Realized I can download my transaction info into csv format and build my own financial analysis in python without handing over my data. It’s pretty easy to do 90% of what you want, e.g. breakdown expenses by type.
What happened to Mint?
21–30 of 456 posts
Re: What happened to Mint?
#22I switched to https://ynab.com a while back. It's not exactly the same concept as what Mint was intended to be, but I couldn't be happier with the move.
If you're using it for budget management, YNAB is much, much better than Mint.
Re: What happened to Mint?
#23What the Hell Happened to FastCompany?
Full-screen autoplay (with sound) video add for a credit card.
Re: What happened to Mint?
#24It sounds like the answer is pretty straightforward — Mint was acquired and then semi-abandoned for want of providing sufficient revenue/having a sufficiently profitable business model. The question in my mind is: What is the matter with global banking institutions such that this has to be a third party service instead of a service that a well-organized banking consortium could provide to its clients? I would totally…
Most major banks support this using Yodlee as the underlying provider for scraping. The reason it isn't more common is because API access to accounts isn't mandated by law except in Europe (PSD2). Banks do not want to appear to be a commodity (even though they are), therefore they fear and revolt at the thought of aggregators on top of their services.
Re: What happened to Mint?
#25It sounds like the answer is pretty straightforward — Mint was acquired and then semi-abandoned for want of providing sufficient revenue/having a sufficiently profitable business model. The question in my mind is: What is the matter with global banking institutions such that this has to be a third party service instead of a service that a well-organized banking consortium could provide to its clients? I would totally…
Simple, like the other commenter mentioned, is by far the best bank-provided budgeting software, and it's not even close with the others. However, their entire philosophy is based around only using their debit card. I love them, but if you'd prefer to use a credit card, Wealthfront and SoFi offer similar less-powerful tools to track different accounts, predict savings, break up savings, and categorize transactions.
Re: What happened to Mint?
#26It sounds like the answer is pretty straightforward — Mint was acquired and then semi-abandoned for want of providing sufficient revenue/having a sufficiently profitable business model. The question in my mind is: What is the matter with global banking institutions such that this has to be a third party service instead of a service that a well-organized banking consortium could provide to its clients? I would totally…
It took the industry a decade or more to agree that some Oath + OFX was the way to go. I can’t blame them though. Originally Intuit and Microsoft were pitching “their own blackbox server” in Bank network to get this done. Nobody, not even the software companies think about the consumer or his/her safety and security from an open standard. So there is plenty of blame to go around - it is not just the bank with their cobol system and overpaid software consultants.
Mint began as a web-scraping service on top of Yodlee, who literally had tech support “visually debug” your session when your connection doesn’t work. So that spinning wheel is not network slowness - it is like someone putting their sandwich down so they can debug. Ok I am exaggerating a bit - but u get the idea
Re: What happened to Mint?
#27Mint became a loss leader to sell tax preparation software.
Now Quicken and Intuit are different companies. I am assuming Mint went with Quicken. I use Quicken and was hoping that would result in a better product, still on the fence. However, they are definitely focused on Quicken and not Mint.
Mint is still an Intuit property and nothing changed with the Quicken split.
Re: What happened to Mint?
#28I switched to https://ynab.com a while back. It's not exactly the same concept as what Mint was intended to be, but I couldn't be happier with the move.
I couldn't handle the forced system in ynab - it's clunky and I want a budget program not a whole new budget system. To me less useful than an excel budget because it tries to force you to do things it's way.
I'd rather use Excel than be forced to use their stupid system.
Re: What happened to Mint?
#29Co-founder of a (yet to be launched) Mint competitor here [1]. One pattern I think we all see over and over again is when products get bought by a large company, they often lose their "soul" (and the original team). Both those things happened with Mint.
Another important pattern I've seen is that products, in the long-term, morph to take the form of their revenue model. Many personal finance products are free, but make money by selling data or trying to upsell you on something else that you don't need (like, say, a credit card you don't need or a tax product that is overpriced [2]). This is what happened with Mint. It became a "top-of-the-funnel" lead generation tool for other products.
This also explains a lot of the problems with the internet at large today—misaligned business models. I'd definitely encourage anyone joining (or starting) a company to think about what the revenue model they are choosing means for the product and company long-term. Every company will say they are different, and that they actually care about their users and about building a good product... and maybe in the early days, the original team can stay true to that, but eventually time and money take their toll.
Companies that really want to build lovable, user-aligned products, set up a revenue model that encourages them to stick to that long term.
[1] https://www.monarchmoney.com [2] https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...
Re: What happened to Mint?
#30An (non-free) alternative is https://copilot.money/ I did the trial and looks pretty solid and modern.
No Android app. :(
More crucially, no web site! App-only services like this infuriate me. For something as crucial as the state of my money I absolutely want to use my laptop from time to time.
Start with a (responsive) web site, then add apps as necessary. This service does nothing that requires an app.