In praise of... Egg Money Manager

antispam246

Do you have to be with Egg to use their software? I know someone mentioned standalone programs, I'm assuming the EMM software coems as a sstandalone piece of software, or was it just something similar?

This sounds like a real handy tool and it could be for me, I'll do anything if it organizes things slightly better. I'm just wondering if it's worth it?

I have multiple accounts, I use FF and my bookmarks are meticulous. I have the IE tab switching engine for FF, so that isnt' a problem. I currently use a fairly generic system for managing my online accounts, FF > Bookmarks > "macros" > and everybit of login info has somehow managed to become permanently stored in my head ( I blame MSE for this).

So I can very easily open and log into every account manually, well, manually to some degree, single or multiple tab launch at once based on my macro requirements. So basically I have detailed information at my hands almost instantly. Again, my question is, baring the above in mind, would I find a use to this, or would it only, very slightly speed up my ability to see all my balances at once?

If it's the latter, I religiously update all my accounts in excel, using the online banking systems download ability (if applicable), so again I'd have that in hand anyway.

I used to use MS Money but then I realised excel was so much more pwoerful and well, better once I got to grips with linking worksheets, books and formulas. So went off abit there, just trying to give a clear picture to clear up whether it's for me.

grumpycrab

antispam246 wrote: »

Do you have to be with Egg to use their software? I know someone mentioned standalone programs, I'm assuming the EMM software coems as a sstandalone piece of software, or was it just something similar?

As far as I can see, there's no package you can buy. eWise doesn't appear to be set up to deal with individual customers. In the UK, the account aggregation software is provided to Egg and First Direct. I'd be wary of the 2 above listed sites that, in theory, provide a personal versions.
The first is
https://web.ewisenetwork.com/moneynet/1.0_home.jsp
The demo doesn't work and the site appears to be very old. I assume the functionality is free. What happens if you get a problem?
The second site is
https://www.ewise.com.au/accunity/aa/home.asp
I'd be suspicious of any site with the link "FAQ's" on its front page. The demo doesn't work here either.

antispam246 wrote: »

... everybit of login info has somehow managed to become permanently stored in my head ( I blame MSE for this).

Obviously, all that login info has to be typed (once) in EMM. The data is kept locally and Egg should never see it.

antispam246 wrote: »

...would I find a use to this, or would it only, very slightly speed up my ability to see all my balances at once?

The aggregation functionality available in EMM is very basic. It provides 2 columns, one gives a credit balance and the other a debit balance. You can select an account and EMM will popup a window and auto-logon to that (internet) account automatically. A very nice way into a specific account.

antispam246 wrote: »

If it's the latter, I religiously update all my accounts in excel, using the online banking systems download ability (if applicable), so again I'd have that in hand anyway...just trying to give a clear picture to clear up whether it's for me.

The demo will show you what it does. My guess is if you must have a line in Excel for each account, rather than one line for all accounts (that EMM can manage), then it may be too simple for you.

Stompa

grumpycrab wrote: »

Don't know how many "50% of your accounts" equates too but if you have the time it would be worth talking to Egg about it.

Let's just say I've got 9 accounts with 4 different providers that don't work. For me it's not a major issue, so probably not worth trying to figure out why it doesn't work.

soulsaver

Stompa wrote: »

Let's just say I've got 9 accounts with 4 different providers that don't work. For me it's not a major issue, so probably not worth trying to figure out why it doesn't work.

Be nice to know which providers it doesn't work with, help me decide to use it or not. And may get comments from others that sheds light whether its an EMM problem or a problem specific to your set up?

Stompa

soulsaver wrote: »

Be nice to know which providers it doesn't work with, help me decide to use it or not. And may get comments from others that sheds light whether its an EMM problem or a problem specific to your set up?

Cahoot, Halifax, Birmingham Midshires & Coventry BS fail for me. I don't think it's my setup as I've changed that fairly recently, and it failed both before and after.

Lokolo

Stompa wrote: »

Cahoot, Halifax, Birmingham Midshires & Coventry BS fail for me. I don't think it's my setup as I've changed that fairly recently, and it failed both before and after.

I suspect its you. Halifax works fine for me.

If it says Loading.... and never changes. Leave it for a couple of minutes. Then when it says Error. Click on it (the word Error), and it will be because an advertisement is in place, scroll to the bottom, press Continue, and it will then load up properly. Then just refresh the Egg page.

Stompa

Lokolo wrote: »

I suspect its you. Halifax works fine for me.

If it says Loading.... and never changes. Leave it for a couple of minutes. Then when it says Error. Click on it (the word Error), and it will be because an advertisement is in place, scroll to the bottom, press Continue, and it will then load up properly. Then just refresh the Egg page.

Thanks, but I can't get as far as even registering the account in the first place. When registering EMM eventually times out with an unable to connect to site or your login details are incorrect error. And I know that the login details are correct.

dov

soulsaver wrote: »

Be nice to know which providers it doesn't work with, help me decide to use it or not. And may get comments from others that sheds light whether its an EMM problem or a problem specific to your set up?

Full list of available banks is here http://new.egg.com/visitor/0,,3_48816--View_847,00.html

Best to email them about which banks are not currently working on that list. They will reply within 2 days. And the ones that are not working should be fixed within 2 or 3 weeks from experience.

As mentioned earlier Newcastle Building Society is being fixed.

And while on the subject can anyone get into Barclays via EMM bypassing PinSentry? I had an email exchange with Egg a while back but was never able to resolve this.

dov

Stompa wrote: »

Thanks, but I can't get as far as even registering the account in the first place. When registering EMM eventually times out with an unable to connect to site or your login details are incorrect error. And I know that the login details are correct.

Strange as Cahoot and Coventry work for me

KTF

Sometimes it fails to display the accounts if you have punctuation or similar in the account names - the % sign is normally the culprit.