[dguo]

Very cool. Using email notifications to get transaction data is a nice hack. If you do find yourself wanting a more formal API, check out Plaid (https://plaid.com/). I've never used it myself, but I believe the free plan is enough to get your personal transactions.

[heavenlyblue]

My bank doesn't provide an API. So I just automated a headless browser to log into my account and download the statements.

[tistoon]

May I ask how did you manage the security matters? How do store your PIN/password? Are they encrypted? If the server doing this got hacked what are your protections?

[bronco21016]

This has long been on my todo list. Do you find it breaks often? Or was it kind of a build it, set it, and (mostly) forget it type of project?

[heavenlyblue]

I just need to supply my bank statements to the accountant annualy (bank is TSB). They have a set of rules (less that 150 lines, not more than 3 months) that constrain how you can get the statements, and a 5-step process to open up the UI to download one, then select the dates, etc. You may imagine it's simply error-prone and repetitive.

A few years I didn't even need to change the script. But even when I needed it wasn't something too complex. As long as you constrain the expected behaviour and error early - it works perfectly well.

[graphememes]

Over 18,000 banks provide APIs, what bank do you use? Is it a small credit union?

[Spinosaurus]

> Over 18,000 banks provide APIs

Please consider adding a source for this when you have a moment.

[heavenlyblue]

And how much time would that take me to register my own application to download a few statements instead of using the browser?

My bank is TSB, but at that time there was definitely not even a program to register a developer account with them.