Terms of Use

Welcome to Ground Up FS. These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your use of products and services provided by Ground Up Financial Solutions, LLC (collectively “Ground Up”, “we”, “us”, or “our”). You can view information relating to our products and services from the websites located at https://www.groundup.financial/ and https://www.groundupfs.com/ (collectively  the “Site”).

Agreement to Terms

By using our Services or clicking “Continue” or “Agree and Continue” or “Create My Account” (or a similar button or link) when provided with a link or other access to these Terms, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you don’t agree to be bound by these Terms, do not use the Services or click “Continue.” Please retain a copy of these Terms.

Ground Up FS E-Consent Terms

We require your consent to, and approval of, these “E-Consent Terms” as a condition to your using the Services, the Site or app. In addition, we partner with various third party product partners that provide financial products or services in order for us to generate offers for products or services that may be of interest to you. Please see our Privacy Policy for information about how your personal information is used to generate these offers. Some of our third party partners also require that our users agree to be bound by these E-Consent Terms.

Introduction

These E-Consent Terms notify you of your rights when receiving electronic disclosures, records, notices, and information (“E-Communications”). By submitting a request for an offer from any of our third party product partners, or by using the Site or the App, you acknowledge that you have received these E-Consent Terms and that you consent to conduct all transactions with us and our third party partners using E-Communications.

Option for Paper or Non-Electronic Records

You may request any E-Communications in paper copy by contacting our third party product partner directly (if the E-Communications are to or from that third party product partner) or by contacting us directly (if the E-communications are to or from us). We or our third party product partner, as applicable, will provide paper copies upon your request, but we and they reserve the right to charge a fee, in our discretion, for providing such paper copies. We and our third party product partners will retain records of E-Communications in accordance with applicable law.

Scope of Consent

Your E-Consent applies to all interactions online concerning you and us (and/or our third party product partners, as applicable) and includes interactions engaged in on any mobile device (whether smartphone, tablet or otherwise) or computer. By agreeing to these Terms, you are consenting to have us (and/or our third party product partners, as applicable) process your information and interact with you electronically. We (and/or our third party product partners, as applicable) may also send you E-Communications that are related to our (and their) interactions and transactions with you. E-Communications may be provided online through our App or Site, or our third party product partners’ apps or websites, and may be provided by e-mail.

Consenting to Do Business Electronically

Before you decide to do business electronically with us and our third party product partners, you should consider whether you have the required hardware and software capabilities described below.

Hardware and Software Requirements

To access and retain E-Communications, you will need a mobile device or computer capable of accessing the Internet, access to an e-mail account and an Internet browser that supports 128-bit encryption. To read certain documents, you may also need a PDF file reader. To retain a copy of E-Communications for future reference, you will need a printer or a storage device with sufficient space, such as your computer's disk drive, or space to store screenshots on your mobile device. You may send any questions regarding the hardware and software requirements directly to us or to our third party product partners.

Withdrawing Consent

Your E-Consent as set forth in these Terms cannot be withdrawn because it is a one-time election. If you choose to apply for an offer or other product from our third party product partners through our third party product partners’ websites or apps, you may be asked to consent to further E-Communications from our third party product partners before you are able to proceed.

Updates to Your Contact Information

You must keep us and our third party product partners informed of any change in your email address or mailing address. You may update such information by logging into our Site (and our third party product partners’ websites, as applicable) or by sending us (and our third party product partners, as applicable) a written update by mail.

Consent to Obtain Information from Third Parties

By creating a Ground Up Account, you understand and agree that you are providing instructions in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act and other applicable law for Ground Up to request and receive information about you from third parties, including but not limited to a copy of your consumer credit report and score from third party consumer reporting agencies, at any time for so long as you have an active Ground Up Account.

You authorize Ground Up to transfer your personal and financial information to our third party product partners on your behalf, for the purposes of generating certain pre-approved loan or other product offers. You authorize our third party product partners to obtain a copy of your consumer credit report and related information about you (what is sometimes called a “hard pull”), including financial information, from third party consumer reporting agencies, and to use such information to provide pre-approved loan or other product offers to you.

You also understand that these Terms are not an application for credit and that finding a pre-approved offer is not a guarantee of approval.

Privacy Policy

Please refer to our Privacy Policy for information on how we collect, use and disclose information from our users. You acknowledge and agree that your use of the Services is subject to our Privacy Policy.

Changes to Terms or Services

We may modify the Terms at any time, in our sole discretion. If we do so, we’ll let you know either by posting the modified Terms on the Site and App or through other communications. It’s important that you review the Terms whenever we modify them because if you continue to use the Services after we have posted modified Terms on the Site or App, you are confirming to us that you agree to be bound by the modified Terms. If you don’t agree to be bound by the modified Terms, then you will not be allowed to use the Services anymore. Because our Services are evolving over time we may change or discontinue all or any part of the Services, at any time and without notice, in our sole discretion.

ARBITRATION NOTICE: UNLESS YOU OPT OUT OF ARBITRATION WITHIN 30 DAYS OF THE DATE YOU FIRST AGREE TO THESE TERMS BY FOLLOWING THE OPT-OUT PROCEDURE SPECIFIED IN THE “DISPUTE RESOLUTION” SECTION BELOW, AND EXCEPT FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF DISPUTES DESCRIBED IN THE “DISPUTE RESOLUTION” SECTION BELOW, YOU AGREE THAT DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND Ground Up WILL BE RESOLVED BY BINDING, INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND YOU ARE WAIVING YOUR RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY OR TO PARTICIPATE AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS ACTION OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING.

Description of Services

Through the Services, Ground Up monitors and analyzes your credit reports, financial accounts, and based upon analytics, the Services provide you with automatically generated recommendations as to actions you can take regarding your financial situation. For example, Ground Up may recommend actions like repaying credit card debt with a low-interest loan, getting renters’ insurance, lowering credit card fees, or setting up a retirement plan. Ground Up has built relationships with various financial institutions so you can act on the recommendations provided through the Services if you choose to do so. For example, Ground Up’s analytics may identify errors in your credit report notify you of this and automatically dispute and provide assistance with removing such data. 

Ground Up also provides a subscription fee-based service called CHRIS. Customers subscribed to CHRIS have the option of texting financial questions to CHRIS and receiving financial answers and advice.

Disclaimer

The Services are provided to assist you in managing your own finances and decision-making. Neither Ground Up nor the Services are intended to provide legal or tax advice. Ground Up is not a broker, bank or tax advisor. Your personal financial situation is unique, and therefore any information and/or recommendations obtained through the Services may not be appropriate for your own situation. Accordingly, before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy, you should consider obtaining additional information and advice from your accountant or other financial advisors who are fully aware of your individual circumstances.

The Content (as defined a few pages below) may contain typographical errors or other errors, inaccuracies or deficiencies, and may not be complete, accurate or up to date. We reserve the right to correct any error, deficiency, omission or inaccuracy in any Content or otherwise on our App at any time, but we do not guarantee that any such errors, deficiencies, omissions or inaccuracies will be corrected.

Eligibility to Use Services

You may use the Services only if you: (i) are 18 years or older and capable of forming a binding contract with Ground Up; (ii) are a United States citizen (or a legal U.S. resident); (iii) hold a bank deposit account or a credit union share draft account with a U.S. financial institution (any such account, a “Bank Account”); and (iv) are not barred from using the Services under applicable law. We refer to a bank and a credit union interchangeably as a “bank”. If your Bank Account is a joint account, you represent and warrant that you have the authority to bind the absent account holder and to enter into these Terms.

Registration and Your Information

If you want to use the Services, you’ll have to create an account with Ground Up (a “Ground Up Account”). Ground Up is not a bank and a Ground Up Account is not a bank account. A Ground Up Account includes your agreements with Ground Up. You can create a Ground Up Account by using an email address and password via the App, and to the extent that the functionality of the Services allows it, via the Site. In order to create your Ground Up Account, you will also need to provide certain information requested by us, such as your name and cellular phone number. So that we can provide the Services to you, you may also need to provide the online credentials details of your credit reporting site of choice including username and applicable passwords. 

For our compliance purposes and in order to provide the Services to you, you hereby authorize us (or our third party service providers) to obtain, verify, and record information and documentation that helps us verify your identity and Credit Report details. When you create your Ground Up Account and from time to time thereafter, we may require you to and you hereby agree to provide and/or confirm information and documentation that will allow us to identify you, such as:

• A copy of your government-issued photo ID, such as a passport or driver’s license;
• A copy of a utility bill, bank statement, affidavit, or other bill, dated within 3 months of our request, with your name and U.S. street address on it; and
• Such other information and documentation that we may require from time to time.

It’s important that you provide us with accurate, complete and up-to-date information for your Ground Up Account and your Credit Report, and you agree to update such information, as needed, to keep it accurate, complete and up-to-date. If you don’t, we might have to suspend or terminate your Ground Up Account. You agree that you won’t disclose your Ground Up Account password to anyone and you’ll notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your Ground Up Account. You also agree not to transfer your Ground Up Account to any third party. You’re responsible for all activities that occur under your Ground Up, whether or not you know about them.