This article was published on September 14, 2011

Manilla’s free, online account management now on Android and iOS


Manilla’s free, online account management now on Android and iOS

By now you’ve likely gotten your automatic bill pay set up, you have a list of your monthly bills and you don’t really have to think about them all that much. While that’s handy, there is a lot to be said for having access to at-a-glance information about your accounts that automatic pay often can’t provide.

Now take that a step further. What if you could keep track of your frequent flyer accounts, your Netflix, LivingSocial, Groupon and magazine subscriptions all in that same interface? The ability to quickly look, see the status of almost any bill and account, and then interact with them from a single place is hugely powerful, and that’s the benefit of Manilla.

Manilla has been around since June of this year after launching at DEMO in March. It’s a free service that keeps track of just about every online account that you can imagine. For me, it covers every monthly bill except for my electricity (which comes via a local co-op, so that’s not surprising). There are over 1,200 providers in the Manilla database, and every week the site adds 100 more.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that I said Netflix and Groupon were now included with Manilla. By monitoring your account, Manilla can tell you what’s in your Netflix queue, what’s in your house and when queued movies are likely to arrive. For Groupon, you’ll get an account status that shows your available deals, as well as their expiration dates.

Now here’s where the genius of Manilla really comes in – alerts. You can customize alerts to your desire, so that you’ll get emails and text messages, on top of the on-site reminders. In short, it should make sure you’re never paying a bill late again, or missing out on redeeming a daily deal that you bought a few weeks ago.

Add all of these features together and Manilla is incredibly powerful. But what about when you can’t sit down at your computer? Well as of today the company is releasing apps for both Android and iOS that will keep you in the know when you’re out and about. I’ve been playing with the iOS app in beta for a few days and I’ve found it to be fully-featured, easy to use and an invaluable addition to an already-great service.

It is, unfortunately, for US-based accounts only. There’s no word yet fit he Manilla team plans to expand internationally. At any rate, if you’re tired of keeping up with 20 different sites for all of your online accounts, Manilla is an invaluable resource that I still can’t believe is free. I’d gladly pay a few bucks each month for the convenience that it brings, and it’s likely that you’ll have to at some point in the future.

For now, take advantage of the fact that you have a simple, one-site-solution for all of your online accounts. You’re able to pull in bills and statements, so it’s also a great solution to eliminating a few more pieces of snail mail. Want to give it a shot? Head over to the Manilla site to register, then grab the iOS or Android flavor of its new mobile app. You won’t be sorry.

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