We understand that sharing your Social Security number is a big decision. Earnest only asks for your SSN when it’s necessary to provide accurate information, verify your identity, and help keep your account secure.
Check Your Rate and Process Your Application
When you use our rate check tool or eligibility check, we review your information based on our eligibility guidelines to estimate a personalized rate. This includes reviewing details from your credit report, such as your FICO score, current debt, and payment history. To access this information, we run a soft credit inquiry through Experian, which does not impact your credit score. Your SSN is how you provide consent for us to perform this inquiry and accurately match your information to your credit profile.
If you choose to move forward with a full application, we’ll use your SSN to perform a hard credit inquiry. This inquiry is required to make a final lending decision and may have a small impact on your credit score.
Verify Your Identity and Protect Your Information
Your Social Security number helps us verify your identity when you contact us directly, ensuring we speak with the right person and protect your account from unauthorized access. It also allows us to take additional steps to help prevent fraud and keep your information secure.
We use your SSN only for specific, necessary purposes, such as running credit inquiries, verifying your identity, credit reporting, and safeguarding your account. For more information on how Earnest uses your information, check out this article here.