Open Banking: What Will Next Christmas Bring?

Last Christmas I had two permanent bulges in my trouser pockets thanks to my ever present wallet and mobile phone. I bought presents with my traditional bank account card using online and contactless services and I used the ATM to withdraw cash to go to the Christmas parties I attended. 

How things have changed! A year on and my financial habits have been transformed.

Whilst I still use my traditional bank account to receive my salary and pay my household bills, I am now using ‘disposable’ bank accounts from Monzo and Starling for my lifestyle spending and to use on holiday.

The ease to setup both accounts, the offers of travel money savings from Monzo, the opportunity to diversify my finances and better manage my lifestyle expenses are the main attractions for me.

I then discovered Apple Pay. A true gift from the Gods.

My traditional bank business account card, that came minus support for contactless, can now be linked to Apple Pay, my Starling account has been added too. Thanks to Apple Pay and a pickpocket in Copenhagen, I am now wallet free and enjoy one less bulge in my trouser pockets. Most places take Apple Pay and I can use it to pay for the London Tube, taxis and even vending machines.

In the past 6 months I have been to an ATM once and hadn’t touched one of the new £10 notes until I was given one by a friend as a share of a bill earlier this month.

With the dawning of Open Banking in early 2018, I have been thinking ahead to what I would like all the traditional and non-traditional service providers to give me for Christmas presents next year.

Here are the 10 things I want for Christmas 2018:

1) All my bank accounts to work on Apple Pay (I am looking at you Monzo)
2) Kill off my bank cards. Why do I need them (see Starling for an example of how this can be done)?
3) Never have to speak to a call centre again or wait in a queue. Empower me to do everything myself.
4) Save me money on my purchases by allowing companies to take money straight from my account and the scheme/exchange fees being passed onto me.
5) A Robo-Advisor that monitors my accounts and tells me how I can save money by taking advantage of better offers.
6) A Robo-Wife that tells me how to spend less and save more (with an on/off button).
7) Allow me access to APIs and all my financial data so I can analyse my finances my way and build my own applications, such as Robo-Wife Mark II.
8) For my business, stop the need to give my bank account credentials to screen scrapers to use with my accounting software.
9) Allow me to automatically sign-up, be credited and redeem reward card offers via Apple Pay when I make a payment to companies offering reward schemes.
10) Get rid of the need for the other bulge in my pocket by allowing me to pay for things with a fingerprint or the glint in my eye.

Join The Open Banking Developers Europe Linked In Group Here:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12069802