Desktop Alternative to FirstDirect "Internet Banking Plus"

colsten

Sadly, I got too excited, too soon.

Account balances aren't refreshed on loading ewise - meaning a major advantage of the old accountunity has been lost.

2FA is, quite painfully, interrupting the processing. For example, I managed to add Coventry Building Society but had to answer the security call from Coventry, and need to answer it every time I want to have my Coventry balances refreshed.

Much worse, though, I can't manage to even add Halifax. 2FA interferes again, and ewise timed out, on three tries. 



It's back to using the apps again for me, as that's way faster.

Nick_C

Also found this didn't work for me.

A nightmare to install.  Windows Defender flags AccountUnity as an unsafe programme so you need to ignore those warnings.

Needed to install Java Runtime, which also flagged security warnings.

Once everything was set up, I tried adding Lloyds Bank and it timed out three times.

I will be sticking with Emma.

Frank121

Nick_C said:

Also found this didn't work for me.

A nightmare to install.  Windows Defender flags AccountUnity as an unsafe programme so you need to ignore those warnings.

Needed to install Java Runtime, which also flagged security warnings.

Once everything was set up, I tried adding Lloyds Bank and it timed out three times.

I will be sticking with Emma.

Hey Nick C!

I haven't heard of Emma before and just had a quick look now. It looks very interesting and pretty good from what I saw. However since you are still looking for a desktop version,I assume there are some disadvantges with Emma? How are you finiding it?

Cheers,

Frank

Nick_C

I switched from Yolt to Emma because I was using an old Android 5 phone. Yolt no longer worked but Emma did. 

The two apps are pretty similar. I would recommend either. 

AccountUnity looked promising because it claims to work with a wider range of institutions.  Emma and Yolt both use Open Banking APIs, so the range of institutions is more or less the same.  They don't yet work with Post Office Money, NS&I, or many savings accounts. I would feel more secure using an Open Banking app than the AccountUnity software. 

Frank121

Nick_C said:

I switched from Yolt to Emma because I was using an old Android 5 phone. Yolt no longer worked but Emma did. 

The two apps are pretty similar. I would recommend either. 

AccountUnity looked promising because it claims to work with a wider range of institutions.  Emma and Yolt both use Open Banking APIs, so the range of institutions is more or less the same.  They don't yet work with Post Office Money, NS&I, or many savings accounts. I would feel more secure using an Open Banking app than the AccountUnity software. 

Thanks Nick C, this is very usefull information. I'd pretty much given up with the hope of any sort of money manager since the advent of so many different security hops and 2fa hoops.  I had forgotten all about the open banking api to be honest and hadn't realised that companies have started using them for this purpose.

Am i right in thinking this app just pulls of balances and transactions rather than providing a way to log in? I think most peeps in this thread are looking for a log in function as once upon a time the old egg money manager and later first direct offering did this.
Anyway i will have a play with Emma soon!

Nick_C

Emma and Yolt don't provide you with a way of logging in to your accounts. But they do store your transactions, so you can see a lot more than current balances.

Yolt claims to allow you to initiate transfers from within the app, but this never worked for me.

I'm finding since 2FA, banking is generally easier using apps than using websites as you just need to use biometrics with the apps. 

colsten

Nick_C said:

I'm finding since 2FA, banking is generally easier using apps than using websites as you just need to use biometrics with the apps. 

Same here. I have almost totally switched to apps now. I find that faster than even the old EMM was. I still miss a simple, no frills, list of all my many accounts and their most current balances in a single place but I have given up the hope that anyone will ever provide one. Even ewise seem to now be obsessed with using huge fonts and graphics which make things look pretty but which are literally a waste of space.