# Automating online banking login & checking for new transactions - what's best approach? (e.g. which **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [August 26, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/automating-online-banking-login-checking-for-new-transactions-whats-best-approach-e-g-which/174454 "2009-08-26T23:17:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/automating-online-banking-login-checking-for-new-transactions-whats-best-approach-e-g-which/174454/1 "2009-08-26T23:17:10Z")
Hi, I’m interested in automating online banking login & checking for new transactions - what’s best approach? (e.g. which gems/libraries etc) Anyone already built something that does this? For example login each hour and check for any new credit card transactions and then email them to myself if there are new ones. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 12:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/automating-online-banking-login-checking-for-new-transactions-whats-best-approach-e-g-which/174454/2 "2009-08-27T00:49:08Z")
Greg H. wrote: > Hi, > I’m interested in automating online banking login & checking for new > transactions - what’s best approach? (e.g. which gems/libraries etc) > Anyone > already built something that does this? > > For example login each hour and check for any new credit card > transactions > and then email them to myself if there are new ones. > > Thanks > try watir , mechanize or open-uri for login to the web page and the > win32ole(outlook ) for sending you the notification email. -ronnie. ---
**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 6:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/automating-online-banking-login-checking-for-new-transactions-whats-best-approach-e-g-which/174454/3 "2009-08-27T06:29:42Z")
On Aug 26, 2009, at 14:10, Greg H. wrote: > I’m interested in automating online banking login & checking for new > transactions - what’s best approach? (e.g. which gems/libraries > etc) Anyone > already built something that does this? > > For example login each hour and check for any new credit card > transactions > and then email them to myself if there are new ones. I’d use [mint.com](http://mint.com) to aggregate all the transactions then write a scraper for mint instead. It’d be more usable by more people. My credit card (HSBC) has the option of emailing me for any transactions over a certain amount, maybe the feature is built-in for you too? ---
**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 8:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/automating-online-banking-login-checking-for-new-transactions-whats-best-approach-e-g-which/174454/4 "2009-08-27T08:41:59Z")
I’m in Australia & also my bank don’t support notifications (hence why I want to knock something together for myself). It seems Mechanize might be best? (i.e. I’m looking for one I can deploy to a linux server, hence I don’t want it based on having to have a browser instance running separately). Is there anything to look at beyond Mechanize? tks 2009/8/27 Eric H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/automating-online-banking-login-checking-for-new-transactions-whats-best-approach-e-g-which/174454/5 "2009-08-27T14:38:22Z")
Ryan D. wrote: > On Aug 26, 2009, at 23:41 , Greg H. wrote: > > > I’m in Australia & also my bank don’t support notifications (hence > > why I > > want to knock something together for myself). > > > > It seems Mechanize might be best? (i.e. I’m looking for one I can > > deploy to > > a linux server, hence I don’t want it based on having to have a > > browser > > instance running separately). Is there anything to look at beyond > > Mechanize? > > as long as you don’t have to interact with javascript, mechanize is > your best bet. If you are on a Linux system, try lynx … you can create a lynx macro … dump the html stuff to a file parse the file send email if something changed `mailx <$yourfile` And sure all this can be done too with ruby. reuse as much as you can 😉 ---
**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 10:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/automating-online-banking-login-checking-for-new-transactions-whats-best-approach-e-g-which/174454/6 "2009-08-27T10:16:49Z")
On Aug 26, 2009, at 23:41 , Greg H. wrote: > I’m in Australia & also my bank don’t support notifications (hence > why I > want to knock something together for myself). > > It seems Mechanize might be best? (i.e. I’m looking for one I can > deploy to > a linux server, hence I don’t want it based on having to have a > browser > instance running separately). Is there anything to look at beyond > Mechanize? as long as you don’t have to interact with javascript, mechanize is your best bet.