Looking for an app that.....

[dwillis4]

I am looking for an android app that will constantly (without logging in every time) show me my updated bank account balance. There are several out there that have this feature, however you must first press the icon, login, and then see your account balance. I am looking for an app that simply displays your real-time bank account balance on the home screen, much like how the Accuweather.com app is always on constantly updating the current weather conditions.

Does anyone know of an android app with such a feature?

 

[woodsb123]

Hey dwillis4, I first want to say that that's a great idea you have there, however, for security purposes, I don't believe that there is any banking app that would allow you to log into your account and display your account info or to just display your account balance info either. It's just too big of a security risk that the banks just don't want to take.

 

[euph_22]

I am looking for an android app that will constantly (without logging in every time) show me my updated bank account balance. There are several out there that have this feature, however you must first press the icon, login, and then see your account balance. I am looking for an app that simply displays your real-time bank account balance on the home screen, much like how the Accuweather.com app is always on constantly updating the current weather conditions.

Does anyone know of an android app with such a feature?

I'm guessing you've never heard of "information security". Accuweather forecast and weather data isn't private financial data. Do really you want everyone who get's a look at your phone to know your bank account balance?

Anyways, I don't think there is such an app. And their won't be, because the banks/FTC/etc wouldn't allow such an app, and it's just a lawsuit waiting to happen.

 

[natewillsheets]

I'm guessing you've never heard of "information security". Accuweather forecast and weather data isn't private financial data. Do really you want everyone who get's a look at your phone to know your bank account balance?

Anyways, I don't think there is such an app. And their won't be, because the banks/FTC/etc wouldn't allow such an app, and it's just a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I don't think there's a need to be snippy.

However, I agree: I don't think there is an app/widget for this. :-/

 

[chanchan05]

Banks and other security agencies won't allow random third party developers into their system. If they do lighten up their security, its just a matter of time before somebody does a Swordfish on their data.

What I do is just use Andromoney and update my account with every transaction I make.

 

[euph_22]

Banks and other security agencies won't allow random third party developers into their system. If they do lighten up their security, its just a matter of time before somebody does a Swordfish on their data.

What I do is just use Andromoney and update my account with every transaction I make.

What's more, they would probably flag the traffic from the app constantly checking the balance, and firewall the connection and possibly put a hold on the account while they're at it.

I used mint, before becoming depressed by how little money I have, and realizing I know exactly how much I have in my various accounts (all two of them).I also got annoyed how it kept giving me financial tips I didn't need or want. But I liked how our tracked / checked my accounts.

 

[SkyJackpot]

I am looking for an android app that will constantly (without logging in every time) show me my updated bank account balance. There are several out there that have this feature, however you must first press the icon, login, and then see your account balance. I am looking for an app that simply displays your real-time bank account balance on the home screen, much like how the Accuweather.com app is always on constantly updating the current weather conditions.

Does anyone know of an android app with such a feature?

I don't think this will ever happen for various reasons. Also pending transactions are still not shown on the account in many banks, and you'll see the "Available Balance" is usually lower than the balance you see when you first login because the pending transactions have already been taken but are waiting authorization.

One solution would be to manually calculate deductions and additions yourself at a time when you login and know what the Available Balance is, then after every purchase you make use a call at or such as 'CalcBuddy Calculator" from the Google Play store to deduct the amounts for each of your purchases.

CalcBuddy Calcator saves every calculation you make into memory even when you close it and return it, the recent calculations are in the "History" menu item. By doing this calculation after every purchase you'll be able to know your available balance at any moment just by looking at the History menu and seeing the results of the latest sum you did.

 

[fdbryant3]

Banks and other security agencies won't allow random third party developers into their system. If they do lighten up their security, its just a matter of time before somebody does a Swordfish on their data.

What I do is just use Andromoney and update my account with every transaction I make.

Apparently you haven't heard of Mint.com, Quicken, or Microsoft Money. They all provide ways to retrieve your account information from financial institution.

The one that is probably most relevant to this discussion is Mint.com which can aggregate your data from most financial institutions. It does this by tapping into the backend service (yodlee) that banks use already to exchange information with each other. Anyway I doubt it the app keeps track on a real time basis but probably updates at regular intervals and of course on-demand (just click an icon, doesn't look like you have to re-enter information). The widget looks like it displays your current cash and credit balance.

You might also want to check and see if your financial institution provides an app that does what you want.

 

[chanchan05]

Apparently you haven't heard of Mint.com, Quicken, or Microsoft Money. They all provide ways to retrieve your account information from financial institution.

The one that is probably most relevant to this discussion is Mint.com which can aggregate your data from most financial institutions. It does this by tapping into the backend service (yodlee) that banks use already to exchange information with each other. Anyway I doubt it the app keeps track on a real time basis but probably updates at regular intervals and of course on-demand (just click an icon, doesn't look like you have to re-enter information). The widget looks like it displays your current cash and credit balance.

You might also want to check and see if your financial institution provides an app that does what you want.

Mint.com and Microsoft Money aren't exactly "random third party developers". MS is one of the biggest companies in the world as well.

 

[fdbryant3]

Mint actually is sort of a random third party developer given they were founded in 2006 and were not purchased by Intuit until 2009.

The point is though that there is a process and API which third party developers can use to get access to your financial information. Now I trust that this is a very secure process with lots of checks and balances to keep our information secure (as a side note I wish financial institutions would allow users to establish a read only password that we can give to these services, but I digress) and that anyone developing for this sort of thing undergoes an intense vetting process.

What it comes down to though is the OP doesn't need some random developer, just one who can do what he needs. The prevailing wisdom on this thread is that it isn't possible due to security concerns, but the truth is that it is possible with something like Mint, Yodlee, or other proprietary financial apps.

 

[euph_22]

Mint actually is sort of a random third party developer given they were founded in 2006 and were not purchased by Intuit until 2009.

The point is though that there is a process and API which third party developers can use to get access to your financial information. Now I trust that this is a very secure process with lots of checks and balances to keep our information secure (as a side note I wish financial institutions would allow users to establish a read only password that we can give to these services, but I digress) and that anyone developing for this sort of thing undergoes an intense vetting process.

What it comes down to though is the OP doesn't need some random developer, just one who can do what he needs. The prevailing wisdom on this thread is that it isn't possible due to security concerns, but the truth is that it is possible with something like Mint, Yodlee, or other proprietary financial apps.

Do any of those have a widget, displaying your account balance constantly? Because that is what the OP is looking for.

 

[fdbryant3]

Mint does, others might.

 

[euph_22]

Mint does, others might.

I guess it does. Weird...
On to a more important question. Why does mint have such a profoundly ill advised feature (or for that matter doesn't require password, pin number to access by default)? Anybody who sees your phone would know what money you have available. Anyone who has access to the phone would know where it is. Given what could happen if bad people knew that information and had your cards, don't take that risk.

 

[fdbryant3]

I guess it does. Weird...
On to a more important question. Why does mint have such a profoundly ill advised feature (or for that matter doesn't require password, pin number to access by default)? Anybody who sees your phone would know what money you have available. Anyone who has access to the phone would know where it is. Given what could happen if bad people knew that information and had your cards, don't take that risk.

Why? Because people want a widget that shows their current balance without having to repeatedly enter a password. The Mint app actually does have a passcode feature that you can set to protect your data.

Secondly, who cares if someone sees what your balance is or even where you have money located. Mint cannot allow them to do anything with it. Somehow if they are able to penetrate your banks security, I doubt that they going to say "yeah I only want euph_22 balance - they have XXXX".

Finally, you are securing your phone with a lock screen right? So, worry about them get past that than being able to see your account balance.

 

[euph_22]

Why? Because people want a widget that shows their current balance without having to repeatedly enter a password. The Mint app actually does have a passcode feature that you can set to protect your data.

they did require it by default. If you really don't want to use a password, you should have to opt out.

Secondly, who cares if someone sees what your balance is or even where you have money located. Mint cannot allow them to do anything with it. Somehow if they are able to penetrate your banks security, I doubt that they going to say "yeah I only want euph_22 balance - they have XXXX".

You should care about who sees your balance for your various bank accounts.
If I know you're account balances, I know where to go to get your money and how much to ask for. This is particularly a risk since a lot of the people who have access to your phone have access to you wallet/cards.

It's also a huge risk of somebody skims your card.

Finally, you are securing your phone with a lock screen right? So, worry about them get past that than being able to see your account balance.

I'M not using the mint app without a password. I'm not the user that we should be discussing. And it's a pretty odd assumption that somebody asking for a widget that displays financial data on their homescreen is using a screen lock.

 

[fdbryant3]

they did require it by default. If you really don't want to use a password, you should have to opt out.

While that might be preferred selection it isn't a big deal that it isn't. The option is there.

You should care about who sees your balance for your various bank accounts.
If I know you're account balances, I know where to go to get your money and how much to ask for. This is particularly a risk since a lot of the people who have access to your phone have access to you wallet/cards.

I don't know about other banks, but every one I've been in requires a photo ID to make a withdrawl from a cashier. The ATM require you know my PIN. I suppose they could make a fake ID but hey if you going to that amount of trouble, instead of getting the balance off my phone - wouldn't it be easier to use that ID and ask the cashier the current balance.

It's also a huge risk of somebody skims your card.

If they skim my card they are probably just going to make charges until it doesn't let them.

Again - I'm not seeing how knowing my account balance creates a greater security problem. Ultimately if you know enough about me in order that you can steal my identity and clean out my account balance, you are going to be able to do so whether you know that balance or not.

I'M not using the mint app without a password. I'm not the user that we should be discussing. And it's a pretty odd assumption that somebody asking for a widget that displays financial data on their homescreen is using a screen lock.

It is a hypothetical you meant to point there are other security measures that can be brought into play. I don't know why you find it so odd though. Personally I don't have a problem using a widget that displays an account balance. I actually don't because I don't really have a need to currently (I might though at somepoint in the future) but if I did I'd have a screen lock, largely because I have one now.

 

[euph_22]

While that might be preferred selection it isn't a big deal that it isn't. The option is there.



I don't know about other banks, but every one I've been in requires a photo ID to make a withdrawl from a cashier. The ATM require you know my PIN. I suppose they could make a fake ID but hey if you going to that amount of trouble, instead of getting the balance off my phone - wouldn't it be easier to use that ID and ask the cashier the current balance.



If they skim my card they are probably just going to make charges until it doesn't let them.

Again - I'm not seeing how knowing my account balance creates a greater security problem. Ultimately if you know enough about me in order that you can steal my identity and clean out my account balance, you are going to be able to do so whether you know that balance or not.



It is a hypothetical you meant to point there are other security measures that can be brought into play. I don't know why you find it so odd though. Personally I don't have a problem using a widget that displays an account balance. I actually don't because I don't really have a need to currently (I might though at somepoint in the future) but if I did I'd have a screen lock, largely because I have one now.

Your right. No one would ever be able to steal money from someone's bank account, and knowing what the potential pay out would be would never encourage criminals too commit crimes.

 

[fdbryant3]

Your right. No one would ever be able to steal money from someone's bank account, and knowing what the potential pay out would be would never encourage criminals too commit crimes.

It is risk vs reward. Personally I think the odds that a random person being able to see my phone, looking at my bank account balance, get my bank information, decide to clean me out, and being able to succesfully be able to do so to be pretty remote. On the other hand the benefit of having your current balance easily available to you to perhaps make sure you don't spend to much to be very valuable. Obviously you feel differently but to each their own.

 

[euph_22]

It is risk vs reward. Personally I think the odds that a random person being able to see my phone, looking at my bank account balance, get my bank information, decide to clean me out, and being able to succesfully be able to do so to be pretty remote. On the other hand the benefit of having your current balance easily available to you to perhaps make sure you don't spend to much to be very valuable. Obviously you feel differently but to each their own.

So to you, the increased risk (albeit slight) that you will be robbed of every dime you have or the, much more likely scenario, that somebody who would just rob a small amount from you would instead clean out your account is worth accepting simply so you can avoid having to enter a 4 digit PIN? Seriously?

The question isn't whether you have you're account balance readily available to you, it's whether you should have that password/PIN protected or sitting out for anybody passing by to see. Suck it up and use a pin, there is no reason not to and absolutely not worth the risk.

 

[sohguanh]

Even if you want to show bank balance in a convenient way, the bank itself may refuse to provide an API to let third party apps get the balance and display it. Most likely the bank itself will release their own secure Android app to show the balance. This is logical for security reasons.

 

[!on]

To echo what's been said, not secure.

However, some banks have internet banking, mine sends me a text at my specified time that shows balance (well, it's a micro statement showing recent transactions, but without detail). On an android that appears in the notification bar also.

I have internet banking in my browser. It has auto-fill of my user & password*, but not my other credentials (third step is memorable info). It's only a few steps.

(* sure it's not the best idea to allow auto-fill of banking passwords on my phone but I do so at my own risk & it still needs a third step, which auto-fill does not save, that is memorable info, that no-one knows).