Getting started
Joining Clear, verifying who you are, keeping the app locked to you, and getting back in if you lose
your phone number. Everything here happens in the member app at app.useclear.org.
On this page
Signing in
There is no password on a Clear account. You sign in one of these ways:
- Your phone number or email. Enter it and Clear sends you a six-digit code.
- Google. Signing in with Apple is not available yet.
- Face ID, once you have turned it on (see App lock and Face ID). On a device that remembers you, the welcome screen offers Face ID first, with a code as the fallback.
If Face ID fails on a device where it was never set up, send yourself a code instead. You can turn Face ID on once you are in.
Joining the co-op
After your first sign-in, the app takes you through joining:
- 1.Join the co-op. The screen sets out three terms: what you save is your share, with no buy-in and no fee to join; one member, one vote, however much you save; and if you leave, your balance leaves with you. The membership agreement and bylaws are linked at the foot of the screen.
- 2.Your ZIP code, on the same screen. Clear opens one region at a time. If your ZIP is not served yet, you go to a waitlist instead and can leave an email for updates.
- 3.Two more details. Identity verification waits until you first need it, so you can look around first.
If you arrived through an invite link, the invite is carried into your sign-up for you.
Voting, the bylaws and patronage are covered in Governance.
Verifying your identity
Verification is required before Clear can lend to you or issue you a card. It is not a credit check, and nothing in it touches your credit score.
You can start it from Settings → Personal information → Identity, and the app also asks for it when you set up your card. The form asks for:
- your date of birth (you must be 18 or over)
- your Social Security number
- your legal name and home address — filled in from your linked bank when there is one, and editable
- your phone number and email
Clear passes these to its card issuer, which runs the check. Clear does not keep your Social Security number or date of birth.
What you can do while you wait
Savings and Earn are open before you are verified. They hold your own money. Credit and the card open once verification clears.
The answers you might get
Once verified, your legal name and date of birth are locked. To correct either, contact support.
App lock and Face ID
The lock
After five minutes idle, or five minutes away from the app, Clear locks. It opens on the welcome screen instead of your account, and your balances are not drawn underneath it.
- With Face ID on, a glance opens it again. You stay signed in.
- Without Face ID, send yourself a code. That signs you out and back in.
Clear's server keeps its own lock as well, so a session left idle is refused there too, whatever the phone's clock says.
Face ID for signing in
Turn it on in Settings → Security → Face ID. This links a passkey on your device to your account, so you can sign in without a code.
Face ID for payments
Signing in and moving money are separate switches. Settings → Security → Payments shows what confirms a payment:
- Face ID, or
- an authenticator app, for a device without Face ID (Settings → Security → Authenticator app → Set up).
If neither is set up, the row reads "Not protected yet".
With payment protection on, Clear asks for Face ID when money moves — a send, a withdrawal, a bill, unfreezing your card, or showing its numbers. One check covers the next couple of minutes, so a move that takes two signatures doesn't ask twice. Clear's server also refuses those requests without a fresh check, so the protection does not rely on the phone alone.
If you lose your phone number
There is no password to reset. What gets you back in is another way of signing in that is already on your account:
- Face ID, on a device where you turned it on
- Google, if that's how you signed in before
- an email code, if your account was opened with an email address
Once you're in, change your number in Settings → Account → Phone. Clear sends a code to the new number, and your old number keeps working until the new one answers.
If the phone itself is lost, turn Face ID off in Settings → Security from a device you still have. That removes Face ID from every device on your account, so the lost phone can't use it. If the app says Face ID wasn't confirmed, sign out, sign back in with a code, and try again within a few minutes. Then turn Face ID back on from the device you have.
If none of these works, email support at support@useclear.org. Recovering an account in the
app, and recovery contacts, are not available yet.