My OperaTracking debit transactions (better management of online banking)
By Eddieelcid73. Friday, November 18, 2005 2:45:46 PM
I would like an easy, efficient means of tracking where my money is going.
I've tried to use MS Money and other assorted freeware/shareware apps. By their nature, they all have the same problem. They require me to sit down after the fact by my computer and log it. This would normally not be too much of a problem, except that the listings that come up from my bank are mostly not reasonable. If you see the business name, you are lucky. More often, I get an address that shows up and I have to cross reference with the receipt to find out what that purchase actually was.
The problem I think is that we need a bank that will support this notion of budget tracking. If the bank was on board, we could look into immediate (ie-at the time of purchase) categorization of our purchases. There are two ways this would work:
Of course, this sounds unreasonable, barrier of entry is impossible, no way this would work, etc... but how about something simple? Like say- you can append to the end of your debit PIN number a 1 or 2 digit "extension" that tells the bank how to categorize it? The existing ATM/Debit infrastructure would need no change, just a bank willing to do this. Again- the user would be able to opt (opt out by default) into this of course. To further help- the bank could issue a debit card that has the prefixes printed on it (like "3 = Gas") instead of the eagle or Statue of Liberty or whatever.
I guess I'm proposing that our bank start integrating MS Money like features into it's online banking experience. Maybe some do, I'd love to hear who does. And I realize I'm probably not using MS Money to the full power- like I believe I can get the account listing to show "Gas station on 2nd St" instead of "INTAST-MEBB2 2ndST" or some garbage. But that UI for Money is VERY much a PITA to get used.
I've tried to use MS Money and other assorted freeware/shareware apps. By their nature, they all have the same problem. They require me to sit down after the fact by my computer and log it. This would normally not be too much of a problem, except that the listings that come up from my bank are mostly not reasonable. If you see the business name, you are lucky. More often, I get an address that shows up and I have to cross reference with the receipt to find out what that purchase actually was.
The problem I think is that we need a bank that will support this notion of budget tracking. If the bank was on board, we could look into immediate (ie-at the time of purchase) categorization of our purchases. There are two ways this would work:
- User sets up (through online banking) frequently used purchases and matches them to the appropriate budget area. For instance- User normally gets gas at one of four stations- so anytime these four purchases show up- they are categorized as "gas" -changable of course in case you just bought a soda there or something. Also note- the user would set this up, the bank wouldn't try to assume it since that I think that would make the tin-foil hat brigade to start arming.
- The other way is to have a user definable action at the time of purchase. This would be something like- as you buy your groceries, you swipe your card and somehow indicate at the time of purchase that this is a "groceries" budget item.
Of course, this sounds unreasonable, barrier of entry is impossible, no way this would work, etc... but how about something simple? Like say- you can append to the end of your debit PIN number a 1 or 2 digit "extension" that tells the bank how to categorize it? The existing ATM/Debit infrastructure would need no change, just a bank willing to do this. Again- the user would be able to opt (opt out by default) into this of course. To further help- the bank could issue a debit card that has the prefixes printed on it (like "3 = Gas") instead of the eagle or Statue of Liberty or whatever.
I guess I'm proposing that our bank start integrating MS Money like features into it's online banking experience. Maybe some do, I'd love to hear who does. And I realize I'm probably not using MS Money to the full power- like I believe I can get the account listing to show "Gas station on 2nd St" instead of "INTAST-MEBB2 2ndST" or some garbage. But that UI for Money is VERY much a PITA to get used.
Anonymous # Monday, January 30, 2006 10:43:18 PM
Kenneth Maagekmaage # Wednesday, July 19, 2006 3:06:23 PM
How about something like a latch that won't allow you to open your wallet unless you press one of your budget keys. (forcing function)
The wallet stores a timestamp with the budget code.
Anytime you get near enough to your PC, the wallet transmits it's data. Now your PC can match up your downloaded bank transactions with budget entries.
Or convergence: A programmable magnetic stripe device on your mobile phone/wallet. You select which card you want to emulate using your phone's keypad. Just don't lose your phone...
Eddieelcid73 # Thursday, July 20, 2006 5:46:58 PM
Your second idea reminds me of those PDA/Smartphone budgetting applications. They are nice I guess, but soo poorly usabale and non-integrated that they defeat themselves. We need an experience that is as seemless as the whole iTunes/music store/iPod thing.
Here's my brainstorming on an ideal user experience that uses my cell phone...
1)I walk up the the register with my items.
2)I insert my debt or credit card and purchase as normal
3)As the cashier handles my transaction, I flip open my cell phone-
4)With 1 click/menu selection/button push I can do one of these three things
4a)enter a total price, decimals are filled in for me.
4b)select from budget items
4c)Create a new budget item
ideally, each could be done independently of each other, but at least the first two should be able to be done independently, ie- I could do either one first. The third I would imagine is rare and probably not really necessary (a "misc" or "uknown" could be used at the time, you could catagorize it later.. the bulk of your budget categories are going to be already defined)
5)Store the transaction on my phone.
6)Whenever my phone gets near my computer, this is sync'd.
7)This is ultimately matched up against my bank transactions.