Written by Mint.com is a free online personal finance service that is aimed at being an “easy and secure way to manage and save money online.” The service is accessible anywhere, anytime over the web and on mobile devices.
Over the last few years, I have tried personal finance software programs, web-based apps, iPhone expense tracking & budgeting apps and even a variety of spreadsheets to manage household finances. I spent much of my time maintaining and little time managing finances. Nothing ever stuck.
If your household looks half as complicated as this, you might want to check Mint out.
- Multiple chequing/savings accounts (self, spouse, vacation, kids)
- Multiple mortgage, line of credit accounts (fixed, variable, investment property)
- Multiple investment accounts (RRSP, RESP, TFSA, Non-registered investments)
- Multiple credit cards
- Business account
- And to complicate things further, all of the above is spread over multiple institutions.
Here’s a peek at life before Mint…
Exporting bank transaction data, then importing data – painful.
Logging into multiple accounts in with different institutions to export data – more painful.
No support or export ability for certain mortgage or credit card accounts – grrrr.
No complete financial picture of net worth with all assets and liabilities – hmmph.
Time consuming to manage, update and track on a regular basis – uggh.
No portability. Software program loaded on a single computer. No syncing, no web-based version, and no mobile versions.
Entering expenses individually in an iPhone app – that lasted about a week.
Setting up a complex personal budget spreadsheet – looked impressive at first and that was about it.
Getting my wife to even look at a personal budget spreadsheet – Ha!
Updating actuals in a complex personal budget spreadsheet on a regular basis – Bigger ha!
I could go on. I needed something simpler.
In the fall of 2010, that all changed for me. Mint.com finally came to Canada!
Launched in September 2007, Mint.com was one of the first significant players in the online personal finance management scene. Through a simple and fresh interface, easy setup, and auto-updating technology, Mint provided an innovative approach to managing finances online. Unfortunately, Mint.com was only available to users in the US.
Around the same time, Wesabe.com entered the Canadian market with a unique and ultra-simple web-based personal budgeting application available for Canadian users. Then, Intuit launched it’s first web-based personal finance product called, Quicken Online which provided basic functionality from it’s software based Quicken products without the aesthetic appeal of Wesabe or Mint. I made the switch from Wesabe to Quicken since Quicken provided more support for financial institutions and had some additional features. Since then, Wesabe has discontinued it’s financial management service and still exists as a useful personal finance discussion board. Then, in September 2009, Intuit acquired Mint.com for $170mil. Given Intuit’s support for products in Canada, it was only a matter of time before Canada would have it. In August 2010, Quicken users were informed of the transition to Mint.com. Welcome Mint!
After about 9 months of using the service and some minor bumps along the road, here are some of the key features of Mint.com and how I use it
Automatic Update. No data entry. Mint.com automatically pulls bank, credit card, mortgage, loan and investment transactions from over 7,500 US & Canadian financial institutions daily — giving users an up-to-date view of their money with no data entry, import or synching required.
Bank Level Security. Given the sensitivity of financial information, security is critical. Mint uses the same level of security as online banking services providers and employs the use of physical and encryption security practices equivalent to top US banks certified by VeriSign and TRUSTe.
In addition, Mint is a “read only” service. There is no ability to move money or execute a financial transaction within Mint. In this short video, Aaron Patzer, the founder and CEO of Mint explains security behind Mint.
Automatic Transaction Categorization. Mint.com’s patent-pending technology categorizes all transactions, showing users how much they spend on gas, groceries, restaurants, etc. This works about 80% of the time. This means that 80% of the time, Mint knows that Tim Hortons is “Coffee Shops”, Safeway is “Groceries” and Mortgage Payment is “Mortgage”. However, the categories don’t always work where a Purchase description is not recognizable. The default “Uncategorized” or an incorrect category would be assigned. For example “Rogers” initially gets an “Uncategorized” category. For this, I would need to edit the transaction and assign it the proper category of “Mobile Phone”. And since this is a monthly bill, Mint allows you to select a Rule with a description of “Rogers” to assign a category of “Mobile Phone” to any current or future transactions. So why are categories so important? See Budgets below.
Budgets. To use the budgeting feature to compare actuals to budget, a budget amount must be setup for any categories that are used. I warn you that yes it will be discouraging to find out how much you actually spend on “Coffee Shops” or “Fast Food” in the month. Mint automatically calculates budgets by spending category and shows spending to date each month. Whenever the budget amount is exceeded, you have the option to receive email notifications (and to multiple emails). Yes, your spouse can also be immediately alerted by email once “Coffee Shops” budget is exceeded.
Split Transactions. Mint has the ability to split transactions based on the $ amount so you can assign the appropriate categories for budget purposes. For example, let’s say you spend $500 at Costco. Costco may get an auto-category of “Groceries”. However, that Sony PS3 you bought was $300. Just select Edit Details for the transaction, select split and allocate $300 to “Entertainment” and the remaining amount is still categorized as Groceries.
Consolidate Family Accounts. If you have multiple accounts in a family unit, then Mint allows you to update all these accounts in the single Mint profile. This allows you to see and track the financial picture for a couple or the family as whole instead of just the individual. Keep in mind that the $25 “Coffee Shops” budget gets chewed up much more quickly this way.
Savings. Mint.com also tries to save users money by suggesting ways to save. Unfortunately, this is one of my pet peeves with Mint right now since the recommendations are largely US based on not tailored to the Canadian user. If nothing else, it’s helpful to be reminded how much bank fees we actually pay for each month. If that prompts a call to the bank or a switch to lower fee or no-fee bank account, then Mint is working.
Charts, Graphs and Goals. Mint’s charts and graphs help illustrate your spending, income, net worth, account balances and investments over time and compares spending year over year or month to month. Mint also has the ability to set up goals, such as saving for a vacation, education or retirement and provides updates and tracks progress toward each goal.
Updates & Alerts. Depending on the user preferences, the service also sends users email and SMS alerts about upcoming bills, low balances or unusual spending. This feature is useful from a security perspective as it will alert you of any unusual spending or large transactions in any one of your accounts.
Mobile Support. Mint has both an iPhone and Android app. Still waiting for that iPad app. Its iPhone app became the #1 iTunes Finance app on the day it launched. I setup both the SMS alerts and email alerts. The SMS alerts became annoying fairly quickly so I have removed the SMS alerts and now just receive email updates. On a weekly basis, Mint sends me a weekly summary showing account balances and budget/spending progress.
The Good.
- Auto-updating of transaction data. No more downloading bank data, then uploading bank data manually. Mint does this automatically. Just login and accounts update. This makes the maintenance part of managing finances very easy.
- Auto-categorization. No need to painfully go through each transaction every month to assign a category. Instead of this, you are reviewing for accuracy and appropriateness of the category or any manual splits that need to be setup.
- No more cash. If you carry cash, it just gets spent on who knows what. Since cash transactions aren’t identifiable, I now avoid cash transactions. However, if you do use cash since inevitably we do, Mint allows you to add a Cash Transaction and category and you can allow it to deduct from the last ATM withdrawal.
The Bad.
- Since Mint has officially been in Canada for less than a year, there’s no guarantee that all financial institutions will be supported. For example, I have credit card with a local Alberta financial institution that is currently not supported. On the plus side, Mint does have fairly wide support as any of the major national banks and credit cards in Canada and the US are supported.
- US bias. Someone needs to let Mint know that some of it’s users do not live in the US, have no ability to deal with Liberty Mutual or Chase Bank and we don’t have a 401K plan. It’s clear that Mint needs to make money somehow since they don’t charge for the service. They make their money from the advertisers which target savings opportunities to the users. However, given that these savings opportunities are not available to Canadians, the content should be targeted appropriately.
- Limited help support. Since Mint is not a paid service, there is no 1-800 number or active help-desk to assist with problems or questions. As a result, any issues are communicated by email support form and through a GetSatisfaction community forum. Back in December, I noticed some of my accounts were not updating. After several weeks of waiting, I was finally able to get the accounts to update. Fortunately, I have not had any similar issues to deal with since then.
- Increased functionality for setting budget parameters. Due to the simplicity of budget setting, Mint doesn’t offer support for setting future budget amounts or irregular amounts in a single category.
- Rear-view mirror approach. Mint is useful for providing information on historical spending categories, trends, charts and alerts. However, with the amount of information collected, Mint could help in providing a cash flow forecast or mortgage and debt reduction analysis and tools.
The Wishlist.
- iPad App
- Ability to print budgets or email budgets, charts or reports by period or category.
- Calendar and bill reminders.
- Cash flow forecast tool.
- Advanced analytical tools.
- Savings opportunities catered to Canadian market.
The Verdict.
Unlike any other personal finance tools I’ve used in the past, I’ve stuck with Mint. I access Mint 2 – 3 times per week to review new transactions, update any transaction category tags and review budgets and spending. Although there are opportunities to make the service better, it’s strength is within it’s simplicity and fresh interface. However, as users rely on Mint for a broader personal financial management tool, additional functionality would be welcome. Overall, Mint has definitely made managing finances easier, better and simpler for me.
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