Feature2 min read
Why Nodu reads your statements instead of your bank login
Nodu never asks for your banking password. You send it your statements, and it reads them. Here's why we built it that way, and what it means for your household.
By Simon Canil, updated
In short
Nodu never asks for your banking password and has nowhere to keep one. You send it the statements your bank already gives you, and it reads them. It can't move money, and it tells you how current each account is.
Some money apps ask for your online banking password so they can log in as you. Nodu never does. You send it your statements, and it reads them. Here's why we built it that way, and what it means for your household.
Your password stays yours#
Your banking password is the key to your money, and your bank tells you never to share it. We agree. Nodu never asks for it and has no field for it anywhere.
If someone types one into the chat anyway, Nodu won't repeat it back, and it'll ask them not to share it. The message stays in the chat, so please leave passwords out.
What a statement gives Nodu#
A statement is a record your bank already gives you: every transaction, the balance, the fees and the interest. Download it from your bank's app or website as a CSV or a PDF, send it to Nodu to read.
From a few months of statements, Nodu can see:
- the bills and subscriptions that come round each month, and when one goes up
- fees you might not have noticed
- a tight week coming, before it arrives
- how far along a goal is
Nodu keeps each account's BSB and its last 4 digits, and cuts long numbers in transaction descriptions to their last 4 too.
What Nodu can't do#
Reading a statement is only reading. Nodu has no way to pay, transfer or change anything at your bank, because it never has the keys. When Nodu starts doing things for you, nothing will happen without your OK, and above a limit ($500 for now) it will need both of you.
The trade-off#
A statement is only as current as the last one you sent. So Nodu tells you how current each account is, and asks for the next statement when it would help, saying why.
Bank feeds, later#
Later, you'll be able to switch on a bank feed through the Consumer Data Right, Australia's official system for sharing your bank data with a service you choose. You'd agree to it on your bank's own pages, not Nodu's, and the feed only reads. Nodu still wouldn't see your password.
Until then, statements do the job. You can see what Nodu keeps, and how to download or delete it, on our privacy page.
Keep reading
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How Nodu keeps each household's money data apart
One household can never read another's information, because the database refuses it. This is how that works, with each household's own encryption key and the limits written into Nodu's code.
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What Nodu keeps about your household, and what it never asks for
The figures Nodu keeps so it can look ahead, what it never asks for, how long statement files stay, and how to see, download or delete your records.
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Seeing a tight week before it arrives
Nodu looks 90 days ahead at your bills and your pay. When a week will run short, it tells you, with the bill and the payday behind it.
Nodu reads the statements, so you don’t have to.
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