Disconnect Plaid from a bank account in the Plaid Portal if you want to stop an app from receiving new data through Plaid. Then decide whether you also want Plaid to delete the financial data it holds, and contact the app separately if you want the app to delete the copy it already received.
Those are three different actions: disconnecting access, deleting data from Plaid, and deleting data from the app. Plaid’s own support pages treat them separately. This guide walks through each one and explains what may continue after you press Disconnect.
The short version
- Go to the Plaid Portal by typing the address yourself.
- Open Overview, choose the app, and select Manage connections.
- Select Disconnect app, choose the financial institution, and confirm.
- If you also want Plaid’s stored data deleted, use the separate delete option in the Portal or Plaid’s Privacy Request Form.
- Contact the app directly if you want it to delete data it already collected.
- Check the app for any payment authorization or subscription that must be cancelled separately.
Do not give a caller, email sender or chat agent your bank password or one-time code to “help” with this. Use the Portal and the app’s own settings.
What disconnecting Plaid actually does
Plaid says disconnecting an app in the Plaid Portal stops that app from receiving future financial data through Plaid. The connection between the selected institution and the app is removed.
That does not automatically erase data the app already received. Plaid’s support article says the app may have retained data from before you disconnected, and tells users to contact the app to learn about its retention and deletion practices.
Disconnecting may also break a feature you use. A budgeting app may stop refreshing transactions. A lender may no longer be able to verify an account. A money-transfer app may ask you to link the bank again. Plaid says you may reconnect later if the app and institution still support it.
Think of Disconnect as closing the pipeline. It does not necessarily empty every container that was filled while the pipeline was open.
Step by step: disconnect an app in the Plaid Portal
Plaid’s current instructions are:
- Open the Plaid Portal and sign in.
- On the Overview page, find the app you want to remove.
- Select the app, then choose Manage connections.
- Select Disconnect app.
- Choose the financial institution you want to disconnect.
- Confirm the disconnection.
If one app is connected to more than one bank or credit union, check which institution you selected before confirming. Disconnecting the wrong one can interrupt a working feature without solving the connection you intended to remove.
Afterward, return to Overview and confirm that the connection no longer appears as active. Then open the app and check whether its linked-account screen reflects the change. The app may take time to update or may show a reconnect prompt.
If the app does not appear in the Plaid Portal
Plaid says some of its newest product experiences cannot currently be managed through the Portal. If you cannot find the app or connection, that does not prove there is no Plaid relationship.
Use these routes:
- Look for Linked accounts, Connections, Bank accounts or Privacy inside the app.
- Contact the app through its own website or in-app support and ask how to revoke bank-data access.
- Use Plaid’s Privacy Request Form if you want to ask Plaid about access or deletion.
- If you are worried about a fraudulent connection, contact your bank using the number on the back of your card or the bank’s official app.
Do not search for a support number and call the first result. Radlof’s guide to fake customer service numbers explains why ads and AI answers can repeat an impostor’s number.
Disconnect versus delete: the important difference
Plaid provides a separate action for deleting financial accounts and associated data from Plaid. Its support page says deleting a financial account from the Portal removes that data from Plaid and stops new data collection through Plaid.
It also states two important limits:
- deleting from Plaid does not delete the copy already held by a third-party app; and
- deleting the financial account from Plaid does not necessarily revoke a payment authorization you gave to an app.
That second point matters. A data connection and a payment instruction are not always the same thing. If you authorized an app to pull money, pay a bill or fund an account, review and cancel that authorization in the app or with the bank as appropriate. Do not assume a Portal data-deletion action cancelled a payment.
Plaid also says it may retain information when permitted or required by law. A deletion request therefore should not be described as a promise that every record disappears immediately in every circumstance.
How to delete Plaid-held financial data
In the Plaid Portal:
- Open the relevant app or financial institution.
- Choose the option to manage or delete the financial account and its data.
- Read the confirmation carefully so you know whether you are disconnecting, deleting, or both.
- Confirm, then recheck the Portal.
Plaid’s support pages also point to its Privacy Request Form for access and deletion requests. Use the form on Plaid’s own domain and keep any confirmation you receive.
If your goal is a complete cleanup, make a small list:
| Place | Action |
|---|---|
| Plaid connection | Disconnect the app or institution |
| Plaid-held data | Use the Portal delete control or Privacy Request Form |
| App-held data | Ask the app to delete what it retained |
| Payment authorization | Cancel inside the app or through the bank if needed |
| Subscription | Cancel separately; disconnecting data access does not cancel billing |
What to ask the app
Send the app a short, specific request through its official privacy or support channel:
I disconnected my financial institution through Plaid. Please confirm whether you retain bank-account, balance, transaction or identity data received through Plaid; how long you retain it; and how I can request deletion. Please also confirm whether any payment authorization remains active.
Do not send account numbers, passwords or one-time codes in this request. The app should be able to identify your account through its normal signed-in support flow.
If the app says it cannot delete a record because of a legal or fraud-prevention requirement, ask which categories it must retain and for how long. A retention exception is not the same as permission to keep using the data for every purpose.
Does unlinking the bank inside the app do the same thing?
Sometimes an app’s unlink button initiates the right disconnect. Sometimes it only hides the account from the app’s dashboard. The result depends on the app’s implementation.
The Portal gives you Plaid’s view of connections Plaid can manage. Checking both places is useful:
- unlink or remove the bank in the app;
- check the Plaid Portal for an active connection; and
- ask the app what it retained if deletion matters to you.
If the app still shows fresh balances or transactions after you disconnected, contact the app. It may be showing cached data, receiving data through another connection, or not yet reflecting the change.
If you connected the wrong bank or no longer trust the app
Disconnect promptly, then review the affected accounts.
- Check recent transactions and linked external accounts in your bank’s app.
- Change the app password if you suspect someone else accessed the app.
- Turn on multifactor authentication where available.
- Remove unfamiliar devices or sessions.
- Contact the bank through a trusted channel if you see an unauthorized payment.
- Report fraud at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and cyber-enabled fraud at IC3.gov when appropriate.
A Plaid connection normally lets the app receive data under the permissions you approved; it is not the same as giving the app your bank password forever. But a fraudulent app or compromised app account still deserves immediate attention.
How we checked this
We read Plaid’s Portal, disconnection, data-removal and support documentation in full. This guide describes Plaid’s current consumer controls; it was not a hands-on test of every bank or app. Facts checked October 26, 2026.
