Yodlee MoneyCenter - Keep Track of Your Finances

**frugalityisgood** · 10-19-2007, 07:13 AM

I am not affiliated nor do I work for Yodlee, Inc.

I just want to recommend a site I've been using for 9 years. The site is called Yodlee MoneyCenter. It allows me to view the balances of all my checking, savings, credit cards, and utility bills on one page. It also can easily calculate networth and my favorite feature is it categories spending into a nice pie chart with percentages. It breaks down by category where I've spent my money and how much. Makes it very easy for me to know where I'm spending to much money, usually gas, driving to see my parents.

Plus what's really great is because I've been using it for 9 years. I can get a long-term view of my spending habits.

It's of course a free service.

Their clients is a whos who list of all the top banking firms.
Citigroup, Bank Of America, E-Trade, HSBC, Smith Barney, T.Rowe.Price, JPMorganChase, Charles Schwab.

You can check their site out at Yodlee.com

I'm not going to post any clickable links here. I'll post the full URL and you can copy/paste it in the address bar.

https://moneycenter.yodlee.com/

Check out the flash demo
http://corporate.yodlee.com/moneycenter/PFM_demo.htm

You'll need to register and all that. If you are leery about entering your banking login information on a 3rd party site, then this site is not for you.

You'll have to enter all your online banking login info for all your various accounts, to be able to view that account info through their interface.

I defiantly recommend it. Checkout their press release page also.
http://corporate.yodlee.com/company/...oom/index.html

**frugalityisgood** · 10-19-2007, 07:18 AM

I didn't realize the links would automatically be clickable.

**sdrjeolsen** · 10-19-2007, 11:53 AM

Thanks, I heard a radio spot for it and thought it was yogalie...couldn't find it on google anywhere. I spent an hour yesterday searching for it, I want to track my dh's airline miles and hotel points on it. Guess I need to clean my ears, lol.

Thanks for the link.

**frugalityisgood** · 10-20-2007, 03:39 AM

**chatterweb** · 10-20-2007, 03:45 AM

My concerns are:

1: If your accounts are hacked, you are toast.

2. If they start charging fees, you have been relying on the service, and...now pay a fee to pay bills??

I appreciate any replies on my 2 concerns about Yodlee.

**frugalityisgood** · 10-20-2007, 06:46 AM

In short, Yodlee uses advanced standard security measures implemented by major online banks. A further lengthy explanation of these security measures are below. The chance of a random stranger hacking your account is very slim. I'll write a post later detailing how someone could hack your account.

I expect if Yodlee ever decides to charge for it's service, they will simply grandfather present users in and will only charge new users a fee.

I don't use them for bill paying because my utility companies (Duke Energy and Vectren Gas) aren't available unfortunately.

The security measures Yodlee implements are very strong.

The Username:
Must have at least 6 characters (with letters and numbers) and no special characters

The Password:
Must be at least 6 characters long and contain at least one letter and at least one number or symbol.

Then there are the 3 security questions you select and enter your answer for.
Examples: What was the name of your first girlfriend/boyfriend?
What was the name of your first pet?
In What City Was Your Mother Born?
etc.....

There's several other questions that's pretty much impossible for anyone to know except for you and maybe family members.

Then you must choose a
Yodlee SiteVerify Image and Secret Pass Phrase

What this does is show you that you are indeed on the Yodlee site and not on
a phishing site. If the SiteVerify Image you selected and the Pass Phrase does not show up on the next page after entering your username. You know the site is a fake and you should not enter your password. A phishing/hacking site will not be able load the image and pass phrase you selected. So if the image and pass phrase you selected is not showing up, you know the site is a fake.

This prevents people from being tricked into entering their login information into a bogus site.

Let's say someone hacks your email account. They see you have email from Yodlee. Say for example your email is frugalityisgood@yahoo.com. They think I'm going to try entering frugalityisgood as the username and what do you know it works.

But Yodlee has another security feature. Anytime you or anyone else tries to access your account from a different different computer. It will require you to answer your security questions. So this hacker will then have to answer one of the 3 security questions you chose. This is where most hackers give up. Because a complete stranger is not going to know what city your mother is born.

Let's say it's someone close to you that's hacking your account. They answer the question right. Then they have to enter the correct password. You chose to create a really good password. So they use the forgotten password tool. But this is where you were really smart. You chose to use a different email address, then the one they hacked. It's impossible for them to know this email address, so there's no way they could ever reset your password.

But let's say you used the same email account for registering on Yodlee, as you the one they hacked. They use the forgotten password tool. They get the email from Yodlee and click the link in it to reset the password. The only problem is, they have to answer one of the security questions before they can reset your password. :-)

They guess the answer and reset your password for Yodlee. They go one step further and change your email account password, so you are locked out of your email account.

Well the trouble is they can't really do anything. Because the actual passwords for the banking accounts are not visible, they all are starred out.

Originally Posted by chatterweb

My concerns are:

1: If your accounts are hacked, you are toast.

2. If they start charging fees, you have been relying on the service, and...now pay a fee to pay bills??

I appreciate any replies on my 2 concerns about Yodlee.

**SammiesMammie** · 10-20-2007, 08:21 AM

I LOVE Yodlee!!!

It makes my life soooo much easier. And as far as the security of the site..I am not concerned at all, in fact, my DH has a hard time getting into the account if I clear the cookies and cache on our computer (..I ALWAYS do this after I visit my online accounts, don't know why? But it makes me feel better..might be OCD??) But as stated above, you have to answer "VERY" personal questions to get in, plus a sitekey and phase, then the password. I used to use MMoney, but this is so much easier, and I like the fact that you can track points programs with it also.

Great Post!! Great Tool!!