John Pollard,
I find your answers here and previously on the Quicken Community forum to be extremely helpful and accurate.
I would very much like to know your opinion on the proposed data file locking on subscription lapse. Do you find this concerning?
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Thanks for the vote of confidence.
If I ignore everything else, I can safely say I would prefer that there be no restriction on access to my Quicken data if I do not upgrade.
The trouble I see is that "everything else" is too important to ignore.
I start by asking myself how much I want Quicken to remain a viable product. While I can't put my wish into objective terms that would give others a number to compare to, for example; I can say that Quicken is valuable enough to me that I am prepared to accept what some consider to be unacceptable, in order to keep the product viable. If Quicken went out of business because they failed to implement this new subscription feature, I would be a very unhappy camper. [They may go out of business anyway, but they should not do so without trying every approach to avoid it.]
Quicken is the only personal financial product I know of that gives me the capabilities I want. [For users whose needs are very limited, there may be several other products that would be acceptable to them - I have no argument that would favor Quicken in that situation. But I don't believe that gives those users any legitimate ammunition to complain about Quicken's efforts to remain viable: if a person can use another product, they are fortunate but they should not want to interfere with those who can not.]
To some extent, the issue will boil down to whether the described "subscription" model is necessary and sufficient to keep Quicken in business. I don't believe any user has the information necessary to determine that - and I think even Quicken is making some guesses on the matter - but Quicken is clearly in a better position to know what it takes than any user.
Those users who claim the subscription model is a scam or an attempt to earn undeserved profits appear to be hoping that their claims, for which they have no evidence, will influence Quicken and other users away from the subscription model. My position is that I don't know whether the subscription model Quicken eventually implements will help: I suspect only time will tell. I have no information that would allow me to second guess Quicken; and I'm surely not going to try to tell other users how they should think or what they should do: choosing to use the subscription model is an individual decision; the same product, or service, will have a different perceived value for different individuals.
A lot of what I have read from users on this subject has been a rush to judgement. If you want to read some of that, you can check out this Quicken Community discussion:
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[Note the link at the bottom of that discussion which will display the hidden comments.]
In my opinion, Eric Dunn's comments in that discussion make sense. When all users eligible for support are on the same version, Quicken will be able to provide better support, and to free up more resources to apply to fixing problems and introducing new features.
As it stands now, subscription model users will have complete "access" to their data even if they do not upgrade. As Eric Dunn says, " ... even after the subscription ends, users will have full access to all of their Quicken data, including the ability to edit,run/print reports, and export". At this point, I believe users should be asking Quicken for details about the meaning of "edit" and "export" in that sentence. [I believe the question about "export" has already been asked in the Quicken Community, and that Quicken is looking to provide an explanation. Since the Canadian subscription model is somewhat of an experiment, I suspect that the final features/limitations for the U.S. subscription version have not yet been determined.]
Many users have falsely represented the new subscription model as a large across-the-board price increase. Some of those users have failed to consider that the only prices known at this point are for the Canadian versions of Quicken. First; those prices are in Canadian dollars, they'd need to be converted to U.S. dollars for comparison. Second; there are only two Canadian versions, the equivalent of the U.S. Deluxe and Home & Business versions (while there are some five or six U.S. versions), so again, direct price comparisons may not make much sense.
What Quicken has said about pricing is that users who were upgrading every year will be paying less under the subscription model, and those who were upgrading every three years will be paying slightly more under the subscription model. I know of no one who has verifiable information which refutes that.
At the end of the day - if there are no new bombshell restrictions in a U.S.subscription version of Quicken, I will continue with my current practice, which is to purchase every new version. I start using a new version either when my current version expires, or sometimes when a newer version has some feature I really want (and/or fixes a problem that I really dislike about my current version). I purchase every version because: I want to know how it works and to be able to investigate claims made by others about how it does, or does not, work; and I want to support Quicken ... I want Quicken to continue to be around; it is by far my most valuable software product (and I consider it well worth its current price, and estimated future price).