Why does Stilt asks me to connect bank account as a part of the application?

As a part of the application process, we will ask you to connect your primary bank account (where you receive your income and all primary expenses). This is done using a 256-bit encrypted secure connection, the same level of security as banks use.

First things first:
We also don't see/store your username or password. After you connect your bank, we get read-only access to transaction level data from the connected bank. As it is read-only permission, we can't make any changes to your account and can not deduct funds.

The why:
We require you to connect your bank account in order for your application to be considered complete. These are the main reasons we require you to connect your bank account:

1. Verifying your identity - When you connect your account, we match the account holder name on the bank account with the other information in your profile. This helps us prevent mistakes and detect stolen identities.
2. Verifying your income - This helps us verify your income directly from the source. It is important that we verify your income because it significantly affects your ability to get a loan. This information is not verifiable through uploading manual bank statements or pay stubs as both cannot be verified and easily manipulated, error-prone, and time-consuming to verify.
3. Lowering interest rates - We are focused on providing loans to immigrants, visa holders, and non-U.S. citizens and they usually don't have 6+ years of credit history. We analyze your transactions to give you positive points for financially responsible behavior. Even if you don't have a long credit history or a very high credit score, transaction level data helps us understand that you are a financially responsible person and you deserve credit at good rates.
4. Detecting fraudulent behavior - As we are targeting international population, there is an increased risk of fraudulent activity and we need to make sure our loans are not used for activities like terrorism, money laundering etc. There are government regulations that require companies to detect and report this any suspicious behavior.

The additional advantages:
Connecting your bank account makes the process smooth and fast. This helps us get the data electronically and help us give a rate in which you deserve. Many other lenders make decisions solely on the basis of credit history and credit score - which leaves millions of people out of the existing credit system. We are working hard to solve this problem and have already helped thousands of immigrants from 50+ countries.

For any additional questions, reach out to us at team@stilt.co.

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