Did 2002 Deluxe become 2005 Premiere?

You have it pretty much correct. Welcome to feature deflation. What used to be in Deluxe is now in Premier. I am not a marketer, so I don't understand why they think they need to divide the market into 3 (or more) segments, but they have been doing it for a while. I too went from a Deluxe version to the Premier version to keep all of the functions I needed.

Dwight

I've upgraded to Q2005 Deluxe from Q2002 Deluxe too, and did not find any "missing" features. Of course, each person uses the program to the different extend, and I've found no lost functionality in Deluxe version for my needs. I definitely can do and am successfully doing the first 2 things you've listed:

-Track your investments & 401(k)

-Download your brokerage data & stock quotes

Haven't specifically tried or needed the rest from your list, thought. I can track the value and performance of my portfolio.

I was wondering the same thing. At their website there is no mention of Basic and the Deluxe looks like what the basic program should be plus "Manage & Save your money" features. I was at Costco yesterday and the box does show Basic. It looks like it is purely a checkbook register function to track your expenses only. I'm not sure why the boxes still show Basic if that program is no longer available.

Adding to what snipped-for-privacy@excite.com

In TurboTax 2004, they went in the other direction: It looks like Premier absorbed some of the functionality WRT Schedule C that last year I had to "Upgrade" to H&B to get.

Quicken Basic is still available. It is just that Intuit does not promote it at all.

Am a QW Basic user - have used this version for past 4-5 years. The prior 10 yrs, or so, always went for the 'top-of-the-line' version.

Find Basic is fully functional for my needs - checking, savings, credit card, investment accounts [regular and IRA], etc. Has full downloading capability for all transactions [banking, credit cards, brokerage] and stock quotes etc. I manage rental properties and find the Basic version provides all the tracking capability I need. Interfaces with TTax just fine. Has budgeting capability that I really don't use. Has access to online 'BillPay' - don't use it myself - use my banks free on-line service.

Do not have the Home Inventory feature. Do not have the 'Planning' features - Tax, Retirement, etc Do not have the stock analyses tools that I've seen references too. Do not have a couple of 'Cap Gains Reports' [grayed out] - but have no problem generating this or any other report I need.

It is my experience that there is no difference in the core accounting capabilities of the various versions. You get 'enhancements' [bells and whistles] with the extra $'s you spend for the 'higher' versions - and imagine Intuit gets a much-much better margin too!!

Truth-be-known would suspect Basic version offers more capabiltiy than most users need or use.

Hence they don't actively promote it. ;)

Perhaps I'll downgrade next time I want to "upgrade" from 2004 Premier.

I downgraded from 2002 Deluxe to 2005 Basic, too, and am happier so far. Deluxe had just too much useless stuff in it for me to follow or ever use.

Though I'm new to tracking investments (401k) properly, they look exactly the same as in 2002D. I'm not sure why they imply you can't track investments in Basic.

Intuit has been doing feature deflation for years now. I was astounded back in 98 or so, when they took out little convenient things like the loan calculator out of Basic. You pay to upgrade, and useful, non-broken features go away. Love it.

They've gone both ways then... An Employee Stock Purchase Plan function I used last year without TurboTax Premier is now only available in Premier.

Thanks, everyone, for all the recommendations on Q2005 Basic vs. Deluxe vs. Premier. Once I get done with my taxes, I'll probably try a Deluxe upgrade, it sounds like it has more functions than Quicken's feature comparison chart leads you to believe.