If you’re applying for an Earnest Personal Loan or Student Loan Refinance, you’ll be asked to link your financial accounts through Plaid to streamline the review process. For Personal Loans, the linked account will also be used to disburse loan funds.
Who is Plaid?
Plaid is a trusted partner in the fintech industry, enabling secure electronic connections between financial institutions and applications. Earnest has chosen to partner with Plaid to help reduce review time by allowing applicants to log in to their financial account(s) from our platform and, as a trusted partner, disburse personal loan funds.
An electronic connection allows us to rapidly, and in some cases instantly, verify your income, assets, and expenses, which often removes the need to review documents like pay stubs or account statements. As a result, accounts connected through Plaid are automatically verified and typically do not require additional documentation. If you choose to manually enter your bank account information, we may request documentation such as a check or a recent account statement to confirm ownership. In all cases, the account must be in your name and match the information in your application. If you are having trouble connecting your account to Plaid or receive a notice from your bank, please refer to this article.
What Does Plaid Do With My Information?
When you enter your credentials into the Earnest application, you share them directly with Plaid. Plaid encrypts your credentials and uses them to create a read-only connection between Earnest and your bank in order to verify the strength of your financial profile. Your information is not sold or rented.
The Plaid connection lets us see your transaction history, balance, and nothing else. Earnest never receives your username, password, account number, or routing number; therefore, we cannot modify your bank account. In other words, the data we receive is encrypted as a screenshot of your monthly statement and shields your actual account information.
For more information on what data is shared and how Plaid protects your information, we recommend reading their Privacy Policy here.