Personal Finance

Is there a Mint.com substitute for Canada?

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  • Apr 21st, 2011 3:27 pm
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Deal Addict
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Mar 13, 2003
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Alberta

Is there a Mint.com substitute for Canada?

Mint essentially logs into all your bank accounts (let's not get into the security debate) and gives you a ton of useful information like charts and such without having to screw around with downloading statements.

Does something like this exist in Canada yet?
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Apr 1, 2009
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Unfortunately, Mint does not work in Canada, and there isn't really an alternative to Mint available.
Most Canadian banks do not allow for outside access to there confidential information from other websites. Due to the fact that you are logging on from a third party website, it makes it very difficult for the website to trust this third party website.
At this time, I would say don't expect it to happen anytime soon.
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Feb 28, 2002
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GTA
quicken online looks interesting, will try it out later
Newbie
May 17, 2007
7 posts
Okanagan
Yodlee supports a lot of Canadian financial institutions (Big 5, PCF, ING), investments companies, credit cards (although not MBNA sadly), and reward plans (Aeroplan, Air Miles). Mint is basically putting a pretty face on top of a Yodlee back end, so you get a lot of the same features. It's a pretty slick account aggregator.
Newbie
May 28, 2009
54 posts
Toronto
smcandc wrote: Yodlee supports a lot of Canadian financial institutions (Big 5, PCF, ING), investments companies, credit cards (although not MBNA sadly), and reward plans (Aeroplan, Air Miles). Mint is basically putting a pretty face on top of a Yodlee back end, so you get a lot of the same features. It's a pretty slick account aggregator.
Maybe I'm getting old or paranoid but are there any security concerns with putting all your financial/private information aggregated on some 3rd party website?
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Feb 9, 2005
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crucial wrote: Maybe I'm getting old or paranoid but are there any security concerns with putting all your financial/private information aggregated on some 3rd party website?
I guess it all depends how much you trust the 3rd party website.

I think Interactive Brokers considers it a fairly serious concern, because they'll send you warnings and eventually block your account if they determine that you're using an account aggregation service.
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Mar 16, 2007
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smcandc wrote: Yodlee supports a lot of Canadian financial institutions (Big 5, PCF, ING), investments companies, credit cards (although not MBNA sadly), and reward plans (Aeroplan, Air Miles). Mint is basically putting a pretty face on top of a Yodlee back end, so you get a lot of the same features. It's a pretty slick account aggregator.
Thanks, I was able to add my chequing/savings account from TD but not from CIBC or my Visas from TD. Looks interesting once I have it working.
Newbie
May 28, 2009
54 posts
Toronto
AllWheelDrift wrote: I guess it all depends how much you trust the 3rd party website.

I think Interactive Brokers considers it a fairly serious concern, because they'll send you warnings and eventually block your account if they determine that you're using an account aggregation service.
That's the thing, regardless of their stated privacy policies I wouldn't trust them at all. I can say one thing for sure, there's no way in hell I'd give them my username/password to access my banking sites to automatically download the information. That's just asking for abuse.
For example, Yodlee may share your personal information with a nonaffiliated third party to offer you a new service on the Yodlee MoneyCenter web site that is provided jointly by Yodlee and an unaffiliated company. Yodlee reserves the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on Yodlee
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Nov 12, 2003
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crucial wrote: That's the thing, regardless of their stated privacy policies I wouldn't trust them at all. I can say one thing for sure, there's no way in hell I'd give them my username/password to access my banking sites to automatically download the information. That's just asking for abuse.
I agree. Some things just don't belong in the cloud. I use a spreadsheet to keep track of my finances and it is working quite well.
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Mar 30, 2009
374 posts
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Toronto
krazo wrote: I agree. Some things just don't belong in the cloud. I use a spreadsheet to keep track of my finances and it is working quite well.
I don't know about that. Personally I'd like a service like this. But to get me to use it, first the banks have to set up some controllable public web service API for online banking that would let you customize which accounts each consuming app can access, and how much access they get, and the ability to change or remove access for an app at any time. (Think similar to third party Facebook applications, but with much more strict access controls.)

That said, given that banks tend to have trouble just doing basic online banking functionality right (seriously, why do I still have to call up EasyLine or go to a branch to make some basic changes to my setup?), I can't see them going to this kind of user controlled access system anytime soon.
Deal Fanatic
Jul 4, 2004
9473 posts
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You have to remember that in the unlikely event that there is a problem with your account after using such a service, the bank may chose to hold you accountable for any such losses if you are deemed to have violated their service agreement (meaning giving out your account user-names and passwords).

Not worth the risk if you ask me unless the bank is in approval with the service.
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Aug 7, 2007
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Yodlee looks interesting but I'm also concerned about the type of access they will be getting to my accounts. Googling around a bit it seems to be a reputable service however. This is from their Wiki article (for what it's worth):

"Yodlee works with several partners as a service provider. This includes websites like Mint.com, money.strands.com,Justthrive.com, and several large banks and financial institutions. Bank of America's My Portfolio service is powered by Yodlee."
Newbie
Jun 7, 2007
31 posts
I don't like buying software, but the $40 I spent on Microsoft Money Canada was well worth it.

I've been using it for 3.5 years and I can tell you precisely at this moment my portfoilo YTD, yearly capital gains, net worth, and how much over budget I am based on my purchases of booze. All of which is a ~5 hour / month investment to keep accounts up-to-date.
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Aug 7, 2007
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jerryhung wrote: Try Quicken Finance Online, it's FREE too
https://www.quickenonline.intuit.com

It works with TD and PC Financial for sure, should work with all Big 5 I believe
Is there a Canadian version? That link goes to the US only version I think. At least, it asks for a Zip code and complains when I enter a Postal Code.
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Aug 7, 2007
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shuuy wrote: I don't like buying software, but the $40 I spent on Microsoft Money Canada was well worth it.

I've been using it for 3.5 years and I can tell you precisely at this moment my portfoilo YTD, yearly capital gains, net worth, and how much over budget I am based on my purchases of booze. All of which is a ~5 hour / month investment to keep accounts up-to-date.
Does it download your account info and transaction history for you or do you have to export/import the data (or worse, type it in) ?
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Oct 27, 2002
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Moerby wrote: Is there a Canadian version? That link goes to the US only version I think. At least, it asks for a Zip code and complains when I enter a Postal Code.
Enter any zip (I usually use 21234 or something -- NY). I was able to get most of my accounts except I think MBNA.
Newbie
Jun 7, 2007
31 posts
ING automatically syncs
I can download banks (think the big 5 and most credit unions)
I have to manually enter in my E*Trade and my direct investments
My mortgage I manually entered the terms, but since my payments come out of my bank, it automatically links.

I have to, of course, reconcile all transactions into the categories I want (if Money guesses, it's right 95% of the time). But if I have ~50-80 a month, that doesn't take longer than 20 minutes.
Moerby wrote: Does it download your account info and transaction history for you or do you have to export/import the data (or worse, type it in) ?
Newbie
Aug 26, 2006
76 posts
Toronto
Does anyone know of one that works with MBNA? I use RBC and just view other financial institutions through them

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