7 ms·

Intuit Is Closing Personal-Finance App Mint, Shifts Users to Credit Karma

51 points by gwintrob 3y ago

al_borland 3y ago
So the messaging here is that people should stop budgeting and paying attention to their spending, and instead take on as much debt as possible, as long as they keep their credit score high? Awful. I hope Mint users don't fall for this and think a credit scoring app is equivalent, to what I think for most was a budgeting app. Intuit is the worst.
- stonogo 3y ago
  The FICO credit score is in essence a metric measuring how good you are at staying in debt, sustainably, preferably for life. Something like paying off a sizeable credit card debt can hurt your FICO score, because now your debt:credit ratio is off kilter.
  - schrectacular 3y ago
    As far as I understand, paying off debt (talking credit cards here) helps your score because low utilized available rolling debt vs total limit is good. _Closing_ a CC account hurts because it lowers your available rolling credit limit. Paying off a debt like a mortgage is good, it lowers your debt-to-income ratio.
    - stonogo 3y ago
      No, that's what I'm saying here: having too low a debt to credit-limit ratio (i.e. high-limit cards with no debt on them, termed 'credit utilization') can hurt your FICO score. From what I can tell, a credit utilization around 10-20% is optimal for FICO, but a credit utilization of, say, zero, will hurt.
      - addicted 3y ago
        I hear this quite a bit but is there any evidence for it? I personally had a couple of months where my utilization was 0 and my score jumped by about 10 points (and it’s already relatively high). Most online experts recommend a credit utilization below 10% and I’ve not come across one recommending a minimum utilization.
        esotericimpl 3y ago
        [dead]
        stonogo 3y ago
        There's no evidence for any of it, because they're coy about the FICO rules, but if it's bullshit, it's bullshit straight from the horse's mouth [1]. I know that previously in my own credit reports I was given this specific 'justification' in the 'things that are lowering your score' column. 1 - https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/what-is-the-best-percentile-for-credit-utilization/ https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/what-is-the-best...
      - rockemsockem 3y ago
        Pretty sure that's complete BS, I have a great credit score and a few cards that I barely use alongside a few that I use quite often.
1970-01-01 3y ago
Intuit could open source it, but won't, because then they can't sell your financial data.
webworker 3y ago
I use mint - having everything aggregated has been really nice and I was majorly disappointed when I got this email. I guess it depends on how much functionality they pull over, but good chance it spells the end for my usage.
- toomuchtodo 3y ago
  Switch to Fidelity, use their Full View. Highly recommend. https://www.fidelity.com/spend-save/full-view/overview https://www.fidelity.com/spend-save/full-view/overview
  - hirvi74 3y ago
    Thanks for this. I had no idea this is something Fidelity even offered. Does Full View allow for entering manual transactions? Some of my financial servicers do not have the ability to tie in nicely with things like Plaid and whatnot. Not to mention, I prefer to do everything manually anyway.
    - toomuchtodo 3y ago
      I don't have that context unfortunately, I only use institutions that can get plugged in by design.
  - uptown 3y ago
    Gave it a try but it seems like it's sort of a "work in progress". Their current version seemed okay, but then I tried what I guess is a beta version, and somehow two accounts I'd never entered showed up in my dashboard (a savings account and some other account). So either some test data somehow appeared in my dashboard, or someone else's account info leaked. Also -- it worked in Safari (Mac) for some screens, but then threw an error on the screen and suggested I use Chrome. Have you found that it's really ready for reliable usage? Feels very "beta-ish".
exabrial 3y ago
I've used mint literally since the very beginning. They tried to update a lot of things but really just made it worse. Really sad. I'm definitely not switching to Credit Karma... time to give another app a shot.
- nvojacek 3y ago
  Try finwiseapp.io :)
  - exabrial 3y ago
    I'll give it a look. Are you affiliated in some manner?
    - richman777 3y ago
      They are. Looks like the creator: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38090161 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38090161 Note: I’m not forming an opinion on it or saying to use or not use it, was simply curious because I hadn’t heard of it.
adamredwoods 3y ago
WTF. This is the first I heard of this (no email notices). I hooked all my data up a few months ago, and now I feel betrayed. I need to shut that down.
- uptown 3y ago
  Same here. Even if you go to the Mint.com site - no notice of anything changing.
satertek 3y ago
I switched from Mint to YNAB years ago, which I highly recommend.
- panda888888 3y ago
  I also switched from Mint to YNAB a few years ago, and YNAB is head and shoulders better than Mint. I've always had good finances / self discipline and didn't think I needed YNAB, but it's been way better than Mint for me. It's easily worth the cost.
  - nytesky 3y ago
    Does YMAB download automatically? When I looked at it before it was very manual
    - satertek 3y ago
      The original desktop app was all manual, but the web app has had auto-import from banks, credit card companies, etc.
    - panda888888 3y ago
      Yes, it downloads automatically. There's also an option to do it manually if you'd prefer.
  - jnsie 3y ago
    If you don't mind me asking, what makes it worth the cost for you? I'm a long time mint user with very good financial discipline and can't imagine paying $100 per annum for such a service. But I'm open to learning new things and would love to hear your experience...
    - satertek 3y ago
      YNAB is definitely very "opinionated". You have to convert to their "give every dollar a job" budgeting method, but I found really works well for me. I moved off of Mint when they were acquired by Intuit, so I felt the price was worth it maintain full auto-import capabilities in an ad-free app. (The way Mint advertised at the time didn't really bother me, but I assumed that ads would get more intrusive under Intuit)
882542F3884314B 3y ago
For those looking for alternatives Lunch Money is a great replacement. https://lunchmoney.app/ https://lunchmoney.app/
- gordon_freeman 3y ago
  $100 per year? As much as Netflix sub for a personal fin app to track savings...it is way too pricy!
- steve_adams_86 3y ago
  I really enjoyed lunchmoney while I used it. I only stopped using it because I broke some bad habits and built some good ones, and using the app no longer felt helpful in the way it needed to be. So, huge success story now that I think of it. I was pretty awful with money before I managed it this way.
sweetpotato14 3y ago
I've been using Fina as an alternative anyway (https://fina.xyz https://fina.xyz) Kinda like notion but for you Finances...seems like they could be the next modern financial tracking app
- uptown 3y ago
  They completely lost me when their demo video had someone in a wizard costume from an apartment.
incompleteCode 3y ago
I’m a huge fan of https://lunchmoney.app https://lunchmoney.app. Small (1?) team and gets the job done for me.
jasrusable 3y ago
[dead]
jamesdwilson 3y ago
https://www.empower.com/empower-personal-wealth-transition https://www.empower.com/empower-personal-wealth-transition
nvojacek 3y ago
[dead]
- esotericimpl 3y ago
  [dead]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
financeguru494 3y ago
My issue with this move is that credit / debt is only one part of the financial picture. But - this seemed like a long time coming for Mint. I came across an app Piere that i've been checking out for budgeting (piere.com). They're new but what I like is that their budget is fully automated to set up and it has a cool "reconciliations" feature - i.e. when i go out to dinner and put my card down and share that expense / get repaid, they automatically only show me my share and I don't have to deal with all of those uncategorized Venmos or ridiculously incorrect budget categories
manuxj 3y ago
If you found Mint lacking for tracking and building wealth through investing, try Mezzi (I'm a co-founder). We're excited to help people more effectively manage their investments far beyond what Mint ever did. Think allocation breakdowns, concentration, tax loss harvesting, ETF fee monitoring, AI-powered suggestions, and more. You can learn more and sign up at Mezzi.com. Unlike Mint, we will never sell your data. Once we move out of beta, we will be a paid app but maintain a generous free tier.

51 points by gwintrob 3y ago

So the messaging here is that people should stop budgeting and paying attention to their spending, and instead take on as much debt as possible, as long as they keep their credit score high? Awful. I hope Mint users don't fall for this and think a credit scoring app is equivalent, to what I think for most was a budgeting app. Intuit is the worst.

stonogo 3y ago
The FICO credit score is in essence a metric measuring how good you are at staying in debt, sustainably, preferably for life. Something like paying off a sizeable credit card debt can hurt your FICO score, because now your debt:credit ratio is off kilter.
- schrectacular 3y ago
  As far as I understand, paying off debt (talking credit cards here) helps your score because low utilized available rolling debt vs total limit is good. _Closing_ a CC account hurts because it lowers your available rolling credit limit. Paying off a debt like a mortgage is good, it lowers your debt-to-income ratio.
  - stonogo 3y ago
    No, that's what I'm saying here: having too low a debt to credit-limit ratio (i.e. high-limit cards with no debt on them, termed 'credit utilization') can hurt your FICO score. From what I can tell, a credit utilization around 10-20% is optimal for FICO, but a credit utilization of, say, zero, will hurt.
    - addicted 3y ago
      I hear this quite a bit but is there any evidence for it? I personally had a couple of months where my utilization was 0 and my score jumped by about 10 points (and it’s already relatively high). Most online experts recommend a credit utilization below 10% and I’ve not come across one recommending a minimum utilization.
      - esotericimpl 3y ago
        [dead]
      - stonogo 3y ago
        There's no evidence for any of it, because they're coy about the FICO rules, but if it's bullshit, it's bullshit straight from the horse's mouth [1]. I know that previously in my own credit reports I was given this specific 'justification' in the 'things that are lowering your score' column. 1 - https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/what-is-the-best-percentile-for-credit-utilization/ https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/what-is-the-best...
    - rockemsockem 3y ago
      Pretty sure that's complete BS, I have a great credit score and a few cards that I barely use alongside a few that I use quite often.

1970-01-01 3y ago

Intuit could open source it, but won't, because then they can't sell your financial data.

webworker 3y ago

I use mint - having everything aggregated has been really nice and I was majorly disappointed when I got this email. I guess it depends on how much functionality they pull over, but good chance it spells the end for my usage.

toomuchtodo 3y ago
Switch to Fidelity, use their Full View. Highly recommend. https://www.fidelity.com/spend-save/full-view/overview https://www.fidelity.com/spend-save/full-view/overview
- hirvi74 3y ago
  Thanks for this. I had no idea this is something Fidelity even offered. Does Full View allow for entering manual transactions? Some of my financial servicers do not have the ability to tie in nicely with things like Plaid and whatnot. Not to mention, I prefer to do everything manually anyway.
  - toomuchtodo 3y ago
    I don't have that context unfortunately, I only use institutions that can get plugged in by design.
- uptown 3y ago
  Gave it a try but it seems like it's sort of a "work in progress". Their current version seemed okay, but then I tried what I guess is a beta version, and somehow two accounts I'd never entered showed up in my dashboard (a savings account and some other account). So either some test data somehow appeared in my dashboard, or someone else's account info leaked. Also -- it worked in Safari (Mac) for some screens, but then threw an error on the screen and suggested I use Chrome. Have you found that it's really ready for reliable usage? Feels very "beta-ish".

exabrial 3y ago

I've used mint literally since the very beginning. They tried to update a lot of things but really just made it worse. Really sad. I'm definitely not switching to Credit Karma... time to give another app a shot.

nvojacek 3y ago
Try finwiseapp.io :)
- exabrial 3y ago
  I'll give it a look. Are you affiliated in some manner?
  - richman777 3y ago
    They are. Looks like the creator: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38090161 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38090161 Note: I’m not forming an opinion on it or saying to use or not use it, was simply curious because I hadn’t heard of it.

adamredwoods 3y ago

WTF. This is the first I heard of this (no email notices). I hooked all my data up a few months ago, and now I feel betrayed. I need to shut that down.

uptown 3y ago
Same here. Even if you go to the Mint.com site - no notice of anything changing.

satertek 3y ago

I switched from Mint to YNAB years ago, which I highly recommend.

panda888888 3y ago
I also switched from Mint to YNAB a few years ago, and YNAB is head and shoulders better than Mint. I've always had good finances / self discipline and didn't think I needed YNAB, but it's been way better than Mint for me. It's easily worth the cost.
- nytesky 3y ago
  Does YMAB download automatically? When I looked at it before it was very manual
  - satertek 3y ago
    The original desktop app was all manual, but the web app has had auto-import from banks, credit card companies, etc.
  - panda888888 3y ago
    Yes, it downloads automatically. There's also an option to do it manually if you'd prefer.
- jnsie 3y ago
  If you don't mind me asking, what makes it worth the cost for you? I'm a long time mint user with very good financial discipline and can't imagine paying $100 per annum for such a service. But I'm open to learning new things and would love to hear your experience...
  - satertek 3y ago
    YNAB is definitely very "opinionated". You have to convert to their "give every dollar a job" budgeting method, but I found really works well for me. I moved off of Mint when they were acquired by Intuit, so I felt the price was worth it maintain full auto-import capabilities in an ad-free app. (The way Mint advertised at the time didn't really bother me, but I assumed that ads would get more intrusive under Intuit)

882542F3884314B 3y ago

For those looking for alternatives Lunch Money is a great replacement. https://lunchmoney.app/ https://lunchmoney.app/

gordon_freeman 3y ago
$100 per year? As much as Netflix sub for a personal fin app to track savings...it is way too pricy!
steve_adams_86 3y ago
I really enjoyed lunchmoney while I used it. I only stopped using it because I broke some bad habits and built some good ones, and using the app no longer felt helpful in the way it needed to be. So, huge success story now that I think of it. I was pretty awful with money before I managed it this way.

sweetpotato14 3y ago

I've been using Fina as an alternative anyway (https://fina.xyz https://fina.xyz) Kinda like notion but for you Finances...seems like they could be the next modern financial tracking app

uptown 3y ago
They completely lost me when their demo video had someone in a wizard costume from an apartment.

incompleteCode 3y ago

I’m a huge fan of https://lunchmoney.app https://lunchmoney.app. Small (1?) team and gets the job done for me.

jasrusable 3y ago

[dead]

jamesdwilson 3y ago

https://www.empower.com/empower-personal-wealth-transition https://www.empower.com/empower-personal-wealth-transition

nvojacek 3y ago

[dead]

esotericimpl 3y ago
[dead]

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

financeguru494 3y ago

My issue with this move is that credit / debt is only one part of the financial picture. But - this seemed like a long time coming for Mint. I came across an app Piere that i've been checking out for budgeting (piere.com). They're new but what I like is that their budget is fully automated to set up and it has a cool "reconciliations" feature - i.e. when i go out to dinner and put my card down and share that expense / get repaid, they automatically only show me my share and I don't have to deal with all of those uncategorized Venmos or ridiculously incorrect budget categories

manuxj 3y ago

If you found Mint lacking for tracking and building wealth through investing, try Mezzi (I'm a co-founder). We're excited to help people more effectively manage their investments far beyond what Mint ever did. Think allocation breakdowns, concentration, tax loss harvesting, ETF fee monitoring, AI-powered suggestions, and more. You can learn more and sign up at Mezzi.com. Unlike Mint, we will never sell your data. Once we move out of beta, we will be a paid app but maintain a generous free tier.