Anyone use Mint.com for finances?

dynamik

I just signed up the other day, and it's pretty slick. Does anyone else have any experience with it?

Free Personal Finance Software, Online Money Management, Budget Planner and Financial Planning | Mint.com

vCole

I use clearcheckbook.com. I don't feel comfortable with a website having all my bank/credit card logins

jryantech

I use an Excel Spreadsheet and here are the reasons why:

1. I can update my stuff whenever I want even after I just did a transaction. Mint.com only updates when things 'clear' in your account.
2. I like too keep my information to myself, having my valuable information on someone elses database worries me.. especially when that database has been reported in Nigeria.
3. IMO if your too lazy to do your own fiances and math then your already behind in the game we call Financial Stability.

That's just how I see things,
Mint does look very slick.. I had a web class that touched on it's type of coding.

msteinhilber

I have looked into some services, but the only one I have ever come remotely close to signing up for was Wesabe.com because it was the only halfway decent looking one I saw at the time that would let me manually import data rather than provide bank login data (which I will never do). I don't care how many layers of security or how many promises are made, I don't trust sensitive data such as login info with any 3rd party.

I've been keeping track of spending through Quicken 2008, if I need to access it remotely I could I suppose but I really don't need access on the go. I just use it once a week or so to see where my money is going and look for bad trends and help plan what to pay off.

dynamik

Just curious, did you guys take a look at their security information: How Mint Personal Finance Management Protects Your Financial Safety - Financial Calculator | Mint.com

msteinhilber

dynamik wrote: »

Just curious, did you guys take a look at their security information: How Mint Personal Finance Management Protects Your Financial Safety - Financial Calculator | Mint.com

I did, but they have to keep your bank login credentials stored somehow (encrypted obviously) in order to pull in transaction data. And in order to pull that data they would need to be able to decrypt those credentials in order to pass it to to your banking institute unless I'm mistaken on how they operate. It sounds to me like they update your Mint.com account regularly, yet claim they do not see or store your banking institute usernames and passwords.

I'm sure however they do it that it is very secure, but I just don't care to provide any 3rd party that information.

gwamaka

I have been using Mint.com for a little over a year and I like it. The only thing that is a little bit scary is if their systems get compromised and you have all your bank accounts, credit cards and other private info. Otherwise though, its a pretty good resource for managing your finances.

dynamik wrote: »

I just signed up the other day, and it's pretty slick. Does anyone else have any experience with it?

Free Personal Finance Software, Online Money Management, Budget Planner and Financial Planning | Mint.com

kalebksp

Mint uses Yodlee as a proxy to access financial information. So you're login information isn't on Mint's servers, it's on Yodlee's.

Even so I use Mint, I doubt many people are going to go though the trouble to steal the small amount of money I keep in the bank or my poor credit score.

Slowhand

I don't mind inputting my bank credentials, (someone else wants my lousy credit and remaining $2.00, they can have it,) that's how I was using MS Money for a long time. I'm very lazy*, and automagically updating my PDA with my bank balance was a lifesaver to my financial well-being. I'm at a point now where I'd love to go back to punching in my spending on my phone or PDA as I'm at the store, then seeing the actual bank balance reflected back, (this is the only way I keep from splurging on toys,) so if Mint.com has some little app or web service that I can use to put my info in as I go, I'm sold. Otherwise, it's time to fire up my copy of Lynda.com's Quicken course.

Seriously, though, I'm not as inherently concerned as some about the security-aspects of sites like these or transmitting my credentials across the wire. I do a little research, make sure it's not a scam to begin with, (like my bank,) and I'm good. As long as I keep myself somewhat informed of how these companies are doing, and make sure that I'm kept up to date on when they've been compromised, (like Visa and MasterCard have been, but they're quick to get on it and let me know that my money's bee messed with,) then it's all good. In the end, they're still liable for my information, and a little bit of foresight goes a long way to perpetuate my laziness.

*(So. . . lazy. . . can't. . . go on. C'mon, I'm in IT and I'm a college student. You don't expect me to do real work, do you?!?)

skrpune

jryantech wrote: »

I use an Excel Spreadsheet and here are the reasons why:

1. I can update my stuff whenever I want even after I just did a transaction. Mint.com only updates when things 'clear' in your account.
2. I like too keep my information to myself, having my valuable information on someone elses database worries me.. especially when that database has been reported in Nigeria.
3. IMO if your too lazy to do your own fiances and math then your already behind in the game we call Financial Stability.

That's just how I see things,
Mint does look very slick.. I had a web class that touched on it's type of coding.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying here. I have most of my passwords memorized, but I use a combo of a password protected Excel file (to store my log on info & such, and so that my hubby has some info in case I ever get hit by a bus or something) & Microsoft Money to do my money tracking. Call me paranoid, but I don't particularly like the idea of anyone having all my log on info stored, no matter how secure they claim their services are. Mint does look very very cool and gets excellent reviews, but I just don't know if I can trust having all my info in one place in someone else's hands.

I use a combo of hand-entry & transaction download (from credit card/bank websites) into Money, and it seems to work well. I've been using Money for years now and I can't tell you how much time and aggravation is saves me over doing it ALL in Excel by hand.

Jordus

it amazes me how over-**** people get about some things.

What is somebody going to do with your bank login information? Are they going to transfer money from your savings to your checking? LOL!

carboncopy

Jordus wrote: »

it amazes me how over-**** people get about some things.

What is somebody going to do with your bank login information? Are they going to transfer money from your savings to your checking? LOL!

From my bank account you can make transfers to external accounts

msteinhilber

carboncopy wrote: »

From my bank account you can make transfers to external accounts

Yup, I have several ING accounts and you can do external ACH transfers to a linked account. So there are instances where having online banking credentials could be bad. My Best Buy card, somebody could change my address online and request a new card. Many ways things could be exploited.

dynamik

All my accounts are pretty limited with what you can do online. None of them even show my account info, and if someone does something like request a new card, I'd be notified well before they received it.

I knew some people wouldn't be enthusiastic about it, and that's fine. It just strikes me as a funny that there's so much trepidation about state-of-the-art online security setups (not that they're impenetrable) while so many unskilled, careless workers handle or have access to much more sensitive information of yours. I bet you all have your SSNs and everything else necessary for identy-theft at utility companies, cell providers, student accounts, etc. I've been involved with one case of identity theft, and that involved someone taking my info off of a physical credit application. The tool opened up the account himself and bought merchandise from the same store. It was an open-and-shut case, but it was still a major PITA to deal with.

gojericho0

This is precisely why all my money is under my mattress... no need to worry about online account information, and as a bonus i didn't even have to purchase a box spring. BOOYA

dynamik

gojericho0 wrote: »

...and as a bonus i didn't even have to purchase a box spring.

Do nickels provide good stability?

That was harsh. I should have said quarters...

msteinhilber

dynamik wrote: »

All my accounts are pretty limited with what you can do online. None of them even show my account info, and if someone does something like request a new card, I'd be notified well before they received it.

I knew some people wouldn't be enthusiastic about it, and that's fine. It just strikes me as a funny that there's so much trepidation about state-of-the-art online security setups (not that they're impenetrable) while so many unskilled, careless workers handle or have access to much more sensitive information of yours. I bet you all have your SSNs and everything else necessary for identy-theft at utility companies, cell providers, student accounts, etc. I've been involved with one case of identity theft, and that involved someone taking my info off of a physical credit application. The tool opened up the account himself and bought merchandise from the same store. It was an open-and-shut case, but it was still a major PITA to deal with.

Believe me, I'm just as if not more paranoid about the employees in at my bank or other institutes that I hold sensitive accounts - precisely because of how more people seem to be so far concerned with 3rd parties. You are very much correct, many people see a 3rd party and all of a sudden it's an instant "WHAT?! I'm NOT giving my info out to them" when in reality they are just as if not more of susceptible within the realm of their bank or other institution. If anything I would expect the 3rd party to be more secure since they are dealing with constant scrutiny.

I suppose my stance isn't strictly the stance of not having signed up because I'm fearful of my sensitive data being leaked. Instead, it's more of a mix between the added potential point of exposure in addition to the benefit I will receive from the service. I've tried Wesabe.com once prior which is similar but you have to manually upload your data, cool features, but I just didn't get much benefit from it compared to what I currently do on my PC at home. My wife and I are not huge spenders and we both have a pretty good idea of our bank balances. We also operate from three checking accounts, we each have our own and we also have a bills checking. We have automatic transfers from our accounts upon paydays spread through the month to cover the cost of our bills in which we know the exact amounts and we manually transfer the rest as the other bills come due. As a result we can splurge here and there with minimal risk of having an overdraft since our bills are drawn from a different account. If one of us wasn't on the same page as far as managing our money goes, I'm sure we'd utilize a service like Mint.com since it would be more beneficial at that point to us - but we just have an alternate system that works for us

Forsaken_GA

I'm a little bit of an oddball.

I use gnucash on Ubuntu on a VM in MacOS. I do it this way so I have access to it wherever I am, since my laptop follows me around everywhere. It has the capability to update my records by pulling data online from my bank, but I don't use it.

I find that forcing myself to enter my transactions by hand makes me accountable for and conscious of my spending. I seriously think twice about making large expenditures when I'm faced with my net worth on an almost daily basis, and I find myself thinking twice about making many small purchases when I'm faced with the annoyance of entering all the transactions by hand. I used to just buy food each day, whatever I felt like eating, I bought. Now I actually plan my grocery list in advance, and it's helped me focus on areas where I was overspending, as well as allowing me to buy in bulk and save money. About the only online financial aspect I use is my banks bill pay service. It's convenient to not have to go to the post office to pay my bills, and while banking online may be somewhat secure, paying your bills online still puts you in a position to be compromised. I used to pay my bills online, but in 2007, I had 3 credit cards automatically replaced because payment processors had their customer databases compromised. So I don't give my credit card info to anyone if I can avoid it.

msteinhilber

dynamik wrote: »

Do nickels provide good stability?

That was harsh. I should have said quarters...

He's a high roller... silver dollars yo!

kimanyd

Looks like Intuit is buying Mint

Hyper-Me

Yeah I guess Intuit has enough cash to just buy the people who blatantly spank them at their own game.

sdyess

I signed up yesterday, so far I like it.

bgrablin

I use mint.com for all my finances, auto loans, mortgages, and including my investment accounts. It provides a very good graphical representation of my overall finances to include my net worth.

sagewalkinthere

I tried Mint.com for a while but was frustrated when I realized I couldn't just randomly add cash expenses... since I just got married, I had a lot of cash lying around that I would use sometimes and wanted to try and track it, but it didn't let me. :-\

Anyway, I just use Excel now... my wife aparently has used Excel forever and loves it.

Bokeh

Thats typical Intuit. Years ago they bought a tax software company (LaCerte) based in Dallas as it was too big a competition for their CPA tax software. Now, the folks at LaCerte got a nice deal - tons of stock, cash for how long you worked at the company prior to buy out, increased vacation time, etc.