No bank connection
A budget app that never asks for your bank login
Most budget apps start by asking you to log in to your bank through them. Exp Planner doesn’t, and never will. Your transactions still get in, from the bank’s own statement, from your phone’s wallet, or by hand, and you decide what goes in and when.
Why no bank login
Bank sync means a third party, a data aggregator, reads every transaction you make and keeps a connection to your bank open. Without one, nobody but you and Exp Planner sees your money, and only what you choose to bring in.
That’s what makes a budget app that doesn’t connect to your bank the private choice. It’s also the steadier one: in Europe these connections run on PSD2 consent, which has to be renewed every few months: miss it, and the app quietly stops updating. Smaller banks, and many outside the EU, aren’t covered at all. A statement file works with every bank, today and next year.
How your spending gets in
Four ways, and you can use them all.
Import a bank statement
Download a CSV or Excel file in your bank’s app and drop it in. You match up its columns once; duplicates are unticked, transfers between your accounts paired, and nothing is saved until you say so.
Google Wallet on Android
Tap to pay, and the purchase shows up to review within seconds, on the right card, even with the app closed.
Apple Pay on iPhone
A Shortcuts automation sends each Apple Pay purchase to the app as it happens.
Two taps by hand
The amount and a category. Works offline, and remembers the payees you use most.
Import by bank
Any bank that exports CSV or Excel works, Cyrillic files and decimal commas included. Some banks have a guide of their own:
Revolut
Recognised as it is: card payments, fees, exchanges, pockets and savings, in every currency.
Any other bank
Where to find the statement, how column matching works, and what the preview checks.
What you trade for it
Imports don’t happen by themselves. Once a week or two is enough: Exp Planner reminds you when an account has had nothing new for a week, and bills you plan are already counted before they’re paid, so your numbers stay right in between.
Questions
Do I need to give Exp Planner my bank password?
No. Exp Planner never asks for your bank login or connects to your bank. You bring in a statement file, or the purchases from your phone’s wallet.
Which banks does it work with?
Any bank that lets you download a statement as CSV or Excel. Revolut’s file is recognised as it is; for other banks you match up the columns once, and Exp Planner remembers them.
Isn’t a budget app without bank sync less accurate?
No: a statement is the bank’s own record, to the cent. What you lose is that it’s not live, so the app counts the bills you plan before they’re paid, and phone payments come in as you make them.
Is a statement file safe?
The file is read in your browser, and only the transactions you import are saved, in your account in the EU. The file itself isn’t kept.
How often should I import?
Every week or two. Purchases from Google Wallet or Apple Pay come in on their own in between, and bills are counted before they’re paid.
What if my bank has no export?
Copy the rows into the Exp Planner template, which you can download on the Import screen. One file can hold several accounts.
Try it with your own statement
Open the web app, choose an account and drop in last month’s statement. You see every row before anything is saved.