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Personal finance apps suited to HK

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  1. #1

    Personal finance apps suited to HK

    Any suggestion for apps/services suited for people in HK? There seem to be some excellent options for the US that aren't available here.

    I'm interested in - 1. Connecting to various bank/broker/fund accounts and getting a holistic view of my portfolio, 2. Something that can track spending and also sync between me and my wife (will help settle argument about who is more wasteful with money!)


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Posts
    633
    https://www.planto.hk/en/

    This is the one I'm using. Not perfect but features are improving. HKD38 per month
    pin likes this.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Hong Kong
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    15,557

    There are a couple out there, I think Plan to is one of them as mentioned above.


  4. #4

    I am looking for a similar app. However, the reviews of Planto aren’t the most convincing…


  5. #5

    Join Date
    Dec 2002
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    薄扶林
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    47,963
    1. Connecting to various bank/broker/fund accounts and getting a holistic view of my portfolio
    My Stocks Portfolio (been discussed here) works fine - it is manual, but if you're not someone who does dozens of trades a day or week, it works just fine. Has some interesting tagging options which work well in terms of adding some dimensions (say ETFs v/s Stocks, HK vs US etc) to your portfolio reporting.

    Has decent support for cash accounts, unlisted things like property etc.

    2. Something that can track spending and also sync between me and my wife (will help settle argument about who is more wasteful with money!)
    You will not win that one. Perhaps a meditation app might help.
    @muzzdang, does it support HSBC and other banks that don't have published or publically available APIs?
    muzzdang likes this.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Location
    香港特别行政区
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    Planto and related apps in HK use technical measures to bypass the security features of the bank. Usually they log in from their server and keep refreshing your session to get around 2FA. In the event that Planto get hacked, any loss is your responsibility.

    Source: planto helped my company's customers bypass 2FA. There's nothing we can really do about it other than killing the sessions

    shri, ndt and GuruA like this.

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Mar 2007
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    633
    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    My Stocks Portfolio (been discussed here) works fine - it is manual, but if you're not someone who does dozens of trades a day or week, it works just fine. Has some interesting tagging options which work well in terms of adding some dimensions (say ETFs v/s Stocks, HK vs US etc) to your portfolio reporting.

    Has decent support for cash accounts, unlisted things like property etc.



    You will not win that one. Perhaps a meditation app might help.
    @muzzdang, does it support HSBC and other banks that don't have published or publically available APIs?
    Yes, I have been able to connect most of the banks and credit cards (except the virtual banks), octopus (very useful as you can set or use their default categories), payme, some investment portals (IB, Firstrade, Charles Swab, Stashaway, Aqumon), selected insurance companies, rewards (yuu, asiamiles)
    calmathetic9 likes this.

  8. #8

    Join Date
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    There's nothing we can really do about it other than killing the sessions
    Drop traffic from their network / server ranges / User Agents? (Going off topic.. I know..)

    Did not suspect they were doing it through server side scraping - thought they had some client side browser scripty type things which scraped your accounts every now and then.

    Server side stuff is just nasty x 10...

  9. #9

    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Posts
    633

    7. Have banks given Planto permission to access my data?

    Planto is not in partnership or related to any banks in Hong Kong. Your financial data is aggregated using a method called 'screen scraping' - a method where users input their online bank credentials (including OTP, 2FA, etc.) and provides consent to retrieve transaction data from the bank's platform. This is a common practice by platforms that integrate thousands of banks globally, helping millions of customers. Planto does not store your personal sensitive information and only retrieves financial data that appears on the app and as per our Privacy Policy. Planto has built this screen scraping method in-house to ensure the highest security and that your data is NEVER exposed to any other third-party without your consent.

    8. Does Planto support Two Factor Authentication?
    Planto supports multiple forms of authentication including 2FA, token and mobile authentication. We currently support this for HSBC, SCB, BOC HK, ICBC and DBS and will continue to expand the list.

    https://www.planto.hk/en/security/overview/

    shri likes this.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    May 2021
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    1,733
    Usually they log in from their server and keep refreshing your session to get around 2FA.
    In the event that Planto get hacked, any loss is your responsibility.
    Serious security risk and single point of failure, i wouldn't touch such apps with barge pole or for that matter any app that connect to multiple bank accounts behind the scene and keep refreshing.. Expenses and portfolio management are still ok but anything more than that, sorry i am happy old school Excel..
    Sith and traineeinvestor like this.

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