Hi all!
Hope everyone is doing well in the current situation
I’m looking for an open baking aggregator!
However I’ve got a few questions…
Aside from being able to see all accounts in one place, what benefits does an aggregator give you that Monzo won’t already?
How do these services make money? I think it’s fair that I have a bit of skepticism given that they tend to be free?
Which ones do you like the best? I’ve heard of Snoop and Emma but that’s my limit!
I hope you can help! 
I’ve tried using Yolt and Emma last year, but didn’t really get on with them. Apart from a slight feeling of unease with sharing my data, neither of them seemed up to the job they promised to do. Consequently, I haven’t really bothered with them since.
They have similar spending analytics and budgeting features to Monzo. If Monzo was my only account I wouldn’t bother with an aggregator. But if you also also use other accounts you may find it useful to have an overview of all accounts in a single app and have features such as spending tracking and budgeting encompassing all your accounts collectively.
Some use freemium models, charging for additional features not available in free version. Some have in-app referrals and utility switching and earn commission on these.
I’ve taken a look at Emma, Yolt, MoneyHub, Money Dashboard, Bankin, Spendee and Snoop. Of these Emma is my favourite and its the only one I’ve used continuosly since I started looking at account aggregation apps in mid 2018. I occasionally go back and look at the others but have stuck with Emma.
You may find this thread useful -
Just had a look at that, Emma seems to be a clear favourite! Might give it a go.
I’ve got 2 accounts at the moment, 1 Monzo and 1 Barclays and will probs be getting a student account soon too so I think it makes sense to get an aggregator.
I suspected that might be the case with the funding of it, I’m guessing the FCA block any data selling?
Thanks for the help @o99
I know what you mean about the data, I’ve only begun to really notice since the cookie options started coming up after Gdpr was implemented.
If you don’t mind me asking, is Monzo your only account or do you have others?
Thanks for the help!
Most of the companies that provide account aggregation services would be registered with the FCA as account information service providers (AISPs). I don’t know what rules they need to do abide by to gain and retain this status, but there’s some basic information about AISPs here
Perhaps some more detailed information can be found with a deeper search of the FCA website.
Ahh I see,
Looks like it’s down to the AISP’s then!
I’m pretty sure they have to make any data they share anonymous anyway so I comfortable with that.
Looking around Emma the only premium feature I’d want would be converting to CSV but I’m quite happy to do that manually anyway through a MiData export
I’m hoping Money in Excel (a new Microsoft 365 feature) will eventually be available in UK
Yes, I’ve seen that! I think it wiill being as our banking infrastructure should be quite well set up for it!
I’ve hardly used Monzo at all since the middle of March. There are a few reasons, as I’ve said elsewhere in the forum.
But I have three other current accounts, one for the interest (which I’ll be reviewing soon with a view to getting a switching bonus from), one for interest and cashback on bills, and a packaged account for insurance etc. My day to day spending is on a credit card for cashback.
Ahh I see,
You more of a spreadsheeter than an aggregator then? 
Very much so. I’ve yet to come across an automated service which gives me the flexibility of a do it yourself spreadsheet.
I’m waiting for one of them to connect with either Freetrade or Trading 212.
As soon as one of them does, I’m in!
I find a combination of the two helpful.
I manually update a spreadsheet at the start of each month with a snapshot of balances across all my accounts. This is for my long-term monitoring and projections and have my calculations and graphs for this setup just how I like it. Am hoping ‘Money in Excel’ will add some automation to fetching my data.
But also use an aggregator app to keep an eye on day to day transactions across all my accounts and within-month spending tracking and budgeting. Budgeting for me is just limited to knowing how much money is left form my target spend and what committed spends I still have upcoming.
I know what you mean…I think I might try and find a few Excel templates online.
Does Monzo let you export your transaction data or do you have to extract them from the PDF statements or through IFTTT?
Right okay, so you don’t use it at a super granular level then?
I want open banking top up me balance
The aggregator app I use is Emma. I would say I use it mainly as an overview/monitoring tool. My typical usage is as follows:
Every day or two I will take a look at the recent transactions list to check I recognize all recent transactions across my accounts. I will also add notes to any recent transactions I think I might want to have a future recollection of (e.g. out of the ordinary purchases).
Every few days I will also glance at the spending analytics so I am mindful of how much I have been spending in each category. I’ll also correct any categorization mistakes. I’ll also look at upcoming committed spending list and my account balances to remind myself what committed spending I still have in the month and to ensure I have money in the appropriate accounts to cover it.
I set an overall spending budget but I don’t set category spending budgets.
I do my long term balances/wealth monitoring via spreadsheet.
Thank you!
