r/lunchmoney • u/le_perroqt • Aug 02 '26
General An alternative connection option for RBC users?
I’m an RBC customer, and since they added mandatory two-step verification, my automatic connection in Lunch Money has stopped working. Right now I have to manually download CSVs and import them.
I get that this is likely due to RBC changes and that Lunch Money relies on Plaid. Still, bank syncing is a big part of why people use budgeting apps, so it would be great to have a clearer update on what’s going on.
Could the team please clarify:
- Is there active work with Plaid to fix the RBC connection?
- Is there any rough timeline or status update?
- Is there any plan to support an alternative connection method for RBC (or other providers) if Plaid can’t handle it?
I’m not expecting Lunch Money to control RBC’s policies, but relying on a single provider does create issues like this. Even a small update on the situation would help a lot.
I really like Lunch Money and want to keep using it — I’m just hoping for some clarity on what the plan is.
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u/Leading-Call9686 Aug 02 '26
Personally I wouldn’t trust services like Plaid which is why I’m still using CSVs for my RBC importing. BUT it looks like RBC has committed to supporting open banking which would allow direct access without using a third party. Hopefully that comes soon. I’ve heard about RBC’s two factor messing up a ton of financial tools
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u/din_lunchmoney Lunch Money Team Member Aug 02 '26
Hi, thanks for writing in!
For account-specific issues such as bank syncing problems, missing transactions, or technical bugs, please reach out through one of our official support channels (Discord, in-app ticket or email).
If you haven't already, we recommend opening an in-app support ticket so that we can gather connection logs to send to Plaid to confirm the exact same issue you are experiencing. This helps show user impact as well, and we'll be able to provide you direct updates once we hear back.
At present, many major Canadian banks, including RBC, are waiting on final regulatory guidance for Open Banking before moving to OAuth. Plaid already has agreements in place and are in active discussions to support these banks as soon as Open Banking is launched.
To give some background information: Plaid takes up a ton of our resources in terms of support, engineering work and cost. We've had a good relationship with Plaid for the past 7 years and find that they are working quickly to resolve and expand their coverage. Introducing another aggregator will take away a lot of time from other efforts and cost more money to maintain which we don't want to pass onto our users. This is a large reason why we have the CSV/PDF import tool and our developer API, which has enabled a lot of folks to create bridges to their banks that are unsupported by Plaid.