Always forward, never send direct
Whatever you're syncing, point the alerts at your own inbox first and forward them to Skwad from there. We call it the double hop, and it's how we recommend every Skwad account is set up.
Your bank → your personal email → your Skwad scan address
Typing your scan address straight into your bank's alert settings looks like the shortcut. It costs you more than it saves.
Why the extra hop
Banks write different emails for different domains. Plenty of them send a full alert to the big mailbox providers (Gmail, Outlook, iCloud) and a stripped-down one to everything else. Your scan address lives on scan.skwad.app, so a bank doing this sends you the thin version, and the merchant or the last four never arrives. RBC is the example Skwaddies report most: every transaction on the account lands as "RBC Royal Bank" instead of the store you actually paid.
You keep the original. When a transaction doesn't show up, you can open the alert in your inbox and see exactly what the bank sent. Alerts that go straight to Skwad are deleted after 24 hours, so there's nothing left to check.
One place to change things. Filters live in your inbox, not spread across every bank's alert settings. Adding an account, tightening a filter, or pausing forwarding while you travel is one edit.
Your scan address stays private. Only your inbox knows it. If you ever rotate it, you update one forwarding rule instead of logging into six banks.
Signs you're sending direct
| What you see in Skwad | What it means |
|---|---|
| Every transaction carries your bank's name as the merchant | The alert arrived without a merchant |
| Transactions land in an unknown account | The alert arrived without a last four |
| Amounts are right, everything else is vague | Your bank sent the stripped-down alert |
Setting it up
- In your bank's alert settings, set the destination to your personal email address, the one you already read.
- Set up a forwarding rule in that inbox that sends bank alerts to your scan address. We have guides for Gmail, Outlook, Proton Mail, and iCloud.
- Filter the rule by sender or subject so you're forwarding alerts and nothing else. Popular Institutions lists the sender addresses for common banks.
New alerts arrive with the merchant intact. Transactions already in Skwad keep the merchant they came in with, so rename or recategorize those by hand.
Change the destination at the bank rather than adding a forwarding rule on top of it. If the bank keeps sending to Skwad and your inbox forwards the same alert, you'll get two of every transaction. See managing duplicates.
FAQ
My merchants are all wrong. Will forwarding fix the old ones?
No. Skwad keeps what the alert contained at the time. Forwarding fixes everything from here on. For the old ones, edit the merchant on the transaction, or use an automation to rename them in bulk.
Which banks send a thinner alert?
RBC is the one Skwaddies report most, and it isn't alone. Rather than track which banks do it, forward everything. If your alerts are arriving thin and forwarding fixes it, tell us which bank. We keep track.
I use Gmail. Do I need forwarding rules?
You can use either. Gmail Integration connects your inbox to Skwad and skips the forwarding rule, but the first hop still matters: your bank should be sending its alerts to Gmail, not to your scan address.
Is there ever a reason to send direct?
Rarely. If a service won't let you change the alert destination, or you want a shared bill going to Skwad without cluttering your inbox, sending direct works. Check the first few transactions carefully to make sure the merchant and last four are coming through.
Need help?
Not sure how your alerts are set up? Send us one at [email protected] and we'll take a look.