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October 13, 2008 7:14 PM

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Mint seems cool, but I'm afraid to give them my banking and credit card passwords.

1 replies

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blackmage439

October 14, 2008 3:16 PM

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@mergatroy6: That's the same thing that made me shy away from Wasabe. Sure, I could just download the statements, which contain no account information, and upload them to Wasabe, but that's a pain. I also tried GNUCash, but I couldn't really get the hang of it. I might try again sometime, but I'm haven't decided yet.

For my purposes, my custom Excel spreadsheet works fine, and I don't have to worry about an online service or program tanking and not being supported.

On that note, I will NEVER use Quicken, Microsoft Money, or anything like that. The fact that Quicken constantly updates and claims \"tough shit\" when your older content won't open is inexcusable.

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junip

October 13, 2008 7:17 PM

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Best personal finance tool: Pencil, paper, and your brain. (:

2 replies

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HRHKingFridayXX

October 13, 2008 7:29 PM

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@junip: Yes, but do you really want to sit there and take notes on ever little part of your finances? It might work for you (and accounting majors), but for the rest of us not so much.

I love Mint, because it keeps up with itself. The only maintenance required is simply visiting the sites and playing with pie charts. Yum.

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junip

October 13, 2008 8:07 PM

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@HRHKingFridayXX: I'm not an accounting major, but if I have to sit down and sort through all my spending/saving habits by hand, I will pay much closer attention to what I'm doing.

Of course, I'm also single, and in my mid-20s, so my financials won't be as complicated as many others. I keep track of school loan payments, monthly expensese and my savings plan. woot.

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Traveshamockery

October 13, 2008 7:21 PM

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Unfortunately, I'm too \"tin-foil-hat\" to keep my financial information online, though I'd love the convenience.

If Quicken wasn't so frickin' complicated (it's virtually impossible to find out \"did I stay within my budget this month\") I'd love it. But as it is, I basically have to use it as a fancy check register.

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drrew

October 13, 2008 7:24 PM

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I like Microsoft Money, but I get it free, if I had to pay, I'd probably turn to one of the free options.

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October 13, 2008 7:31 PM

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While I like the concept of a one-stop-shop for live financial records, I don't trust it. 1) I don't want to give out my account info to 3rd parties and 2) bank records are never as up-to-date as my personal ledger.

I wrote a check last week. I know that money is gone, but it won't show up in my online ledger for another few days. What I want is a ledger-based program like Money that is accessible from any browser.

1 replies

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October 13, 2008 7:39 PM

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@yagisencho: That is exactly why I've never set Quicken up to auto-download my transactions. I go online and check my bank accounts and make sure things match up, but I will enter transactions as I make them.

I'm also part of the crowd that doesn't want to give Mint all my banking login information.

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The Falcon Cheerleader Jean Tassle Intern

October 13, 2008 7:32 PM

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Mint's at that sweet spot right now where it's big enough to be credible and trustworthy, and not so big that it has to start making concessions to the more typical (read: dumbass) consumer.

Wish my Credit Union credit card would work with it, but it's not a deal-breaker for me.

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SmritaImbecilium

October 13, 2008 7:47 PM

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Mint.com - According to their website, you have nothing to worry about having your account information on-line any more than what your bank already post on-line.

http://www.mint.com/privacy/

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October 13, 2008 7:54 PM

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I started using expensr.com last week and really like it so far. My husband's one requirement was a pie chart, and it delivers in that department. It's also really easy to use and customize.

1 replies

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October 13, 2008 9:56 PM

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@QabilPashnani: I used to use Expensr, too, until I realized that Mint was about 1,345,897,237 times easier to use, and supported every one of my accounts:

4 Credit Cards (3 different banks)
1 Line of Credit
2 Checking Accounts
1 Savings Account
1 Car Loan
401K

I love it.

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October 13, 2008 8:09 PM

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www.clearcheckbook.com ftw.

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ktoth04

October 13, 2008 8:11 PM

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Quicken online is now free.

[quicken.intuit.com]

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October 13, 2008 8:12 PM

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Still using Money 2004; no compelling reason to upgrade and I'm not quite ready to trust all my personal financial info to a web based app.

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October 13, 2008 8:15 PM

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Yodlee has proven to be very useful to me. It has a lot of accounts linked in that mint does not (including my credit union that mint does not) and has a lot of tracking/sorting features. In addition has bill pay, alerts, and its free. Seems like it was a huge one that this list missed.

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October 13, 2008 8:18 PM

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I've been using a excel spreadsheet called YNAB on my mac (there's also a software version windows only) and it has changed my life since I started using it in January 2008. The trick in it is that the software comes along with a new philosophy on how you should manage your personal finances. It takes a while to learn how to use it put it pays off a 101% the time spent.

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njovin

October 13, 2008 8:36 PM

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I'm also a big fan of Money. The main reason I prefer it over quicken is te nice cash flow graphs. I can very easily see how much money I SHOULD have on any given date, and if I want to take a trip or make a special purchase I can plan the rest of my bills accordingly.

1 replies

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October 13, 2008 10:04 PM

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@njovin: I agree 100%. This is an awesome feature. It's nice to say yeah my account has a few grand in it now, but where will it be in 2 years?

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JeremiahFimbria

October 13, 2008 8:37 PM

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Dear Mint,

For the love of free personal finance software, please add the ability to split transactions *with different dates on the splits*.

It's very difficult to use Mint right now to track where your cash goes. You can \"split\" the original ATM withdrawl, but your splits all end being on the same date and it skews your reporting. It's better then nothing, but a much needed feature.

I find Mint INCREDIBLY useful now that I've got a few months of data in it. Their \"Trends\" reports are eye opening to say the last (Must stop spending so much on beer ...).

As an IT guy in the security sector, yes I am a little weary of having essentially all my financial information in a one stop target for identity thieves and hackers. Yes, a hack could make my life incredibly inconvenient but I don't think I could personally be held accountable if I contact my banks when I start noticing suspicous activity.

The truth is I check my statements MORE now with Mint then before, so I think the chances of some erroneous add-on charge (profiled here on the Consumerist many times) or phonecard purchases from Romania is much more likely to be noticed

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pezhore

October 13, 2008 8:52 PM

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I am a huge fan of www.expensr.com It doesn't require any account numbers or bank account information... The Accounts can be labeled however you like, and there's support for budgeting and analysis of where my money went.

Another big plus is you can import csv and quicken files if you're too lazy to manually type in all those trips to the movie theatre. I've been using it for the better part of a year and I love it.

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October 13, 2008 9:20 PM

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Why why why is there nothing in the UK :'(? I've been waiting for ages for Mint to let me add my bank account and it's still US-only. And Quicken doesn't exist here either, it's Money or, um, paper. Programmers among you, here's a niche!

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dmuth

October 13, 2008 9:23 PM

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I'm surprised Moneydance wasn't reviewed. I've been using it for about a year now and have been generally satisfied with it.

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OmicroN

October 13, 2008 9:27 PM

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I tried Quicken online. As a Quicken user since 2001, I figured this would be the next best method. Why not web based? It doesn't matter on which computer I connect, Mac, PC, Linux, etc.

The deal killer for me: They have NO way to import existing Quicken data. I don't want to abandon the many years of existing data, reporting capabilities, etc.

The 2009 Beta for Mac OS X should be out soon, hopefully Intuit contacts me to try it out . . . .

1 replies

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October 14, 2008 2:02 AM

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@OmicroN: Exactly my problem. Why in the hell can't Quicken Online import data from Quicken desktop? Ridiculous.

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October 13, 2008 9:37 PM

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i really like wesabe. it's simple, community oriented, and secure according to slate.

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BinaryTB

October 13, 2008 9:50 PM

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I prefer Yodlee.com. Intuit is never going to get my cash because of their horrible practices with their Quicken software and forcing banks and users to upgrade/fork-over-cash. Mint.com is great usability wise, but Yodlee (which is the backend for Mint anyway) supports more feature and more accounts than Mint.com (Netflix comes to mind), put in future transactions (VERY important to me, I can write a check, and then enter it into Yodlee as a future transaction; I really wish Mint.com had this feature).

One thing missing from Yodlee though, which I haven't found in any online financial management software, manually reconciling your transactions, that's why I still use Microsoft Money primarily. That and importing from other data. It is on Yodlee's list of features to add though (written by their developers in their forum, early 2009 they mentioned? While currently there is a hackish workaround for it). So once it pulls all of my data in from the credit card companies, I can manually check off what I recognize and handle the unrecognized transactions making sure the card was used properly and not stolen.

Btw, since no online software can import, if you're thinking about using it eventually, I say sign up now, put in all your account info and then wait. The online portals will pull in all the data it can (depending on how far back your bank/credit-card holds data), but having that few month buffer is good too, so that when you do decide to switch, it isn't that tough without importing all that old info.

2 replies

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October 14, 2008 2:00 PM

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@BinaryTB: Second Yodlee.

Same as mint (and many other online svcs) under the hood, not as flashy but has a few more features.

Yodlee has painless csv export, I started by switching personal finances a long time ago and this year started using it for business as well. Head and shoulders above MS Money or Quicken because it's free, extremely well supported and strong community, and just plain works.

To the person who said pencil and paper: if you can manage my finances with just a pencil and paper, and keep it straight for more than half a day, you are hired. Inquire within.

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October 13, 2008 10:09 PM

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@BinaryTB: Thats a major point, that no online online software can import. I have used Microsoft Money for 3 years now, and I have all my transactions categorized the way I like. If i could have cash flow analysis and import from ms money, I'd be all over mint.

Another nice feature that Money has is rules for automatically categorizing transactions. Everything from dunks is obviously coffee, and everything from Busa's is beer and cigarettes. Microsoft Money KNOWS i love my beer.

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October 13, 2008 10:43 PM

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Quicken 2009 for PC. I get it free through work and that works well into my budget. Otherwise, It would be Columnar formatted spreadsheet.

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DominiqueAlcaeus

October 13, 2008 10:55 PM

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One thing that really bugs me is that almost every piece of software requires your data to go through third parties. I was an avid Quicken user until I found out that when I entered in my bank information to get my transactions directly from my bank it was going through Quicken's servers.

It seems unreasonable to trust a company with 100% of your financial information, especially if you are running a small business.

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October 13, 2008 11:24 PM

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Excel workbook, one sheet for each account, rolled up on the first sheet. Requires some manual updates (some, such as stock prices, are updated via macros), but I sleep better knowing exactly where my data is.

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chiieddy

October 14, 2008 12:05 AM

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I use Moneydance which is platform independent and quite good.

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zolielo

October 14, 2008 12:24 AM

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For me it is just excel, as well. Macros, vba, hyperlinks, and functions.

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Pants_11

October 14, 2008 7:19 AM

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I use Money Manager ex, I have simple finances so I input all the transactions myself. This way I don't have to put in any of the actual account details.

Also, things got a lot easier when I made a separate account for my wallet so I didn't have to chase up and split every cash withdrawal. All the money that \"just disappears\" I put under the 'food' category (the most likely culprit :)

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October 14, 2008 12:28 PM

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I have been using Buxfer for quite a while now and prefer it over Mint. Mint is pretty nice but I think Buxfer is a bit more flexible. Example, you can enter your own transactions and you don't have to save your bank and login info on their site.

www.buxfer.com

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12-Inch Idongivafuck Sandwich

October 14, 2008 1:13 PM

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Again, I'm going to recommend Yodlee. Like mint, only better.

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October 14, 2008 1:17 PM

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A long time ago, in a universe far away, my bank (Security First Network Bank) had a \"live balance sheet\" where you could put checks and such in, and it would reconcile when the check was posted.

I turned away because they wanted to start charging fees.
Now they have been acquired by RBC Centura, and Centura's web-banking software is the carbon copy of everyone else's...

Anyone have a bank with some nifty web banking features?

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vumastr

October 14, 2008 7:12 PM

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I second DMuth's comments on Moneydance. It's cheap, works flawlessly and covers the basics: account reconciliation, budgeting, daily ledger, etc. It has just the features that many people will need from Quicken or Money, but not all the unnecessary bells and whistles. I've been using it for almost two years now, and I couldn't be happier.

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October 15, 2008 1:25 PM

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Fortora Fresh Finance is a great alternative in my opinion. It's really simple to use, and it's compatible with both Mac and Windows. www.fortora.com

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global_dev

October 15, 2008 1:26 PM

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I second You Need A Budget 'YNAB' Not online, can import from any site (local to your computer).

I also bought a Neat Receipts recently off of Woot, not for any business expenses, but for personal use. Unbeliable piece of software and hardware. Its not for everyone, but its a keeper for me.

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October 15, 2008 2:22 PM

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I'm using Mint. I used to use Google Docs Spreadsheet.

It works on all of my accounts - 401k, ESPP, Roth IRA, traditional brokerage, car loan, all of my CCs, savings, checking, etc.

The only thing I don't like is ATM withdrawal tracking. Sometimes, I'll take out a decent amount of money and then re-deposit (if I go to casino and break even), but Mint tracks that as an expense. So when I go to my trends, it'll show a couple hundred dollars uncategorized expense as an ATM withdrawal.

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Anonymous

December 12, 2008 11:29 AM

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You should check out NeoBudget as well (www.neobudget.com). It's geared toward the envelope method of budgeting. While it's not free, it's dirt cheap at $2.50/month.

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