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Comment by goatcode | Hacker News Reader

>it seems like such a horrible idea

It probably is.

> To this day I don't understand why anyone would use Plaid.

It's more desirable to use a fin-tech company to handle all that than take on the liability yourself, as a company wanting to receive payments (or connect to transaction info, like a lot of the popular budgeting apps do).

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I guess that makes sense from the company’s side. But why would a consumer agree? I’d much rather go through the hassle of getting a cashier’s check or sending a wire transfer.

People are just so used to doing stuff like this. The upside is that the companies who do these transactions have a lot of exposure, and thus incentive to not mess up. People are probably just numb to a lot of these sorts of things, either that or they're just unaware that they're using a third party. It's possible that younger generations aren't even aware of how to use other means, like cashiers checks or money orders.

I believe I'm using Plaid, to use the budgeting app I use (YNAB).

Can anyone tell me what the risks are? I seriously thought this was a pretty safe thing to do.

YNAB uses Plaid and MX: https://www.youneedabudget.com/security/

Well ok, now Plaid has your login info for your bank. How well do they protect it? What employees have access to your credentials? Are they unhackable?

A bad actor with your bank login and password could cause a LOT of mischief.

I suppose I was misinformed about how Plaid worked. I was under the impression that Plaid was similar to OAuth, where they didn't actually have the username & passwords.

Nope.

They have to use bank login and password, so that can scrape your info. No banks tend to implement OAuth. I've been out of the world for 2 years, but last I was in I was kicking and screaming to keep where I worked away from it, and I still warn people off.

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