Despite the buzz surrounding outfits such as Wesabe and recently acquired Mint, just five per cent of Americans use personal financial management Web sites compared to the 50% still relying on old fashioned pen and paper to track their money.
With recession forcing Americans to get a tighter grip on their spending, nearly eight out of 10 have adopted a money management system, according to a survey of 2000 people from Javelin Strategy & Research.
Online banking is the most popular method for tracking finances, used by 59% of those polled. Of these, one in three check their balances daily and half look weekly.
A fifth of respondents track their money on spreadsheets such as Excel while 12% use software like Quicken.
Despite the slow take-up of personal finance management tools, Javelin says they have strong potential because 63% of respondents would like to see all of their accounts in one place - even if they hold them with multiple banks.
Mark Schwanhausser, analyst, Javelin, says: "The appetite for more sophisticated, computerised methods is evident and institutions that provide a consolidated solution will earn the lion's share of the business."
The potential for online personal finance offerings was underlined last week by the news that Intuit has agreed a $170 million deal to buy Mint, which has over 1.4 million registered users.
Wesabe, the other big player in the market has taken a different path and is looking to work with banks and credit unions by launching a Web-services-based version of its money management platform.
The SpringBoard platform lets financial institutions offer their customers the range of money management tools and community features available on Wesabe through their own Web sites.