Finance Fridays – Open Banking

Welcome to this week's Finance Fridays. Last week we were going through 18 ways to improve your finances in 2018. This week we are looking at the new Open Banking that came in on 13th January.

Open Banking has been designed to make banking more competitive and therefore better value for customers.

How does it work? - If you are a customer of one of the so-called big nine banks – Allied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, Barclays, Danske Bank, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, RBS Group and Santander – then you can ask them to share your data about your current account with others . Other companies can opt into the scheme if they want. This will only be available if you bank online. If you use financial or budgeting apps they could also apply to have access to all your financial products from different providers so you can see them all in one place.

Is it live now? - It should have been live since 13th January but only Allied Irish Bank, Danske Bank and Lloyds Banking Group have got their act together. The others have been given an extension to sort things out and should be ready by March.

How can I benefit from it? - Other banks and financial companies can tell you if they could offer you a better deal. By looking at whether you pay for your bank account, have an overdraft and what sort of payments you make they can tell if you could do better by switching.

Is it safe? - As safe as anything else where your data is held online. Passwords should only be held by yourself and your bank. However if you share your details with financial apps which operate outside of the Open Banking scheme you could be more open to fraud.

Is it just for current accounts? - At the moment it is but it is thought it will extend to credit cards, prepaid cards, PayPal, Apple Pay and Android Pay.

Can I opt in and out? - Yes. If you no longer want to share your share details then you can ask for it to be stopped.

What do you think of Open Banking? Is it something you will be signing up for?

If you want to join in with this week's Finance Fridays then add your link to the linky below. Any post concerning financial matters is allowed. Full details here. It doesn't have to be published today as you have until 23.55 on Tuesday 23rd January 2018 to join in.

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