Mint.com will get to take Quicken Online users and all their personal finance data. This will happen on August 29. Nobody can go to Quicken Online anymore after that. Intuit, the makers of Quicken, purchased mint.com last year for $ 170 million. All information from the Intuit website was expected to be “migrated seamlessly” to the Mint site considering that is what the message said given to all the Quicken Online users. Because of software differences, users are expected to transfer their own accounts individually. The change from Quicken Online to Mint has actually been pretty difficult.
A ‘boneheaded move’ is what Intuit made
Many users of Quicken were astonished. They didn’t learn about the migration from Quicken Online to Mint. Many thought the transition would be made automatically. But a Tech Crunch report said Intuit later decided the complexity of merging the two platforms precluded achieving the transition with “elegance or accuracy.”. Quicken Online users might end up with personal finance data in Mint that is inaccurate. That would mean more work for the website. Double checking and manual correction would be required by workers. Because of these complications, Tech Crunch called Intuit’s policy a “boneheaded move” and said that Intuit should have given Quicken Online users until the end of the year to move or spend more time figuring out how to import their accounts to Mint.
Budgeting site alternatives
August 29 is when Quicken Online users will lose all their information from Intuit. Users who want a record of their transactions must export the data to a file before the site is shut down. You will find other possibilities for Quicken Online users for personal financial data besides switching to Mint, says the New York Daily News. The Quicken Online to Mint program appears to be something Intuit is doing to promote themselves. There are other Quicken desktop products being advertised with this. The Intuit desktop products cost between about $ 50 and $ 90. $ 120 is the price of another option. The account is for Quickbooks online. If you’re just sick of Intuit, you will find other choices. These online websites are HelloWallet.com, Yodlee.com and GnuCash.org.
Intuit does poorly
People are discovering there isn’t really an easy path for the Quicken Online to Mint migration. Jonathon Blum at The Street said Mint and Quicken Online just don’t get along. Because of the different software platforms, Quicken Online data doesn’t flow directly into Mint. Instead, data must be imported like it would from any other bank or credit card account. In the process, descriptions of business transactions in Quicken Online accounts get lost on about half of the entries moved to Mint. A representative from Intuit explained that 90 percent of info transferred from Quicken Online to Mint is right. Blum thinks that 90 percent means a failed accounting grade.
Further reading
Tech Crunch
techcrunch.com/2010/07/19/quicken-online-users-saw-the-bait-took-the-switch-to-mint-com-and-are-left-with-nothing/
New York Daily News
nydailynews.com/money/2010/08/20/2010-08-20_quicken_online_free_budgeting_site_to_shut_down_by_september.html
The Street
thestreet.com/story/10841504/1/quickens-migration-to-mint-is-not-so-fresh.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEFI
