Setting Up bench

bench connects to almost every bank in North America via our partner plaid.  Plaid allows you to securely connect and share data from your financial institutions with your bench app. Enabling you to transfer funds into your bench card from within the bench app. Tens of millions of people in North America have successfully connected their financial institutions to their apps using Plaid.  

Your bench card will arrive within 7- 10 business days of creating a bench account. In the rare event that you do not receive the cards within 11 business days, please contact your bench Member Services team on +1- 884-404-0472 so we can check its status. Our team is ready to help 24/7.  

As a financial service, we are required to ‘know’ our customers. We carry out a widely-used electronic check called a Know Your Customer check (eKYC) to comply with our regulatory obligations. We do this check at the time of sign-up, by matching your name, address and date of birth against a number of public record databases such as Ideology. This identity check is not a credit check and does not affect your credit score in any way, although it will show as a light address verification on your credit history. 

If you have lived at your address for less than 3 years we may not be able to validate your details online. If there has been a partial match then there will be an email be sent to you providing a link where you can upload your up to date driver’s license or State issued ID. Your address details on these documents must match the address you are using to sign up to our service. 

After this has been uploaded it will then take 24 hours for this information to be verified, you should then receive an email from bench letting you know that you have passed. 

Click any green Join button on the bench website or Let’s get started on the mobile signup page. You can get to the mobile page by scanning a bench member’s QR code.  

Signing up usually takes a little over 4 minutes, and we won’t take any payment details until you are ready to load your card. Visit the bench website or download our free app, click ‘Sign up’ and follow the prompts! Your bench virtual card will be issued immediately, and your physical card will be with you in the next 7-10 business days. It’s as easy as that.  

Once you receive the card, you’ll need to log into the website or app to activate your account and the plastic bench card. This is when you can set budgets, spending limits, top-ups, and features to help you manage your money.  

Remember! The contactless function won’t work until the first chip and PIN payment has been made.  

If you’re stuck, please give your bench Member Services team a call on +1- 884-404-0472, who’ll be happy to help you get started. We are available 24/7, so don’t hesitate to call us.