Pay off debt without giving an app your bank login

Updated September 2026 by Debt Payoff Planner

Many money apps ask you to log in to your bank. This one does not. You type in each debt yourself, and the app builds your snowball plan and tracks every payment on your iPhone.

No bank connection
No account
Free for up to 3 debts

What has gone wrong with bank linking

Plaid, 2022: Plaid links apps such as Venmo to people’s bank accounts. In 2022, a judge approved Plaid’s agreement to pay $58 million to settle a class action, Courthouse News reported. The lawsuit claimed Plaid collected people’s bank data without clear consent. It said users thought they were logging in to their own bank, but they were handing their password to Plaid. Plaid denied all the claims.
Envestnet Yodlee, 2020: In 2020, two U.S. senators and a member of Congress asked the FTC to investigate Envestnet for selling access to Americans’ financial data without clear notice. Envestnet runs Yodlee, a data aggregator that apps use to collect data from people’s bank and card accounts. The lawmakers’ press release quoted their letter, which warned that card transactions can reveal a person’s health, sexuality, religion and political views.
JPMorgan, 2025: An internal JPMorgan memo seen by CNBC said only 13% of the 1.89 billion data requests from aggregators in June 2025 were started by a customer. Plaid told CNBC the figures misrepresent how data access works.
CFPB: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau calls screen scraping a risky practice that typically involves giving your bank password to a third party.
Mint, 2024: Intuit shut down the Mint budgeting app on March 23, 2024, and users could no longer see their data in it. As CNBC Select reported, Intuit told them to move to Credit Karma, which lacks Mint’s budgeting features.
FINRA: FINRA warns that an aggregator can end up storing all of a person’s financial information or login credentials in one place, which creates a new and heightened security risk.

That is why this app never asks for your bank login. You type in your debts, and they stay on your iPhone and in your private iCloud.

How it works without a bank connection

Debt Payoff Planner: Tracker works in four steps.

Add each debt with its balance, interest rate, monthly payment and due date.
Enter the extra amount you can pay each month. The free version shows your estimated debt-free date.
With Premium, compare snowball and avalanche and see the exact order in which your debts get paid off. When one debt is paid off, its payment moves to the next.
Log each payment when you make it. Your balances and progress update, and reminders tell you before a payment is due.

Your data and the privacy label

Bank connection: The App Store listing says the app “does not connect to your bank and does not access financial accounts.”
Account: You do not create an account.
Where your debts are stored: Your debts are stored on your iPhone and in your own iCloud account, in the private iCloud database that only you can access. The developer has no server and cannot see your debts.
After a reinstall: If you delete the app and install it again while signed in to iCloud, your debts come back.
Privacy label: The app’s App Store privacy label lists two groups of data.
Purchases, under Data Linked to You
Identifiers and Usage Data, under Data Not Linked to You

This means the label is not “Data Not Collected.” Financial Info and User Content are not on it, and nothing is listed under Data Used to Track You. The developer fills in this label, and the App Store notes that Apple has not verified it.

For details, read the app privacy policy.

Why enter debts by hand

Manual entry works with any lender in any country. A store card, a loan from a relative or a medical bill fits in the same plan, even if no bank feed shows it.

Logging a payment yourself means you see the balance drop every time you pay.

The trade-off is that nothing updates on its own. If you forget to log a payment, your plan falls behind until you add it. Payment reminders help you keep up.

Free vs Premium

The app is free to download.

Free: Up to 3 debts, payment logging, reminders, the debt-free estimate and basic statistics.
Premium: $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year in the US. Only the yearly plan has a 7-day free trial. Premium adds unlimited debts, strategy comparison with the exact payoff order, advanced statistics and PDF reports.

The free version is enough if you have 3 debts or fewer, such as a credit card, a car loan and a medical bill. That is the worked example on our snowball vs avalanche page.

The free version does not show the exact payoff order or the side-by-side comparison. If you need that only once, the free debt payoff calculator on this site compares both methods for up to 10 debts in your browser, without an account.

Other snowball apps that don’t need a bank link

These apps also say they work without a bank connection. The facts come from their US App Store listings and developer websites, checked on September 26, 2026.

Debt Descent: Payoff Planner by Sean Mandable has no bank linking and no account, and it runs on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Snowball and avalanche are free, and Pro is a one-time $14.99 purchase.
Debt Ladder: Snowball Plan by Adelyons Software LLC has no bank linking and no account, and it is also on Android. It is free for up to 3 debts, and Pro costs $4.99 a month, $19.99 a year or $39.99 for lifetime access.
TinyDebt: Debt Payoff Planner by Vladislav Siumbeli says no bank syncing is required, and it is also on Android. It is free for up to 3 debts, and snowball and avalanche are part of Pro, which costs $4.99 a month, $29.99 a year or $59.99 for lifetime access.
Debt Payoff Planner & Tracker by OxbowSoft LLC will not connect to your accounts, according to its support page, and it runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web. Its website says you are asked to create an account on first use, and subscriptions cost $6.99 a month or $27.99 a year.

To see prices, ratings and privacy labels side by side, read Best debt payoff apps for iPhone (2026).

Questions

All questions

Is it safe to use a debt app without a bank link?

The app never asks for your bank login and does not access financial accounts. You do not create an account. Your debts are stored on your iPhone and in your private iCloud. The developer has no server and cannot see them. Its App Store privacy label lists Purchases as linked to you, and Identifiers and Usage Data as not linked to you.

Does the app work offline?

Yes. The App Store listing says the app works offline. Your debts are saved on your iPhone and in your private iCloud.

What happens to my data if I delete the app?

Your debts are stored on your iPhone and in your own iCloud account, in the private iCloud database that only you can access. If you delete the app and install it again while signed in to iCloud, your debts come back. The developer has no server and cannot see your debts.

Can I use it outside the US?

Yes. The app is on the App Store outside the US and comes in 15 languages. You type in your debts, so it works with any bank or lender. Prices on this page are US prices, and the App Store shows your local price before you pay.

Should I use snowball or avalanche?

Snowball pays the smallest balance first, so you close a debt sooner. Avalanche pays the highest interest rate first, so you usually pay less interest. In our worked example with three debts and $150 extra a month, avalanche took 29 months and $1,427.12 in interest, and snowball took 30 months and $1,618.61.

Do I need an account?

No. You do not create an account in the app. If you buy Premium, Apple handles the purchase through your Apple Account.