Comments on: Mint: Uncluttered money management

By: Chris Lynam

Chris Lynam — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:14:29 +0000

I have used this for years and have not had any issues. I was a bit nervous at first, but Mint is fantastic. Having all of this financial information available in one place with no data entry is priceless.

The tools for budgeting and the automatic notifications for everything from credit card rate increases to minimum account balances, allow for true automation of your finances.

Take a look at http://uselessclutter.com/?p=43 .

By: james duglas

james duglas — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:56:12 +0000

I have bookmarked manageME and hope others too bookmark it as you can keep a track record of your finances anywhere ,anytime when you are traveling. Also you will be getting new enhanced version with a lot more features at http://www.manageme7.com which is coming shortly.
I am eagerly waiting for it.

By: G

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:44:18 +0000

I just signed up for Mint. After reading through their site and other reviews, I felt comfortable to create my account with them. A few things that made me feel better:

-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.

By: Ro

Ro — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:20:56 +0000

I didn’t realize there were sites like this and am really glad to find them. I checked out Mint, yodlee, and wesabe. I didn’t find mint robust enough yet so I deleted my account from them. I already had a Fidelity account so I got a full view account and I love it! Only problem is my credit union isn’t a bank account option. I requested that they add it so will see if they do. I also like wesabe very much. I loaded all of my credit union (bank account) transactions for 2007. I’ve tagged all but about 60 of them and find it really enlightening. I almost wish they’d automatically update it for me. I guess for now I’ll stick with both as I have different accounts in each. I’m really glad you wrote this article as I needed something like this. I just don’t want to set everything up on Quicken or Money — too much work.

By: Money-Management » Blog Archives » Mint: Uncluttered money management

Money-Management » Blog Archives » Mint: Uncluttered money management — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 20:19:43 +0000

[...] Mint: Uncluttered money managementIf you are like me, you have multiple websites to visit to get all your financial information. Your bank account, credit card, and savings may be scattered across the web. But with an easy to use interface Mint takes all of your … [...]

By: Online finance tracker | TechBox

Online finance tracker | TechBox — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:03:37 +0000

[...] http://unclutterer.com/2007/10.....anagement/ [...]

By: Paco

Paco — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 05:23:21 +0000

I’ve been using Yodlee since 2004 and it’s great. As far as security, Yodlee is actually the backend for sites like Fidelity and…Mint!

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

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:47:32 +0000

from mint’s site:

“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.

By: dale

dale — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:02:49 +0000

I’ll stick with Yodlee. Your bank is likely having them do their online stuff anyway. Sites like this are totally unproven and at the rate they fail you have no idea what will happen with your data.

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

By: lahope

lahope — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:35:59 +0000

I might add that I also have my mortgage thru my credit union, 15 year fixed @ 5%. I doubt if any bank would have been able to meet or better those terms and as an additional plus, I don’t have to worry about my mortgage being sold to a 3rd party.

By: lahope

lahope — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:27:02 +0000

A better solution for money management is to join a credit union. Not only are my fees lower than a bank’s, I get to use free ATMs, located in all Seven Elevens and elsewhere that are part of the Co-Op network. I have one credit card through my credit union with a cash rebate program rather than airine miles with their byzantine rules and regulations. I don’t need to clutter up my computer with another program to organize my finacial affairs.

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:28:47 +0000

I use wesabe, I like the fact that when I asked a question, one of the Wesabe team answered it on the groups.
I can download all my accounts at once and upload them at once, rather than one per account.
I think Expencr is better about budgeting but not tried it properly yet.

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

By: Aaron Patzer

Aaron Patzer — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:24:27 +0000

Great discussion on Unclutterer.

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

By: t-mag

t-mag — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 03:05:06 +0000

Maybe this is why banks (and my credit union) want to convince us to have everything thru them. Checking, credit card, mortgage, loan, IRA… So it’s all on one site.

By: cyen

cyen — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:57:06 +0000

I too find it hard to believe that people are signing up for this service.
No phone number to call them.
No address for their company location.
strike that… instead of this info being made clear in the “contact us” I found a phone and address on the privacy page.
No website for “mint software, inc”.
The phone and address goes back to a different company named “Aceva Technologies”.
Is Mint software the same company as Aceva?

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.