Connect a bank

Copper reads your balances and transactions through Plaid. You sign in to your bank inside Plaid’s secure window, and Copper only ever gets read-only access. It can’t move money.

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Before you start

Linking a bank needs a Copper plan. Core links up to 5 banks and Plus up to 10. A “bank” here is one sign-in at one institution: every account under that login (checking, savings, cards) counts once. See Plans & billing.

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Link a bank

If notifications aren’t on yet, Copper offers to turn them on right after your first bank connects, since bill reminders and bank alerts only reach you with them. See Notifications & widgets. On the web, go to Settings › Banks & accounts. Plaid opens in a pop-up window, so allow pop-ups for Copper if your browser asks. If Copper says The secure Plaid window didn’t open, tap Try again. Nothing was linked yet, and Copper opens the same Plaid window once more. If Copper says connecting banks is paused, we’ve stopped new connections for a little while, for example during an outage at Plaid. Try again later. Banks you’ve already connected keep syncing as usual.

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What Copper gets

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History

A newly linked bank brings in up to two years of past transactions, so once-a-year bills can show up twice. Anything older than a week arrives quietly: it isn’t auto-assigned, rounded up or announced with a notification.

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Syncing

Plaid checks each bank for new transactions on its own schedule, usually one to four times a day depending on the bank. The moment Plaid has something new, Copper’s servers pick it up, so you don’t need to open the app. Pulling down to refresh reloads what’s already been synced; it doesn’t contact your bank. Each bank in Settings › Connected Accounts shows Bank updated 3h ago: when Plaid last heard from that bank. If a purchase is missing, check this first. It usually means the bank hasn’t reported it yet.

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Refresh a bank now (Plus)

On Plus, you can have Plaid check a bank right away instead of waiting for its next check. Open Settings › Connected Accounts, tap the bank, then tap Refresh now. On the web it’s in the bank’s ⋯ menu under Settings › Banks & accounts. New transactions usually show up within a few minutes.

• Plus includes 5 refreshes a month. They come back each time your plan renews (on a yearly plan, on the same day each month), and unused ones don’t carry over.
• A lifetime Plus plan has unlimited refreshes.
• Each refresh checks one bank. A bank you just refreshed can be refreshed again after 10 minutes.
• If the refresh doesn’t go through, it isn’t counted.
• Refreshing only works while the bank is connected. If it says Reconnect needed, reconnect it first.

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Your accounts

Open Settings › Connected Accounts, tap a bank, then tap an account. Accounts are grouped as Checking, Savings, Credit Cards, and Loans & Other.

• Include in budget decides whether a checking or savings balance counts toward left-to-spend in the budget you have open.
• Track as a savings bucket (savings accounts) turns the account into a bucket whose balance mirrors it. That money stays out of left-to-spend and shows with your goals.
• Credit card bucket (cards) sets card purchases aside for the bill. See Credit cards.

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Accounts and budgets

Each account counts in one budget at a time. If you have more than one budget, your accounts in other budgets are listed under Not in budget with where they are now, like “In Family”. Turning on Include in budget for one of them moves it, with its transactions, into the budget you have open. The moved transactions come in without buckets, and the old budget’s buckets keep their balances, because that spending already happened. Only the person who linked an account can move it.

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When a bank needs attention

Banks sometimes need you to sign in again. Copper flags the connection: To fix it, open the bank in Settings › Connected Accounts and tap Reconnect. Plaid opens so you can sign in again; your accounts and history stay as they are. Reconnecting also needs an active plan.

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Copper tells you

You don’t have to go looking. When one of your banks stops syncing, or is about to, Copper:

• Sends a notification to the person who linked it, like “Chase needs you to sign in again”. Tap it to go straight to the bank’s sign-in.
• Shows a card on the Dashboard, right under your left-to-spend, since the number can’t be right while a bank is stuck.
• Reminds you if it’s still broken 3 and 7 days later, then stops. A bank that’s about to disconnect gets one reminder.

Copper also checks every day for a bank that has quietly stopped reporting. If a bank hasn’t updated in 3 days, you’ll get a gentle “Chase hasn’t updated in 3 days” with a link to check it.

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When the bank itself is down

Sometimes the problem is on the bank’s side: an outage or planned maintenance. Copper shows “Chase is having trouble connecting” on the Dashboard, marked Nothing to do, so you know it’s not you. There’s nothing to reconnect and no notification; Copper catches up on its own once the bank is back.

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Removing a bank

Open the bank in Settings › Connected Accounts and tap Remove. You choose what happens to its data: Either way, the bank is removed at Plaid and bucket balances stay as they are: what you spent stays spent. If you chose Disconnect, linking the same bank again later picks its accounts and history back up without doubling any transactions. Its accounts stay left out of left-to-spend until you include them again.