Web 2.0 financial tools for all November 12, 2008
Posted by James Webster in : web, finance , trackbackI have been regularly using Web 2.0 start-up Wesabe for tracking my personal finances for over a year now. I think they run a great service and believe it is only going to get greater. So I’m happy to see that they have just launched a co-branded version of their website with a media outlet that is all but guaranteed to get more people flocking to their service in these budget-conscious times of recession; the UK’s Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph-branded version of Wesabe can be reached here but there doesn’t appear to be any linkage on the Telegraph website at present.
I’m not a big fan of the Daily Telegraph itself but this is a great move by both parties. Hopefully it keeps Wesabe well-funded and in a position to keep expanding their capabilities; there are some advanced features I’d like them to implement and the service could also perform some useful predictive forecasting (ie. when is my next utility bill likely to arrive?). I also hope it encourages more UK banks to allow customers to export their transaction history in accurate and standard-compliant format such as OFX, something I have banged on about in the past. That said, my own bank has a fairly decent OFX export… please excuse me if I keep which bank it is to myself in the interest of personal security!
Wesabe are also to be applauded for their Data Bill of Rights, a policy and practice describing how they handle your personal financial data that should be adopted by more finance sector enterprises. They also have an API for extracting that data and massaging it further.
I recommend subscribing to the Wesabe blog Wheaties for your Wallet even if you don’t decide to sign up to Wesabe; lots of thought provoking personal finance news is contained within.
Whilst writing this blog post, I recalled that Wesabe’s main competitor mint.com was partnering with an Australian bank, ANZ perhaps?, but haven’t been able to track down a link. Maybe I just imagined this?
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