Get rid of Quicken

I will take a look at Money Dance but so far, the products out there just don't compare to Quicken. I don't think anybody said you can't use the Quicken software after they sunset it but they are not supporting it. I work in the IT industry and this goes on all the time. Companies can't afford to support software indefinitely and it just gets too complicated to try. You end up choosing between lousy support and no support. For all the bad press I am reading here about the decision to buy MINT, I can see why they don't want to supply lousy support. LOL

Anyway, I think the Quicken product is still the best for individual users. I pay $5 month now because I buy a new version every year. If they put it to subscription, they can probably charge half that and cut out the retail distributor. As they say, "The workman is worthy of his hire". That means you should pay for the value you receive. I figure $60 every 3 years is pretty cheap for the contacts with the banks and other things they do. I can practically get it for free if I buy Turbo Tax each year.

Not arrogance, just a standard and necessary business model.

The ability to download quotes and transactions ends three years after a version is released. I assume they'll continue that policy.

OTOH, if they discontinue the product, then the banks don't have to pay up to change to the new protocols so maybe the last version will continue to d/l indefinitely. Or does it not work like that?

Bert Hyman wrote in news:Xns9D0AF2545A064VeebleFetzer@

216.250.188.140:

Even if your assumption is correct - and I don't believe in user's assumptions about the future of Quicken - your comment doesn't address the fundamental issue (which user "Mr Jan" posted): there will be nothing stopping you from using Quicken, just as there is nothing stopping Money users from using Money (even though Money is out of business) ... some of whom, are going to do just that.

[Yes, Money users will have a known benefit (continued downloading of OFX data) - assuming Intuit were to continue their current policy of not allowing the import of "OFX" files. But Intuit could change that policy (as Microsoft has changed some of their policies about Money, specifically due to Microsoft no longer supportting it) ... or folks could realize what a significant benefit Quicken provides to address the most important issue - what I have always thought was the reason to use Quicken - all your financial information in one place, easy to see, easy to understand ... regardless of how the data gets into Quicken.]

Downloading has always been a big benefit to me ... but I would not use any other product I know of, *just* because I could no longer download to Quicken. Such other product would have to provide major benefits over what something like Mint provides. Given the time Mint has had to demonstrate those greater benefits, I suspect it unlikely I'll ever see such a product - even if it is owned by Intuit.

From the Moneydance page at :

Supported Financial Institutions

Moneydance 2010 can connect to the following financial institutions using the OFX (Open Financial Exchange) online banking protocol. Please note that different financial institutions support different levels of service. Some support online bill payment and others simply provide the ability to download transactions.

...snip * Bank of America (California) * Bank of America (All Other States except WA and ID) * Bank of America (Formerly Fleet) ...snip

Paul

No, it doesn't work like that. The protocols don't change every three years, the financial institutions buy the right to use the software for a defined length of time. Even if the software is frozen, the license fees continue. Since Intuit is unlikely to walk away from that revenue, it's almost certain there will be provisions for using Quicken beyond the development freeze date.

Thanks. That's helpful. I wonder about that last sentence though. With a particular bank, is it likely to be any different with MoneyDance than with Quicken?

Thanks for clearing that up Robert.

Robert Neville wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Quicken desktop may sunset in 5 years. MoneyDance currently does not meet the needs of some Quicken users. That give the makers of MoneyDance a few years to further develop their software to make it more functional to Quicken users, perhaps even import Quicken files. It's difficult to predict what software and features will develop in the next 4-5 years. So rather than make a decision based on current capabilities, I'll stick with Quicken for now and watch to see what develops.

I agree completely. The most important part of your post IMHO is the word "may" in the first line above.

I can't believe anyone would dump a working program (I know some have problems with Q but I have very few) on the basis of a rumor.

I'll wait ans see, at my age it's impossible to predict what my needs will be in 5 years, I may not even be here (although I plan to live another 75 years just to aggravate my kids! )

XS11E wrote in news:Xns9D0D701627D55xs11eyahoocom@127.0.0.1:

I am reading all these posts about "rumors" and "you talked me out of it" and it's hard for me to follow the logic of listening to others and letting others make my decision for me, except that these people don't want to make any investment of time or money or to decide what is best for themselves.

(ON TO SOAP BOX) People, whether you want to believe it or not, there is a serious problem for people who depend on Quicken. First, there is a self- proclaimed "saviour" who thinks he knows all and can see all in the future just because he hit a home run in a niche market and is not concerned with balancing the last penny of an account. Maybe Intuit bought nim out hust to shut down his product and give him enough rope to hang himself - I don't know. I retired from the computer industry (42 years) and believe you me, I've seen this before and some companies have, after cutting the rope down, burying the body, recognized their mistake in time to recover, Others have just plain died with the hung corpse. Those survivors did so by benefitting from wise customers who did their "homework", and by seeing trends in these long-time customers, or simply by being told by these customers that there was an alternative to their product and that it was their choice - die or dance with those who brung ya.

By all of us doing our homework now, we can be around after the hangin'. So make your investment. I for one really don't want to work "in the cloud" or on paper when Quicken dies. I'm going to give Moneydance a try and provide feedback to Moneydance to get features that may not be there. In any case if Quicken doesn't die, an alternative will keep Intuit honest.

Just my $.02 worth. (OFF SOAP BOX)

Had to post without doing proper editing so sorry for rambling - hope you get my point.

Why would you think that?

I've made my own decision on my own, I KNOW MoneyDance, GnuCash, etc. will NOT work for me.

Responding primarily to your last paragraph above:

True, but until now (before the Intuit acquisition of Mint), it was never really Mint's goal to become "another Quicken", and match it feature for feature. The focus was on offering a much simpler, if much less comprehensive, means of tracking your finances.

Now with the merger, that may change. To me, this quote from the Business Week article is encouraging:

"Within about two years, the company plans to combine the software code of Mint.com and Quicken into a product that would let users readily switch between desktop and online modes."

A product that combines the best features of Mint and Quicken, while retaining a "desktop" mode, would be something to look forward to rather than dread.

I saw that quote before, and I too liked the sound of it.

I have no dread of an online version of Quicken. I have worked with both the current "Quicken Online" and Mint - my concern isn't about whether one more online site has my user-id and password ... I just just find neither comes close to Quicken desktop product. Worse (for me): both sites seem intent on appealing to those who think they can manage their financial affairs on a cell phone.

If Mint and desktop Quicken can be made to work together, with no degradation of the desktop product, I'll likely support that. I just don't want to see the cell phone mentality take over desktop Quicken, or drive it out of business.

The problem, in my mind, isn't security (I already download all my stuff today so they have that stuff already; it's the AVAILABILITY of my data at the time I want it. I don't know if you were affected, but a couple of years ago Intuit, in their wonderful wisdom, tried to put a access product into Turbo Tax that SOMETIMES worked; many times didn't. It would "call home' to ensure you had a legit copy of Turbotax. More than once I couldn't get at my data because the product malfunctioned and I had to call tech support for a go-around. This lasted only one year.

Point is that data that is off your computer and out of your control can't be counted on to be available to you when you need it.

"Andrew" wrote in news:4b60de57$0$22532$ snipped-for-privacy@cv.net:

That is also my concern. However, it must be said that people are quite capable of losing their own data all by themselves using only their computer. While instant availability is a most definite concern, an online system should hav backups that are better then the average Joe's. In spite of the recent cell-phone (temporary?) data disappearance of one of the major companies.

Sorry, but that doesn't address what I said. You took my comment out of context. I can't imagine how I could have made it clearer that I was not interested in an online application that tried to *replace* the Quicken desktop application.

I caught a glimpse of "Route101©" on Wed, 27 Jan 2010

09:55:36 -0800, writing in alt.comp.software.financial.quicken:

I'd go along with that, I'm still using MS Money 2004, while I do have a paid for Quicken CD more recent, Money still serves for my purposes.

And I agree. I wasn't trying to address what you said to the general point other than give the reason why I don't want to give up a desktop product, be it the application or the data behind it. It's MY availability of both the app and the data behind it. And I do acknowledge that Han has a point in another post in this thread that " an online system should hav backups that are better then the average Joe's. " But in my case with my daily automated backups to a physical, external, harddrive, that isn't my personal concern. Hopefully, I won't have TWO sets of failures simultaneously. (Of course, a flood, roof collapse, or power serge could conceivably knock out both storage devices ... but that's another topic for discussion.)