Wesabe makes your online banking interface look like a baby-hating seal-clubber
Posted by Brent Dixon on July 26th, 2007
One of the running jokes, but undeniable truths, that surfaced at BarCampBankSeattle was that you could tack ”...and that’s why Wesabe is brilliant” to the end of any conversation point, and it would be relevant.
Yesterday, Wesabe launched their new Firefox extension. The extension completely automates the download-from-your-bank/upload-to-wesabe process, no matter who you bank with. From Marc’s post on Wesabe’s blog:
The Firefox Uploader is an extension for Firefox 2.0 or later, which makes it trivially easy to automate downloads from your bank or credit card, whether or not your bank makes that easy for you to do. If your bank doesn’t already provide automated downloads, you can record a download session once, and the Firefox Uploader will then play your recording back automatically for you from then on. And, you still get all of the benefits of the original desktop Uploader — you don’t have to give Wesabe your bank passwords or account numbers, which remain safe on your own computer.
As Wired points out, this makes the financial-management side of your credit union’s banking interface somewhat irrelevant (I was alerted of this article via Wesabe’s Twitter, by the way):
Since the vast, vast majority of banking sites are antiquated pieces of crap, this effectively means you can stop using them. For instance, I have a credit card at a bank that insists I use Internet Explorer despite the fact the it isn’t even offered on the OS I use. After adding the account to Wesabe, there’s no need to worry I can track my money the way I want to, not the way the bank wants me to.
Wired’s point makes me really excited. Now, except to pay bills (which happens automatically anyway) and transfer funds, I will rarely need to log in to my online banking. Essentially, my banking interface is now Wesabe, which means my banking interface just got tricked out.
So does this mean that Wesabe : Transactions :: RSS : Web Content? Will this change the way banks will approach their online banking interfaces in the future?
Also, check out Jim Bruene’s post on netbanker covering their new e-commerce image-capture functionality, another benefit of the extension.
Finally, for those of you who skip the pesky “words” in blog posts in favor of pretty pictures and video (like me), here’s a YouTube clip explaining the tasty new goods:
...and that’s why Wesabe is brilliant.
Brent – just think if this is just the start of what we are going to see in banking interfaces!
Gene – Right on. And that thought puts a big fat smile on my face.
Wesabe is great and I think the best part is the goal tracking and the social elements.
Once again, when social opportunities present themselves in the financial arena – credit unions need to take the concept and run with it. This is good stuff!
@Gene …. dead on!!
Besides being about Wesabe (of which I am also a fan), your title for this post made me stop in my tracks! Hillarious.
To the point: any player (like Wesabe) that raises the bar for our industry is a good thing. Sorry I missed you guys at BarCampBank. Next time.
What a headline! Brent, all that Twitter practice must be paying off.
This is one more piece of the user revolution taking place that credit unions need to be aware of and ultimately embrace. It reminds me a lot of the technology wars and how things can just creep up and take over.
A few years ago all the talk was about Microsoft versus Linux versus Apple then all of a sudden all the momentum shifts to Google—a fresh young start-up who made things easy and useful.
That’s a lot better than hard and useless. Credit unions have two options: embrace Wesabe or stick your head in the sand and ignore it.
Brent,
But what are you trying to say? Just kidding! I laughed out loud (in a public place) when I read the title of this post. You should be in PR.
I was just on my credit union’s banking site – now it feels like I’m in K-Mart. Yuk. I have to go take a shower…...and that’s why Wesabe is brilliant.
Brent: excellent points. I’m going to futz around with Wesabe over the weekend….I didn’t mention to the group that I have been using online banking in some form or other since 1996 (early adopter).
Denise: My primary CU’s online banking is slightly better than yours – pretty good for the year 2002.
Ed @ Wells Fargo: indeed, you would have found BarCampBank a memorable experience. For such a huge organization, Wells Fargo is showing a lot of commitment to innovation – not only through social media, but product strategies which are not “same old, same old” me-too formula marketing (i.e. 100 commission-free stock trades ANNUALLY for PMA WellsTrade accounts). As of this writing, no credit union or mainstream stock broker (except BofA) is meeting or beating that kind of deal.
Wesabe is brilliant – no doubt I will be using it shortly as my CU’s online banking interface has about 4 different logon steps which drive me completely crazy (I know it’s for my own security…but still).
On a somewhat related note, has anyone checked out Kiva.org? Just read about them…very cool! An innovative spin on peer-to-peer lending.
People helping people…help themselves.
Wesabe has it figured out, but this isn’t new, just better implemented than the old-school financial tracking tools (MS Money, Quicken) that used proprietary methods to grab your information and then charged you buckets to upgrade each year. Will a similar “I can’t do without this tool” revenue model sneaks in on Wesabe? Time will only tell. I sure hope not.