"Michael J. Blazin" <mjbla...@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:tt7Pe.1438$eQ.717@newssvr30.news.prodigy.com...
> I'm not with Yodlee, but it appears many people don't understand the
> service.
> You're not a Yodlee customer, unless you send a payment to them. Your
> bank is. You are the user, not the customer. Your bank buys Yodlee
> services in lieu of developing its own aggregation services/updating
> services. I assume Yodlee offers a wide range of services and your bank
> pays for what it desires or what it can get away with and call it self an
> internet bank. If you don't like the services your bank buys, complain to
> your bank.
> Yodlee is not secretly collecting your data when you go to multiple banks
> yourself and obtain statements either via Yodlee or the bank's internal
> service, e.g. using MS Money. The "data mining" occurs when you go to one
> bank's page and start using that bank's aggregation services, typically
> provided by Yodlee. Because your using its page to collect info from
> other institutions, you've given your bank access to that info. That's
> the law. Yodlee then chews on that info and reports it back to your
> aggregating bank for a fee. If you don't want your bank to know about
> other banks' accounts, don't use the aggregating services of that bank.
> The Product Manager normally looks for Voice of the Customer via his
> customers, i.e., the banks. Heretofore, he relied on the banks to get
> info from their customers, e.g. you, on service usage. He's made an
> attempt to get the info direct from the source.
I understand how Yodlee works and I believe that you may have misunderstood
my complaint which is twofold:
First, I don't like the idea that a 3rd party aggregator might come between
me and my FIs. That cannot be a positive development. And I fully
understand that I am not a Yodlee customer but therein lies the problem.
Yodlee is in bed with MSFT and the FIs and therefore does not have my best
interests at heart. Why would I (or anybody else) want a 3rd party who
represents the other side of the business relationship coming between me and
my bank or broker. I don't want my bank or broker paying Yodlee to figure
out ways of squeezing more money out of me. I want my banks/brokers to
spend their money and time developing better services at lower cost, not
cavorting with crafty 3rd party aggregators who promise increased profits by
milking customers (me) for all they are worth!!
Second, I don't like the fact than MSFT is spending time on 3rd party
integration with Money. Money is supposed to be a personal finance program
and that is exactly what I want. We need the accounting and reporting
functions in Money perfected which is not true at this point. Money is
still bug ridden and incomplete in terms of its basic accounting and
reporting functions and MSFT should address those issues first. After Money
is a completed personal finance program, MSFT can add more functionality and
sell that package as a separate program to those who want supplemental
services and hand holding . I am not one of those people and prefer a DYI
approach.
There is another significant factor to consider. Yodlee exists only because
banks/brokers currently refuse to adopt a uniform method of transferring
data to financial software. I feel that we (us folks out here in the
trenches) should demand that the financial services industry adopt uniform
data transfer standards so everybody can easily connect to and exchange data
with our FIs whoever they may be using whatever financial software we like.
We don't need Yodlee, we need better service from our FIs and MSFT. Unless
I am missing something really obvious, Yodlee at best gives us something our
FIs should be giving us for free as a matter of decent customer service. As
a bank or brokerage customer I am absolutely entitled to immediate access to
transaction information relating to my accounts. I want that information
via the internet; in fact, I want it in real time . Traditionally FIs sent
us paper statements which are very expensive to produce and slow to arrive.
The internet makes the task of delivering transaction data to customers
cheaper and faster but many banks/brokers have done little to exploit that
advantage and none provide real time transaction data to customers. I am
more than willing to pay MSFT for good software that allows me to access my
FIs data and services but I don't want to be married to MSFT by mandatory
upgrades. The painful fact is that current "upgrades" of Money stink and if
MSFT forces mandatory upgrades down our throats by cutting off convenient
internet access to our FIs, they will have even less incentive to make the
program better. As it now stands MSFT is trying to morph Money into a cash
machine using the threat of loosing convenient downloads instead of inducing
repeat purchases with better software.
Bottom line is that I see Yodlee as a sign of bad things to come. We should
protest by not upgrading to Money 2006, not using Yodlee and demanding that
our banks/brokers get organized and give us convenient standardized access
to our financial data over the internet. That is our right and we need to
speak out.
Regards
Bill Wood
Fountain Hills, AZ
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