(UK) Using 'Money Dashboard' is in breach of TSB's T&Cs

Question

I have been researching personal finance tools, and while I was disappointed that many US apps do not support UK users/banks, the best I have found has been Money Dashboard, and I would like to try this out.

While I am content with Money Dashboard's security, it doesn't seem to be okay from my bank's point of view; and unlike some of its competitors, Money Dashboard does not seem to allow for importing of .csv files. I have accounts with TSB and HSBC.

Researching on the internet didn't give me much information, aside from a tweet from January 2015, saying that giving away the login details to a third party would be 'in breach of [TSB's] Internet Banking Terms and Conditions'. I will assume this is still the case, although I am not experienced in translating the legal jargon I found in the terms.

What are the consequences of being in breach of the terms and conditions? I have not seen anyone complain about TSB chasing them on this point, but maybe to simply ignore this is reckless? Will it invalidate any of TSB's fraud protection, etc.?

Thanks!

Answer 1

You need to consult a lawyer in your area.

Generally speaking though, if you breach the T&C, they don't have to follow them either, which means that whatever they were responsible for in those terms and conditions, they're no longer responsible. So if you get hacked, and they can prove you breached T&C by sharing your credentials, they are absolutely off the hook for your financial losses.

So if they detect you're in breach, they may record it and not pursue any other action unless/until you have an issue, in which case they say, "they're in breach, see here, here and here." Or there may be regulations that require they notify you of their detection of the breach. If this sort of regulation exists, I suspect that the notification would also include a termination of all accounts as well. I can also picture situation where a company might have such a policy built into the T&C so that they can steer as clear as possible from any situations involving liability and cyber-crime in the same sentence.

My suggestion would be to take the terms and conditions for your banks to some kind of legal clinic and get them to explain the parts that you do not understand.