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Canadian budgeting apps that don't use Plaid

May 25, 2024

In recent years, Canadians have increasingly turned to budgeting apps and personal finance tools to help manage their money more effectively. These apps promise to consolidate all financial accounts into one unified view, provide valuable insights, and automate tedious expense tracking. However, many Canadians now find that their favorite finance apps no longer support their banks or have limited connectivity, leading to frustration and inconvenience.

The Root of the Issue: Data Aggregators

The heart of the problem lies with the third-party data aggregators that most budgeting apps rely on to establish connections with various financial institutions. These aggregators serve as intermediaries, pulling account data from banks and feeding it into finance apps. In Canada, data aggregators have long struggled with the reliability and stability of bank integrations due to the complex web of financial institutions.

Aggregators frequently encounter connection breakdowns as banks update their online platforms, modify authentication methods, or implement new security measures. Every change requires aggregators to adjust their integration techniques, leading to service disruptions for app users.

Due to these technical challenges, many prominent budgeting apps have been forced to scale back their support for Canadian banks, with some even withdrawing from the Canadian market entirely. This leaves users in a difficult position, as they invest time and effort into setting up a budgeting app, only to have the bank integration suddenly break, resulting in an incomplete financial picture.

Harnessing Bank Alerts

Fortunately, a new generation of budgeting apps, like Skwad, is entirely bypassing the unreliable data aggregator model. Skwad pioneers a better approach that fully supports Canadian banks without direct integration requirements. Instead of relying on fragile bank connections, Skwad harnesses the power of your existing bank alerts and notifications, automatically parsing and categorizing your transactions from the alerts you already receive.

Skwad's algorithms securely monitor your dedicated Skwad scan inbox, identifying and extracting relevant financial data from your bank alerts, like transaction details, merchant names, amounts, and dates, which are then categorized and added to your Skwad account. With this approach, Skwad provides Canadians with a seamless, real-time financial feed without requiring direct bank integration.

By using Skwad, Canadians enjoy the benefits of a budgeting app without connecting directly to their bank accounts or sharing sensitive login credentials. Their financial data remains private and secure, providing peace of mind. Skwad's stable and reliable solution isn't at the mercy of data aggregators or fickle bank integrations, ensuring Canadians always have access to their financial information.

Skwad is Here to Stay

As traditional budgeting apps increasingly abandon the Canadian market, Skwad remains committed to providing Canadians with a robust, reliable, and secure personal finance management solution.

If you're tired of unreliable bank syncing and value true data privacy, try Skwad today and experience the future of budgeting apps in Canada.

Get a better understanding of your finances today.

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