-They ask for your account number to establish a connection with Yodlee (the same service that Money and Quicken use, so if you update your account through either software package, you’re using the same backend money is using), and then remove your bank number from their records.

-They establish a read-only account with your banks, so even if someone hacks onto their servers, all they will see is that mint user X has XXX money in XXX banks. There’s no account number or other identifying information. They can’t move any money from mint.com servers.

Of course, there’s some risk in any online transaction (online shopping, mint.com, online banking), but I feel comfortable with what I consider limited risk vs the benefit of uncluttering my money management.

I signed up for Mint but quickly bailed once I realized they don’t report any data for investments, i.e. IRAs and 401ks.

“Mint uses industry standard secure account aggregation. Mint uses Yodlee to connect to your financial institutions. This is the same back-end aggregation system used by Bank of America, Fidelity, and Microsoft Money. Yodlee’s security practices have been audited by the NSA, Visa, Mastercard, and numerous major banks.”

btw, I’ve never used mint, yodlee, wesabe or anything else so this shouldn’t be read as a recommendation.

But for the people who like it, I’m starting a web 2.0 company to store all your medical records. It’s going to be pretty so you know you can trust it

Mint didn’t cover my Banks – maybe that’s because they were UK banks – have they improved on that?

For all of you with security concerns, I’ll make a bold statement: You’re safer on Mint than with online banking. On Mint, you’re completely anonymous. We never ask for a name, address, or SSN – just an email. We know about your finances…but not about you.

We designed the system from the ground-up for security. And we know what we’re doing: the executives and advisors to Mint have experience at Ebay/Paypal, Intuit, Charles Schwab, American Express, PGP, and Passmark Security. We’re also independently verified by Verisign, TrustE, and several outside agencies.

Perhaps more interestingly, 90% of all fraud actually occurs offline, not online (e.g. someone swipes your card at a restaurant). Because Mint.com sends proactive alerts via email or text-message for low-balance or unusually high spending, you’ll know right away.

That’s better (and easier) than logging into 4-5 different banks every day, or waiting 30 days for a paper statement before finding that something went wrong.

Aaron Patzer
Founder & CEO, Mint.com

In today’s world where Identity theft is such an issue, I don’t know how someone can hand over all their personal banking info to just any ol’ website with pretty graphics.

@t, you’re right, it can be simplistic or condescending.

I like being able to look at Mint and get a quick overview. I have Quicken which I use for greater detail, but if I’m online and just want an idea, I pop over to Mint. Especially since we’re juggling multiple savings/checking accounts right now which we’re trying to combine.

The login info is stored in the same place that stores other banks’ login info. So basically, if you’re that scared about your login….you shouldn’t be banking online at all. And you probably should never sign up for anything which stores your information in a hackable database….like a bank.

1) I don’t have to give it all of my passwords and account numbers.

2) It promises data portability – ie, if after 5 years mint closes and you want to keep all those records you’ve developed, tough luck; but with Wesabe they’re yours to download and keep.

3) I like the groups/tips structure. It allows me to discuss financial issues with other people focused on the subject.

In contrast, mint gives you automated tips – which, when I tried it, were all entirely useless: things like “switch to __giant_bank_known_for_scams__ – it has a higher percentage interest than the (not known so assumed to be zero) interest rate you’re getting now, and will thus save you $200!” (where my actual interest rate was 5%, and they’d just assumed it was zero). Or, “Switch to __credit_card_we’ll_get_a_commission_for_suggesting__! It gives 1% cash back, which is more than the (not known so assumed to be nothing) you get now!” (again, of course, I actually have a very carefully chosen card whose miles program meets my family’s needs).

Just in general, I fount Mint’s interface to be pretty, but… well, honestly, sort of condescending. It gives you surprisingly little control over how you want to organize your information, but keeps advertising useless (but again, I’m sure, kickback-laden) tips to sign up for new credit cards, all couched in language that implies it’s probably never before occurred to you to collate your finances – good thing mint is here to let you try this brand new concept for the very first time!

But, that’s just my experience =).

Mint seems to have more in terms of analysis than Wesabe does. They also work with all the large banks (although not with many smaller banks). The nice part about Mint is that I can log in daily and see an update without having to visit 4 other websites to download and then upload data. I’m much more inclined to use Mint to track my spending b/c it performs automatically.

They are funded and have gained recognition throughout Silicon Valley in a short time so I don’t worry that much about my data being protected. I’m from the Facebook era, however. Privacy is relative.

As far as how they make money – it seems that advertising credit cards, money market accounts and more against your specific info seems like a really logical way to create advertising that is actually useful. They have a tab for this called “Ways to Save.” If you don’t want to look at it, you don’t have to.

http://www.wesabe.com/

I’ve got both bookmarked, but I’m hoping someone else might have tried both and would be willing to share a review.

Oh, and their money-making scheme is to push “deals” based on your debt, etc. I don’t know if that’s an annoyance I’d be upset about or not, but I’m also not going to find out. I’ll stick with an XLS, thanks.