Open Banking and account aggregation?

Doc_N

I use First Direct Internet Banking Plus, and it works tolerably well, despite being incredibly clunky, outdated, slow and requiring a browser most of us would probably not choose to use - Internet Explorer.

It does however allow you to access all your accounts from one screen, with the passwords held only on your own PC.

Open Banking seemed to promise an improvement, but there seems to be nothing that will work the same way, on a PC, and the apps don't seem to do the same thing either.

Or am I missing something?

Anybody else looking for something like Internet Banking Plus, but with improved functionality? Better still, has anybody found it?

Nick_C

Not found anything that runs on a PC.

I'm currently using Tandem on my smart phone and FDIB+ on my laptop. Neither completely fills my needs, but with the two of them I can check maybe 95% of my accounts

FD have their own app in Beta testing, but only on Apple so far.

jonnygee2

Haven't used First Direct so unsure of it's specific capability.

Money Dashboard works in a browser as well as on the app. It aggregates your accounts and gives you basic spending analytics, as you'd expect from an open banking platform.

https://my.moneydashboard.com/

dj1471

Money Dashboard doesn't use Open Banking, it's a screen-scraper. I recently ditched them in favour of Tandem as they support more of my accounts.

jonnygee2

Money Dashboard doesn't use Open Banking

That is inaccurate, they use the open banking API.

masonic

jonnygee2 wrote: »

That is inaccurate, they use the open banking API.

Then why do they require that you disclose your full login information for any accounts you add to their aggregation service, and for those banks with 2FA require you to generate a code every time you refresh your accounts?

The Open Banking API is supposed to allow you to give authorisation to services like Money Dashboard without sharing your full login details with them. I don't think Money Dashboard is currently doing anything more than screen scraping as suggested above.

masonic

dj1471 wrote: »

Money Dashboard doesn't use Open Banking, it's a screen-scraper. I recently ditched them in favour of Tandem as they support more of my accounts.

From what I can see Tandem is screen scraping too.

I wish some of these services would aggregate investment accounts as well as bank accounts.

colsten

Doc_N wrote: »

Anybody else looking for something like Internet Banking Plus, but with improved functionality? Better still, has anybody found it?

Absolutely, looking for exactly the same! Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything with the same functionality, and it isn't a matter of platform. None of the 'open banking' apps

1. present you with a simple, compact list of all your accounts with their latest balance, and all the accounts of one company grouped together
2. let you log in to one of your accounts

They all have some fancy features that allow you to classify your transactions and set budgets but most don't even recognise all current account providers, not to talk of savings account providers and investment platforms. The app I did like best of all, because it has the largest range of supported companies, is Yolt. I have, however, gone right off it now as they lost all my accounts (some 40+) during an upgrade of the app. Not that I was anywhere near happy with what they were offering, anyway, and they appeared to be reluctant to take on board suggestions from their users. So the search continues.


EDIT: I use the native Accountunity, which is the technology FD use in Internet Banking Plus. The developers are still fixing problems with it if you ask them but I can't get any sense out of them whether they will ever support a modern browser, or create an app with the existing functionality.

jonnygee2

Then why do they require that you disclose your full login information for any accounts you add to their aggregation service

They don't for two of the accounts I have added (which is Monzo & Starling). For a third - Virgin Money - they did not need all login details, but just enough to authenticate once, so they don't know enough to be screen scraping from that account either.

I don't know what they do with other bank accounts, maybe they scrape some but not others?

masonic

jonnygee2 wrote: »

I don't know what they do with other bank accounts, maybe they scrape some but not others?

Maybe it's just the challenger banks. I have accounts at virtually all of the big banks, all of which scrape.

eskbanker

jonnygee2 wrote: »

They don't for two of the accounts I have added (which is Monzo & Starling). For a third - Virgin Money - they did not need all login details, but just enough to authenticate once, so they don't know enough to be screen scraping from that account either.

I don't know what they do with other bank accounts, maybe they scrape some but not others?

https://www.moneydashboard.com/faq:

How do I add my bank accounts and credit cards?

When you first sign up for Money Dashboard you will be presented with a full list of all major UK bank account providers. Simply select your bank and we’ll guide you through what details are required to connect. You will need to know your internet banking details, so it's worthwhile digging them out if you don't have them off the top of your head!

https://help.moneydashboard.com/hc/en-us/sections/360002969132-Specific-providers highlights that online banking credentials are needed for the major players, while https://help.moneydashboard.com/hc/en-us/articles/215853983-Supported-Providers refers to the fact that the connection to Starling is "via Starling API".

The FAQ page also includes

On 13 Jan 18, the EU’s Payment Service Directive 2 (PSD2) was implemented, which guarantees you the legal right to ask us to help you manage your money. This includes permitting you to share your online credentials with Account Information Service Providers (AISPs) such as ourselves.

which seems disingenuous, as PSD2 introduced the API-based model; the screen-scraping credentials-sharing style was in place long before that....