Connecting External Bank Accounts
Rho partners with Plaid, Mastercard Data Connect and Stripe Financial Connections (SFC) to allow you to securely connect an external bank account. If your bank supports this functionality, linking a business checking account will allow you to initiate a linked-account transfer to fund your Rho account.
To link an account, follow the steps below:
Click Settings from the Toolbar on the left, then under the Business section choose External Bank Accounts.
On this page, click the grey “Link Account” button in the top right corner of your screen. You will be prompted to choose between connecting an account for transfers or for credit verification.
Follow the instructions to access your external financial institution and connect. From the Select Your Institution prompt, click the icon associated with your bank or enter the name of your bank in the Search field and select it. Enter your credentials, or a Login page for the bank displays. Enter the username and password associated with the external account and click Submit. After you validate the transaction via two-step authentication, when configured, the external account is linked to your Rho account and is listed in the Linked Accounts section.
From the Select Your Institution prompt, click the icon associated with your bank or enter the name of your bank in the Search field and select it.
Enter your credentials, and a Login page for the bank displays. Enter the username and password associated with the external account and click Submit. After you validate the transaction via two-step authentication, when configured, the external account is linked to your Rho account and is listed in the Linked Accounts section.
Once connected, you can fund your Rho account and set up automatic card payments from your linked account.
Note: If you have multiple checking accounts under one Business, you will not be able to directly link a "sub-account" to an external account. All external accounts are linked to the Rho account as a whole (subs included). However, when going to "deposit funds" in your Banking tab using our linked account feature, you can choose which sub-account to send funds to and from which linked external account the funds will originate.
Troubleshooting
Below are some of the errors you may encounter when connecting to your external bank account.
Incorrect Credentials
Your bank did not accept the username and password you used to log into your external bank account. Ensure you are using the same username and password you normally use to log into your third-party bank.
If there were multiple institutional selections available for your bank (e.g., SVB Go vs SVB Online Banking), please ensure you selected the correct institution. If you are logging into the incorrect institution, you will receive an Incorrect Credentials error even if your username and password are correct.
Additionally, some banks use a special "third-party application password" or "allow third-party access" setting for additional security. In this case, you will need to ensure you use this special password instead of the password you use to log into your financial institution directly on their website.
Please reach out to Rho Client Service if you've verified your username and password but the error persists.
Incorrect Institution
Some institutions have different websites for their business and personal accounts. Always make sure you are choosing the institution you use for business banking.
If you don't see your bank when you attempt to connect, try the second connection provider (Rho works with both Plaid and Mastercard Data Connect) or reach out to Rho Client Service.
Temporary Connection Issue
There may be temporary connection issues with our providers (Plaid and Mastercard Data Connect). Please wait a few minutes and try again.
Authentication or Permission Issue
These types of issues might arise when there is an authentication or permission problem with your account or user credentials which prevents a connection.
Common causes:
An incorrect answer to a security question presented by your institution
Your Multi-factor authentication (MFA) device is inactive
Your institution failed to send the one-time code for MFA authentication
Your institution requires a special security configuration before third-party account connections can be established
Your account is not fully set up at your institution
Your institution is blocking access due to an administrative task that requires completion
You or another user for your bank account did not agree to share, or has revoked, access to the data required for connection
Your user credentials or permissions do not allow you to connect your account to external platforms
Verify your institution's account settings to ensure third-party providers can connect and that you have active access to your account. Additionally, you may need to verify with your bank account admin to ensure you have sufficient credentials to create a connection. Alternatively, try connecting to a different account and institution. If the issue persists, try with a different connection provider (we support Plaid and Mastercard Data Connect) or submit a support ticket
Linking multiple accounts from the same institution
You can link external bank accounts for either deposits (account transfers) or credit verification.
However, if you attempt to link two different accounts from the same financial institution, only one connection can remain active at a time:
At this time, Rho does not support maintaining two separate connections from the same institution for different use cases.