Comments on: Mint Sucks Redux http://programmingmylife.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/27/mint-sucks-redux/ Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:36:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Paul http://programmingmylife.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/27/mint-sucks-redux/comment-page-1/#comment-113 Paul Sun, 03 Oct 2010 17:02:12 +0000 http://programmingmylife.com/blog/?p=192#comment-113 Another aspect of using online software is the commitment of the vendor to support their product. Support from MINT is totally off target. I've had several problems over the last few months and dealing with support is extremely frustrating. Yes, you get a canned "we got your support request" right away because that is automatically generated. Then sometime overnight you get a copy/paste list of things to try that generally are not even related to the problem. It seems the customer service people are outsourced labor that are skilled at doing web searches and that's about it. They don't seem to understand that MINT has backend processes that break when the various financial institutions change their web pages. With hundreds of financial services moving to more and more personalized web pages for their customers, it is a really TOUGH job to write scripts that will pull out the transactions and totals from the personalized web pages. MINT is only looking at general problems reported by large numbers of people. They do not seem to know how to solve problems reported by small numbers of people or just a person. There is no way to escalate a problem. There is nothing in MINT's way of handling problems to differentiate from "power" users that understand how web based financial aggregation systems work and have uncovered bugs versus newbie users that have trouble figuring out how to enter security questions. Both groups of people have legitimate problems and need help, but they need different kinds of help. Hopefully, MINT will figure this out and get support staff that actually read the problems, understand what is going on, and get help from the software engineers that can fix the problems. The current approach of assuming MINT is working and the users don't know how to use their web browser or answer their security questions just drives many people to MINT's growing competition that is late to the game, but still has a chance of capturing this market (if it is worth capturing). Take a look at MONEYSTRANDS, HelloWallet and Yodlee, to name a few, if you grow tired of hassling with MINT support to get your problems solved. That's what I'm doing. I haven't shut off my MINT account yet because I have 1.5 year's of data stored and like the analytic tools. But the MINT backend software that updates transactions and balances is in serious need of improvement so their is stability and reliability that financial information can be obtained and when there are problems, MINT needs to listen to the person reporting the problem and help them get the problem resolved. Another aspect of using online software is the commitment of the vendor to support their product. Support from MINT is totally off target. I’ve had several problems over the last few months and dealing with support is extremely frustrating. Yes, you get a canned “we got your support request” right away because that is automatically generated. Then sometime overnight you get a copy/paste list of things to try that generally are not even related to the problem. It seems the customer service people are outsourced labor that are skilled at doing web searches and that’s about it. They don’t seem to understand that MINT has backend processes that break when the various financial institutions change their web pages. With hundreds of financial services moving to more and more personalized web pages for their customers, it is a really TOUGH job to write scripts that will pull out the transactions and totals from the personalized web pages. MINT is only looking at general problems reported by large numbers of people. They do not seem to know how to solve problems reported by small numbers of people or just a person. There is no way to escalate a problem. There is nothing in MINT’s way of handling problems to differentiate from “power” users that understand how web based financial aggregation systems work and have uncovered bugs versus newbie users that have trouble figuring out how to enter security questions. Both groups of people have legitimate problems and need help, but they need different kinds of help.

Hopefully, MINT will figure this out and get support staff that actually read the problems, understand what is going on, and get help from the software engineers that can fix the problems. The current approach of assuming MINT is working and the users don’t know how to use their web browser or answer their security questions just drives many people to MINT’s growing competition that is late to the game, but still has a chance of capturing this market (if it is worth capturing). Take a look at MONEYSTRANDS, HelloWallet and Yodlee, to name a few, if you grow tired of hassling with MINT support to get your problems solved. That’s what I’m doing. I haven’t shut off my MINT account yet because I have 1.5 year’s of data stored and like the analytic tools. But the MINT backend software that updates transactions and balances is in serious need of improvement so their is stability and reliability that financial information can be obtained and when there are problems, MINT needs to listen to the person reporting the problem and help them get the problem resolved.

]]> By: Wayne http://programmingmylife.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/27/mint-sucks-redux/comment-page-1/#comment-77 Wayne Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:58:43 +0000 http://programmingmylife.com/blog/?p=192#comment-77 Mint is complete garbage when it comes to actually managing your money. Quicken Online allowed you to see all upcoming bills at one glance and also list how your bank balance was going to fluctuate as each bill and paycheck was coming in. This one simple feature was so incredibly simple and useful and it doesn't exist in Mint as far as I know. Mint is great at looking at your past spending behavior but not so good at anything else. Very sad that they discontinued Quicken Online and forced everybody over to something inferior in that regard. Mint is complete garbage when it comes to actually managing your money. Quicken Online allowed you to see all upcoming bills at one glance and also list how your bank balance was going to fluctuate as each bill and paycheck was coming in. This one simple feature was so incredibly simple and useful and it doesn’t exist in Mint as far as I know. Mint is great at looking at your past spending behavior but not so good at anything else. Very sad that they discontinued Quicken Online and forced everybody over to something inferior in that regard.

]]> By: acmshar http://programmingmylife.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/27/mint-sucks-redux/comment-page-1/#comment-76 acmshar Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:46:11 +0000 http://programmingmylife.com/blog/?p=192#comment-76 The reason linking to your accounts is important to Mint is that their business model requires it. They use your anonymous data to advertise to you with accounts, credit cards, etc. that would save you money. I understand your concern about giving out information. I think this type of software is definitely not for everybody. However, I don't have much trouble with them having my information. In fact, I'd be happy to give it over and allow them to profit on it through advertising to me if the product were better at analyzing my finances. I enjoy that I don't have to enter transactions; they appear automatically. If you are looking for free software for budgeting that allows you to input your own values, Money Manager EX is supposed to be good: http://www.codelathe.com/mmex/mmex_download.php I considered mentioning that I might try that actually, but I don't want to go through the work of entering all of my transactions. That's why I'm so disappointed in Mint. The reason linking to your accounts is important to Mint is that their business model requires it. They use your anonymous data to advertise to you with accounts, credit cards, etc. that would save you money.

I understand your concern about giving out information. I think this type of software is definitely not for everybody. However, I don’t have much trouble with them having my information. In fact, I’d be happy to give it over and allow them to profit on it through advertising to me if the product were better at analyzing my finances. I enjoy that I don’t have to enter transactions; they appear automatically.

If you are looking for free software for budgeting that allows you to input your own values, Money Manager EX is supposed to be good: http://www.codelathe.com/mmex/mmex_download.php

I considered mentioning that I might try that actually, but I don’t want to go through the work of entering all of my transactions. That’s why I’m so disappointed in Mint.

]]> By: JW http://programmingmylife.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/27/mint-sucks-redux/comment-page-1/#comment-74 JW Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:36:05 +0000 http://programmingmylife.com/blog/?p=192#comment-74 I think it is ridiculous that MINT requires linking to a bank account. You have to ask yourself WHY is that so important to them? Everyone does budgets differently, to support every need, they could allow people to create their own budgets from scratch. This is what I expected they would allow but do not. I have online banking but for my personal budget I keep in Excel, I do not link to accounts. No matter what Mint says, nothing is more secure than NEVER giving out your account details to a third party. I know how I want to enter my budgets... and like you said, sometimes you have reoccuring payments or whatever that you want to track. Simply reporting transaction details is not really my budget... my budget is my plan for the FUTURE as well as the past. Looking backwards I see what I spent on, looking forwards, I see what I am planning to spend on. I think it is ridiculous that MINT requires linking to a bank account. You have to ask yourself WHY is that so important to them? Everyone does budgets differently, to support every need, they could allow people to create their own budgets from scratch. This is what I expected they would allow but do not. I have online banking but for my personal budget I keep in Excel, I do not link to accounts. No matter what Mint says, nothing is more secure than NEVER giving out your account details to a third party. I know how I want to enter my budgets… and like you said, sometimes you have reoccuring payments or whatever that you want to track. Simply reporting transaction details is not really my budget… my budget is my plan for the FUTURE as well as the past. Looking backwards I see what I spent on, looking forwards, I see what I am planning to spend on.

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