After you've verified your identity and shared some of your basic information, you may be prompted to Add Financials to your rental application, which will allow you to connect to your bank, credit union, or other financial institutions for income verification.
By utilizing this tool, you will be able to easily share verified income data with the leasing team, allowing you to present a robust rental application.
In this article, we'll review how to connect to your accounts, how to disconnect, how to proceed in the event your bank is not available for direct connection, and how to solve for any issues you may encounter while connecting.
How to Link Your Bank Account(s)
1. Start the Add Financials Step
Select the 'START' button on the Add Financials screen
This will load a pop up from Plaid. In order to begin, agree to the Terms and Conditions
2. Search for Your Institution
Find your bank or credit union from the list of available institutions by scrolling through the options in the pop-up window or using the search bar.
3. Log in Using Your Bank Account Credentials
A separate pop-up window will open where you can login to your bank account. Log in with your banking credentials, just like you would to view your bank statements.
Depending on your account's authentication settings, you may be required to enter an authentication code. Follow the steps for your specific account.
4. Select Which Financial Accounts to Link
Choose the specific accounts you want to link. You can select multiple accounts under the same financial institution if desired.
Tip: If you receive your paycheck distributed across multiple accounts, like a checking and savings account, select all accounts where you received your deposits so that your Income can be fully verified.
5. Confirm Account Connection
Confirm the accounts you wish to connect, and review the information that will be shared with VERO.
Select the check box to agree to the Terms and Conditions
Select 'Connect Account Information' to finished linking your account
6. Review the connected account(s) on VERO
After successfully linking your account(s), you will return to your VERO application screen and see them listed
Here you can see the accounts linked, as well as your Cash Balance and Cash Available Balance prior to submitting your application.
NOTE: Only your Cash Available Balance will be displayed to the leasing team on your application. For more information on understanding Cash Available Balances, visit the article: Verified Balances - What does "Cash Available" mean?
How to Link Multiple Bank Accounts
You can link multiple bank accounts to verify your income and assets. Connecting multiple bank accounts is essential to do if you receive your direct deposit into multiple accounts, like a checking and savings account, so that your full income can be calculated or if you receive additional income in a separate banking account.
1. Add Another Account
Click the 'Add Account' button below the already linked account to connect additional accounts.
Follow the same steps to Connect a Bank Account for the additional banking account.
Repeat as many times as needed to capture your full income.
How to Remove a Connected Bank Accounts
If you’ve connected the wrong account or want to remove an account, click the trash can icon at the top right of the linked account to remove it.
What To Do If You Can't Connect or Receive an Error when Connecting
If you're having trouble or receiving an error when trying to connect to your bank account, here are some common issues and what to do about them:
"Failed to Save Accounts" Error Message
This can happen due to temporary connectivity issues with financial institutions.
What to do: Skip this step for now and proceed with your application. Once the network is restored (typically 1-2 hours), return to the application to link your account.
Note: Banks like Capital One may experience extended delays. If you’re a Capital One customer, you may need to verify your income using an employer or payroll link or upload your financial documentation.
"Insufficient Sharing Permissions" Error Message
This occurs when your bank’s security settings block third-party access.
What to do: Double-check your bank’s security preferences and make sure third-party access is enabled. Also, verify you are linking the correct account.
"Invalid Credentials" Error Message
This can happen if you've entered incorrect log in credentials to your financial institution.
What to do: Double check you are entering the correct user name and password. You can also log in directly to your banking account to confirm that you are entering the correct credentials or change your password if needed.
I Can’t Find My Bank or Financial Institution
If your bank is not listed, you can skip this step to proceed with your application.
What to do:
Skip the Add Financials step by selecting the 'X' in the corner of the 'Select your bank' pop-up window
Select the purple 'Confirm' button at the bottom of the screen to proceed to the next step.
NOTE: If you cannot find your bank or are unable to link your bank account(s) you won’t be able to complete the income verification process through a linked bank account, but you can still verify your income through alternative methods.
For more information on how to verify your income, visit the following article: Income Verification Methods
I Don't want to Connect my Bank Account(s)
If you don't want to connect your bank account, have already fully verified your income using a direct link to your Employer, Payroll, or Benefits provider, or are unable to resolve errors when connecting your bank account, you can skip the Add Financials step by following the steps below:
Start the Add Financials step by clicking the purple 'START' button. This will load the bank connection pop up.
Click the 'X' in the upper right corner of the Plaid pop up window.
If you cannot see the 'X' on mobile, try rotating your device or zooming out
Click the purple 'CONFIRM' button once you return to the VERO application to continue to the next step of your application.
NOTE: Skipping both automatic Income Verification Methods may cause your application to not be able to be submitted and receive an error of "Unable to Verify Income". Please be sure to add at least one form of verifiable income to your application, either through bank account connection or linking your employer, payroll, or benefits provider for best results.
How is my verified income calculated using my connected Bank Account?
Successfully connected bank accounts provide VERO with income data that will show up under your Application's Income & Balances tab as Verified Income as a projected annual amount.
If a direct employer link is also provided or insufficient payment information was available to calculate the income, it will be a Unverified Potential Income, as direct employer details are higher confidence.
Before Plaid shares your income with VERO, it groups transactions into streams with a set pay frequency that VERO can then use as potential income streams.
Once Plaid shares recurring streams data with VERO from your connected bank account, VERO will verify the projected annual income of the stream by reviewing the pay frequencies and amounts and most recent transactions.
The most recent transaction must fall within the the frequency of payments from the date of connection (for example, if your deposits are every 2 weeks, and it has been 17 days since a transaction, it will not be able to be considered an active income stream in VERO).
The income amount from my connected Bank Account is incorrect or blank
Because Plaid identifies the streams to then share with VERO, if the income amount is incorrect or missing it may be because of one of the following:
You receive your income deposits from your employment across different bank accounts. Be sure to link all bank accounts that you paycheck is deposited into.
You receive your income in cash with no identifiable source on the deposits or you receive your income deposits from a cash transfer app like CashApp or Venmo. VERO cannot currently verify cash based income.
You haven't received any income deposits in a recent amount of time
The name of the transaction has changed (i.e. your company's name changed) and thus they are being identified as different streams. There is no way to override the stream grouping from Plaid at this time due to name differences.
Connecting Bank Accounts for Retired, Unemployed, Disability, or other Benefits recipients
If you are retired and receive retirement income from a 401k or IRA or similar retirement or investment fund, or through regular disbursements from a disability, benefits, or other income source; directly linking the bank account(s) where you receive these deposits allows VERO to identify regular retirement income deposits into a bank account just as we would employer deposits.
Follow the steps to Link Your Bank Account in order to verify this income source.
Connecting to your financial accounts directly will also enable you to demonstrate additional non-income assets available to you like investment or savings accounts or the balances in your retirement accounts as part of the income verification portion of your application. Use the search bar to search for your bank, search for retirement account providers like Empower Retirement, Vanguard, or investment account providers.
While these connected retirement accounts will not count as Verified Income on your VERO application, the property you applied to may have a policy that allows the use of those funds for rental applications.
Check with your leasing team for further details on their policies.