Connect Instinct to your UK bank, no password
Connect Instinct to your UK bank without your password: link your accounts in Era, then give it an expiring Era API key. What to text it and how to cut it off.
You don't need to give Instinct your online banking password. Link your UK accounts to Era through open banking, then give Instinct an Era API key: a credential you make yourself that expires on the date you pick and stops working from its next request once you revoke it. Instinct reads your balances and transactions through Era, and nothing in this setup hands it your bank login.
Era is an independent company, not part of Instinct. This guide covers the Era side in full and keeps the Instinct side to what you text it.
Should I give Instinct my bank login?
You don't need to. Give Instinct an Era API key instead. It reads your accounts through Era, can't reach your bank login because Era never has it, and is cut off when you revoke the key. You choose whether it can only read or can also make changes, and when the key expires.
A banking password opens everything your bank's website opens, keeps working until you change it, and has to be changed everywhere it's saved if you want it back. An Era key is built for the job:
- It can't reach your bank login. You approve each bank through open banking, in your own banking app, and Era keeps an encrypted access token for each connection, not your password.
- Era shows it once. The key appears one time, when you make it, and Era stores only a fingerprint of it.
- It expires when you tell it to. You pick the number of days, and there's no never-expires option.
- You revoke it in one step. Your bank connections stay exactly as they are.
- It acts as your whole Era account. Keep it private and give it only the access you're using now. If there's an account you'd rather no assistant saw, hide it in Era and it stays hidden from every assistant.
How do I connect Instinct to my UK bank accounts with Era?
Link your banks in Era, make an API key with the shortest expiry that works, text Instinct the link to Era's API documentation and ask it to connect. When Instinct asks for the key, give it that one. Instinct then answers from your real balances and transactions across your UK accounts.
Era connects accounts across the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and 40+ countries in all.
Link your banks and cards in Era. Sign up at era.app; the Basic tier is free. Connecting a bank uses a live data connection, a paid feature, and on Basic you can add manual accounts instead. Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Nationwide, Santander, Monzo, Starling and Revolut all come through the same way.
Make a key for Instinct. In Era, open API keys, choose Create key and name it "Instinct". Under Scopes, untick every box ending in "write" if you only want answers, and pick the shortest Expiry. Then choose Create key and Copy key.
Ask Instinct to connect. Text it this request:
Connect to my Era account through Era's API. The documentation is at https://era.app/docs/era-api. It authenticates with an Era API key sent in the X-API-Key header. Ask me for the key when you need it.Give Instinct the key when it asks, and send it only in answer to that request.
Ask a first question you can check: "Using Era, what are my current balances, and what did I spend at supermarkets in the last 30 days?" If the balances match Era's, Instinct is working from your real accounts.
If Instinct says the key doesn't work, look at its Expires date in API keys. An expired or revoked key can't be revived, so make a new one. If Instinct can read your accounts but can't change anything, the key was made without write access, and a key's access is fixed when you make it.
What can Instinct see and change with an Era key?
With read access, Instinct sees balances, transactions, spending breakdowns and recurring charges across every account you linked. With write access, it can also recategorise, tag, set standing rules and save to Era's memory. Moving money between your own accounts is in private beta, off by default for every key, and every transfer needs your approval.
Questions that work well:
- "What's my balance across current and savings accounts right now?"
- "Break down my spending by category this month and compare it with last month."
- "List every direct debit and subscription, largest first, with the date each last went out."
Each key acts as your whole Era account, so grant only what you use now. Which plans include write access is on the pricing page, and each plan's request limits are in Era's API documentation.
How do I cut Instinct off?
Revoke its key. A key you made yourself stops working from its very next request, and your bank connections stay in place for your other assistants. To remove a bank itself, disconnect it in Era, which ends that bank's access for every assistant at once.
Open API keys, find the key named Instinct, choose Revoke, then confirm with Revoke key.
Revoking doesn't reverse changes Instinct already made, but Era keeps an edit trail, so you can undo any edit, yours or your assistant's. If you only need Instinct for a while, the expiry does the work for you.
Will Instinct remember what I told Claude or ChatGPT?
Yes, if they all connect to Era. Era keeps one financial memory, and every connected assistant reads it. A goal or preference Instinct saves is there for Claude and ChatGPT too, and saving needs a key with write access. Ask any assistant to forget something and it goes from all of them.
Use Claude and ChatGPT with the same UK accounts shows how the pieces fit together.
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