Two accounts at a big four bank, an offset, and a card with a smaller lender. I've been using something that scrapes and it's flaky. I understand there's a properly regulated data-sharing system here now and I'd rather use something plugged into that. Happy to pay up to about AUD 120 a year, and it needs to handle the offset without treating it as spending money.
PocketSmith if you care about forecasting rather than categorising the past. It's paid, it's built in this part of the world, and the calendar-based forecast is the thing it does that the American apps mostly don't bother with.
Scraping apps also mean handing over your banking password, which is usually a breach of your bank's own terms here. That alone was enough to push me onto a CDR-based one.
The offset is what trips up every app. Some treat it as a savings account, some net it against the loan, and which you want depends on whether you'd rather your net worth number or your available-cash number be the honest one. Decide before you pick, because changing later means recategorising everything.
Available cash, definitely. I've been quietly fooling myself with the net worth view for two years.
Whatever you use, check it handles the offset transactions rather than just the balance. Mine showed the correct balance and categorised the interest movements as income, which made every chart nonsense for six months.
@vettech_marla · 2mo ago · 3 replies
First thing to know is that the aggregator most international apps are built on doesn't cover Australian banks at all. Down here the regulated route is the Consumer Data Right, and apps built on it connect through accredited data recipients rather than storing your banking login. Frollo is free and CDR-based and covers a lot of local institutions, and WeMoney is the other one people land on.
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@sightread_sid · 2mo ago
That explains why half the apps I read about overseas simply don't list any Australian banks. I assumed I was doing something wrong.
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@coast_fi_casey · 2mo ago
And as of this July the CDR scope widened past banks and energy into non-bank lenders and buy-now-pay-later, so coverage is meaningfully better than it was a year ago.
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