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How does Quicken sync transactions without a bank API? Do you have to give it your bank credentials so it can scrape the site?
by procinct 7y ago
How does Quicken sync transactions without a bank API? Do you have to give it your bank credentials so it can scrape the site?
- bobblywobbles 7y agoYes, that is one of the ways Quicken scrapes information. The "bank API" is actually OFX, it's a protocol banks use to send each other data. I'm currently working on trying to get OFX support in My Budget. (I'm the author of the Github project).
- procinct 7y agoIt seems insane that people would be okay with their bank credentials being stored in plaintext. I signed up for a budgeting service that claimed real time transaction sync and immediately unsubscribed when I realised it was planning to do so by scraping.
- chiph 7y agoPeople give their passwords to Mint, and I totally don't understand that.
- acct1771 7y agoThe banks in the US won't cooperate, according to everyone I've heard stories from who are trying to break into, or have broken into, this space.
- procinct 7y agoThat’s still not a good reason to give your bank credentials and allow them to be stored in plain text. At that point if it’s your only option you just don’t do it.
- 0xffff2 7y agoQuicken at least claims to store the credentials locally and encrypted. How well it does this I don't know of course, but I consider it infinitely better than any online service, which is why I still use it despite the fact that it manages the impressive feat of being so slow that a web-based service would probably be faster in terms of UI performance.