school in British Columbia, Canada. In August 1999, she joined Bankrate as an editorial researcher, compiling facts and statistics for the tax channel, updating stories, and pulling together relevant and timely story packages.

In January 2006, Dani took over the Bankrate e-newsletter program. In this role, she writes, builds and schedules Bankrate’s five weekly newsletters: Credit Card Weekly, Frugal News, CD & Investing, Mortgage & Real Estate and Bankrate Weekly. She also prepares a monthly Home Equity newsletter, a bi-monthly Car & Money News newsletter and special Fed Alert newsletter.

Dani lives in Jupiter, Fla., with her husband and four children. She still keeps her hand in education by homeschooling two of her children.

Katie Doyle has been copy editing for Bankrate since May 2005. Prior to that she copy edited for a magazine and newsletter publisher in Palm Beach County and worked as a sports reporter and clerk for The Palm Beach Post.

Katie held a regional reporter internship for Scripps-Howard News Service in Washington, D.C., and interned for the research and ratings department at NBC in Rockefeller Center.

At Bankrate, she is the chief copy editor and, as such, the last line of defense for Bankrate editorial content. She oversees the daily stories, blogs and newsletters, as well as the programming of the Bankrate channel pages.

Jessica Seubert is a graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in magazine journalism. She worked as a sports copy editor for the Independent Florida Alligator newspaper and served as executive editor of Orange & Blue magazine. Her print career continued as a copy editor, photographer, reporter and associate editor for a conglomerate of weekly papers on the west coast of Florida. She was also a reporter and stringer for the Miami bureau of The New York Times prior to joining Bankrate in August 2007. The copy desk at Bankrate is responsible for editing, fact checking and preparing all copy for the Web site, including daily stories, blogs and newsletters, as well as handling the programming of the Bankrate channel pages.

Dave Lee, a graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, started his career in 1998 as a copy editor and page designer at the Palladium-Item newspaper in Richmond, Ind. A year later, he joined the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as a night news copy editor; in July 2003, he took on a similar role at The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina. In September 2004 he became a copy editor, reporter, blogger and occasional multimedia assistant at MKE, a free weekly entertainment publication owned and published by the Journal Sentinel. He joined Bankrate in March 2009.

Elvis Ramirez joined Bankrate in 2009 from The Miami New Times, where he was the Web editor. He also wrote about events in the Miami area for that publication. He graduated from Florida International University with a degree in journalism.

Dr. Don Taylor, in addition to answering our readers' questions about personal finance, is an assistant professor of business administration at Penn State Brandywine in Media, Pa. He teaches courses in financial services for the university. Previously, Don was an associate professor of finance at The American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa., where he taught course work in financial planning and investments. He is co-author of the textbook "Financial Planning: Process and Environment," now in its second edition. He has professional experience as a treasurer, consultant, financial planner and debt analyst.

Don holds a doctorate in finance and has earned master's and bachelor's degrees in finance. A Chartered Financial Analyst since 1990, he also has earned his Chartered Financial Planner certificate and is a Chartered Financial Consultant. He is a member of the CFA Institute, the Academy of Financial Services, the Financial Planning Association and the Financial Management Association. He is on the review board of the Journal of Financial Planning and the Journal of Financial Service Professionals.

Justin Harelik has been working with English- and Spanish-speaking clients in the personal finance industry for close to a decade. He has worked as a bankruptcy attorney, credit manager, debt negotiator and student loan adviser. He has applied his financial and legal skills to managing the estates of high net-worth individuals, and to helping improve the financial well-being of hundreds of people living below the poverty line. Currently he is a practicing attorney in Los Angeles.

Harelik earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his law degree from the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. He spent a year studying in South America and speaks fluent Spanish.

He is a native of Los Angeles, where he works with the firm Price Law Group. He is also a volunteer Big Brother for the Los Angeles Division of Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

Steve Bucci is president of Money Management International Financial Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization that operates to educate the general public on sound personal financial skills and money management principles by developing, delivering and supporting programs that teach those skills and principles. His weekly column is distributed nationally by the Scripps-Howard newspaper syndicate. Steve was formerly president of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Southern New England. He is the founder of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Rhode Island, developed in the wake of the 1991 Rhode Island banking and credit union crisis. Steve also founded and was the former managing director of the University of Rhode Island Center for Personal Financial Education. The center is a joint venture with the University of Rhode Island to raise the level of financial literacy through innovative mass education programs and research.

Steve graduated from East Providence Senior High School and the University of Rhode Island at Kingston, where he received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees. He and his wife, Barbara, live in the seaside community of Narragansett, R.I.

Steve McLinden has written on virtually all aspects of the real estate world for the past 15 years. His writings have appeared in newspapers around the country on the Scripps-Howard and Knight-Ridder business wire services. A resident of Arlington, Texas, McLinden spent seven years covering real estate for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, winning multiple writing awards. At present, he is a correspondent for National Real Estate Investor, Shopping Centers Today and REO magazine. He has also written for Urban Land and Tierra Grande, a quarterly journal published by the Texas A & M University Real Estate Center, plus covered real estate beats for business journals in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

McLinden is a native of Peoria, Ill., and a graduate of Bergan High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in communications from Western Illinois University.

George Saenz is a Certified Public Accountant living in Miami. With more than 15 years of experience in income, corporate and estate taxes, George brings a real-life perspective to tax problems. He's a member of the Florida and American Institutes of CPAs and the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.

George earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Florida, and continued graduate studies at Florida International University, where he is a member of the university's advisory board for its Executive Master's of Science in Taxation program. George also is a licensed life insurance agent and a Series 6 Registered Representative.