Most budget apps connect to your bank through Plaid. We chose a different path: PDF upload. It's more private, works with any bank, and puts you in complete control.
A quick look at what happens when you connect your bank account to a budget app.
Most budget apps use a service called Plaid to connect to your bank. When you sign up, you enter your bank username and password into the app. Plaid acts as a middleman, logging into your bank on your behalf and pulling your transaction data.
This connection is persistent. Plaid maintains ongoing read access to your account so the app can sync new transactions automatically. Your bank credentials pass through a third-party service, and that service retains access until you explicitly revoke it.
Popular apps that use this model include Monarch Money ($99.99/yr), YNAB ($14.99/mo), Rocket Money, Copilot ($10.99/mo), and most other budget trackers on the market. This is not a criticism of these apps. They are well-built products. But the Plaid model is a specific tradeoff: convenience in exchange for ongoing third-party access to your bank account.
Three steps. No bank credentials. Your bank never knows we exist.
Log into your bank, download your monthly statement as a PDF. You already do this for your records. Takes 30 seconds.
Drag and drop your PDF. Our AI reads every transaction, extracts amounts, dates, and vendors in seconds.
Every transaction gets sorted into categories. Low-confidence items are flagged for your review. Then you get dashboards, trends, and insights.
Bank login apps vs. PDF upload. Here is what changes.
| Bank Login Apps | Spend & Invest (PDF) | |
|---|---|---|
| Credentials shared | Yes, bank login | No, nothing |
| Third-party access | Persistent read access | None |
| Works with any bank | No, Plaid-supported only | Yes, any bank with PDFs |
| International banks | Limited | Yes, worldwide |
| Bank knows about app | Yes | No |
| Data control | Syncs continuously | Only what you upload |
| Cost of connection | Often passed to user | Free |
| Security risk | Credential exposure | Zero |
What people ask when they hear “no bank login.”
It takes about 30 seconds. Download your statement PDF from your bank's website, then drag and drop it into Spend & Invest. Most people check their bank online at least once a month anyway. This adds one extra click to something you already do.
We process your statement the moment you upload it. No waiting for Plaid to sync, no connection errors, no re-authentication prompts every few weeks. You upload, we parse, and your dashboard updates instantly.
If your bank provides PDF statements (and they all do), it works. Chase, HSBC, ADCB, Barclays, any credit union, any bank worldwide. Plaid supports around 12,000 institutions, mostly in the US and Canada. PDF upload works with every bank on the planet.
Our AI reads your actual statement PDF, which contains the same transaction data a bank API would provide. Dates, vendors, amounts. Accuracy is 95%+ and improves with every correction you make. Your preferences are remembered across all future statements.
Upload your first statement in under a minute. Free during early access. No bank login, no credit card required.