Plaid is a trusted partner in the fintech industry for creating secure electronic connections between financial institutions and applications.
Earnest has chosen to partner with Plaid to help reduce the review time by allowing applicants to log in to their financial account(s) from our platform.
An electronic connection allows us to verify the strength of your financial profile by rapidly (and sometimes instantaneously) verifying your income, assets, and expenses because verifying documents, like pay stubs or account statements, is typically unnecessary.
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 take money out of, put money into, or otherwise 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.