When Mint shut down in March 2024, millions of Canadians lost their go-to budgeting tool. Since then, a wave of alternatives has appeared. Most of them follow the same playbook: connect your bank accounts by logging in, and we'll pull your transactions automatically.
That sounds convenient. But there's a cost you might not see.
The problem with bank logins
When you give a budgeting app your bank credentials, you're trusting a third party with the keys to your financial life. Here's what actually happens behind the scenes:
- Your credentials are stored (often encrypted, but stored nonetheless)
- A third-party aggregator logs into your bank on your behalf
- Your transaction data passes through multiple systems before reaching the app
- If the aggregator is breached, your credentials are exposed
In Canada, the landscape is shifting. The government's new Consumer-Driven Banking framework (Bill C-15, passed March 2026) will eventually provide secure API-based access to bank data. But that's still 12-18 months away for most consumers, and screen scraping — the technique most aggregators use — will be prohibited once the framework is live.
A simpler, safer approach
Simple Cents uses CSV import instead. Here's how it works:
- Export a CSV from your bank (every Canadian bank supports this)
- Upload it to Simple Cents
- Done — your transactions are categorized automatically
No credentials shared. No third-party aggregator. Your financial data stays in your hands.
But isn't that more work?
It takes about 30 seconds. Most people budget weekly or monthly, not daily. The small effort of exporting a CSV is worth the tradeoff for most people who care about privacy.
Plus, CSV import has some advantages:
- Works with every bank — RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO, CIBC, EQ Bank, Tangerine, credit unions, neobanks. If your bank exports CSV (they all do), Simple Cents can read it.
- No sync issues — No broken connections, no re-authentication prompts, no mysterious missing transactions.
- Column auto-detection — Simple Cents detects the format of your CSV automatically, regardless of which bank it came from.
What about when open banking arrives?
When Canada's Consumer-Driven Banking framework is fully operational, Simple Cents will support API-based bank connections as an option. But CSV import will remain available for anyone who prefers it.
Notably, the framework explicitly excludes derived data like spending categorization and budget recommendations from its scope. That means Simple Cents's categorization and insights features will retain unique value even after open banking launches.
The bottom line
If you're looking for a budgeting tool that respects your privacy, doesn't require you to hand over bank credentials, and actually works with Canadian banks, CSV import is the way to go. Simple Cents is built around that principle.
Join the waitlist and be among the first to try it.