How DayGist works

The whole system is a pipeline with four steps: connect, fetch, text, discard. Here is each one, including the parts that usually live in fine print.

1. Connect — read-only, through Plaid

You link your banks through Plaid, the bank-connection service behind Venmo, Robinhood, and thousands of other financial apps. Your bank username and password are entered on Plaid's screens, not ours — DayGist never sees or stores your credentials. What DayGist receives is an encrypted token with read-only access to balances.

Read-only means exactly that: we can see balances, we cannot move money, pay bills, or make transfers. There is no code path for it.

2. Fetch — at the time you pick

You choose a delivery time in your timezone. Each morning at that time, DayGist uses the token to fetch the current balance of every account you connected — checking, savings, and credit cards, across different banks. Balances are as reported by your bank through Plaid, so they may lag pending transactions; for to-the-minute numbers, your bank is still the source of truth.

3. Text — one message, every account

The balances are formatted into one plain-text SMS — no emoji, negatives in parentheses, each account on its own line — and sent to your phone. Any phone that receives texts works. There is no app, no login after setup, and no notification settings to manage.

4. Discard — balances are not stored

After your text is sent, the balance data is discarded. This is architecture, not policy: DayGist has no table of balances to breach, sell, or analyze. What we do store is the minimum needed to operate — your phone number, your timezone and delivery time, and the encrypted Plaid token.

The business model matches: revenue is the subscription, not your data. We don't sell, rent, or share personal or financial information with anyone for marketing or advertising.

Leaving

Cancel by replying STOP to any DayGist text, or from your account settings. When you cancel, your bank connections are disconnected and your encrypted tokens deleted. Full data deletion is available anytime by emailing privacy@getdaygist.com.

Related: your balance by text · what we don't do · FAQ