Looking for an alternative to Wesabe? We’re begun posting reviews of the main options. Check out the reviews so far in the Reviews section.
Wesabe has announced it is to close on 31st July 2010. The forums will be taken on by a customer and continue in some form (more on that later).
It’s sad news, as Wesabe was one of the few financial management websites to support non-US users – UK and Canada in particular. This blog was first created in response to Nationwide bank ending of support for Wesabe (via their Microsoft Money data feed).
The reason given by Wesabe is (ironically) lack of financial support. Its recent attempts to create a platform for banks to outsource their Internet banking functions can’t have raised the money Wesabe hoped for, and there didn’t appear to be any other income outside of investment partners.
The Wesabe forum will live on through a customer, but in recent months it became unmanaged so major changes will be needed if this area isn’t soon to become a dead end for people seeking financial help.
Wesabe offered a great service with forward-thinking features that benefitted the customer first. We’d like to say thanks to Marc and the team for everything they achieved. This blog will continue with a broader goal of looking into all financial management services and offering tips to consumers.
I was personally a Wesabe customer so this closure will trigger a renewed search for the best financial management service for UK consumers. Recent launches from Lovemoney and Money Dashboard are first on the list, but leave a comment if you know of others.
EDIT: Comments left here and on Wesabe Group have suggested Money Streams and Yodlee as other alternatives
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve swapped to Yodlee. http://www.yodlee.com/
Early days yet but very sad about Wesabe.
Thanks for the comment Stuart. I’ll update the post with that as a suggestion.
I’m gutted its closing down, its been such a strong service. So there are a few places we can go – any recommendations or reviews?
Hi Ben – options people are discussing so far include Money Dashboard, Lovemoney, Yodlee and Money Streams amongst others. I’ve already tested Lovemoney and will write a short review this week, and intend to do the rest too – well ahead of the July closing date. If you try them yourself, come back and tell us how you fared – or wait for the reviews to compare the features.
Hi All, I like LoveMoney – but I don’t like the security risk with Yodlee.
Make sure you all fully realise…
You are: 1. licensing Yodlee to use your passwords as they see fit to provide Lovemoneys service, and 2. granting Yodlee power of attorney!
And that 3. Any security breaches that cause you loss – will be your fault.
from the T’s and C’s
1.
“You are licensing to lovemoney.com ltd and its service providers, including Yodlee, Inc. (“Yodlee”), any information, data, passwords, materials or other content ….”
2.
“For all purposes hereof, you hereby grant lovemoney.com ltd and Yodlee a limited power of attorney, and you hereby appoint lovemoney.com ltd and Yodlee as your true and lawful attorney-in-fact and agent…”
3.”YOU AGREE THAT NEITHER LOVEMONEY.COM LTD OR YODLEE NOR ANY OF THEIR AFFILIATES, ACCOUNT PROVIDERS OR ANY OF THEIR AFFILIATES WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY HARMS, … DAMAGES… RESULTING FROM: … ANY BREACH OF THE SERVICE’S SECURITY MEASURES”
Pretty scary stuff (this is the same with MoneyDashboard) – at least Wesabes uploader model provided better protection.
There’s always pearbudget.com but there is no automatic uploading or anything like the functionality of Websabe and it costs money. Personally I would have been prepared to have become a paid suscriber to Wesabe.
Dan – very good point, and it’s something that’s not made very clear during the registration process. I’ll take a look at that area for all the alternatives, to see how each tackles it.
I’d recommend checking out GreenSherpa. They actually just announced that they have a CSV importers for Wesabe users to transfer their financial data which is cool.
http://blog.greensherpa.com/index.php/other/greensherpa-welcomes-wesabe-users/
If the search is on for a replacement of Wesabe, and a desktop offering is a considered opinion, the the Microsoft Money Sunset Edition beat all these other offerings (IMHO). The only drawback in the sunset edition is the lack of direct downloads (which afflicts many of the other alternatives listed here, if not by their terms of usage / service)
Thus, Microsoft Money Sunset Edition gets the vote