Bank account aggregators
Discussion
I know this is massive in the US but hasn't caught on here, despite being available for ages, so thought I'd seek opinion.
I've taken my monthly finances spreadsheet as far as it can go and want to move on to something that will give me the stats but with less maintenance.
I couldn't find software that seemed to do the job so (alongside writing my own
) I have been looking into these account aggregators, where you can view all your bank accounts in one place. The basic premise is you log in to something like Money Dashboard, then their system logs into your bank, grabs the latest statement then automatically populates your transactions. It's clever enough to know that a transaction in a supermarket is groceries, for example.
The finance websites and newspapers seem all for them and it all sounds very useful.
But.
I suspect the reason it hasn't taken off is because you have to give them your online banking details - literally your username and password, pin code or security code depending on the bank.
After recoiling at the thought and reading around, I'm on the fence. It all seems safe enough and realistically the risk is small but it still goes against every instinct to be handing this stuff out to private companies no matter how established (most seem to use massive American data firms like Yodlee).
There also seems to be a grey area on whether doing this means you're violating the terms and conditions of your online banking and therefore will not be covered if anything happens as a result.
Does anyone use one or have any insight to help decide one way or another?
In the meantime, I shall continue writing my own...
I've taken my monthly finances spreadsheet as far as it can go and want to move on to something that will give me the stats but with less maintenance.
I couldn't find software that seemed to do the job so (alongside writing my own
) I have been looking into these account aggregators, where you can view all your bank accounts in one place. The basic premise is you log in to something like Money Dashboard, then their system logs into your bank, grabs the latest statement then automatically populates your transactions. It's clever enough to know that a transaction in a supermarket is groceries, for example.The finance websites and newspapers seem all for them and it all sounds very useful.
But.
I suspect the reason it hasn't taken off is because you have to give them your online banking details - literally your username and password, pin code or security code depending on the bank.
After recoiling at the thought and reading around, I'm on the fence. It all seems safe enough and realistically the risk is small but it still goes against every instinct to be handing this stuff out to private companies no matter how established (most seem to use massive American data firms like Yodlee).
There also seems to be a grey area on whether doing this means you're violating the terms and conditions of your online banking and therefore will not be covered if anything happens as a result.
Does anyone use one or have any insight to help decide one way or another?
In the meantime, I shall continue writing my own...
I have been using these guys for a while now: https://www.ewise.com.au/ewise/aa/home.asp
Your details are kept in a cookie which is stored on your machine, so it doesn't go to them. You can test this by going to another machine and logging in (ooh look your details are not there!)
These are the guys that wrote the Money Manager that Egg used to offer (which was excellent) so when Egg closed down, I switched to them.
Haven't had any issues at all and use it almost daily.
There are no stats as such, just a list of your balances and a link to log in to the account.
HTH
M
Your details are kept in a cookie which is stored on your machine, so it doesn't go to them. You can test this by going to another machine and logging in (ooh look your details are not there!)
These are the guys that wrote the Money Manager that Egg used to offer (which was excellent) so when Egg closed down, I switched to them.
Haven't had any issues at all and use it almost daily.
There are no stats as such, just a list of your balances and a link to log in to the account.
HTH
M
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