getters and setters style

(Leaving aside the question of should you have them at all.)

I have always preferred to just use function overloading to give you the same name for both getter and setters.

int rate() { return _rate; }      
void rate(int value) { _rate = value; }

// instead of     
int getRate() { return _rate; }      
void setRate(int value) { _rate = value; }

// mainly because it allows me to write the much cleaner     
total( period() * rate() );    
// instead of      
setTotal( getPeriod() * getRate() );

Naturally I am correct, but i wondered if the library writers had any good reason ?