That said, we’d still want to expire the token after, say, a month. And that would require the user to re-authenticate.

Thanks
Matt

We actually already use something like OAuth (specifically, Google’s AuthSub) for our Google Spreadsheet Export feature. You can see a video of how it works here:

I think that, were banks to support OAuth or something similar, a very similar process would work well.

Cheers
Matt

We’ve been going from the most-used banks down, and so far we haven’t reached UK banks, so no. If you want automated upload from a UK bank, I’d highly recommend our Firefox extension for now:

https://www.wesabe.com/page/firefox

You can use it to record a download once and play it back every six hours from then on. It doesn’t work with every bank, but it does work with nearly every one, and we have many UK users happy with it.

We will definitely get to automating UK banks — not sure when, but it’s our third-biggest constituency (after US and Canada), so it’s sure to happen.

Are ANY UK banks serviced by way of the new Auto Uploader? If so, which? If not, why not?

I know the only bank listed in the UK version of M$ Money is Nationwide. Is this also the case for Wesabe?

I was thrilled to have your participation in the initial work on the OAuth spec and would love to support your work with banks and financial institutions however I can. It really is better for everyone to move in this direction; with choice comes competition, and with competition comes improved service and motivation to serve better. That’s something that I think needs to be considered when putting the idea of data interop and portability into perspective.

I definitely agree that the general practice of sharing passwords between services is not the right model for users. That’s why we offered our uploaders in the first place, and that’s why we’re committed to continuing support for them. I also would say that the comment from travis above is very representative of what we hear from people — that they get more value from Wesabe when the process is as easy as possible. We don’t want anyone to feel that they have to compromise ease of use to use our site to manage their money — the whole point is to make things easier all around. So for the users who want auto uploading, I think this feature is a huge benefit.

Chris, thanks much for the comment. As you know (but others might not), we participated in OAuth’s development and we completely agree this is the right model. I haven’t been very public about this, but I’ve been pitching OAuth to all of the biggest banks in the US, with the message that it is better for them and their customers. I’ve gotten very surprisingly positive responses all around. I think at first many banks saw companies like Yodlee as a threat, and tried to lock them out, but more recently, what we see is banks responding positively to the work we’re doing. I don’t know what will come of my efforts to pitch OAuth, but I’ll certainly keep trying.