Filed under: Business, Finance, Web services
Intuit buys Mint.com, sends users running
Intuit, the company behind financial management app Quicken, has purchased Mint.com, a web-based personal finance tracker, for $170 million. Quicken already has a web version that plugs into its desktop software, and Mint apparently isn't going to replace it. Meanwhile, Intuit doesn't have plans to change the way Mint works, and the CEO of Mint is joining the company to direct its online operations. That's not enough to reassure some Mint users, though, who are fleeing the site in fear of Intuit's awful user experience and propensity to milk its customers for fees.
Felix Salmon, a blogger at Reuters, describes Intuit as "The Borg," and plans to deactivate his Mint account (although he admits he doesn't use it often). Users in Mint's forums are also not convinced that Mint will be helping to improve Intuit, rather than being swallowed and ruined by it.
What do you think? Is the Intuit Borg going to assimilate Mint, or will it stay as it is? Will you be keeping your account, or canceling it? Take the poll after the break!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jamus said 4:39PM on 9-15-2009
The only good thing I can say about it is "At least it was not Microsoft". The idea of having to get a Windows Passpor... Uh, Windows Live, or whatever the heck login name they are calling it this week is not pleasant. Intuit does indeed suck. I went to Mint to get away from them in the first place, but at least it is not Microsoft so I will stick with them for a bit if for no other reason than to see how Intuit screws it up.
"Sir, would you care for the red hot poker? Or the rusty knife?
Well. I guess I will go for the poker then."
Reply
Quikboy said 9:00PM on 9-15-2009
What's wrong with Microsoft? You can assign any e-mail address to a Windows Live account, whether it's Gmail or Yahoo! or even AOL, and then make your own password for the Windows Live ID. Simple as that. Unless you want Microsoft to force you register their domain for your ID...their needs to be some way for Microsoft to be able to contact and differentiate it's users for authentication on their services.
I also use my Live ID a lot, to sign into Messenger, Hotmail, Mail, Zune account, Xbox account, NASDAQ, etc.
Also, Microsoft has had good experience with financial software, like when they had Microsoft Money before, which was pretty good.
So why wouldn't you want Microsoft to have a stake in Mint.com?
josh said 4:44PM on 9-15-2009
Your poll is a little odd.
There is no yes option.
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Lee Mathews said 5:45PM on 9-15-2009
Apologies about the weirdness with the poll. Firefox went for a poo midway through editing, and it went live without some rather important "adjustments." :)
Andrew said 6:31PM on 9-15-2009
@Lee: I literally laughed out loud at your description of Firefox.
Andrew said 5:12PM on 9-15-2009
Uhh... lopsided poll much?
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Andrew said 5:37PM on 9-15-2009
Thanks for fixing the poll :-). I'm going to keep my account for now. But I'm gone at the first whiff of Intuit stink.
ryaninc said 5:40PM on 9-15-2009
I'm keeping my account...for now. But I have very little hope that it'll keep being useful. Intuit's track record (and existing products) don't leave much chance of that. Unless they leave Mint alone completely and simply change the name, then it'll probably go downhill. TurboTax, for example, is a fine product and I use it, but it's absolute insistence that I upgrade to various extra features is annoying as crap.
RIP Mint. I've been using it for 2 years and swear by it. No longer. :-(
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Drew Green said 7:03PM on 9-15-2009
I've got a Quicken Online account that is fairly basic but does what I need. I looked at Mint a while back, decided it was not worth it for me to sign up for it, and passed. Maybe now I'll gain some Mint benefits in QO without having had to register for Mint and transfer any account information. Laziness FTW!
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Jamesey said 7:33PM on 9-15-2009
as long as it still works and is free, I'll use it.
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Sean said 8:52PM on 9-15-2009
I tried Mint for a little while, but it was so limited it was barely worth the effort it took to click on the shortcut. And then I lost my job in Michigan, closed my US bank account, and Mint lost its last infiniteseimal vestiges of possible usefulness for me. So Intuit's merger with Mint doesn't fill me with any concern at all, really. Actually, if they do anything at all with it they might improve its relevance...
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matt @ Thrive said 10:46AM on 9-17-2009
Perhaps we can help? Where Mint is, in the words of their CEO "informational", I work for Thrive (www.justthrive.com), which is focused on actionable advice. Think a little less "track your investments" and a little more "track to a budget" - while we try to help people with all areas of their financial life, the emphasis is on actionable advice that can help people control their spending and plan their saving. We even help you figure out how long you can survive without a job.
Sean said 1:12PM on 9-17-2009
Does Thrive recognize the existence of banks and other financial institutions outside of the United States? I'll check you out, thanks for the tip.
matt @ Thrive said 9:33PM on 9-22-2009
Yes, we do work with non-US banks and if you find we don't have your bank, just shoot us a note at support@justthrive.com and we'll work to add it.
coax604 said 10:47PM on 9-15-2009
So wait, the post does not even ask about what the alternatives are?
Anything already better than mint around?
I am really worried about losing a good mint.com because I find it so useful.
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Roozbeh said 2:32AM on 9-16-2009
http://www.buxfer.com/ is an alternative.
matt @ Thrive said 10:48AM on 9-17-2009
I work for one good alternative, http://www.justthrive.com but also try to make sure that the list at Wikipedia stays reasonably updated. That is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_financial_management
lonepie said 9:24AM on 9-16-2009
why bail right off the bat? If they say nothing's going to change, stick around and see. You can always cancel later.
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Mike @ eRollover said 12:43AM on 9-23-2009
An alternative retirement and 401k aggregation site is http://www.erollover.com which also has the financial sites http://www.wikitirement.com (Personal Finance Wiki) and http://www.investingtopix.com (Digg Style Financial Article Submission)
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