Open Banking is a secure method for sharing your financial data from your bank accounts. This could include information like your balance, income, outgoings, overdraft, payments history etc.

As a responsible lender, Plata aims to ensure each customer borrows in a way that is affordable for them. With Open Banking, you can quickly and securely share your information without going through the hassle of sending in traditional documents such as bank statements.

Sharing information through Open Banking is easy and secure and allows us to make a prompt assessment of your application. It is only offered by your bank to regulated companies that it can trust with the security and privacy of your data.

Using Open Banking does not impact your credit file and you can withdraw access at any time. Find out more about Open Banking.

Watch our video to learn more about Open Banking.

https://youtu.be/JuY89wCC6Zc

As a responsible lender we want to help people borrow only when it is affordable for them. Like most other lenders, we use credit reference agency information to that end. However, there are cases where this is not sufficient for us to make a decision, and we need to take a more detailed view of a customer's financial situation.  

With Open Banking, you can securely share your real financial information with us via your bank without any hassle. As it is all digital data, it also helps our team in reaching a decision faster than with traditional documents - another reason why we love Open Banking!

If we ask for Open Banking in your application, we are generally unable to proceed without it. In some cases we may allow traditional documents to be used; in such cases, the options will be presented to you.

It’s important to note that Open Banking is a secure and regulated process. As a lender, we are only able to see the data and cannot change anything in your account or get access to your money.

We work with a third party provider in order to access Open Banking. We only see the end-report which we receive from that provider and they delete all your open banking data within a set period of time. You can read more about this in our provider's privacy notice.

Open Banking allows you to securely share your account history with Plata directly via your bank. This includes details like your contact information, account details, payments made into and out of your accounts and transactions on the account.

Consents.Online Ltd is an Equifax company that is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

We partner with Consents.Online to provide Open Banking so you can safely and securely share your account information with us so we can assess your application. It’s like sending us your bank statements but quicker and safer. Using it does not impact your credit record and you can withdraw consent at any time.

You can opt-out by contacting Consents.Online either through the email you will receive when you provide consent or through their website. You can also contact your bank to revoke access. More details on Consents.Online.

Our team may ask you to prove your residency status during your application process. The quickest and easiest way to do this is by providing us with an immigration share code which will help us assess your current residency status. 

How to access your personalised share code:  

1. Visit the gov.uk to view or prove your immigration status.  
   
   
2. Follow prompts to view or prove your immigration status, this involves signing up or logging in to your account. 
   
   
3. Once logged in, select the ‘Get a share code’ button. 
   
   
4. Continue to the page which asks you why you need a share code and select the third option ‘To prove my immigration status for anything else’.  
   
   
5. Once you have reviewed your personal information, you will need to click the green button saying, ‘Get a share code’. 
   
   
6. This landing page will display your unique 9-digit share code which we can use to assess your current residency status. This 9-digit code is what you will need to provide to our team.  
   
   
7. Please provide our team with this 9-digit code for further checks to be completed. 

Onfido is a trusted identity verification provider that helps us confirm your identity securely. They use technology such as, document verification and biometric facial recognition, to make sure the person applying for a loan is really you.​

We partner with Onfido because their process is:

• Secure – Your personal details are protected at every step.​
• Compliant – Onfido meets strict regulatory and privacy standards.​
• Simple – Verification can be completed online in just a few steps.​

Using Onfido helps us prevent identity fraud and keeps your account safe, while making the experience fast and convenient for you.​

You can read more on Onfido and how they use your information in their Privacy notice.

Here are some examples of which document formats we accept:

We accept:

• Documents uploaded using our online tool, Onfido.
  You will be asked to scan the required documents. This is a two-step process that requires access to your device’s camera to scan the document and verify your identity.
  This is a quick and secure way to upload your documents and help prevent identity fraud.
• Scans or photographs of original documents that are clear and show the full document
  Please note, this applies only to original documents you would have received in paper format e.g., utility bills, council letters, bank statements, wage slips, or similar letters received in the post as an original paper document.

Unfortunately, we do not accept:

• Scans or photographs of a printed PDF document
  If the original document you received was as a PDF e.g., a council tax bill or utility bill generated online as a PDF and then saved and printed out, we, unfortunately, will not be able to accept a scan or photograph of that. Any PDF documents should be uploaded in their original form.
• Photographs of the document on another screen.
• Screenshots that were taken on a mobile phone or desktop/laptop computer

For a full list of documents, you might need during your application, please refer to our page on Supporting documents. 

Once you’ve submitted all the required documents our Underwriting team will review this. The timescales at this stage can vary especially during busy periods. If you have submitted your document on a weekend or a bank holiday, our Underwriting team will start their review on the following working day.

There may be occasions where our Underwriting team might need additional documents. If that is the case with your application, we will be in touch with you promptly to let you know.

Once we have a decision, we will send you an email highlighting next steps which include adding your debit card and e-signing your contract.

When applying for a loan you need to provide certain documents to support the information you provided in your application. Having these documents on hand when applying for a loan can help speed up the process.  

The exact documents we might ask for vary from application to application. You can find a list of which documents we might ask for and what formats we accept on our Supporting Documents webpage.