The winner of TechCrunch40 is a personal finance tool called Mint that looks very promising. I’m particularly interested in the way that they offer optimization of accounts…
For more, Robert Scoble interiewed the CEO:
I just signed up and if it turns out to be as useful as it sounds, I’ll definitely check back in…
Just to play it safe, I think I will wait until they’re out of Beta before I risk blowing up their servers with my spending habits. If my debt balances are to be reflected on Mint, I need to be certain they are set up to use scientific notation. Dustin – I look forward to the executive summary.
Dustin,
2 weeks ago my boss was asking me to find him a Quickbooks software on ebay. Cost around $150-$200. I dont think he’ll want that when he sees this.
Thanks for the post
Sounds pretty cool, if you are one of those that wants to be penny-wise (which I’m not sure I am).
The first questions that pop to my head, before biting are:
Are they selling my spending patterns?
Can they be trusted with my bank accounts?
Great point Buliruben…
The trust factor is definitely one of the scariest parts of using the service.
The scary part of any SAAS model is who owns the data, the “attractiveness” someone like this would be as a target for thieves (vs. how many people would bother breaking into my house to get my Quicken data), etc.
Not that banks are perfect, but there are all sorts of laws that protect us and they have a real vested interest in keeping our money safe (they even use this money as investments, which is really how they make money).
This is one guy and a web site. Scoble may be all “ga ga”, but I wouldn’t trust that guy anymore than the paid shills who spend all their time giving movies glowing reviews.
It’s all fun and games until an employee gets his laptop stolen
I got 2 letters in one year, one from Boeing and one from Ameritrade, both something about, your information was stolen, employee laptop missing , go put a fraud alert on your account. have a nice day!
>moral of story: don’t play with anymore BB guns then you have to!
I would be interested in an update as you use this service. It looks like a really cool product. I am also interested in your opinion, Dustin, on the security issues. Is it any less secure than banking online??