Published: November 13th, 2011 • Last Updated: January 7th, 2021
Author: Ross Taylor on AskRoss.ca

Are budgeting tools offered by banks useful? And do they track what you’re inputting?

Hi Ross, there are lot of financial software programs out there. I just recently noticed that RBC has a “budget” component in their online banking system. What are your thoughts? Are they useful or superficial? Would I be exposing too much info by working within their system?

Thanks!

-Malcolm

Hi Malcolm, Thanks for reaching out – I love getting questions. I wouldn’t worry about exposing too much info – I highly doubt they are capturing people’s inputs and cross mapping it to their own profile of those same people.

It is a pretty simple but effective tool to help you see at a glance if you are capable of saving or are spending beyond your means.

I tried it out myself just now, and I just plugged in some random numbers – I’m a Royal Bank client – I don’t care if they looked at my keystrokes at all and neither should you.

If you would like to play it safe though, I have a budget worksheet on my website written in Excel that you can download to your own computer, and I assure you I, nor anyone else, will have any idea what you are doing with it.

It’s called the No form found.

BTW I used to be an executive at a retail bank, and I can tell you the working culture is in fact the opposite of what you are concerned about – bankers are very conservative and take great pains to protect your privacy and comply with various regulations.

If you have any other questions at anytime, feel free to fire them in my direction!

Regards, Ross

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Here is a quick reply I received from Malcolm after he reviewed my answer:

Hello Ross, thanks so much for the prompt and detailed response. It relieves my concerns. I will be checking out your spreadsheet as well.

Malcolm

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