LAST UPDATED: July 9, 2026

At Earnest, we believe fairness and transparency are important and power the decisions we make. This includes how we gather and respect your personal information. We’ve written this online Privacy Policy to empower and inform you about your privacy while on Earnest’s website or while using Earnest’s mobile application.

Privacy and security policy

We respect your privacy and safeguard your information with industry-standard technology. We value trust and transparency, and this Privacy Policy describes our practices for handling your personal information.

As you use our services, we want to be clear on how we are using information and the ways in which you can protect your privacy. The terms “we,” “us,” and “our,” refer to Earnest LLC and Earnest Operations LLC. The “Site” refers to Earnest’s World Wide Web site located at www.earnest.com, as well as to associated Earnest website content linked to this World Wide Web site and to Earnest’s mobile device-enabled website content and mobile application content.

This Privacy Policy addresses the financial and personal information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you can make regarding the collection and use of this information. We also explain how any personally identifiable information that we may request will be used. Finally, we describe how your personally identifiable information is protected. If you have found security problems with our website, they can be submitted here: earnest.com/security-form

OTHER PRIVACY NOTICES

Earnest’s Privacy Notice: This policy applies to our customers and consumers and describes our principles and practices regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information covered by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). It includes information about our sharing of customer information with our affiliates and outside companies.

One American Bank’s Privacy Notice: For loans originated by One American Bank, this policy describes One American Bank’s principles and practices regarding the sharing of customer information with affiliates and outside parties.

FinWise Bank’s Privacy Notice: For loans originated by FinWise Bank, this policy describes FinWise Bank’s principles and practices regarding the sharing of customer information with affiliates and outside parties.

WHEN THIS PRIVACY POLICY APPLIES

This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect about you in connection with your use of this website, email, text, and other mobile applications, through the loan application process, and the servicing of your loan. It also applies to information maintained by Earnest following the end of your business relationship with Earnest to comply with record retention requirements mandated by law. When you use the Site, you consent to our collection, use, and disclosure of information about you as described in this policy.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT

• Directly From You
  During the loan application and rate estimate processes we may request and collect personal and financial information from you, such as your name, address, email address, telephone number, social security number, age, citizenship, income, financial account balances, employment information, and educational information.
  Additional information may be gathered during your future use of the Site during the servicing of your loan, such as medical or health information or veteran or military status if you seek deferral of your loan.

  Your account profile information and certain additional data you provide is available to be reviewed through your online account. You can review and make changes to your profile information by logging into the Site and visiting your account profile page. You may also email us at [email protected] to correct your personal information, including information that cannot be updated online.

  Certain information about you cannot be changed due to legal restrictions or requirements and we may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or cause the information to be incorrect.

• From Other Sources

  We may also collect information about you from third parties, such as our affiliates, service providers, joint-marketing partners, consumer reporting agencies, or schools. Such information may include your name, contact information, demographic information, income or credit information, payment history, or information regarding your academic record.

• From Your Device

  We and/or our service providers may also collect and use information about you on a personal or aggregated basis in the administration of the Site to improve products and services, evaluate the success of particular marketing/advertising campaigns, assist in technical support, and help optimize the Site.

  Our servers may automatically collect and store certain technical information when you visit or use our Site, mobile device-enabled website content, or our downloaded mobile application, including information such as the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the device you use to connect to the Internet, which may identify your general location, browser type, device type, mobile device ID (UDID), screen size and resolution, Internet Service Provider (ISP), the website you came from and exited to, operating system, date/time stamp, pages visited and anonymous identifiers.

CATEGORIES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED

We collect and process the following categories of personal information:

• Identifiers, such as your name, contact information, social security number or state identification number.

• Personal Characteristics, such as age, citizenship, marital status, or other characteristics you may voluntarily provide us during the servicing of your loan such as medical information or veteran or military status.

• Financial and Commercial information, such as credit bureau information, income, and records of products or services purchased from us or our affiliates.

• Internet/Electronic Network Activity, such as your device ID, IP address, browsing history and interactions with our website.

• Professional/Employment-related information, such as your employment history, place of employment, and contact information,

• Education Information, such as school(s) attended, grade point average, college plans, and student financial information.

HOW WE USE THE INFORMATION COLLECTED

We use your personal information to facilitate activities and transactions that need to occur during the lending process, such as to:

• Establish that you are over the age of 18;

• Verify your identity and guard against potential fraud;

• Request a credit report from a credit bureau, such as Experian, to help determine your creditworthiness;

• Determine your eligibility for an Earnest loan;

• Enable our financial services partners to implement automatic payments and fund transfers;

• Contact you if there is a problem completing a transaction you requested or to discuss a problem with your account;

• Implement collection activities as needed; and/or

• Maintain regular communications with you concerning transactions you initiate, including but not limited to requesting information or assistance, submitting a loan request, and making payments.

Outside of the lending process, we may use information that we collect more generally, such as to:

• Provide, maintain, protect and improve our services, to develop new ones, and to protect Earnest and our users;

• Notify you about changes to the Site or any products or services we offer or provide through it;

• Keep records of your communication to help solve any issues you might be facing;

• Market our products and services, such as advertisements, by us and through third parties;

• Offer you tailored content giving you more relevant search results and ads;

• Enforce or apply our Terms of Service, loan agreement, and any other agreements between you and Earnest, including for billing and collection;

• Fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it or otherwise give your consent;

• Conduct and report on certain analytical research, performance tracking and benchmarking through use of anonymous, aggregated information comprised of financial account balances and data, or other available data provided by you; and/or

• Comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including retaining personal data or responding to any government or regulatory request.

INFORMATION WE SHARE

We do not sell your information. We may need to share information provided by you with our partners so that they can perform requested services – but your information is never sold by us. Some of products and services offered on the Site are enabled through the provision of services to us by certain third-party service providers, or through the actions of business partners.We may share your information with the following:

• Advertisers
  Earnest may allow third-party advertisers to use cookies on the Site to collect the same type of information for the same purposes as Earnest does for itself. They may be able to associate the information they collect with other information they have about you from other sources. We do not necessarily have access to or control over the cookies they use (see “Cookies” section below for additional information about cookies), but you may be able to opt out of some of their practices by visiting the following links: Network Advertising Initiative, or Digital Advertising Alliance. Opting out does not prevent the display of advertisements to you.

  From time to time, you may access our Site through the website of one of our marketing partners. We will try to show clearly whether a page is co-branded by placing our marketing partner’s name or logo in a prominent place or otherwise. If you provide your information on a co-branded page, your registration information may be shared with our marketing partner.

  Earnest may also use certain remarketing services to advertise on third-party websites to previous visitors to the Site. This means that we may advertise to previous visitors who haven’t completed a task on the Site (like completing a loan application). This could be in the form of an advertisement on a search results page, or a site in the network of our remarketing partners.

• Affiliates and Service Providers
  Some of the services that are offered through the Site may be provided by our affiliates or third-party service providers. Such services include loan servicing, customer support, data storage, information technology, printing and mailing, collections, analytics and/or other services. We may share information about you with these affiliates and third-party providers so that they can perform the requested services or complete your requests.

• Consumer Reporting Agencies (Credit Bureaus)
  Your information may be shared with credit bureaus to obtain a credit report so we can determine your eligibility for a loan.

• Connected Third-Party Accounts
  Through the “Connect Accounts” feature on the Site, you can connect your loan application to your accounts on third-party services, in which case we may collect and store information identifying your account with the third-party service. We may use the information to inform your application and service your account after you have taken out an Earnest loan. Earnest uses Plaid Technologies, Inc. (“Plaid”) to gather your account transaction data from financial institutions in regard to your loan application and loan. By using our service, you authorize Earnest and Plaid to access and transmit your personal and financial information from the relevant financial institution. You agree to your personal and financial information being transferred, stored, and processed by Plaid in accordance with Plaid Privacy Policy. The login credentials of your linked accounts, such as usernames and passwords, are not accessible to anyone at Earnest.

• Legal Authorities
  We may disclose information from or about you if we have a good faith belief that such investigation or disclosure is (a) reasonably necessary to comply with legal process and law enforcement instructions and orders, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, judicial proceeding, or other legal process served on us; (b) helpful to prevent, investigate, or identify possible wrongdoing in connection with the Site; or (c) protect our rights, reputation, property, or that of our users, affiliates, or the public.

• Lenders and Schools
  We may share your information with lenders who originate or hold your loan, or with schools you attended to the extent permitted by your promissory note.

We may also share aggregated, anonymized information with third parties, such as advertisers and content distributors to conduct certain analytical research, performance tracking and benchmarking. We and/or our third-party service providers may publish summary or aggregate results relating to metrics comprised of research data, from time to time, and distribute or license such anonymous, aggregated research data for any purpose, including but not limited to, helping to improve products and services and assisting in troubleshooting and technical support. Your personally identifiable information will not be shared with or sold to such third parties.

The Site may contain links to unaffiliated third-party websites. Except as described in this policy, we do not share your personal information with them and are not responsible for their privacy practices. We suggest you read the privacy policies on all such third-party websites before clicking on any such links.

COOKIES

Cookies help us protect your account’s security and allow us to personalize your Earnest experience.

We, and third parties with whom we partner, may use cookies, web beacons, local shared objects, and similar technology (“Cookies”) to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our service. Cookies are small data files that may have unique identifiers, and reside, among other places, on your computer or mobile device, in emails we send to you, and on our web pages. Cookies may transmit information about you and your use of the Earnest site, such as your browser type, preferences, data relating to advertisements that have been displayed to you or that you have clicked on, and the date and time of your use.

Most importantly, cookies help us protect your account’s security. Cookies may be stored only during an individual session (“Session ID cookies”) or have long-term expiration dates (“persistent cookies”). Session ID cookies follow your activities on our site so that we can ensure that no one is making changes to your profile or applying for loans and expire when you close your browser. Persistent cookies that remain on your hard drive for an extended period of time so that we can recognize you when you return to our Site.

The following is a list of the types of cookies that Earnest and its third-party service providers use:

• Processes
  These Cookies make the Site work in the way you expect it to.

• Authentication, Security, and Compliance
  We use authentication and security cookies to prevent fraud, protect your data from unauthorized parties, and comply with a variety of data security, privacy, and financial protection related legal requirements.

• Preferences
  These Cookies help the Site remember information about how you prefer the Site to behave and look.

• Notifications
  We use these Cookies to give us notice of information or options that we think could improve your use of the Site.

• Advertising
  These Cookies make advertising more relevant to you and more valuable to advertisers, and may target advertising to you if you visit our Site and subsequently visit another Site in the advertiser’s network.

• Analytics
  These Cookies help us understand how visitors use the Site.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies by default. Some browsers have a “do not track” feature that lets you tell websites that you do not want to have your online activities tracked, but doing so may affect your ability to use the Site. The method for disabling cookies may vary by device and browser but can usually be found in preferences or security settings.

PROTECTING YOUR INFORMATION

Earnest takes your privacy and security seriously. All data entered into the Site is encrypted using industry-standard SSL technology before being sent to our servers in an off-site data center. Our servers are supported by multiple levels of protection including firewalls, private subnets, and multi-factor authentication. We have enabled HTTPS access to the Site, in addition to SSL technology, and your login information of your financial accounts is not accessible to anyone at Earnest.

Additionally, there are a number of precautions you can take to protect the security of your personal information, including selecting a strong Earnest password and not sharing it with anyone.

Earnest takes steps to safeguard your personal information through vigorous electronic and operational policies and practices:

• Session Time-Outs: We employ session time-outs to protect your account. This reduces the risk of others being able to access your account if you leave your computer unattended.

• Protection of Account Numbers: After you have entered your account numbers, we will not display your full account number.

• Passwords: At a minimum, we require the use of both numbers and letters in your password. We have also instituted secure steps by which you can regain access to your account should you forget your password, including email reset. Your password is not known to any employee or third-party with whom we may partner, and we will never ask you for your passwords as a means of identifying yourself. If you ever receive an email purporting to come from Earnest that asks for your password, you should immediately report this to [email protected].

• Secure Hosting: We store your personal and sensitive financial data such as Social Security numbers and bank accounts in a virtual private cloud hosted by Amazon Web Services or a secure data center.

• Defined Service Access points: Data can only be read or written through defined service access points, the use of which is password-protected and limited to only employees or those third parties that have a need to know.

• Secure Socket Layer certificate technology: We equip our servers with SSL certificate technology to provide a safe and secure channel to visit the Site.

• Network firewalls: There is no inbound communication allowed between data and application servers and the Internet.

• Physical Security: Earnest maintains robust requirements for the protection of information in our offices which are all located in a secure building environment. Access to company and client information is restricted to those persons with valid, tracked, identity-based key-card access. Sensitive physical information is maintained in a locked environment.

You can take several precautions to protect the security of your computer and personal information.

• Use a unique password that you do not use for any other service.

• To choose a strong password, avoid using any information that others can easily learn about you, such as a family member’s name or birthday, and use special characters in place of letters.

• Do not share your Earnest password with anyone.

• Restrict access to the email account you registered with on the Earnest site.

• Install and regularly update antivirus and firewall software to protect your computer from external attacks by malicious users.

• Do not log onto your Earnest account in public areas where the internet is unsecured.

• Logout and close the browser window when you are finished with a session on the Site.

Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to the Site. Even under the best of circumstances, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Any transmission of personal information is done at your own risk. In the event of a data breach, we will comply with the notification guidelines required by federal law as well as the laws of each state in which we do business.

COMMUNICATIONS FROM EARNEST

Earnest may send you notifications regarding your account. You cannot opt out of these notifications as they are in place to comply with legal requirements and help protect your privacy and security, but you can opt out of certain marketing communications as described in our Privacy Notice. You can opt out of marketing emails by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any marketing emails you receive.

To protect your account, Earnest may send you notifications that confirm actions taken on your account. These notifications are typically sent to notify you of a change in status or contact information, or for legal or security purposes. For example, you may receive notifications confirming your registration and the successful submission of loan requests, as well as requests from us for additional information and reminders to sign your loan agreement.

YOUR RIGHTS UNDER STATE LAWS

You may have rights under the laws of your state of residence with respect to your personal information. This section describes these rights and how to exercise them, subject to exceptions as permitted under these and other laws. If you are a California resident, California law provides you with additional rights regarding our use of your personal information. To learn more about your California privacy rights, visit the California Privacy Policy.

• The Right to Know
  You have the right to request the categories of your personal information we have processed, and to obtain a copy of the personal data in a portable format.

• The Right to Delete
  You have the right to request deletion of personal information about you, subject to exceptions under the law such as maintaining the information to service your account.

• The Right to Correct
  You have the right to request correction of inaccurate information we may have about you.

To exercise the rights above, you may complete the Consumer Privacy Rights Request form or call us at (888) 601-2801. We will need to verify your identity before processing your request and may therefore need to ask additional personal information from you. We only use this additional information to comply with your request.

We will respond to your request within 45 days of receipt. If we are unable to process your request within that time frame, we will inform you of the delay.

• The Right to Opt-Out
  You have the right to inform us that you do not want us to process your personal information for the purposes of targeted advertising, sell or share your personal information, or use your information to create a profile about you, as each of those terms are defined by applicable state law. To exercise your right to opt out,

   

In accordance with applicable state laws, if you have implemented an opt-out preference signal (sometimes known as a global privacy control) through your browser or device, we will treat that opt-out preference signal as a valid request of your right to opt out of targeted advertising. Once we recognize the opt-out preference signal on our website, we will automatically apply your right to opt-out of sale and sharing to the browser or device through which we recognize the signal. You do not need to take any additional steps for your opt-out preference signal to be recognized.

To learn more about opt-out preference signals, please visit Global Privacy Control — Take Control Of Your Privacy.

• The Right to Non-Discrimination
  You have the right to be protected from discrimination for exercising your rights under applicable state law.

• The Right to Appeal
  If we deny your request to exercise one of your rights above, we will explain the reason(s) why we cannot comply. You may appeal our decision by resubmitting a request and we will inform you of any additional action we take and explain our decision within the timeline required under applicable state law.

PERSONAL INFORMATION OF MINORS

This Site is not directed at children under the age of eighteen (18) and Earnest does not knowingly collect personal information from any minor under the age of eighteen (18) at the Site except in connection with a student loan application involving a person at least the age of majority in their state. Additionally, if we learn that we have collected such information from a child under the age of 13, we will promptly take all reasonable steps to delete the data from our system in accordance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule).

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We will post any changes to the Privacy Policy on this page. Any updates to this policy become effective when we post the update on the Site and replace all prior Privacy Policy versions posted by Earnest. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy. Your use of our Site following any update to this Privacy Policy means that you accept the terms of the updated policy.

RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We retain the personal information we collect as described in this Privacy Policy for as long as you use our services or as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected, provide our services, resolve disputes, establish legal defenses, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes, enforce our agreements, and comply with applicable laws.

FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
CONSENT TO CREDIT HISTORY AUTHORIZATION

In order to process your loan application, we require your consent for us, including our service providers, to access and use your credit history from a consumer reporting agency. If you do not provide your consent, then we cannot move forward with your loan application. You may withdraw this credit history authorization at a later time by contacting us at (888) 601-2801.

CONTACT INFORMATION

For additional information, or if you have any questions regarding this policy or the privacy practices at Earnest, please submit your questions or comments directly at: [email protected].

Earnest
P.O. Box 9250
Wilkes-Barre, PA
18773-9250
1 (888)-601-2801