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Doesn't say in the article but I assume they are keeping Mint? Desktop apps like Quicken (and the similar Microsoft Money) were dead to me the minute that came

Doesn't say in the article but I assume they are keeping Mint? Desktop apps like Quicken (and the similar Microsoft Money) were dead to me the minute that came on the scene (almost 9 years ago at this point).

weinzierl 11y ago
I'm a happy user of many web-based services, but why would anyone give all their personal financial data to single company? Ok, the success of Mint proves me wrong, I just don't get it. It's not only that they can use your data to build and sell a profile, there is a realistic chance that the data gets leaked.
- beagle3 11y ago
  wesabe[0] can supposedly by run on your own server; not sure if there are any forks that are useful/updated, and have never tried it myself. I'm with you. Can't figure out how millions of people just give away every piece of information about themselves with hardly a second thought (financial data -> mint; phonebook -> whatsapp=facebook; mail -> gmail=google; etc.) [0] https://github.com/wesabe https://github.com/wesabe
- digitalzombie 11y ago
  > Ok, the success of Mint proves me wrong, I just don't get it. Well for one thing people are lazy and Mint devs actually take care of handling logins for all of those banks, credit cards companies, and credit unions. I'm not entirely sure if there's any other alternative non web base software that can do this. I would assume those apis are different between all those companies. Sure I can input my stuff manually but then again I'm lazy.
  - joshyeager 11y ago
    Quicken can download transactions from every bank I've used. From what I can tell, it uses the same APIs that Mint does. But the data is never stored anywhere but my home server.
    - jungturk 11y ago
      Quicken's bank feeds are processed the same way mint's are - through an Intuit service that makes the call to the financial institution. That call ostensibly adds other functional value (transaction categorization, friendly names for businesses), but Intuit's in custody of your financial data (and passwords) to perform that feature. Fortunately, Intuit's also (currently) takes lots of care to ensure proper data-at-rest and in-flight custodial procedures, but you're still trusting someone to do things right.
      - someguydave 11y ago
        Also, I'm not sure that your bank or credit union or especially credit card warrants all that much trust either - what are the chances that they could resist a well-planned hack? Or that they aren't already selling your data? At some point, it's better that you have a copy of your data too if all the third-party advertisers already have one.
- monkeybad 11y ago
  Because it's extremely convenient, and they provide a useful service? The trade-off between someone else doing work for you, so you can do something else you want to do, is never going away.
- VLM 11y ago
  The other response cover the WTF WRT specifically web based company, I propose the general response of people aspire to getting actionable analysis. Companies don't actually have to provide actionable measurable quantitative analysis results, they just have to promise it could happen. My personal experience with Quicken and Mint is I never got any actionable measurable results from the effort. Yes I saw all the ads about how I'd get special offers to save $5 on my car insurance or it would make me save for retirement or whatever, but over many years of Quicken and a couple years of Mint it never amounted to anything valuable. Then it becomes an insurance and sunk cost game, well, I've tossed away all this time and effort to organize unnecessary data, I guess I need to keep going to "save" my sunk cost. Eventually I chucked them both. The minimal time to maintain adds up over time and cuts into actual analytical analysis (not to mention recreational time) and in return, as mentioned, I got nothing out of it. Not all aspirational products are worthless to all people, I'm sure there exists someone who got something measurably important out of their mint or quicken experience. Just not me or anyone I know. It is kind of the diet industry is a good analogy to the personal budgeting industry. The dieting industry makes people feel they're doing something important when they pick up a book or try to live off nothing but grapefruit juice for three days; all that really happens in the end is the provider makes money.

weinzierl 11y ago

I'm a happy user of many web-based services, but why would anyone give all their personal financial data to single company? Ok, the success of Mint proves me wrong, I just don't get it. It's not only that they can use your data to build and sell a profile, there is a realistic chance that the data gets leaked.

beagle3 11y ago
wesabe[0] can supposedly by run on your own server; not sure if there are any forks that are useful/updated, and have never tried it myself. I'm with you. Can't figure out how millions of people just give away every piece of information about themselves with hardly a second thought (financial data -> mint; phonebook -> whatsapp=facebook; mail -> gmail=google; etc.) [0] https://github.com/wesabe https://github.com/wesabe
digitalzombie 11y ago
> Ok, the success of Mint proves me wrong, I just don't get it. Well for one thing people are lazy and Mint devs actually take care of handling logins for all of those banks, credit cards companies, and credit unions. I'm not entirely sure if there's any other alternative non web base software that can do this. I would assume those apis are different between all those companies. Sure I can input my stuff manually but then again I'm lazy.
- joshyeager 11y ago
  Quicken can download transactions from every bank I've used. From what I can tell, it uses the same APIs that Mint does. But the data is never stored anywhere but my home server.
  - jungturk 11y ago
    Quicken's bank feeds are processed the same way mint's are - through an Intuit service that makes the call to the financial institution. That call ostensibly adds other functional value (transaction categorization, friendly names for businesses), but Intuit's in custody of your financial data (and passwords) to perform that feature. Fortunately, Intuit's also (currently) takes lots of care to ensure proper data-at-rest and in-flight custodial procedures, but you're still trusting someone to do things right.
    - someguydave 11y ago
      Also, I'm not sure that your bank or credit union or especially credit card warrants all that much trust either - what are the chances that they could resist a well-planned hack? Or that they aren't already selling your data? At some point, it's better that you have a copy of your data too if all the third-party advertisers already have one.
monkeybad 11y ago
Because it's extremely convenient, and they provide a useful service? The trade-off between someone else doing work for you, so you can do something else you want to do, is never going away.
VLM 11y ago
The other response cover the WTF WRT specifically web based company, I propose the general response of people aspire to getting actionable analysis. Companies don't actually have to provide actionable measurable quantitative analysis results, they just have to promise it could happen. My personal experience with Quicken and Mint is I never got any actionable measurable results from the effort. Yes I saw all the ads about how I'd get special offers to save $5 on my car insurance or it would make me save for retirement or whatever, but over many years of Quicken and a couple years of Mint it never amounted to anything valuable. Then it becomes an insurance and sunk cost game, well, I've tossed away all this time and effort to organize unnecessary data, I guess I need to keep going to "save" my sunk cost. Eventually I chucked them both. The minimal time to maintain adds up over time and cuts into actual analytical analysis (not to mention recreational time) and in return, as mentioned, I got nothing out of it. Not all aspirational products are worthless to all people, I'm sure there exists someone who got something measurably important out of their mint or quicken experience. Just not me or anyone I know. It is kind of the diet industry is a good analogy to the personal budgeting industry. The dieting industry makes people feel they're doing something important when they pick up a book or try to live off nothing but grapefruit juice for three days; all that really happens in the end is the provider makes money.