When our form asks you to connect your bank account, a Plaid window opens. If you've used Venmo, Robinhood, Chime, Betterment, or SoFi, you've already done this. If you haven't, the moment feels weirder than it is. Here's exactly what happens.
What Plaid is
Plaid is a Visa-owned company (Visa acquired it in 2020 for $5.3 billion, though the deal was unwound and Plaid stayed independent). It operates the pipe that most US fintech apps use to talk to banks. Over 10,000 apps use Plaid, including:
- Venmo, Cash App, Zelle
- Robinhood, Coinbase, Betterment
- SoFi, Chime, Marcus
- Rocket Mortgage, Carvana, American Express
Over 1 in 4 Americans with a US bank account have connected through Plaid at least once.
What happens when you click "Connect bank"
- A window pops up on our site. The URL is Plaid's —
cdn.plaid.com. We can't see or script into this window. - You pick your bank (Chase, Wells Fargo, etc.).
- Plaid redirects you to your bank's real login screen. For Chase, Capital One, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and most major banks, this is the actual bank's OAuth page. You log in to your bank, not to Plaid.
- Your bank asks: "Do you want to give FindMyLineOfCredit access to your account info?" You say yes.
- Your bank gives Plaid an OAuth token. Plaid passes this to us. Your actual bank password never leaves your bank.
- With the token, we (or more precisely, the lender you eventually accept) can read your transactions and balance for the next 90 days.
What Plaid and we can see
- Account balance (checking/savings)
- Transaction history (typically 90 days back)
- Account owner's name
- Routing and account number (if you grant that scope)
What Plaid and we cannot see or do
- Your bank password. The OAuth model means we never receive it.
- Move money. Reading transactions ≠ initiating transfers. ACH requires a separate authorization flow.
- Change your bank account settings.
- Close your account, open a new one, or add a payee.
What if my bank still asks for my login
Smaller community banks and credit unions that don't support OAuth use "screen scraping" mode — you enter your bank login in the Plaid popup. In this mode:
- Plaid encrypts and stores your credentials on their servers so they can re-read transactions.
- Plaid has security certifications (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR) and insurance for breach scenarios.
- No major Plaid breach has been disclosed since launch in 2013.
If this makes you uncomfortable, use OAuth-supported banks (basically all big ones). Or upload PDF bank statements instead — our form supports that fallback.
Revoking access
You can cut off Plaid's access to your account at any time at my.plaid.com. You see every app you've authorized through Plaid and can disconnect any of them with one click. The disconnection is immediate — the token dies, no more reads.
Separately, you can revoke access at your bank: in your Chase or Wells Fargo app, under Security → Connected Apps, you'll see Plaid listed. Disconnect there and it's gone from both sides.
The practical answer
Plaid is as safe as the bank itself for OAuth-supported banks, and reasonably safe for screen-scraped ones. Lenders prefer Plaid over PDF statements because it's harder to forge, which means you get better offers and faster decisions. The alternative — mailing in 3 months of bank statements — is slower, less secure, and often results in worse offers.