My Financial Recovery

Quicken Online – Better Than Mint.com?

Posted on: June 15, 2009 by Matt 2 Comments

For the past couple of months I have been looking to find a piece of software that would allow me to manage my money in one central location.  I looked at Mint.com but was disappointed to discover that they do not offer services for my bank.  I also had used Microsoft Money in the past but it looks like Microsoft will be discontinuing Money later this month.  The copy of Money I have is from 2005 and is on my desktop computer that now lives in my girlfriend’s office.  I do not spend a lot of time working in her space and therefore (due to the OEM license) do not have a copy on my laptop.  I began to search for alternatives by looking down the Quicken product line and discovered the free option of Quicken Online.

I created an account and figured I would give it the quickest test I could think of: trying to add my checking account.  My checking account is at a small local bank and the folks over at Mint.com do not have my bank as an option for adding the account.  Despite submitting a request to add the bank nothing has happend over the past couple of months that I have tried. Considering my previous luck I did not expect that Quicken Online would have access to my bank but when I started to set the account up I was pleasantly surprised to see my bank listed!

I went through the process and set up all of my accounts without issue and began to dig into the product a little bit.  Overall the product is very similar to the offering from Mint.com but appears to have less in the way of sponsored services / ads.  The interface is clean and intuitive and offers most features that you need to manage your finances on a basic level (exactly what I was looking for).  The service offers the ability to view all transactions for all accounts lumped together or for individual accounts only, trends for spending, income and savings and a “goals” section to plan a budget.  Additionally – the Quicken service offers the ability to manually add items like bills to your accounts which appeared to be missing from Mint.com’s offering.

Overall – I am fairly impressed by the quality of the “free” service offered by Quicken.  They have access to all the information that I need to have rolled up in one place and the ability to view that data in several different ways.  For me it seems like the most cost effective and robust choice available and I will probably use this as my new personal finance software (for now anyway).  The ability to have access in multiple locations and the broad range of features (including SMS alerts) will be enough to hold me as a customer for a while.

Mint.com Does Not Have My Bank

Posted on: March 2, 2009 by Matt No Comments

A SPRIG OF FRESH MINT LEAVES

Originally uploaded by giniger

I recently decided to take a look at Mint.com as I am considering different options for my personal finance management software.  The setup of the account was fairly straight forward but then I hit the section to add my banking accounts.  I suppose I was expecting to have an option to manually enter my bank name and manage the transactions myself based on what I write into my check book register.  I was mistaken. Mint.com has a built in search for the bank you wish to use and my bank is not in their database.

I was hesitant to even try the service due to the fact that it is an online offering and I am still hesitant to trust security.  I did a bit of research and turned up that they are VeriSign Secured as well as Truste Certified Privacy.  I am familiar with these two companies from my time spent as an IT Management Consultant (my day job) and after reading up the other security measures they have in place (they do not store your passwords, use bank level encryption levels) I decided to give it a shot.

I set up my account and attempted to get started on my account setup.  I must admit I was excited to see what the buzz has been about. I have heard some of the buzz for Mint.com but had not actually tried the service or read detailed reviews.

After logging into  my freshly created account I was prompted with a window to enter my bank’s URL or name to search it out.  I entered the URL for my current primary bank which is a small home town bank.  I chose to go with a smaller local bank over a national bank or even keeping my bank in Colorado because the local bank offered:

• A great interest rate on my checking account which is still at 3.2% (FOR CHECKING).
• Stellar customer service: I have not heard anything but good reviews of the bank.
• Ease of access: I like to go in and see someone every now and then when going about my banking.

So when I searched for my bank and turned up no results I was a bit disappointed.  I still prefer working with the local bank but was hoping to work with Mint.com as well to help keep tabs on my finances as I like to see the all collectively. I used the option to submit my bank for review to the customer support branch at Mint.com but have not yet heard anything back.

While I have so far been impressed with viewing all my other acconts on Mint.com I do wish that I could have the ability to add my primary checking!  I suppose it is back to between Quicken and Money for my personal budgeting and finance needs again.