6 ms·

> I should be able to partition my money into several lightweight accounts - one for groceries, one for home expenses, investment, etc Heck not even real "Acco

> I should be able to partition my money into several lightweight accounts - one for groceries, one for home expenses, investment, etc Heck not even real "Accounts" (in the traditional banking sense) but just "funds" or "virtual accounts." I should be able to put $5/month into a "waste of money" fund, and then flag specific transactions against that balance when I use it, or as you said have a virtual credit card that goes straight out of my virtual "waste of money" fund. It really is surprising how little innovation occurs in the banking space. I want more tools to track expenditures and money usage, silo-ing money virtually is an obvious way to do that, but yet nobody really offers it!

cspags 9y ago
I highly recommend checking out https://www.youneedabudget.com https://www.youneedabudget.com for the ability to do this and more. (No affiliation, just a very satisfied customer)
- Someone1234 9y ago
  Does that require giving them your banking online login details?
  - gascan 9y ago
    If you're concerned about that, you can always go with desktop software. Quicken will do "virtual accounts".
    - dredmorbius 9y ago
      Or Free Software alternatives such as GNUcash. LWN have a current "Grumpy Editor" series article on Beancount: https://lwn.net/Articles/751874/ https://lwn.net/Articles/751874/ And an older one from 2009: https://lwn.net/Articles/314577/ https://lwn.net/Articles/314577/
  - bombledmonk 9y ago
    There's yet another thing that's needed industry wide. Oauth or similar concept with read only access to a data api.
    - madamelic 9y ago
      plaid.com
      - mwexler 9y ago
        And Yodlee. Quovo. Tink. Finicity. A zillion others. This is where modern banking data is moving, for better or worse. I think it's better, but the world is still on it's first steps in this "more open" financial data linking space.
      - sangnoir 9y ago
        plaid asks for your online banking password.
    - woolvalley 9y ago
      We used to with something like quicken, but most banks half ass it. I really think the state of how bad consumer bank integration tech is has led to this reality of login and scrape that you have with yodlee & co.
  - jahabrewer 9y ago
    Buy YNAB 4 (aka YNAB Classic). You'll have to import transactions manually, but I much prefer it to their subscription SaaS offering. I've used it for five years and love it. I use a python script to download most transactions from banks/credit cards. https://sites.google.com/site/pocketsense/home/msmoneyfixp1/p2 https://sites.google.com/site/pocketsense/home/msmoneyfixp1/... There are enough people who do this that you can figure out how to access the OFX endpoint for most financial institutions.
    - aeorgnoieang 9y ago
      You can import transactions manually into NYNAB (the new web version). One problem I have with relying on OFX is that I have a nagging suspicion that it's not as 'official' as the statements. If there were a discrepancy between the two, I'd worry that I wouldn't be able to resolve it in my favor without having reviewed (and thus downloaded and reconciled against) the statements.
    - komali2 9y ago
      I was in your same boat until the SaaS offering started really figuring out how to do credit cards. Now, it's finally the better of the two options for me.
  - komali2 9y ago
    If you want auto-import, yes. Otherwise, it requires only an email (and that you pay them 5$/monthly somehow. Paypal, credit card, whatever). If you don't want auto-import (which doesn't even work for my credit union anyway), you can uploads .csvs, or manually input your transactions.
cocoablazing 9y ago
The correct term would be “facilities”, but this jargon is only used for corporate/UHNW clients with complex credit needs IME.
kolinko 9y ago
The innovation occurs, just outside of US for some reason. When I was a student, in 2001, Poland, I had such functionality - I had separate sub-accounts, each one of them with a dedicated IBAN number, receiving funds. My monthly allowance from the parents went to one account, my payments from clients (freelance programming) went to another one. From that I distributed the money into another account for holiday savings, and to a spending account with a dedicated and free wire transfer of $5/day for daily spending - the only one I attached a debit card to. Once I got a browser in my phone, I think around 2004, in case of emergency (as in "standing in line at the store, and discovered I'm $2 short"), I could transfer the money between various accounts instantly. Another cool thing was that since my father had an account in the same bank, I received all the wire transfers from him instantly. As in, I call him, ask him for extra $100 for something, he says "hold on", opens up bank account on his browser, sends the money, and I instantly get a text message that the funds are received, and I can politely say "thanks dad, I got it" before disconnecting :) Using past tense, because that was all in 2001-2004. 16-18 years ago. Right now I think all the major banks offer that, so nobody considers it a big deal any more. Oh, and now we have instant inter-bank transfers, but they cost "a lot" - like a flat fee €1, so people usually send the regular free ones, which take <1 work day to get delivered (<3h if you send them between 7am and 5pm) - regardless of which bank you are using.
- nicoburns 9y ago
  In the UK we actually have free instant inter-bank transfers. I send money using the app from one bank to the other bank and get the push notification from the second bank confirming I have recieved the money before the UI in the app from the first bank has even confirmed the money has sent.

cspags 9y ago

I highly recommend checking out https://www.youneedabudget.com https://www.youneedabudget.com for the ability to do this and more. (No affiliation, just a very satisfied customer)

Someone1234 9y ago
Does that require giving them your banking online login details?
- gascan 9y ago
  If you're concerned about that, you can always go with desktop software. Quicken will do "virtual accounts".
  - dredmorbius 9y ago
    Or Free Software alternatives such as GNUcash. LWN have a current "Grumpy Editor" series article on Beancount: https://lwn.net/Articles/751874/ https://lwn.net/Articles/751874/ And an older one from 2009: https://lwn.net/Articles/314577/ https://lwn.net/Articles/314577/
- bombledmonk 9y ago
  There's yet another thing that's needed industry wide. Oauth or similar concept with read only access to a data api.
  - madamelic 9y ago
    plaid.com
    - mwexler 9y ago
      And Yodlee. Quovo. Tink. Finicity. A zillion others. This is where modern banking data is moving, for better or worse. I think it's better, but the world is still on it's first steps in this "more open" financial data linking space.
    - sangnoir 9y ago
      plaid asks for your online banking password.
  - woolvalley 9y ago
    We used to with something like quicken, but most banks half ass it. I really think the state of how bad consumer bank integration tech is has led to this reality of login and scrape that you have with yodlee & co.
- jahabrewer 9y ago
  Buy YNAB 4 (aka YNAB Classic). You'll have to import transactions manually, but I much prefer it to their subscription SaaS offering. I've used it for five years and love it. I use a python script to download most transactions from banks/credit cards. https://sites.google.com/site/pocketsense/home/msmoneyfixp1/p2 https://sites.google.com/site/pocketsense/home/msmoneyfixp1/... There are enough people who do this that you can figure out how to access the OFX endpoint for most financial institutions.
  - aeorgnoieang 9y ago
    You can import transactions manually into NYNAB (the new web version). One problem I have with relying on OFX is that I have a nagging suspicion that it's not as 'official' as the statements. If there were a discrepancy between the two, I'd worry that I wouldn't be able to resolve it in my favor without having reviewed (and thus downloaded and reconciled against) the statements.
  - komali2 9y ago
    I was in your same boat until the SaaS offering started really figuring out how to do credit cards. Now, it's finally the better of the two options for me.
- komali2 9y ago
  If you want auto-import, yes. Otherwise, it requires only an email (and that you pay them 5$/monthly somehow. Paypal, credit card, whatever). If you don't want auto-import (which doesn't even work for my credit union anyway), you can uploads .csvs, or manually input your transactions.

cocoablazing 9y ago

The correct term would be “facilities”, but this jargon is only used for corporate/UHNW clients with complex credit needs IME.

kolinko 9y ago

The innovation occurs, just outside of US for some reason. When I was a student, in 2001, Poland, I had such functionality - I had separate sub-accounts, each one of them with a dedicated IBAN number, receiving funds. My monthly allowance from the parents went to one account, my payments from clients (freelance programming) went to another one. From that I distributed the money into another account for holiday savings, and to a spending account with a dedicated and free wire transfer of $5/day for daily spending - the only one I attached a debit card to. Once I got a browser in my phone, I think around 2004, in case of emergency (as in "standing in line at the store, and discovered I'm $2 short"), I could transfer the money between various accounts instantly. Another cool thing was that since my father had an account in the same bank, I received all the wire transfers from him instantly. As in, I call him, ask him for extra $100 for something, he says "hold on", opens up bank account on his browser, sends the money, and I instantly get a text message that the funds are received, and I can politely say "thanks dad, I got it" before disconnecting :) Using past tense, because that was all in 2001-2004. 16-18 years ago. Right now I think all the major banks offer that, so nobody considers it a big deal any more. Oh, and now we have instant inter-bank transfers, but they cost "a lot" - like a flat fee €1, so people usually send the regular free ones, which take <1 work day to get delivered (<3h if you send them between 7am and 5pm) - regardless of which bank you are using.

nicoburns 9y ago
In the UK we actually have free instant inter-bank transfers. I send money using the app from one bank to the other bank and get the push notification from the second bank confirming I have recieved the money before the UI in the app from the first bank has even confirmed the money has sent.