Hiya, I am looking into a few different services to better manage my finances, among the highest recommended ones there is ActualBudget. Actualbugdet itself is opensource and private, however, to get the most out of this service you may connect it to your bank, via a third party service. Has anyone here actually done this? The service (for EU folks) is called GoCardless. This however, to me is ringing many alarms…

Here is the screenshot showing the message before connecting to my bank…

Here GoCardless’s list of partners/suppliers:

https://assets.ctfassets.net/40w0m41bmydz/6Mg3PGztGEQh11N3MNRmYc/1f186cf883151ca04b9c71c23b5ee4d3/GoCardless_material_supplier_list_v2024.09.pdf

I assume there is no private alternative that allows you to connect to your bank into AcualBudget or another service, if so please let me know! Managing finances would be so much more convenient if it all was automatically synced into a self-hosted service.

Let me know how you manage your finances :)

  • tuxec@infosec.pubEnglish
    15·
    2 months ago

    Hi,

    I’m using Actual Budget and I connected my company’s bank account (wich is on someone’s name) with it to sync all transactions.

    From a privacy perspective, I share your concerns. This was the reason I haven’t connected any of my personal accounts.

    The sync in itself is useful, but if you’re making a routine to add an entry in Actual everytime you’re making a purchase, you’ll get the most of it without trading your privacy.

    • theorangeninja@lemmy.todayEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      I have a question regarding Actual. Is there a possibility to split bills like splitwise or tricount is doing it?

      • tuxec@infosec.pubEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        I’m not familiar with any of those two, but yes, you can add split transactions.

  • ShortN0te@lemmy.mlEnglish
    111·
    2 months ago

    I just set it up. Yes i dislike the fact, that you need another party for syncing it, but i doubt it would be possible otherwise, just too much work to support everyone.

    I read up on GoCardless and they do not sound that evil

    But not sure if i will keep the connection up. Will see i guess.

  • subtext@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    2 months ago

    It doesn’t help our friends in the EU, but I’m hopeful that the CFPB’s “Open Banking” rules might actually make it possible to do this with an open source product with OAuth and common APIs rather than these aggregators that are just web scraping your bank.

  • abeorch@lemmy.mlEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    I have a friend that uses the Go Cardless for importing data into FireFlyIII for several months now (May at least six) https://docs.firefly-iii.org/tutorials/data-importer/gocardless/ - Happy to put you in touch if you want to talk to them. - I’d actually like to find a UK Credit Union that would support data import for Selfhosted people. I think there would a really good fit. I’m also on day one of using YunoHost to spin up self hosted applications (Today on a VPS tomorrow on my local RaspberryPi ) I might fire up an instance of Actual.

    I’d love to know how many people use Actual / Firefly to demonstrate that there would be interest for a Credit Union to look at offering such a service.

  • buediEnglish
    4·
    2 months ago

    I use Hibiscus for all my banking needs.Makes a direct connection to my bank. Will get you the link if there is interest when I am back home.

      • buediEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        I am very sorry, as I have just realized that it is only available in a single Language: German. I fear the chances are pretty low that it is of use for you, but maybe for the other German around here in the Fediverse… https://www.willuhn.de

      • buediEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        I posted it yesterday, but just in case we are facing some Fediverse cross-instance sync issue, here is what I posted. Sorry again if this is not for you then :-( Quote: I am very sorry, as I have just realized that it is only available in a single Language: German. I fear the chances are pretty low that it is of use for you, but maybe for the other German around here in the Fediverse… https://www.willuhn.de

  • Shimitar@feddit.itEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    I do. I find it very useful.

    Is it safe? No idea, but its read only, so seems that they cannot operate on your bank account in any case. That feels safe enough for me.

    • Sips'@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      I’m more afraid of them reading about each transaction and selling that information forwards to their partners…