Potential solutions for UK bank access

[Graham Borland]

Moneydance is currently unable to connect to any UK banks, since they
tend not to support the OFX protocol. This is a crap situation.

Until UK banks have a change of heart en masse, and pigs start flying,
the only way to get transaction info from UK banks is screen-scraping.

I've signed up to Yodlee's personal finance site
<http://www.yodlee.com/> and I'm delighted to report that it flawlessly
adds accounts and downloads transactions from every UK institution I've
tried it with so far. (You have to give Yodlee your login details for
each bank's web site, but their security seems quite robust.)

Using Yodlee as an intermediary between UK banks and third-party
software products like Moneydance should be possible, since they provide
a developer SDK. Several finance solutions, like Mint and MSN Money,
already use Yodlee's backend in their online service, from what I can
gather.

Could Moneydance please be made to use this, or some similar service, as
an alternative to OFX for those of us (many!) whose banks don't support it?

Graham

[Chuck]

That scares the crap out of me, freely giving one company all my banking information for the sake of a little convenience.

What have you done to test their security to say it seems robust? What have you done to test their trust as an organization? Who are the owners and what is their history?

Chuck


"It is sometimes a mistake to climb;
it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt"



----- Original Message ----

Sent: Friday, June 5, 2009 9:15:27 AM
Subject: [moneydance] Potential solutions for UK bank access
I've signed up to Yodlee's personal finance site
and I'm delighted to report that it flawlessly
adds accounts and downloads transactions from every UK institution I've
tried it with so far. (You have to give Yodlee your login details for
each bank's web site, but their security seems quite robust.)

[Graham Borland]

Post by Chuck
That scares the crap out of me, freely giving one company all my banking information for the sake of a little convenience.

I actually think I'm more likely to spot any problems earlier when I can
see all my accounts in one place. Some accounts I use so rarely that I
hardly ever log in to the bank to check them.

Post by Chuck
What have you done to test their security to say it seems robust? What have you done to test their trust as an organization? Who are the owners and what is their history?

I have studied their security policy. I have verified the certificates
they use for encryption are authentic. I have learned that they have
been around for many years, and their solution is used by Microsoft (MSN
Money) and several prestigious American banks, all of whom rebrand or
repackage this service.

Graham

[Gordon Alley]

If those accounts are used so rarely, why not just manually enter the
transactions, rather than try to automate them?
-Gordon

Some accounts I use so rarely that I hardly ever log in to the bank to
check them.

[Elana Houde]

I believe the point is to monitor possible unauthorized transactions on
rarely used accounts. Yodlee, despite the odd name, is quite reputable. If
you trust your bank with your information, you're already more than likely
trusting Yodlee anyhow.

I'd trust them over some of the other online solutions, including Intuit's.

Post by Gordon Alley
If those accounts are used so rarely, why not just manually enter the
transactions, rather than try to automate them?
-Gordon

Some accounts I use so rarely that I hardly ever log in to the bank to
check them.

--
Gordon B. Alley
http://www.gordonalley.com
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[Milutin Jovanović]

Can you tell me, does your bank support any other format. For example CSV
(comma separated values) which is very simple text format. I had the same
problem in Canada, and for this I created a MD plugin to import the new
format into MD. Maybe the plugin can be adapted for your needs...

Miki.

Post by Graham Borland
Moneydance is currently unable to connect to any UK banks, since they
tend not to support the OFX protocol. This is a crap situation.
Until UK banks have a change of heart en masse, and pigs start flying,
the only way to get transaction info from UK banks is screen-scraping.
I've signed up to Yodlee's personal finance site
<http://www.yodlee.com/> and I'm delighted to report that it flawlessly
adds accounts and downloads transactions from every UK institution I've
tried it with so far. (You have to give Yodlee your login details for
each bank's web site, but their security seems quite robust.)
Using Yodlee as an intermediary between UK banks and third-party
software products like Moneydance should be possible, since they provide
a developer SDK. Several finance solutions, like Mint and MSN Money,
already use Yodlee's backend in their online service, from what I can
gather.
Could Moneydance please be made to use this, or some similar service, as
an alternative to OFX for those of us (many!) whose banks don't support it?
Graham
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moneydance-info mailing list
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[cashmeredoe-moneydance-FFYn/]

Miki:

As a fellow Canadian I am very interested in the plugin you created allowing for downloading
CSV. Are you willing to share this? I am currently manually entering all entries.

Regards
Gordon G
Ontario


----- Original Message ----

Sent: Friday, June 5, 2009 11:57:29 AM
Subject: Re: [moneydance] Potential solutions for UK bank access
Can you tell me, does your bank support any other format. For example CSV
(comma separated values) which is very simple text format. I had the same
problem in Canada, and for this I created a MD plugin to import the new
format into MD. Maybe the plugin can be adapted for your needs...
Miki.

[Milutin Jovanović]

Of course. It was public from the start. I did send an email a while ago,
but if you missed it... Maybe I should do a repeat post every few months or
so... Any way, you can find it here:

http://code.google.com/p/mdcsvimporter/

Please keep in mind it was created for CitiBank Canada only for now. I
prefer specialization like this to avoid crowding individuals with too many
options and references. If you wish to support a different bank, it is very
easy to add, and I am quite willing to add the support if you would help me
by providing some rudimentary data. But that conversation we can take
offline.

Miki.

Post by cashmeredoe-moneydance-FFYn/
As a fellow Canadian I am very interested in the plugin you created
allowing for downloading
CSV. Are you willing to share this? I am currently manually entering all entries.
Regards
Gordon G
Ontario
----- Original Message ----

To: General discussion related to Moneydance <
Sent: Friday, June 5, 2009 11:57:29 AM
Subject: Re: [moneydance] Potential solutions for UK bank access
Can you tell me, does your bank support any other format. For example CSV
(comma separated values) which is very simple text format. I had the same
problem in Canada, and for this I created a MD plugin to import the new
format into MD. Maybe the plugin can be adapted for your needs...
Miki.

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moneydance-info mailing list
http://moneydance.com/mailman/listinfo/moneydance-info

[Andy Pastuszak]

Whether the solution scares the crap out of you or not, it's up to the
user to decide whether the convenience is worth the risk. If Sean
wants to add the feature, let him do so, with a big warning dialog box
explaining the risks.

Andy

Post by Milutin Jovanović
Of course. It was public from the start. I did send an email a while ago,
but if you missed it... Maybe I should do a repeat post every few months or
http://code.google.com/p/mdcsvimporter/
Please keep in mind it was created for CitiBank Canada only for now. I
prefer specialization like this to avoid crowding individuals with too many
options and references. If you wish to support a different bank, it is very
easy to add, and I am quite willing to add the support if you would help me
by providing some rudimentary data. But that conversation we can take
offline.
Miki.

Post by cashmeredoe-moneydance-FFYn/
As a fellow Canadian I am very interested in the plugin you created
allowing for downloading
CSV. Are you willing to share this? I am currently manually entering all entries.
Regards
Gordon G
Ontario
----- Original Message ----

To: General discussion related to Moneydance <
Sent: Friday, June 5, 2009 11:57:29 AM
Subject: Re: [moneydance] Potential solutions for UK bank access
Can you tell me, does your bank support any other format. For example CSV
(comma separated values) which is very simple text format. I had the same
problem in Canada, and for this I created a MD plugin to import the new
format into MD. Maybe the plugin can be adapted for your needs...
Miki.

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_______________________________________________
moneydance-info mailing list
http://moneydance.com/mailman/listinfo/moneydance-info

[Graham Borland]

Post by Milutin Jovanović
Can you tell me, does your bank support any other format. For example CSV
(comma separated values) which is very simple text format. I had the same
problem in Canada, and for this I created a MD plugin to import the new
format into MD. Maybe the plugin can be adapted for your needs...

No. None of the banks I use offer even a basic CSV download. Even if
they did, it wouldn't be the automatic transaction download solution I'm
looking for.

Graham

[Jill Lundquist]

Post by Graham Borland

Post by Milutin Jovanović
Can you tell me, does your bank support any other format. For example CSV
(comma separated values) which is very simple text format. I had the same
problem in Canada, and for this I created a MD plugin to import the new
format into MD. Maybe the plugin can be adapted for your needs...

No. None of the banks I use offer even a basic CSV download. Even if
they did, it wouldn't be the automatic transaction download solution I'm
looking for.

Both of my UK banks export data in OFX and CSV and some other formats (by
which I mean I can click some things on their websites to download my
transactions in a file that moneydance reads seamlessly). I have never
tried to have moneydance download things automatically, since I prefer to
examine the transactions as they come in and I know I would end up
overlooking some if software did it for me.

It sounds like that's not what you're looking for, so changing banks might
not help you. But I think being able to download transactions is pretty
normal in my experience, and I'm shaking my head to hear that your bank
doesn't support it. And here I've been grumbling about HSBC requiring an
annoying number of clicks...

Jill

[Graham Borland]

Post by Jill Lundquist
Both of my UK banks export data in OFX and CSV and some other formats (by
which I mean I can click some things on their websites to download my
transactions in a file that moneydance reads seamlessly).

Jill, if I'm not being too nosey, would you mind if I ask which bank(s)
you are referring to?

Graham