How to Connect Your Bank to Claude (Read-Only)
You connect your bank to Claude by adding Ledgerwire as a custom connector, then linking your bank once through its own secure sign-in page. After that Claude can read your balances and transactions live when you ask. It authorizes over OAuth, it’s read-only, and you can revoke it anytime.
You: Add Ledgerwire and pull my checking balance. Claude: Connected to Ledgerwire. Your Chase checking balance is $4,182.55, as of two days ago (the most recent your bank reported).
I built Ledgerwire read-only on purpose. Claude can see your money; it can’t touch it. Below is the exact setup, why it’s safe, and what to expect.
How do I connect my bank to Claude?
Add Ledgerwire as a custom connector in Claude, sign in, then link your bank through its own secure page. The whole thing takes a couple of minutes and no code. Claude never sees your banking password, and you don’t paste any tokens.
- In Claude, open Settings -> Connectors and choose Add custom connector. Name it Ledgerwire and paste the URL
https://ledgerwire.io/mcp. - Authorize. Claude opens a Ledgerwire sign-in over OAuth; you sign in passwordless (magic link to your email). There’s no API key to copy.
- Link a bank. Ledgerwire opens your bank’s own secure sign-in window. You enter your credentials there, on your bank’s page, never with us.
- Ask a question. Claude fetches the data live and answers.
That’s it. Once the connector is authorized, you don’t repeat setup; you just ask.
Do I need an API token or any code?
No. The recommended flow is OAuth through Claude’s connector settings, so there’s nothing to copy or paste. Claude doesn’t need a token from you; it authorizes itself over OAuth when you add the connector. Legacy per-user tokens still exist under an Advanced section, but almost nobody needs them.
This is deliberate. The fewer secrets you handle by hand, the fewer places one can leak. Adding the connector and clicking “authorize” is the whole job.
What happens when I link my bank?
Ledgerwire hands you off to your bank’s own secure sign-in, run through our data partner Quiltt (routing to Finicity). You authenticate on your bank’s page, and we receive an encrypted, read-only access token, not your password. That token is the only credential we hold; we never see or store your login.
Naming the partner matters to me. Quiltt and Finicity are the same rails many budgeting apps already use, so this isn’t a novel path to your bank; it’s the well-trodden one, wired for read-only.
Is it safe to connect my bank to Claude?
It’s safe in the way that actually matters: Claude never gets your bank password, and the connection can’t move money. You authenticate on your bank’s own page, we hold only an encrypted read-only token, and every capability in the connector is a read. There is no transfer or bill-pay tool for Claude to misuse, because none exists in the code.
I won’t call this “bank-grade” or “100% safe”; no honest software promises that. What I will promise is a narrow, read-only scope, credentials that stay with your bank, and a connection you can end in one click. The security page has our published reviews.
Can Claude move my money once it’s connected?
No. The connection is strictly read-only, so Claude can read balances, transactions, spending, recurring charges, and where your bank reports them, holdings and loan details, and nothing else. There is no code path from “Claude sees my balance” to “Claude moves my balance.” If you asked it to pay a bill, it simply couldn’t; the tool doesn’t exist.
Claude also won’t give you financial, tax, or investment advice. It reports on your real data. What you do with that is your call.
What are the honest limits?
Coverage varies by bank, data lags posting by a few days, and the whole thing depends on an aggregator to reach your institution. Not every bank reports every field: categories, APR, and investment holdings are common gaps. When a bank doesn’t report something, Ledgerwire returns it as not reported, never as $0, because a real zero and a missing field are different facts.
Timing matters too. Transactions typically post to the connection a few days after they clear, so a still-open period like “this month” is current-to-date, not final. Claude relays that freshness instead of implying the period is closed.
How do I disconnect?
Remove the bank from your Ledgerwire dashboard and access is revoked immediately; the encrypted token is invalidated and neither Claude nor Ledgerwire can pull anything further from that account. You can disconnect a single account and leave others active, or remove the connector on Claude’s side without touching your Ledgerwire account.
There’s no lingering copy to clean up, because we don’t keep a copy of your transactions in the first place, only the token you just revoked.
FAQ
Does Claude store my transactions? No. Data is fetched live to answer a question and discarded. The only thing kept is an encrypted read-only access token used to ask your bank for fresh data on your behalf.
Which banks work? Most major US banks and brokerages through our data partner (Quiltt/Finicity). Whether specific fields like categories or holdings show up depends on what each bank reports.
Is there a free tier? Yes. You can connect an account and start asking questions before deciding whether to upgrade.
Does this work with ChatGPT too? Ledgerwire is an MCP connector, and MCP is supported by Claude directly; support elsewhere is expanding, so check current compatibility for other assistants.
What if I close a card or switch banks? Disconnect just that account from your dashboard so Claude stops referencing stale data; your other connections stay live.
Ready to try it? Connect your bank to Claude — start free, no card required.