Guides
Guides for getting your money in.
Practical, step-by-step routes for moving your transaction history into Arden. Written for the path most banks actually take in 2026, not the one in some 2017 forum post.
Most-asked
Start with these.
7-year archive
Chase
Checking, savings, and credit cards each ship their own layout. ~7-year archive by statement; ~90-day rolling window for credit cards.
Open the guide
18-month window
Bank of America
18 months for checking, 12 for credit cards. Account-summary preamble that trips up most importers — Arden skips it automatically.
Open the guide
90-day window
Capital One
~90-day rolling window with split Debit/Credit columns. The tightest export window of any major issuer — plan your migration accordingly.
Open the guide
All guides
Every bank we've documented.
- Chase
- Bank of America
- Wells Fargo
- Capital One
- Citi
- American Express
- Fidelity
- Charles Schwab
- SoFi
- Navy Federal
Your bank not listed? Drop the file into /import anyway → column detection works on any CSV, XLSX, OFX, or QFX.
How these guides work
What you'll find in every guide.
Each bank guide is structured the same way so you can scan past what you already know and land on what you don't.
Bank-by-bank routes
The actual click path through each desktop site in 2026 — not the 2017 forum-post version. Updated when banks reshuffle their UI.
Date-range caps + format quirks
How far back each bank lets you go. Split Debit/Credit columns, Windows-1252 encoding gotchas, missing header rows — Arden handles them; we just tell you which to expect.
Direct-to-Arden imports
No column mapping. No template downloads. Drag the file Arden’s importer detects every column from content — date, payee, amount, sign convention.
No bank login required
Every guide assumes you're staying on the Privacy plan. CSV-only workflows mean Arden never sees a bank credential and Plaid never enters the picture.
Common questions
Before you start.
- My bank isn’t listed. Will Arden still import it?
- Yes. Arden's importer doesn't have a fixed list of supported banks — column detection runs from the file itself. Drop whatever CSV, XLSX, OFX, or QFX your bank produced into /import and the parser figures it out. The 10 bank-specific guides exist to save you a trip to your bank's help center, not to gate which banks work.
- How far back can I export?
- Wildly variable. SoFi gives you 2 years for checking. Chase keeps a 7-year statement archive but caps the rolling credit-card window at ~90 days. Citi is the tightest at ~90 days flat. Each bank guide notes the specific limits.
- Do I need a Plaid connection if I use the Privacy plan?
- No — that’s the whole point of Privacy ($5/mo). Bring your own CSVs from any bank. Arden never asks for a bank credential. Plus ($12/mo) adds Plaid sync on top of everything Privacy already does — it’s additive, not a substitute.
- Can I combine multiple exports into one Arden account?
- Yes. Import each bank's file separately — the importer maps each one to an account in Arden. You can also drop multi-file imports in the same session and Arden de-duplicates against existing transactions.
Keep reading
The story behind the guides.
Blog
CSV-first budgeting: why we built the import layer first
The architectural decision that put CSV import in front of bank syncing — and what it taught us about how people actually move between budgeting apps.
Read
Blog
What "private" really means in personal finance
A 4-question test for any finance app claiming privacy. Plus where Plaid, Mint, and Monarch each land on it.
Read
Comparison
Arden vs Mint — the honest replacement
Mint shut down. Most replacements are worse on privacy. Here's the comparison we'd actually want to read.
Read
Bring your file. Skip the bank login.
Privacy plan is $5/mo — manual + CSV, full app, no Plaid. Or try Plus free for 30 days, no credit card required, if you want bank syncing on top.