Normally, I try not to write about services that I have not personally used. Before writing about something on DocumentSnap, I try to put it through its paces and do a walkthrough of the functionality.
However, sometimes there is a service where even though I can’t actually try it, word of mouth makes it impossible for me to avoid mentioning it here on the blog.
Such is the case with FileThis Fetch, a service that will grab your online statements for you.
When I was in Washington, DC to speak at the Metro DC chapter of NAPO, I had multiple smart people come up to me and say “have you checked out FileThis Fetch? It’s fantastic!”
Since I had received similar emails after they had won Best in Show at Macworld|iWorld, I knew it was something I needed to look into.[1]
What Is FileThis Fetch?
Going Paperless 101 is to reduce the amount of paper coming into our lives, and part of that, where possible, is to switch to paperless billing with your banks, utilities, and other vendors.
The problem with doing this is a) it can be a pain to go in and download all these statements, and b) if you don’t, the bank may only keep them online for a certain period of time.
FileThis Fetch will go out and (wait for it…) fetch your online statements for you.
What Is Cool About It
There are services out there that are somewhat similar, but one thing I like about this service is that it does not try to keep your documents in their own system. The whole point is to grab them for you, name them, and then put them where you want them to go.
You can either have them download to your computer by installing their software, or have it go to Evernote. Apparently Dropbox, Google Docs, and Box.net are coming soon.
So Why Can’t I Try It?
Sadly, right now FileThis Fetch connects to institutions in the United States only. As a Canadian, that doesn’t help me too much. However, I think the concept is great and look forward to giving it a go if they ever expand to Canada.
While I am passively-aggressively whining, the UI of the system is done in Flash. I am not sure why on earth they’d do that in this day and age, but hopefully they are working on a non-Flashtastic version.
As I said, I have had multiple people rave to me about the service. There will be those of you who will not be comfortable giving a third-party service your web banking credentials, and fair enough. However, for those of you who are interested, you can sign up for the free beta and give it a try.
Let me know in the comments how you like it.
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I was at Macworld and don’t know how I missed these guys. Oops. ↩
