How to track HDFC Bank transactions automatically

HDFC Bank already texts you every time money moves. PennyWise reads those messages on your phone and builds your spending record from them — no manual entry, no bank login, nothing leaves the device.

What PennyWise reads from your HDFC Bank messages
SMS from HDFCBK
Sent Rs.15000.00 From HDFC Bank A/C * To TEST MERCHANT PVT LTD On 01/01/26 Ref 567890567890 Not You? Call 18005556789/SMS BLOCK UPI to 7305556789
Read on your phone — nothing sent anywhere
−₹15,000.00
Money out
Merchant
TEST MERCHANT
Account
Reference
567890567890

A real HDFC Bank message format, run through the same parser that ships in the app. Try it on your own message in the parser tool.

How it works

  1. Install PennyWise and grant SMS permission. That permission is the whole product — it is how the app sees your HDFC Bank alerts.
  2. PennyWise scans the HDFC Bank messages already on your phone and back-fills your transaction history in seconds.
  3. Every new HDFC Bank alert is picked up as it arrives and categorised automatically. Budgets and spending trends update on their own.

Why not just use a bank-login app?

Apps that aggregate accounts ask for your net-banking or account credentials and hold your transaction history on their servers. PennyWise asks for neither. It has no account system, makes no network calls to read your money, and its full source is published under AGPL-3.0 so the claim is checkable rather than promised.

Common questions

Does PennyWise work with HDFC Bank?

Yes. HDFC Bank is one of 157 banks and payment services PennyWise recognises. Transaction alerts from HDFC Bank are detected automatically and turned into categorised transactions in INR.

Do I have to type my HDFC Bank transactions in by hand?

No. PennyWise reads the transaction SMS HDFC Bank already sends you and creates the entry itself — amount, merchant, date, account and running balance where the message includes it.

Does PennyWise need my HDFC Bank net-banking login or password?

Never. PennyWise has no login to your bank and no connection to HDFC Bank at all. It only reads the SMS already sitting on your phone, which is why it needs SMS permission and nothing else.

Is my HDFC Bank transaction data sent anywhere?

No. Parsing runs entirely on your device. There is no server, no account and no analytics on your financial data, and the source code is public so this can be verified.

What if a message from HDFC Bank is read incorrectly?

You can paste the message into the parser tool on this site to see exactly what PennyWise extracts, and report it in one click if it is wrong. Parser fixes ship in the next release.

Other banks PennyWise supports in India

54 supported in India — see them all.

PennyWise is a free, open-source (AGPL-3.0) expense tracker. Bank SMS are parsed entirely on your device — nothing is uploaded, and there is no account to create. Browse all supported banks.