Got multiple online a/cs? Link them up

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Do you have multiple bank accounts? When banking on the internet, do you wish you did not have to open multiple windows to check your bank accounts?

Worse, do you forget the login IDs and passwords of accounts as there are just too many of them to manage?

Have heart. Some banks have started offering a solution just for customers like you.

HDFC Bank, for one, offers a facility called OneView, while Yes Bank has recently launched Money Monitor. Both allow you to link not just bank accounts, but also credit card accounts, bill payments, loan accounts and investment portfolios such as demat accounts and mutual fund folios, etc.

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HDFC Bank can help you view accounts with Citibank India, ICICI Bank, HSBC India, Standard Chartered Bank India and Global Trust Bank, while Yes Bank offers details of banking transactions with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank, State Bank of India, ING Vysya Bank, IDBI Bank and Standard Chartered.

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Both banks can help you link credit card accounts as well. HDFC Bank helps you link Citibank and HDFC Bank credit cards, while Yes Bank allows access to ABN AMRO, Citibank, ICICI Bank, HSBC Bank and HDFC Bank credit card accounts.

One can link not just his own accounts but also the accounts of his spouse or dependents.

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Ravishankar, executive vice-president - cash management and direct banking at Yes Bank, says, "Anything that is on the internet can be linked to the Money Monitor. If you are registered for netbanking and have a user ID and a password, you can manually link that account to the Money Monitor."

The single page view is possible because of technology being used by banks, not because of inter-bank tie-ups.

HDFC Bank and Yes Bank currently allow their respective netbanking customers to use the facility free of cost.

Once registered, you can list all the accounts under various heads, such as bank accounts, credit cards, investments and demat, etc.

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Linking up all these accounts helps, for you get to know what your total expenditure is from all accounts. Total credits and debits can be displayed for each individual account as well for all the accounts aggregated. And if you have linked up the accounts of you other family members, you can even know what your family's networth is.

Yes Bank allows you to categorise each spend or debit from credit card or bank accounts. This helps you know your actual spend toward each necessity, such as food, education, home, car and savings, etc. A pie chart is displayed, indicating the portion spent on each need.

"You can create your own budget goals and then compare it with your actual expenditure to tell you where you need to cut costs," Ravishankar of Yes Bank says. An alert will pop up whenever your expenses are about to exceed the amount mentioned in the budget goal, he adds.

A Yes Bank customer can create a financial calendar, where all the upcoming bills and other expenditure can be marked to plan expenses. Once the bill payment accounts are linked, the Money Monitor system may either activate your bill payment reminder or you can set up a reminder yourself for accounts that are not linked.

Grouping of accounts is possible, too. For instance, you can group all your accounts separately from your spouse's accounts.

Similarly, you can also group investments. Investments in various asset classes such as stocks, or insurance, can also be known via a table or a pie-chart.

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Perchance, while all the account details can be viewed on a single webpage, transactions are restricted. HDFC Bank's OneView allows customers only to view accounts, but not to transact. So, check out what all your bank allows you to do before getting started.

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