[heavy]

I love it, not sure on security tho. For me it's worth it. I second what others have said, the budgeting and tracking aren't great, but it's great for pulling transactions from all your sources (various bank accounts and credit cards).

I paste the data into a Google sheet and use lookups for certain discretionary spending categories I created (Alcohol & Bars, Golf Bowl etc, Restaurants, Shopping, Vacation, Groceries). I then use a rolling 4 week average to smooth out trends. I find tracking spending is more useful than 'budgeting' but that's just me. The result is a graph like this (just an example, not actual spending):
   

If someone is interested, lemme know. As you can see, I find it easier to keep discretionary spending categories fairly simple. Most of mine are golf, alcohol/bars, restaurants.

[kbell]

I was thinking of using this. Is it still safe to use? For instance if your phone is stolen with quicken or mint, will someone be able to steal your money?

Or would quicken be better. Are there subscription fees?

I'd like to be able to scan receipts, keep track of accounts, and know where I'm spending money. Keeping track of investments would be nice too. My banks statements are quite hard to follow.

[redbeard]

Mint allows you to password protect or use TouchID (fingerprint) on iPhone. So yes it's safe.

If you're still worried about security you could just use the desktop version. Instead of checking day by day, you could check it month by month (much less stressful), tracking cash use on a phone note, and keeping receipts in one place.

[Valentine]

Mint likely sells your data either as big data trends or individual consumer profiles for advertisers so that's a no-go for me.

I use GnuCash for tracking expenses: open-source, available on desktop/Android and has a ton of features.

It doesn't automatically input and categorise expenses like Mint but it's far better for privacy and it only takes a few seconds after each purchase.

I don't scan receipts but I've heard good things about Expensify and Shoeboxed for that.

[redbeard]

I get it, "if a service is free, you're the product."

But - Mint makes its money via advertising. They are constantly advertising new credit cards, savings accounts, investment groups, refinancing, etc. They make a killing. Every time I spend too much on groceries I get an ad that says "you've spent $xyz on groceries this month! Wow! You could earn $x/month in rewards by switching to the AmEx Bonus Points Extreme Card!"

[GreenHills]

I don't like Mint. It's buggy. Even right now, if I sort transactions by date it shows me transactions from 2014. Why? The UI is sloppy. Not surprising, since they're a part of Intuit and I'm sure nobody cares too much about anything at Intuit.

I started using Personal Capital (personalcapital.com) and it's pretty good for expenses. Better than mint for me, because at least it works. Only drawback is that it doesn't support custom categories, but whatever. Another drawback is that they will call me to ask me to invest with them. Personal Capital is pretty good for investments.

[kbell]

I have android. So not sure about that fingerprint protection if stolen. Gnucash looks complicated, is it hard to use? I'd like to hook up the accounts directly so they can be prostrate that way and than tag the names of the locations to them if possible.

I forgot I also want to track HSA purchases and deposits as well. Rehab is expensive.

[The Wire]

(04-21-2015 09:22 AM)DJ-Matt Wrote:  

Love Dave Ramsey.

Here's the breakdown of how it works for me, this is addressing the safety aspect in the OP. I signed up for Mint a few months ago after reading this thread (isn't RVF great?) and added all my accounts.

Depending on how your bank works there are varying levels of security:

- ING Direct/Crapital One 360 has security access codes that can be generated so that Mint gets read-only access. Codes can be revoked if compromised. This is by far the safest way, but not sure how many institutions use it.

- My local bank's online access password is used for Mint's access to my balance, however you cannot really do much with my online banking so if compromised it's probably harmless. Also most banks can tell if you're hitting the site from a different location (IP address) and Mint always uses the same one(s) to access it.

- For my credit card account access by Mint in addition to the password you also need to verify the security question(s) which Mint does not save.

Bottom line, Mint seems to be very safe, and very useful! It's nice to know what you spend on various things, and for those of us who have multiple bank accounts you can see how much money you have all in one place

I'm very close to pulling the trigger on using Mint or Personal Capital but I'm having a hard time doing it without first completing understanding any possible risks since my financial institutions do not have read only access codes. I'm not looking for worst case scenario with using third party sight because I know some financial institution has language in the fine print about not having liability when giving out your password. I just don't know enough at the moment to make a decision. On top of this I suspect I don't know the full extent down the road of giving out my financial data to a third party. I've been fucked before with social media sites using my data in a sneaky way but but now this is my money.

[redbeard]

(12-11-2016 11:01 AM)The Wire Wrote:  

(04-21-2015 09:22 AM)DJ-Matt Wrote:  

Love Dave Ramsey.

Here's the breakdown of how it works for me, this is addressing the safety aspect in the OP. I signed up for Mint a few months ago after reading this thread (isn't RVF great?) and added all my accounts.

Depending on how your bank works there are varying levels of security:

- ING Direct/Crapital One 360 has security access codes that can be generated so that Mint gets read-only access. Codes can be revoked if compromised. This is by far the safest way, but not sure how many institutions use it.

- My local bank's online access password is used for Mint's access to my balance, however you cannot really do much with my online banking so if compromised it's probably harmless. Also most banks can tell if you're hitting the site from a different location (IP address) and Mint always uses the same one(s) to access it.

- For my credit card account access by Mint in addition to the password you also need to verify the security question(s) which Mint does not save.

Bottom line, Mint seems to be very safe, and very useful! It's nice to know what you spend on various things, and for those of us who have multiple bank accounts you can see how much money you have all in one place

I'm very close to pulling the trigger on using Mint or Personal Capital but I'm having a hard time doing it without first completing understanding any possible risks since my financial institutions do not have read only access codes. I'm not looking for worst case scenario with using third party sight because I know some financial institution has language in the fine print about not having liability when giving out your password. I just don't know enough at the moment to make a decision. On top of this I suspect I don't know the full extent down the road of giving out my financial data to a third party. I've been fucked before with social media sites using my data in a sneaky way but but now this is my money.

Seriously, what's the worst that could happen? FDIC covers up to $250,000.

[The Wire]

(12-11-2016 11:23 AM)redbeard Wrote:  

(12-11-2016 11:01 AM)The Wire Wrote:  

(04-21-2015 09:22 AM)DJ-Matt Wrote:  

Love Dave Ramsey.

Here's the breakdown of how it works for me, this is addressing the safety aspect in the OP. I signed up for Mint a few months ago after reading this thread (isn't RVF great?) and added all my accounts.

Depending on how your bank works there are varying levels of security:

- ING Direct/Crapital One 360 has security access codes that can be generated so that Mint gets read-only access. Codes can be revoked if compromised. This is by far the safest way, but not sure how many institutions use it.

- My local bank's online access password is used for Mint's access to my balance, however you cannot really do much with my online banking so if compromised it's probably harmless. Also most banks can tell if you're hitting the site from a different location (IP address) and Mint always uses the same one(s) to access it.

- For my credit card account access by Mint in addition to the password you also need to verify the security question(s) which Mint does not save.

Bottom line, Mint seems to be very safe, and very useful! It's nice to know what you spend on various things, and for those of us who have multiple bank accounts you can see how much money you have all in one place

I'm very close to pulling the trigger on using Mint or Personal Capital but I'm having a hard time doing it without first completing understanding any possible risks since my financial institutions do not have read only access codes. I'm not looking for worst case scenario with using third party sight because I know some financial institution has language in the fine print about not having liability when giving out your password. I just don't know enough at the moment to make a decision. On top of this I suspect I don't know the full extent down the road of giving out my financial data to a third party. I've been fucked before with social media sites using my data in a sneaky way but but now this is my money.

Seriously, what's the worst that could happen? FDIC covers up to $250,000.

Thats what I'm asking. Whats the worst case scenario? I'm simply admitting I'm not informed enough at the moment and trying to make sure in any worst case scenarios I'm not assuming anything or violating any fine print user agreements with credit cards companies...etc.

[The Wire]

(12-11-2016 11:23 AM)redbeard Wrote:  

Seriously, what's the worst that could happen? FDIC covers up to $250,000.

Looking into this more FDIC does not insure against bank robbery, it covers bank failures.

Financial institutions use banker’s blanket bond for other types of liability such as robberies, forgeries..etc. There seems to be a grey area with giving out your username/password to third parties because of service agreement language such as "If you disclose your Card numbers, account numbers, PINs, User IDs, and/or Passwords to any person(s) or entity, you assume all risks and losses associated with such disclosure".

I haven't seen any real world cases on the bank holding someone liable if a hack was reported within 60 days but I'm wondering if they could leverage it against you anyway.

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/savings/...ney-1.aspx

"Federal law says that if someone takes money from your bank account you will get all of your money back if you notify your financial institution within 60 days after the fraudulent transaction appears on your bank statement. If someone stole money out of your personal bank account, you'd likely be made whole by your bank if you had an individual (non-business) account, you weren't lax about safeguarding your information and you notified your bank promptly, says Stuart Gerson, former acting U.S. attorney general under President Bill Clinton and shareholder at Epstein, Becker & Green, a law firm in Washington, D.C."

I'm a little cautious of the language in bold above. If you are violating the terms of service for your financial institution by giving your credentials to a third party then you are basically violating the terms above? I'm paranoid about these things because I've seen the awful struggle when people are in the full right without violating any fine print. For example people fighting with an insurance company to get reimbursed for money that they were owed. I wouldn't hold it past a bank to make your life a living hell if something major happened and they had leverage on you for violating terms of service. I think people are just assuming the government would step in right away and make everything "A OK".

Trust me I hope I'm wrong here and its just paranoid talk but I've seen too many conflicting statements out there to actually know for sure.

[DJ-Matt]

Since most banks re-ask for your security questions if they see a different PC (missing cookie) or IP address I don't see how anything bad could happen even if they got your password. Now if your bank doesn't do that I'd avoid adding it to Mint in case it gets hacked.

[The Wire]

(12-12-2016 01:37 PM)DJ-Matt Wrote:  

Since most banks re-ask for your security questions if they see a different PC (missing cookie) or IP address I don't see how anything bad could happen even if they got your password. Now if your bank doesn't do that I'd avoid adding it to Mint in case it gets hacked.

I think the more important issue is violating terms of service with your bank.

[The Wire]

(04-19-2015 09:12 PM)Caractacus Potts Wrote:  

Is there any difference between Mint.com and Personal Capital?
https://www.personalcapital.com/

Personal Capital says that they check the fees that you are paying in your 401K and other retirement accounts and show you how much they work out to and the effect that it has on your growth.

Does Mint do this? Has anyone used Personal Capital?

Thanks.

Side note I signed up for Personal Capital and did the manual entry just to try it out(didn't link any accounts)

I'm now getting spammed on my google voice with calls to get a free financial consultation.