My Bank Wanted $17.63 so I Used Python Instead.

How can I use Python to avoid paying annoying bank fees?

In today's video, I automate a silly task to show the banks that I don't need them to get automatic bank statements. It's a short video but I go over the problem I had, the investigation work I did and the simple code I wrote that took me from nothing to all of my bank statements in one go.

This video was something I was debating if I should put out or not :) let me know what you think.

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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:11 The Problem
0:53 Setting myself up
1:13 The shocking discoveries....
1:43 Why this is a dark pattern.
2:26 Explaining the problem as if I was one of my favourite creators
2:57 Whipping out Python
3:24 Random Open Source Code...
4:01 Why the bank can get away with this
4:18 Outro

[cocoasulphur]

Most marxist and anti-corporation CodingWithLewis video

[cody_codes_youtube]

This is perfect. Perfect example of, this could take me 30 minutes OR, I can spend a half day automating it.

[kanlin]

"How can I take this 17 minutes... and stretch it out over hours?"

You're my inspiration

[ItsDvil]

I'm a programmer I solve 17 mins issue with 67 hours solution

[djcuber]

Fr, I made a Python script that does all the work in 7 minutes, but it took 3-4 hours to make that fking script. In the end, I was happy and satisfied that i can do stuff and am not useless 😂

[eytLev]

The hyperplexed impression was so jood 😅

[chixenlegjo]

Instructions unclear: The bank interpreted my python as a “threat” and said I had “intent to rob”

[imaperson]

this. this is how i got into programming. this is the reason i recommend basic programming as a hobby to anyone who uses a computer. i love these types of videos because they're the exact type of crazy pointless things i do.

[seyproductions]

Very relatable. Why spend 17 minutes when you can spend hours to automate the task that you will never have to do again?

[CodingWithLewis]

Decided to try something new :) let me know what you think of this more "shorter" style content!

We have a hackathon coming up shortly :) join the convo on discord!

[sayemprodhanananta]

looks like not a secure app, you should not be able to intercept traffic in a secure app (i.e SSL pinning ), and the app should refuse to do anything

[TheDeathOfX-x]

i made a project once, called it multiterm, you can get for python as a module thru pip, it gives you a screen based system to create terminal user interfaces

[remusgogu]

Everything you just said in the video is meaningless compared to the fact you can read your bank request in plain text through a proxy. This should never happen. Call your bank and tell them they have a major security issue and they need to stay up all night to fix it. Like today.

[hallrules]

0:47 Why is this the most relatable thing ever

[johnmiller]

Ah yes - I totally relate to the "I refuse to do this manual, tedious process that will take me 20 minutes so I'm going to spend a week writing software to do it". Many times.

[MMedic]

1. I think you really lucked out with the proxy/man in the middle thing working. Normally mobile apps these days use HTTPS with certificate pinning, which means that you cannot intercept any traffic between your device and the server without modifying the app somehow.
2. I don't think the API getting the 4 years every single time is a dark pattern, I full heartedly believe it is incompetence.

[Allister]

I closed my account with this same bank earlier this year. I'm not a programmer and I somehow screen scraped all my records for the past 7 years. You're right, they purposely made the UI barely workable to get you to pay them for what you need.

[harshnj]

I myself have multiple times turned a 20-minute problem into 2 days of python project. But the benefit I got, the next time I get that 20-minute problem, it would be done in seconds!

[highonmusicml]

I did this manually recently. Downloaded all pdfs, copied everything to excel and did some calculations. I found out that the "No cost emi" was not really "No cost". It was less than the normal emi plan but it was way more than what expected.

[seamuskills]

"But I'm a programmer so how can I stretch that 17 minutes to over an hour" is so real and is my new motto!