Comments on: Why I Stopped Being Paranoid and Started Using Mint

By: Highwind

Highwind — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:22:50 +0000

Hi
I am a developer and want to warn you to not give out your credentials to anybody. I would not even store them offline on my harddisk.

Eventhough such services as mint try to be as save as possible, there are several reasons for not using them:
- it is just another place that can be hacked. Don’t compare security with your bank. This is not instead, it is in addition.
- it is a very attractive place to be hacked (or just sniffed, listening in)
- it is probably illegal (read your banks terms about online banking) to share credentials with anyone. Therefore, if something happens it is your own fault.
- most us banks do not use a TAN (transaction number) or one time password for transactions, which is very dangerous (just stupid). Therefore once your credentials become known transactions can be made.

These are probably reasons why some banks are simply not cooperating with such services.
I strongly advice anyone to not use them ( sorry to be that direct ).

By: dburns

dburns — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:59:05 +0000

Been using Mint for a few months now and love it! Like you, I used to use Quicken. Mint is so much nicer as far as managing personal finances + added view of business accounts.

Curious as to what you use for Business finances. I use Quickbooks and am happy with it. (Would be interested in a business counterpart to Mint; Mint-like competitor to Quickbooks.)

Dakota

By: phoenix

phoenix — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:09:09 +0000

I signed up for Mint a while ago, and while I still have at least one bank that’s not supported by them (pretty much a reminder for me to leave them and consolidate my retirement accounts) I absolutely love it, if for nothing more than a consolidated view of my financial activity at this stage.

I haven’t even touched on some of the power features you’ve described here, and the rest that are under the hood – my rationale for signing up was that I was tired of logging into three banks to see my retirement funds, three banks for three different credit cards, and two banks for checking and savings accounts – I wanted a way to see it all, and all of their respective activity, at the same time, and Mint is perfect for that.

The fact that there’s so much more under the hood, all for free, is cake!

By: mvrpbrian

mvrpbrian — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:27:54 +0000

Mint would be fantastic if they offered a download version of it instead of it being a web 2.0/cloud application. I understand the appeal of the cloud but for security, I really like the control of installed software. I’m not a programmer, so perhaps this is a very naive stance.

By: J-Mac

J-Mac — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:39:11 +0000

Without the capability to create or change top-level categories, Mint.com has very limited usability for me. Dumping so many categories under other categories as sub-categories makes it tough to manage anything.

Jim

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:00:38 +0000

Thanks for the review, Gina. Were there reasons why you chose Mint over the online version of Quicken?

By: Jason Thomas

Jason Thomas — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:14:03 +0000

My issue with Mint.com is that I want reminders for my other bills–utilities, insurance, mortgage, etc. Mint will do it for those accounts they monitor, but if they don’t monitor them like they do your Credit Cards and Bank Accounts, you are out of luck.

Personally, I’m looking for something with much tighter integration with my bank’s online payment system–I use BoA. My issue, really is with how MS Money handles Electronic Payments and how my bank’s website does.

At the end of the day, Mint is a nice snapshot of things, but sometimes there are things a connected financial software such as Quicken handle better.

I’m still looking for the perfect zen-like combination.

By: Nathan Jovin

Nathan Jovin — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:39:43 +0000

The only thing that keeps me tied to MS Money is the Cash Flow Chart. A lot of times we want to see what our cash flow looks like over the next 15 or 30 days to see if we can afford to buy a new bike or take a mini vacation. If Mint had that it’d be my killer financial app.

By: Ilene Frank

Ilene Frank — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 01:05:03 +0000

I am a Mint.com fan! I too gulped at putting in those username and passwords for my banking information, but I was persuaded to go for it by a colleague who’s got a masters in computer science. I decided if he was ok with it, I’d be ok with it. I set up a Mint.com account about four months ago. I’m a few paychecks away from retiring from my current position. Carefully tracking my spending over the last four months has actually been reassuring! I’m going to keep trying to find a way to generate some additional income, but I can see that I’ll be able to manage if I can keep my wits about me and don’t imagine I can do anything fancy. (P.S. Whatever you are saving toward your retirement… It’s not enough. I sure wish I’d caught on earlier in my work life.)

By: Matt Wallaert

Matt Wallaert — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:55:50 +0000

@Nadezda Moiseeva: If you don’t mind, shoot me a note at matt@justthrive.com and let us know what banks you are having trouble getting support for. I want to make sure that we connect to them and, if not, turn them over to our account team to contact so that we can get them setup.

@Herm71: Just an FYI, the ING Direct problem is ING’s decision, not Mint (or Thrive, or anyone else’s). ING has chosen to not support their customers and has pledged not to work with aggragators.

@Mike Cerm: That is a valuable point, and one we make often at Thrive. In reality, we’re actually storing much less information than your bank is, and if someone compromises your bank, they can actually move money around (which you can’t do in Thrive, Mint, or any other account aggregator that I know of).

However, I did have a chat with the COO a few weeks ago when he was in New York, and I suggested a secure solution they could use to connect to Thrive, which he said they are working on to have implemented by the end of the year.

@Ted Avery: Thrive works in Canada, and with most of the major Canadian banks. If you give us a try and find that we don’t support your bank, just shoot us a note at support@justthrive.com and we’ll get it added to our list of banks to talk to.