This is a relatively long review of TurboTax 2012 Online, software for completing tax forms and submitting them to both the federal and state authorities. I’ve updated the review to reflect the changes to the software in 2012 (for filing 2011 tax returns).

Recently, the IRS began accepting federal tax returned filed electronically. Even before the IRS began accepting returns, you could still have completed your tax forms online through software. Programs like TurboTax, H&R Block, and Jackson Hewitt have been accepting customers and holding off on filing until now. This delay affected those who had itemized deductions, claimed the tuition and fees deduction, or claimed the sales tax deduction.

Many taxpayers are just getting started with their 2011 federal returns now. I’ve been using the services of an accountant for the past few years, and he was able to cut through the more confusing tax consequences of owning a business, saving me $15,000. Before my tax situation was complicated, however, I completed my taxes online using various software. Following a series of questions, completing and filing my 1040 form was easy.

Every year, the companies that provide tax e-filing services like TurboTax and H&R Block tweak their products, not only for the latest tax laws, but to improve features, making the process of tax filing easier. I took a look at TurboTax to see what changes the newest edition has to offer.

The first thing I noticed with TurboTax is the wide variety of products they have available. There is an option that is completely free for filing federal returns, but it is limited. This free version is for taxpayers whose returns can be completed using the 1040-EZ form, a simplified version of the 1040 form. If you have deductions, investments, a mortgage, or self-employment income, or if you want a step-by-step hand-holding guide to completing the forms, you will not be able to take advantage of the TurboTax Free Edition.

TurboTax offers several flavors in addition to the Free Edition, including Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business, and Business, each to handling more complicated tax situations above and beyond the lighter editions. The Deluxe Edition focuses on capturing all of your deductions. The Premier Edition does deductions, as well, but also includes the forms you need for investments like stocks, mutual funds, and rental properties. Home & Business covers all of the above as well as self-employment income, and the Business Edition is for anyone who is a partner in or owner of a corporation.

The editions are flexible; start with the Deluxe Edition, and as you come across features you need, TurboTax will ask if you’d like to upgrade — without charging you yet — to the edition that takes all of your needs into account. I started the Deluxe Edition to see how far I could go. I saw that for the most part none of the upgrades are needed if you are confident about your tax accounting abilities and are willing to enter your information directly into forms rather than have the software hold your hand through every decision.

Get your refund in as little as 8 days. E-file with TurboTax today. It’s Easy

Here is an overview of my entire process of completing my federal and state tax returns with TurboTax.

I am a returning customer, and although I didn’t file my taxes using TurboTax last year, I did begin entering my information to test the software. TurboTax recalled last year’s information, although I didn’t enter accurate information at that time, and used it to get me started.

As you can see, some of the found information looks a little odd. If you click on the image here, you’ll see that TurboTax thinks my adjusted gross income for 2010 is a negative $106,905. This may be a result of last year’s incomplete information. Nevertheless, I continued. This year, TurboTax is no longer emphasizing the GPS device metaphor that helped guide filers through the process last year, but still retains the idea that filing your taxes is like traveling down a road.

Free tax advice from TurboTax experts

This year, TurboTax has added a new, useful feature: free on-demand tax advice from a tax expert.

While TurboTax seems to encourage users to exhaust all other options, like searching frequently asked questions and participating in the community, before contacting a live representative, this feature could prove useful for tax filers who are used to interacting with a human being to solve tax-related issues. The experts can answer questions related to filing Forms 1040, 1065, 1120, and 1120S, so even business owners can take advantage of the free advice. Be aware that by using the free advice service, you’d free TurboTax and Intuit from any liability, and are agreeing to binding arbitration if any legal issues arise from your use of the service. That’s not a customer-friendly policy, but it has come to be standard among many types of financial services.

The experts are typically seasoned tax preparers, with CPA certification and experience. When I began to initiate a chat on a Tuesday morning, there was a delay of about ten minutes before someone was available. If I were to chat over the phone rather than online, the delay would have been longer.

Income

The first step in the tax filing process covers personal information. TurboTax asks the taxpayer to check any life changes that occurred during the year from among a list to begin the section covering income.

Alongside the checklist is a link to TurboTax’s Live Community. This is a place where taxpayers can look for help from other users, the most experienced and helpful being SuperUsers, and from TurboTax employees. These guides are very helpful and thorough, but I warn anyone against making significant decisions based on answers that are not tailored to your specific situation and not backed up by a tax accountant who is familiar with you. The Live Community is great for the most typical and basic tax questions, such as, “If I became married in December, can I still file as a single taxpayer?”

If you need answers to questions specifically related to your situation, you can use the new feature mentioned above to speak to a tax expert.

After submitting my choices on the form above, TurboTax recommended I upgrade to Home & Business for an upgrade price of $45, but noted I still have the option of staying with the Deluxe Edition. Home & Business offers more guidance, but at this point, not more tax features, I opted to stay with the Deluxe Edition. I continued to enter my personal income information.

My employer — now former employer — does not seem to offer the ability to load my W2 data directly into TurboTax, so I located my form online and pulled the numbers myself, just like in the old days.

After completing my W2, TurboTax guided me through more income possibilities. For interest income, TurboTax has the ability of downloading your tax information from your bank or broker. The list of institutions offering this ability isn’t large, and many of my banks were not listed. I did give this a try with Vanguard. TurboTax asked for my Vanguard user name and password, and within seconds determined that I had dividend income of about $315 from this source. In the interest of time, I didn’t bother with any other dividend or interest income now, the software is flexible so you can return to any section at any time.

TurboTax remembered that I purchased employee stock in the past, and asked if I sold any shares, which would have resulted in income. This is a great benefit to filing your taxes with the same software each year; the software “gets to know you,” and asks the right questions based on how you’ve filed in the past. As you go through the income sections, if you state that you don’t have a certain type of income but TurboTax thinks you should, it will flag the category to let you know that you’ll need to review the section.

For my business income, TurboTax prompted me to enter the income I received on 1099 forms, stating that these forms are required for anyone who has paid the business more than $600 for services. With a corporation, I’ve found this to be incorrect, and some businesses will not send my business a 1099, and according to my tax accountant, I’m not required to send 1099s to other businesses that I pay more than $600. This rule would have changed, however, and 1099 forms would have been required, if Congress didn’t quickly repeal a much-hated provision of the health care reform law. TurboTax required 1099s in this section because this section is for “Schedule C” businesses, like sole proprietors or LLCs treated as sole proprietors. My business is an S Corporation — or, more accurately, an LLC treated as an S Corporation — so while most self-employed individuals will follow TurboTax’s guidelines for self-employment income, I would need to wait and include income from Schedule K-1, filed by my business, possibly in addition to a W-2 for the business.

As of today, the IRS has not yet finalized this year’s K-1 form, so I would not be able to submit my federal tax return yet.

After completing the income and answering questions about foreign bank accounts (I have none), TurboTax provided a snapshot of my money, and suggested I try out Mint.com to determine how I spend my money and find options for investing in an IRA. I skipped these suggestions, though I do recommend Mint.com, and proceeded to the section covering deductions and credits.

Deductions and credits

Once again, I followed the “EasyGuide” to make the most out of the suggestions provided by the software. In this section, I reviewed whether I could claim deductions and credits for mortgage interest, the homebuyer credit, the Making Word Pay credit, and more. For charitable contributions, I was easily able to enter the recurring monthly payments I made to non-profit organizations as well as the lump sum payments I sent to charities.

After completing the questionnaire, TurboTax performed an integrity check to ensure I captured all the deductions and credits I could be entitled to. When the analysis was complete, TurboTax offered some suggestions for possible missed credits. TurboTax was under the impression that I may qualify for credits I didn’t take, like the Earned Income Credit for children.

After I reviewed my final federal tax numbers, TurboTax transferred the relevant information to my state return. After a few state-specific questions, I was able to claim a property tax credit — homeowners and renters both qualify for a credit of some sort. When the process was complete, TurboTax reviewed my information and determined my risk for an audit was low, but noted two warning flags:

• I included Schedule C income.
• I had more than $100,000 in business income.

Both of these might increase the chance of being audited. In the final return that I file with my accountant, I won’t have Schedule C income. I won’t be filing my finalized return through TurboTax this year, as I prefer to work with an accountant. The Schedule C income above was is included here just as a test. The entire process was not without some confusion.

Error checking and support

Last year, after TurboTax reviewed my federal return and suggested child-related deductions and credits, I tried to determine why. It looked as if TurboTax was assigning me a credit for adopting a child — a credit I didn’t enter. I reached out as many customers do in the Age of Information: on Twitter. The customer service account is @TeamTurboTax, so you can mention that account in a message on Twitter to get their attention.

It wasn’t long before I received responses, most from people recognizing that I did not, in fact, adopt a child:

The official response from Customer Support came only a few minutes later. We discussed the issue through private messages on Twitter before I realized that I was looking at the wrong column. I expected the final page listing income, deductions, and credits, would compare the previous tax year with the current tax year, as I believe they software had done in the past, but the first column represented the current tax year and the second column listed the difference between what I was claiming and the maximum I’d be allowed to claim for each credit and deduction. TurboTax properly listed $0 for the adoption credit. That’s a big relief in many ways.

I appreciate the quick response from Intuit’s Customer Support via Twitter, and this is a feature that helps TurboTax rise above some of their competitors.

Printing and filing the returns

You have the option of filing electronically or by mail, but electronically is almost always the better option. If the government owes you a refund, you will receive it much faster, particularly if you have a bank account for direct deposit. You must pay before printing your return for filing by mail or filing electronically. I completed by entire return using the Deluxe Edition, for $29.95. The New Jersey state edition added an extra $36.95 to that total, the most I’ve ever paid to file a state return without an accountant.

On the payment screen, I noted that TurboTax guarantees their calculations; if the IRS or your state charges you a penalty due to TurboTax’s error, they will pay the penalty and interest. It’s not hard to calculate numbers correctly; the danger is in entering them correctly in the first place — and human error is not covered under this guarantee.

Once you submit your return for electronic filing, TurboTax will send you updates to let you know when they are accepted by the IRS and your state’s tax authority. After that point, you can check the status of your federal and state refunds.

Conclusion

I was surprised how easily TurboTax, even the version just one step up from the Free Edition, handled my complicated tax situation. If I had finished my corporate tax returns first, I would have had everything I needed to finish my personal federal and state returns in under a few hours. It’s important to have all your forms together before you sit down to get started. Even though TurboTax lets you stop and return to the place you left off at a later time, it’s generally to focus and get everything done as soon as you have everything available. These days, you’ll probably receive some tax forms online and some in the mail, so it’s getting more difficult to keep track of everything. The more organized you are, the smoother the tax filing process.

Consumerism Commentary is an authorized affiliate of Intuit. Intuit did not compensate Consumerism Commentary for this review.

The original version of this article, TurboTax 2012 Online Review, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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For the last few days, I’ve been testing the new version of Quicken Home and Business. While most people who track their finances have moved to online services like Mint.com, some of us are holding out until the online software offers the same advanced features as the desktop Quicken software. I enjoy my ability to track my investments, create and customize reports, export information into Excel, and look into the future with planning tools.

Quicken 2012 is set to be released on October 10, 2011 and offers several new features, particularly in that last category. The programmers at Intuit have refreshed and improved the Budget Planner and the Debt Reduction Planner, available in all flavors of Quicken 2012.

Quicken 2012 Budget Planner

The new Budget Planner is a combination of the budget planner from previous versions of Quicken and the spending planner. When creating a new budget, you have two choices. The “Automatic Budget” looks at your recent spending to determine the five most important categories for budgeting. Quicken estimates the amount for each category on a monthly basis and presents its suggestions to the users for customization. The “Advanced Budget” invites the user to select the categories to be used in the spending and income plan.

Each line on the budget is configurable by period. You could, for example, assign a budget of $300 a month for Food and Dining (overall, which includes specific categories like Groceries and Restaurants) and set a budget of $10,000 per year for Property Taxes. If your annual salary is $60,000, you can enter this. Automatically, Quicken will assign the average monthly budget in this category to $5,000, but if you are paid bi-weekly, you don’t receive the same amount of income each month. You can edit the individual months if you like.

One drawback to Quicken’s budgeting tool is that it does not include a rollover feature. For example, if you budget for an expense of $200 in groceries each month, but you only spent $150, the extra $50 is lost. In real life, and in other budgeting software, that $50 would be available to add to the following month’s spending on groceries, but Quicken does not automatically handle surpluses. Rather than focus on these details, you could change the budget view in Quicken from monthly to quarterly to get a better overview of how you spend when expenses cross months. This is also helpful for those infrequent expenses that are often forgotten when you look at a budget on a monthly level.

Each Quicken file can contain multiple budgets, so you and your spouse could maintain separate measurements of spending, even including the same accounts.

If you’re just getting started with budgeting, consider these resources:

• Money Basics: Budgets
• Budgeting Based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• Podcast: Building a Better Budget (with J.D. Roth)

Quicken 2012 Debt Reduction Planner

The new Debt Reduction Planner in Quicken 2012 has been completely redesigned. The focus here is on credit card repayment, but the planner can be easily configured to include student loans, a mortgage, and any other debt that is destined for elimination.

If your credit card issuers support it, Quicken downloads the interest rate and minimum payment information directly through the internet. If all the information isn’t available for automatic download, users will need to enter it manually from the latest statement or by accessing the account online. The interest rates and minimum payment amounts are important because Quicken needs this information to calculate the payoff plan.

Quicken’s programmers have decided that the Debt Avalanche method of paying off debt is the most appropriate philosophy for prioritizing debt. This means that the Debt Reduction Planner advises users to pay minimum payments to all debts, and any left over cash available for debt repayment should be directed to the one loan or credit card with the highest interest rate.

This is the fastest, cheapest, and most efficient way to pay of debt. The Debt Reduction Planner creates a chart and reminders to keep borrowers focused on paying the correct amounts to the appropriate debts.

Although Quicken defaults to prioritizing debt by interest rate, any user who prefers to follow the Debt Snowball approach, where debt is prioritized by size to payoff the smallest debt first, taking advantage of the psychological “quick win,” can apply this philosophy with one click. Furthermore, if there is a reason to customize the order of debt accounts due to some other reason, such as the desire to eliminate a low-interest loan from a family member before tackling an otherwise important credit card debt, users can easily manipulate the list.

Once users and the software agree on priorities, Quicken uses a visual approach to illustrating the debt payoff plan. This slider can be moved back and forth to represent the total cash available to pay off debt. While moving the slider, Quicken updates the target date for complete debt repayment and the total amount of interest paid over time.

The screen also includes a monthly chart to show the payment amounts that should be directed to each debt to stay on track. I’ve included a video capturing how the new Debt Reduction Planner feature in Quicken 2012 works, in action.

Quicken 2012 bugs

Since upgrading to Quicken Home & Business 2012 from the 2011 version, I’ve noticed that the “One Step Update” frequently doesn’t complete without causing the application to become unresponsive. This was an occasional problem with all prior versions of the software, and forcing the application to close and restarting the program usually solved the problem despite the inconvenience. With Quicken 2012, more often restarting the program does not fix the problem.

I can avoid this problem by avoiding the One Step Update function and downloading transactions for each account separately. I’ve always liked the convenience of downloading transactions across all accounts at once, so I would like to see this fixed in one of the many patches Intuit is sure to release.

If you discover any additional problems with Quicken 2012, such as calculations that don’t seem correct, let me know by leaving your comments below.

Other questions

In addition to the above, Intuit has been busy adding more financial institutions to the “Direct Connect” or “Express Web Connection” features, so transaction information can be downloaded directly into the software with as little manual entry as possible. With Quicken 2012, I’ve found that the software much more intelligently assigns categories to new transactions.

Quicken 2012 offers a new feature, good for users with high-definition screens. A toggle allows users to switch to a larger font, making the information much more legible. This follows the design trend leading towards larger text on the web. You may find the large text more appealing. Also, the account bar now features new icons, supplementing the familiar red flag. The new icons help to identify whether there are downloaded transactions to accept into the register, upcoming reminders or bills, or any other issue needing attention.

The latest development of Quicken is available only for computers running the Windows operating system. Apple users with the Mac OS will need to continue using Quicken Essentials for Mac for the near term, or use the Windows version in a virtualization.

Buy Quicken 2012 today

The original version of this article, Quicken 2012 Review With Video, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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This is a relatively long review of H&R Block’s online tax preparation and filing service. H&R Block has provided Consumerism Commentary with six coupon codes for H&R Block Premium Edition, the most complete service offered by the company.

If you haven’t filed your household’s tax return yet, chances are taxes are on your mind. If you believe you’ll owe money to the government, it makes sense to put off filing as long as possible, up to this year’s filing deadline. If you expect to receive a refund, however, file your taxes early to receive your money faster.

Previously, H&R Block offered a product that allowed customers to get their refund even faster than the few weeks the IRS takes to process, but this year, they are not offering refund anticipation loans. The least expensive and quickest way to receive a refund is to allow the IRS to deposit your refund directly into your bank account, but H&R Block does offer a refund anticipation check, which for a small fee, will provide you with your refund sooner than the IRS will.

Regardless of how you receive your refund, if you don’t visit an H&R Block location, you can file online using their software. Here is what you need to know.

Save 25% on H&R Block At Home Online Premium

Different editions of the software

H&R Block offers four editions of their online software.

The Free Edition should be sufficient for most taxpayers, but keep in mind that H&R Block will charge to file your taxes with your state, even with the Free Edition. For my review, I started with the Free Edition to see how far I could proceed before being required to upgrade to a more advanced and expensive version of the software.

I chose to begin entering my tax information without creating an account to be stored on H&R Block’s servers, even though I know that if I want to save my tax return either to complete at a different time or to finish filing, I’ll need to create one.

H&R Block clearly outlines the tax preparation process into three steps.

Income

For the first step, H&R Block suggests importing a W-2 or 1099 for your income, a feature that requires an upgrade to H&R Block Basic for $19.95. I know that my former employer does not offer W-2, so I skipped this step, opting to input my income manually. The software asks me about any life-changing events during the past year. I selected “lost a job” because I left my corporate employment at the end of the year. I expected some immediate feedback about my life-changing event, but H&R Block proceeded to ask about my filing status (single) and required me to enter my personal information including Social Security number and dependents.

After verifying my personal information, I began the section pertaining to income. This section begins by reviewing a list of my needed documentation for completing this information including a variety of 1099 forms (1099-G, 1099-INT, 1099-MISC, 1099-B, etc.) and any W-2 forms. I pulled up my W-2 online to verify the numbers my former employer reported to the government.

Even before entering any income information, by virtue of the fact I have self-employment and business income, H&R Block informed me an upgrade would be required. For a better look, click on this image to zoom in. Including gains through the sale of investments in your income would require an upgrade, as well. There is no need to get fancy; if you don’t need hand-holding walkthroughs, the H&R Block Basic Edition, the least expensive flavor of the software, is all that’s necessary, although H&R Block recommends the other options, as well.

In fact, they will keep suggesting further upgrades, but if the Free Edition doesn’t contain all the features you need, the Basic Edition will be sufficient.

Adjustments, deductions and credits

I continued through the income section, entering information from my business, and proceeded to the section for adjustments and deductions. After entering the appropriate deductions, H&R provided the opportunity to choose to file using my itemized deductions or the standard deduction, with the total effect on my tax return for each.

Following the deductions, I was prompted to select credits I might qualify for. The Making Work Pay credit was already selected for me, most likely because I had entered W-2 income. The credit section moved quickly for me, and I proceeded to the taxes section, where H&R Block checks for additional taxes or penalties I would be required to pay, such as excess contributions to or early withdrawals from retirement accounts.

Printing and filing the returns

After finishing all sections and reviewing my federal tax return, H&R Block transferred my information to the state return. I entered the information that applies to New Jersey, such as the renter/homeowner rebate. After finishing the forms, I noticed that I did not enter the estimated tax payments I made throughout the year, so I went back to the pages to enter that information for both my federal return and state return.

At this point, H&R Block suggested upgrading to “H&R Block Basic + Best of Both Worlds,” which is an option where the tax returns are reviewed by a local H&R Block office. H&R Block would be the tax preparer of record, so they would responsible to pay any fees due to mistakes on the returns. This service costs $79.95 plus $34.95 for the state return.

In the final stages of filing, H&R Bock allows me to review the charges. I was required to upgrade from the Free Edition to the Basic Edition, so my federal return cost $19.95. The state return cost $34.95. Once filing and providing my banking information for direct deposit, I should receive my refund within ten days.

The first option for paying this fee is H&R Block’s Simple Pay, in which the filing fees are deducted from your refund (if the government owes one to you), for an additional fee. Other options are credit and debit cards, electronic transfer from a bank account, and coupon code. Six lucky Consumerism Commentary will receive a coupon code that will cover the federal and state filing fees, so keep reading to find out how you can enter to win.

Only after paying for the return does H&R Block offer some of its own options for receiving a refund, such as a Refund Anticipation Check. This service, for an additional fee, will provide me with my refund amount quicker than the IRS would produce a check. This might be beneficial to taxpayers who do not have bank accounts for direct deposit and, for whatever reason, need the cash fast. I don’t recommend this for most taxpayers. Open a free bank account and get direct deposit.

Consumerism Commentary is an authorized affiliate of H&R Block. Six giveaway products were provided to Consumerism Commentary free for the benefit of our readers. H&R Block did not compensate Consumerism Commentary for this review.

Photo: socialwoodlands

The original version of this article, H&R Block Online Tax Filing Review, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Are you looking for the latest version of Quicken? Here is my review of the newest version, Quicken 2012. Downloads of Quicken 2012 are available today.

I’ve been using Quicken for six years, and I have eight years’ worth of financial data in my files.

I had the opportunity to take the beta version of Quicken 2011 Premier for a test drive. After uninstalling my current version (2010 Home & Business) and installing the new version, it took less than two minutes to convert my data file from 2010 to 2011. Some of the business-related features are not available in the Premier flavor of the software, so if I decide to keep the upgrade, I would take the opportunity to “unlock” the Home & Business features. To be careful, I converted a copy of my regular data file rather than the “real” Quicken 2010 data. This will let me return to Quicken 2010 and consider buying the new version at a later date.

First impressions

I was surprised to see that the new version of Quicken now supports Direct Connect functionality with more of my banks. It looks like Quicken is using some of Mint’s technology acquired to increase compatibility with more financial institutions.

One great improvement that I’ve been waiting for since I first started using Quicken pertains to the interface. Quicken users have become accustomed to register screens that update slowly, particularly in investment accounts with a large number of holdings or transactions. My 401(k) falls into this category. I’m happy to report that there are no longer any delays in the register screen. The interface has been streamlined in addition to the increased speed. The account information for investment accounts is the biggest example of this. In Quicken 2010, each screen offered far too many navigation options.

The “Spending” and “Income” overview pages have been improved as well. I have about 60 active accounts in Quicken. Prior to 2011, the cash flow overview pages have not been close to accurate, and that could be due to the complexity of my data and I may even have some accounts categorized incorrectly. However, the new version seems to track my real spending and income much more accurately.

Here is my spending screen, with some of the numbers obscured with PhotoShop.

One of the more interesting features is a register view that presents all your transactions on one page. By default, this view lists each transaction across all your accounts, but you can customize the options to display each account type individually, such as only asset accounts, only checking accounts, or only liabilities. You can also customize this view.

Here’s what my net worth overview page looks like in Quicken 2011. Click on this image to zoom in.

Should I upgrade?

Here is the bottom line. If it’s been several years since you’ve upgraded Quicken, or if you’ve never owned Quicken and you’d like a powerful piece of software for managing your personal finances when free options like Mint are not enough for you, then Quicken 2011 is an obvious choice. If you are happy with a recent version of Quicken on your desktop, you might not want to pay for the upgrade. (You could win a copy for free; keep reading this article to find out how.)

Consider, however, that as far as yearly incremental upgrades go, this is the best annual improvement I’ve seen in Quicken for a long time.

Latest prices for Quicken 2011

Quicken 2011 giveaway

Note: this giveaway is now closed.

I am giving away four copies of Quicken 2011 Premier. Here is how you can win one of these copies. Each of the following will provide you with one chance to win, so you have a maximum of three chances. I was originally planning to give away two copies of Quicken 2011 Premier but Intuit has agreed to chip in two copies at their expense as well. Your chances for winning have just doubled!

• Leave a comment on this post.
• Like Consumerism Commentary on Facebook, share this review with your friends, and let me know in your comment below.
• Follow @flexo on Twitter and mention and link to this review. Your tweet should say:

Pls RT! Win a copy of Quicken 2011 from @flexo! http://t.co/shu1Yms

You must be over 18 years old and must have an address in the United States in order to qualify. The winners will be chosen using the random number generator at random.org. Thanks and good luck! The giveaway will end Thursday night, October 14, 2010, at 11:59 pm.

You can have even more opportunities to get Quicken 2011 for free! Investor Junkie is offering a 1 in 100 chance to win. Read his review for another opinion about Quicken 2011 from the pre-release version.

Intuit provided Consumerism Commentary with a copy of the beta version of Quicken 2011 Premier prior to this review and giveaway but have had no influence on the content of this review or form of this giveaway. Of the four copies of Quicken 2011 Premier, Intuit is providing two to give away to Consumerism Commentary readers. The others will be given away at our own expense.

The original version of this article, Quicken 2011 Review and Giveaway, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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After a three years of operation and the acquisition of a competing product, Quicken Online will be completely replaced by Mint.com on August 29, 2010. Both Quicken Online and Mint.com have served the same purpose. These website applications help people save more money by tracking their financial accounts and offering suggestions for improvements.

At the time of the acquisition, Intuit maintained both services would co-exist peacefully under the company’s banner, but that never made much sense. I expected the two services would be merged at some point. In November last year, Intuit announced that Quicken Online users would be migrated to Mint.com within six to nine months.

That brings us today.

Although users expected a seamless migration, there is no graceful way for Quicken Online users to convert financial data to Mint.com. For most people with a typical amount of financial accounts (a couple of bank accounts, a couple of credit cards, perhaps a loan), setting up an account on Mint.com is fairly simple. Setting up my Mint.com was a chore for me considering the dozens of financial accounts I have, and I still don’t have all my accounts listed.

Our Mint.com review from September 2007 is still accurate, and since the launch the service has added some interesting features such as goal tracking, discussed on a recent Consumerism Commentary Podcast.

I prefer to avoid web-based financial tracking applications. I may be in the minority, but I prefer the desktop version of Quicken. I’m not interested in using software to track saving goals; I want to know at a glance what bills I need to pay, how much income I’m expecting by the end of each month, and how my investments are performing.

Mint.com has recently introduced a new annoying feature. It’s no surprise that the services recommended when you log onto Mint.com are influenced by companies that pay advertising or marketing fees to the service. Now, in addition to my weekly financial summaries and low balance warnings, Mint.com has started emailing advertisements.

For customers of Mint.com, the problem of unsolicited advertisement that did not require an opt-in decision is relatively easily solved by opting out. Users can edit their email settings by clicking on the “Your Profile” link and activating the “Email & Alerts” page. Deselect the Auto Insurance Spending, Life Insurance, Credit Score, and 401k Notifications options.

Users converting from Quicken Online should consider this an important step in setting up a new Mint.com account.

The original version of this article, Quicken Online Users Must Convert to Mint.com, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Many of us who want to earn more money have side jobs, or a flourishing freelance business or two. We want our customers and clients to take us seriously, but first impressions are often ruined by amateur—or even bad—graphic design. Unless you hire a designer, you’ll never get the constructive criticism you need in order to improve your collateral, but designers are expensive. The good ones are, anyway.

I’m not a designer, either. I have some basic knowledge of what works well on, say, a flyer, but I’m always forgetting how to take advantage of the golden ratio, how line spacing differs between lines and paragraphs, etc. If I could afford it, I’d hire a professional designer to do all my promotional materials all the time, but of course, I can’t afford it.

I work with graphic designers every day, and I can attest that their jobs are quite difficult. They spend years studying and practicing a craft that the rest of us take for granted, but you and I don’t have the time or the inclination. We just need a business card or a website or a flyer that looks good.

Colors

If nothing else, make sure you use colors that play nicely together.

A graphic designer friend turned me on to an online resource by Adobe called kuler, which is a free place to go for professionally-crafted color schemes. I don’t know anything about color theory, except that some colors complement each other, some don’t, and I can usually tell when a design doesn’t work because the colors are clashing. None of that helps me to pick good colors, though, and kuler does exactly that.

Look for themes by popularity, or rating, or search with a keyword, then just pick one and use those colors — and only those colors, in addition to black and white—in your new brochure, or a poster for your band’s upcoming gig, or even just a reminder for the fridge about not eating co-workers’ food.

You can register for free at the site and save your favorites, get RGB, CMYK and hex values for each color, and create your own themes based on either a color or a photo that you can upload or find on flickr.

Nobody likes long lines

Good design isn’t just pretty colors and pictures. Some of it is trendy, yes, but there are other aspects which are based on science that won’t change until the human form changes. From maxdesign:

The ideal line length for text layout is based on the physiology of the human eye… At normal reading distance the arc of the visual field is only a few inches – about the width of a well-designed column of text, or about 12 words per line. Research shows that reading slows and retention rates fall as line length begins to exceed the ideal width, because the reader then needs to use the muscles of the eye and neck to track from the end of one line to the beginning of the next line.

That’s all you need to know: keep it to about 12 words per line. If you’ve got a website with words on it, send this link to your web people and they can take care of the rest.

Try new things all the time

Google has an amazing free tool called Google Website Optimizer which lets you try different combinations of links, pictures, paragraphs, anything at all, and lets you know which combinations perform the best based on your goals, such as getting people to click “Buy now”. Check out this intro video:

Some words about fonts

Above all else, make sure the thing you produce is legible. It’s tempting to try to be fancy or fun, but often people end up with this:

or this:

In general:

• Use as few words as possible to get your point across. If you have information that you think should be small and out of the way, maybe it doesn’t need to be there at all.
• Use dark gray instead of black.
• Start with a 13 point font and go up from there.
• There should be plenty of white space (AKA negative space).
• The most important information should take up the most space, and that’s almost never your logo.

These are just some basics to keep in your back pocket. If you can afford it, I always recommend hiring a professional, but at least with these tips you’ll be able to make more good first impressions.

The original version of this article, More Professional Collateral for Free, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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If you heard about it at all, you heard right: it’s no longer illegal to jailbreak your iPhone. That means you can install any app you want on it, regardless of whether it exists in the official App Store. But according to Apple, this will void your warranty, so proceed with caution.

I’d recommend looking through what I think is the repository of apps newly available to the jailbroken. Unfortunately, since it’s not the App Store, it’s disorganized and difficult to browse. I searched for apps related to money, or banks, or finances, and didn’t see anything particularly useful. You’ll be weeding through a lot of wallpapers, themes and ringtones.

But there are a few compelling reasons to break the iPhone out of jail, such as using FaceTime over 3G. CNET’s Brian Tong goes over some more good reasons and the entire simplified jailbreaking process in the video below:

The original version of this article, Make Sure You Really Want to Jailbreak Your iPhone, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Last year was the first year I abandoned my own tax return preparation, deferring to a professional to do the dirty work. I’m glad I did; he suggested I restructure my business retroactively, resulting in a savings of about $15,000. I still haven’t seen most of this; the IRS is still processing my amended 2008 return.

As you could probably guess, my taxes are more complicated than most people’s. For many years, I was able to take care of my tax filing using online software. Prior to using TurboTax Online, I completed the forms by hand and sent the paper forms through the mail. At the time, I had one W-2 and one or two 1099-INTs to worry about — no Schedule C, no deductions, nothing remotely interesting.

Unfortunately, I made a miscalculations the last year I filed by hand. the IRS caught the error and corrected my return, and I was required to pay more money at a time I was not fully prepared to do so. I decided I would trust a software program to calculate my taxes in the future. I started with TurboTax Online, alternating occasionally with TaxACT.

This year, TurboTax Online is featuring several new or enhances features.

Tax deductions and credits

The 2009 tax year is interesting. There are about $13,000 worth of credits and deductions available to taxpayers. The company estimates that 95% of all taxpayers will qualify for at least one credit or deduction. Thanks to a government looking to wrest the economy from the throes of recession, there have been two major additions to the list of tax credits for 2009: the Making Work Pay Credit (2009 Economic Stimulus) and the New Home Buyer Tax Credit, The latter is not just for first-time home buyers anymore.

TurboTax has been updated to include even the most recent changes to the tax law. If you answer the software’s questionnaires correctly, TurboTax will let you know what you qualify for.

Improved error-checking

TurboTax now checks for errors as you go along. In most cases the software will provide immediate feedback. In previous years, most error checking would take place in a final step before printing or filing.

Bookmark or flag pages

While TurboTax estimates that most people will complete their tax returns in two sittings, I usually took longer to finish entering my information. Part of the problem is I’d often come across a question for which I didn’t have my answer on hand. For situations like these, TurboTax offers a feature to flag the page. Your flags are like bookmarks. You can give each flag a name and jump right the the correct location next time you log on.

This could be helpful if you don’t have a dependent’s Social Security number at the time you start completing your tax return. Once you come to this question, you could flag the page and continue through the forms. You could complete your entire return if you have the information available, and return at a later time to provide the missing Social Security number and file.

Live help from the TurboTax community

If you have any questions while completing your tax return, you can search for answers provided by other TurboTax users. TurboTax employees monitor these answers, so in most cases, the information you receive will be confirmed to be legitimate. Remember that most people answering these questions are not professionals.

Answers are rated by the community, and some participants are designated “superusers” and “pros.” Pros are tax professionals, verified by TurboTax. These ratings and designations help improve the chances that the information you receive is correct.

TurboTax offers an option to “Ask Tina a Question.” Tina generates automated responses to simple, frequently-asked questions.

Conclusion

These features help to place TurboTax Online among the top software options for filing personal and business taxes online. One additional point I’d like to mention is that the TurboTax team is more accessible than any representatives from any other company I’ve ever done business. You can find the team anytime on Twitter (follow TurboTax, TTaxChels and TurboTaxAshley) to hear the latest about TurboTax or to have your questions answered by someone from Intuit.

Keep reading Consumerism Commentary. In a few hours, we’re going to announce a major giveaway involving TurboTax. This will not be an ordinary giveaway.

The original version of this article, TurboTax Online Review, New Features, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Today, Intuit officially launched the first new version of Quicken for Mac in years. I do not own an Apple computer, so I have not seen this software for myself. I do know from reading many reviews that the Mac versions of Quicken in the past have lagged in quality behind the equivalent Windows-based software.

As the name “Quicken Essentials for Mac” (QEM) implies, there are not as many features in this updated version for Mac users as there are in the current Windows versions.

Here are some of the features that are included.

Easier set up; faster to use: QEM offers the unique Mac look-and-feel, easy navigation, and all the keyboard shortcuts users expect on Mac. Setup only takes 10 minutes. Users simply search for their bank, and synch using their online credentials.

Broad banking support; no data entry: QEM currently imports data from 12,000 financial institutions, with support from 18,000 expected by year end. This is nearly quadruple the previous support of banks, credit unions, credit card companies, brokerage houses and lending institutions. All of that means less data entry.

Improved categorization; better understanding: QEM “learns” the most popular categories from users, improving categorization over time. This means users spend less time organizing transactions, and more time understanding where their money goes, and how to save and do more with their money.

Easy conversion: The converter feature easily transfers historical data from past Quicken for Mac (2005, 2006 and 2007), Quicken for Windows (2007, 2008 and 2009), and Microsoft Money.

As I mentioned, I do not own an Apple computer and I have no immediate plans to purchase one. I would love to hear impressions, reviews, and other comments from readers who have purchased Quicken Essentials for Mac.

Current price for download or CD-ROM: $69.99.

The original version of this article, Quicken Essentials for Mac Released Today, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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In February, Intuit will release a long-awaited update to the Mac desktop version of Quicken. The new software has been renamed again. When it appears on shelves with the retail price of $69.99, it will be labeled “Quicken Essentials for Mac.” You can pre-order Quicken Essentials for Mac now and receive $10 off the full price.

Before you buy the software, understand its limitations when compared with the various Windows-based versions of the desktop software. While Quicken Essentials for Mac will track the value of your investments, it does not handle the level of detail that you find in other versions of the software, including the previous version of their Apple-based software, Quicken Mac 2007. If you want to track daily investment activity including transactions, Quicken Essentials for Mac will disappoint.

Quicken Essentials for Mac will not work directly with Intuit’s TurboTax so you cannot use your data in Quicken to speed up tax filing. Read Quicken’s product information page for more features and limitations.

I’m not a Mac user, but I understand that Intel-based Macs can often run Windows programs. My preference would be to run a Windows desktop version of Quicken, such as Quicken Home & Business 2010. Intuit is currently offering 50% off other Quicken products. I use Quicken Home & Business on my Windows-based computer almost every day.

Here are the current sale prices. Note: some readers have reported the 50% discount seems to be unavailable currently.

These sale prices are good until January 23, 2010. If you are asked for an offer code, use 6301262157 to activate all discounts other than the Quicken Essentials for Mac.

The original version of this article, $10 Discount Off Quicken Essentials for Mac 2010, 50% Off Other Quicken Products, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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When Mint and Intuit announced the latter would be acquiring the former, the Quicken team and Aaron Patzer, the CEO of Mint, now a vice president of Intuit’s personal finance division, claimed that their two similar online product offerings, Mint and Quicken Online, would continue to co-exist. This made little sense to me.

In fact, I asked, “How long will it continue to make sense to maintain two highly similar services under one roof?”

We now know the answer is, “Not long at all.” The acquisition has passed regulatory requirements and is now official. With this news, Intuit has also announced that Quicken Online will cease to exist within six to nine months. This phase out will move Quicken Online users over to the Mint software.

It makes more business sense for Intuit to consolidate these similar product offerings, and I figured that in time either this would be the case or Mint’s software would be re-branded with the “Quicken Online” name.

I am not a heavy user of either Mint or Quicken Online. I prefer the desktop software. With Patzer heading the development of the desktop software as well, I expect some improvements in a year or so with the next or subsequent yearly release.

The original version of this article, Quicken Online Users Will Be Migrated to Mint, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Are you looking for the latest version of Quicken? Here is my review of the newest version, Quicken 2012. Downloads of Quicken 2012 are available today.

Note: This is a long article containing an in-depth review of the new version of Quicken. If you are just interested in the giveaway of Quicken 2010 Deluxe, scroll to the bottom of this article.

It took me a long time to warm up to Intuit Quicken. When I first saw the software in the early or mid 1990s, I wasn’t very interested. That’s not the software’s fault; at that time I most likely did not see the need for tracking money I did not have. When I finally realized I needed to build some control of my personal financial situation, I first looked for free solutions.

After several months of spending less than I was earning and tracking my progress using freeware, I evaluated Microsoft Money alongside Quicken. Money looked nice and ran smooth while Quicken was clunky and unattractive, so I stuck with Money for a few years. After some time, I came to realize that Money’s features for dealing with investments were not as comprehensive as I would like, and for some reason it interpreted the downloaded data from my 401(k) incorrectly. I decided to give Quicken another shot.

While Quicken wasn’t perfect, it worked better with the transaction data I downloaded from the banks and offered configurable reports. So I stuck with it, and I still use a desktop version of Quicken almost every day. I receive questions about why I haven’t switched to popular Web 2.0 applications like Mint.com (review here). These websites offer interesting features, particularly those powered by community aggregate information, but they lack some of the basic investing functionality that I get from the desktop version of Quicken.

Quicken 2010 review, first impressions

I received Quicken 2010 Home and Business in the mail yesterday and gave it a test drive tonight.

The upgrade from Quicken 2009, including downloading updates to the software online, took about ten minutes. Tens of thousands of transaction records needed to be converted to the new version, and this took the bulk of the time for the upgrade.

After the upgrade was complete, the software brought me to Quicken.com to register. Although I am already registered at Intuit, I was required to provide my information again before using all of the software’s functionality. Although required, the registration process was quick.

I was impressed with the new version’s look and feel. The interface is redesigned to be cleaner, and switching from one page to another within the software seems to move faster. One of my biggest complaints about Quicken has been its sluggish display but this seems to be greatly improved.

Quicken 2010 opens to a new main screen with three horizontal sections. The top includes a pie chart describing your spending within categories and the middle of the screen lists your anticipated expenses.

The focus here is on your cash flow: how much is left in your spending accounts at the end of the month. Here is the top half of my screen. Click on the thumbnail to view the image full-size (and note the exceptionally large tax expense thanks to quarterly estimated payments).

The bottom section of this screen is new. According to Quicken, it would take 5 minutes to begin tracking spending goals. I began creating spending goals, which seem to form a softer style of a budget. Unfortunately, because I use sub-categories, Quicken’s “average monthly spending” in categories like “Auto,” “Dining,” and “Entertainment” were inaccurate. As a result, the “suggested monthly goals” were not appropriate. I solved this by choosing my own categories, such as “Auto:Fuel” rather than “Auto.”

After assigning several categories to watch, here are my results so far for October.

I also like the new Net Worth tab. Here is what the top half of my Net Worth page looks like.

Downloading data from banks

The “Direct Connect” feature of Quicken, in which you store your bank accounts’ passwords in the software and send Quicken on a mission to download your latest transaction data, has never run smoothly for me. In Quicken 2009, this process would occasionally lock the software, requiring me to kill the process through the Windows Task Manager. Furthermore, this downloading should be a background process. However, whenever you initiate the data update, you are preventing from performing almost every other task in the software.

Quicken 2010 has not fixed this completely. During the update process in the new version, Quicken will prevent you from moving around the software.

What to look forward to

All things considered, this seems to be a good upgrade with my limited experience so far. But like most yearly, incremental software updates, there is not a lot to justify buying the software if you already have a recent version of Quicken.

The best news from Intuit is not reflected in Quicken 2010. As a result of Intuit’s pending acquisition of Mint.com, the CEO of Mint.com, Aaron Patzer, will be leading the development of the desktop version of Quicken in addition to the online personal financial management software. I expect future versions of Quicken will look slicker and work faster as Intuit leverages the team and the talent behind Mint.com.

Latest prices for Quicken 2010 versions

Before you buy, consider trying to win the giveaway for Quicken 2010 Deluxe. Instructions for entering the giveaway are below. Free is always a better option. Also, Intuit often offers discounts. Right now the software is offered for full price only. But keep watching Consumerism Commentary to find out when new discounts are available.

If you’re a Mac user, hang on until February 2010. A new version of Quicken for Mac will be released next year, and Intuit says the will be a major upgrade from the most recent release. Alternatively, you can run software on the Mac that emulates Windows and allows you to run these updated versions of Quicken.

See the Quicken 2011 review and giveaway for a chance to win the latest edition of Quicken’s desktop software.

Giveaways

Intuit sent me two copies of Quicken 2010 Deluxe to give away to readers. Here is how you can win one of these copies. Each of the following will provide you with one chance to win, so you have a maximum of three chances.

• Leave a comment on this post.
• Become a fan of Consumerism Commentary on Facebook and let me know in your comment below.
• Mention and link to this review on Twitter. Your tweet should say:

Pls RT! Review and giveaway: Quicken 2010 from @flexo! http://bit.ly/RjD3y

You must be over 18 years old and must have an address in the United States in order to qualify. The winners will be chosen using the random number generator at random.org. Thanks and good luck! The giveaway will end Friday night, October 23, at 11:59 pm.

Update: The giveaway has ended and the winners will be announced shortly.

The original version of this article, Quicken 2010 Review and Giveaway, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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I’ve been a relatively faithful user of Quicken for the past five years after switching from Microsoft Money and other more basic personal finance management software. Even though I continue using this software to track my income and expenses and to share my finances with the world, I have never been silent about the software’s drawbacks.

Here are the latest Intuit Quicken products available for download or for shipping.

More Quicken products are available here.

Unfortunately for Mac users, Intuit is still working on an updated version of Quicken. Quicken Financial Life for Mac is slated to be released in February 2010. I should have my hands on the latest edition of Quicken Home and Business in a few days and I plan on reviewing the upgrade as soon as possible.

The original version of this article, Quicken 2010 Available Now, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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My accountant has strongly suggested I move my business-related financial accounting out of my personal Quicken file and into QuickBooks. It has been a slow process so far, and I have determined that I have not done a great job of separating my business finances from my personal finances.

QuickBooks 2010 was released yesterday. The software comes in a number of different flavors and the variety is a bit intimidating. I downloaded the QuickBooks Simple Start Free Edition in order to get started, but this edition of the software is limited to the point that it is insufficient for me. The Free Edition is limited to only twenty customers. In this version there is no connectivity with banks. While a very basic business could get by with these features, even running websites requires something more robust. One feature I would have liked with the free version, or the $100 (on sale for $80) QuickBooks Simple Start, is the ability to enter my bills as I receive them.

If you’re serious about keeping your books, it looks like your best bets are QuickBooks Pro ($200 on sale for $160) or QuickBooks Premier ($400 on sale for $320). You can also find editions of Pro and Premier that allow more than one user to access your data at the same time for an additional price.

Intuit also offers one version of QuickBooks for Mac.

My accountant says he has a few clients who upgrade their version of QuickBooks every year, so in order to complete their tax returns, he must also upgrade every year. It looks like I’d be best suited for QuickBooks Pro but I want to do as much as I can in the free version of Simple Start.

There are too many flavors of QuickBooks to list, but you can find discounted prices on all Intuit QuickBooks products here.

Consumerism Commentary is an authorized affiliate of QuickBooks and Quicken.

The original version of this article, QuickBooks 2010 Now Available, Discounts for Readers, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Soon. As in, October-soon.

It looks like the first iPhone app to bring us real-time traffic alerts, and that comes with offline maps, will be the Navigon MobileNavigator (Earlier CNET review. iTunes Store link.)

The AT&T Navigator (CNET review) also has live traffic data, but takes more time to download maps as you go, and while initially free, has a $10 monthly fee. Navigon has a steep $90 price tag, and you’ll pay $20 or $25 for the live traffic upgrade, but if you use it for more than a year, it’s already cheaper than the AT&T version.

(I’d like to take a moment to congratulate both Navigon and AT&T for sensibly choosing just one business model – monthly fee, or upfront fee – instead of both. Too many companies these days get away with a charge upfront and also making you pay monthly. I’m sure they have their reasons, but as a consumer, it just seems wrong.)

I’ve already recently cut at least 5 minutes off my daily commute by utilizing traffic data of other drivers. This is a win/win, since bad traffic throws me in a rage faster than anything else, and I’m not the most defensive driver. If I can have a tool with me that warns me of upcoming traffic problems, and helps me navigate around them, so much the better.

On the other hand, it seems I’m always driving to the same ten or twelve places. I’m not what marketers like to call a “road warrior” (isn’t this just a euphemism for salesperson?), so I don’t think I can justify the cost just yet.

Have you used the Navigon or AT&T apps? What do you think?

Navigon GPS iPhone app to get live traffic, Dong Ngo, CNET, Sep. 16, 2009

Photo credit: borderlys

The original version of this article, Real-time Traffic GPS for the iPhone, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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The news in personal finance today is that Intuit, the makers of Quicken and TurboTax, purchased internet start-up Mint, a service that has come into its own in the past few years. The two companies offer competing products: Quicken Online and Mint are both free web applications that aggregate your financial information across a wide variety of banks, credit cards, and investment accounts.

We’ve reviewed both offerings at Consumerism Commentary. We offered one of the first looks at Quicken Online as well as an early look at Mint, both from 2007. We’ve also spoken to representatives from each of the companies for the Consumerism Commentary Podcast. On May 3, we spoke with Aaron Patzer, the CEO of Mint and on June 7, we spoke with Barron Ernst, the product manager of Quicken Online. Both interviews offered interesting insights into the software and the philosophy behind the companies.

There has been fierce competition between the two companies as they raced to announce higher user numbers. Intuit challenged Mint not too long ago to substantiate their claims that they were adding 3,000 users a day. Any bitterness seems to have subsided for the time being. Mint seemed to be winning the battle over users, and it’s not a bad move for Intuit to buy the competition.

Each application has its own strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I use the desktop version of Quicken to manage my own finances. I don’t believe the software is perfect, but I prefer it above any of the web-based applications.

With this deal, Intuit obtains customers it was unable to reach and Mint obtains the backing of one of the best-known software brands. Intuit will continue offering both web-based services for free, and there are no current plans to integrate one set of users into the other piece of software. How long will it continue to make sense to maintain two highly similar services under one roof? Consolidating the users of the two separate services into one larger user base would solidify the surviving software’s spot at the summit among other similar services such as Geezeo.

Read Quicken’s announcement | Read Mint CEO Aaron Patzer’s opinion

The original version of this article, Intuit Buys Mint for $170 Million: Quicken Online and Mint to Coexist, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Until now, I never paid much attention to the different companies and providers, but I’ve learned that not all GPS devices are equal. I’ve recently been tempted by the TomTom app for the iPhone, especially in connection with the car kit. Turn-by-turn directions, as well as charging my phone, and playing music through the car’s speakers? Yes, please.

But I don’t just go throwing around $100 at every iPhone app. I figured it was at least worth a little research, and I found that one of TomTom’s special attractors is something they call IQ Routes. In short: they gather anonymous user data to provide:

… the driving experience of millions of TomTom users into your maps, calculating your route based on actual speeds driven on roads compared to speed limits. With TomTom IQ Routes you always get the smartest, most efficient route. Saving you time, fuel and money by driving like a local.

Much the same as GMail’s method of eliminating spam e-mail, TomTom “crowdsources” traffic routes in order to save you time. The good news is that you can try out their route planner for free right now and see if it can shed any light on some of your normal routes.

When I started my new job last November, I spent weeks trying different scenarios to and from work, and thought I had it nailed, so I was shocked when I tried the route planner and found a new way home that saved me 5 minutes.

And as we all know, time is money, and in this case, fuel. Give it a try yourself and let us know in the comments how it works out for you.

The original version of this article, Crowdsourcing My Ride Home, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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For the increasing number of Mac users in the audience, today’s the day to start deciding whether you want to upgrade your operating system: “Snow Leopard” is on the scene.

Number-wise, this is a move to OS 10.6. It will only work on Apple computers with an Intel processor and at least 1 GB of RAM. For anybody whose Mac came with 10.5 (Leopard), this should include you. And for you, it’s a $29 upgrade. (Users of 10.4 “Tiger” will need to spend more if they want to upgrade, but it’s still possible.)

The $29 fee is kind of a double-edged sword for me: it’s the cheapest operating system upgrade of, I think, my entire life. And yet, because it’s so inexpensive, that must mean it’s not necessarily worthwhile. Apple’s been pretty upfront about that, though… most of the changes are pretty boring.

Here’s what I recommend for right now:

• Find yourself a good, detailed review of the Snow Leopard features
• Wait at least a week and keep your ear to the ground for problems people are having: I’ll be watching my Apple friends on Twitter and this part of the macnn.com forum.
• Not sure how often this will be updated, but I also found a list of programs that we know don’t work (or are restricted) with Snow Leopard
• If you can manage it without losing any software, I strong recommend doing a clean install that wipes your hard drive first. In my experience–and I used to do this for a living–the only reason to upgrade an operating system (as opposed to a clean install), is to document what goes wrong.

Personally, I’ll be watching to see what new gee-whiz features Apple will soon introduce that won’t work on anything earlier than 10.6.

The original version of this article, Happy Snow Leopard Day, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Adriel, the product manager for the new Quicken product for Apple Mac, has posted an update about the software’s development. There is good news for users of Quicken 2007 who have been anxiously awaiting an update for the software on par with the updates that Windows users receive each year.

First of all, the delayed product called “Quicken Financial Life for Mac” will not be released as planned. The new Quicken for Mac will be released in February 2010, incorporating some aspects of Financial Life, barring no further delays. According to Adriel, the programming team is incorporating user feedback during the testing phases for both the Quicken Financial Life for Mac and the new Quicken for Mac.

Mac users have an option to run a Windows version of Quicken in a “virtual computer” within OS X with the help of certain software, and the new Quicken for Mac should have a seamless upgrade option to migrate your data from the Windows version to Mac.

Quicken for Mac 2010 Update for August 2009, Adriel, August 11, 2009.

Consumerism Commentary is an authorized affiliate of Quicken.

The original version of this article, Good News for Mac Users: Quicken for Mac 2010 Coming Soon, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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I’m a previous customer of the Mac Bundle Box, and I’m always curious to see what’s on the offering block when it reappears.

If you’re unfamiliar with the program, it’s one of the best ways you can save money on Mac software. Not only can you get $460 worth of software for $50, but 10% of each sale goes toward charity. This time it’s charity: water, which provides clean drinking water to developing nations.

Of particular note to our readers are two apps in the group dedicated to personal finance:

iCash

iCash is a software intended to control your personal finances, keeping track of incomes, expenses, credits, debts and Banks transactions for you. As simple as creating the accounts you need and move money between them! You don’t even need to know about accounting or even care about it! Your finances depend largely on good organization that lets you know where your money comes from and to where it goes.

Chronicle

Keeping track of your bills has never been so easy! Intuitive and remarkably simple to use, Chronicle will help you pay your bills on time, every time. It takes only a few seconds to add a new bill for Chronicle to remember. Once you enter your bills, Chronicle’s overview shows you all your upcoming bills at a glance, and alerts you when one is due soon (Leopard only). Plus, payment history and statistics by year and month help you determine when, where, and how much you spend. Chronicle also automatically averages your payments for bills that fluctuate, like credit cards and utilities, helping you budget for the future more accurately. You can also use Chronicle’s goals to work toward reducing a balance or paying off a loan. Late payment fees often cost $25 or more. Why risk it? Let Chronicle keep track of all your bills simply and easily!

There are twelve programs in the bundle, including the very-well-reviewed DEVONthink.

If you’ve used any of the apps in the bundle, I’d love to hear your comments, so our other readers can decide better whether it’s worth the $49 to them.

The original version of this article, Mac Bundle Box 2009, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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On the heels of Microsoft’s announcement that the company’s desktop financial management software, Microsoft Money (Plus) will be discontinued, Intuit is jumping on the chance to win customers by offering decent discounts on its Quicken products.

These discounts are similar to those offered earlier this year. It looks like Intuit brought them back shortly after Microsoft’s announcement.

I’ve been a user of the desktop versions of Quicken for several years and though I’ve complained about certain bugs and idiosynracies, I still think it’s the best software out there for managing the whole personal finance picture for an individual or family.

Here are the latest discounts:

Intuit is currently beta testing a new version of the software for the Mac, but I have not yet heard any news regarding its release date. Macintosh users have been neglected by Intuit for some time, with the most recent version of the software, released in 2006, is not as fully featured as the Windows version.

With the new conversion tool planned by both Intuit and Microsoft, upgrading from an older version of Money to Quicken 2010 when it is released later this year should be less painful than previous conversions.

Consumerism Commentary is an authorized affiliate of Quicken.

The original version of this article, Quicken Courting Microsoft Money Users With New Old Discounts, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Microsoft is ending its support of Microsoft Money, the desktop financial management software that feebly competed with Intuit Quicken. This comes as no surprise to me. Microsoft appeared to have given up on the Money product several years ago. Personally, I switched from Microsoft Money to Quicken in 2004. Although I was happy with Microsoft Money 2004 in the autumn of 2003, after trying the equivalent version of Quicken for several months I decided to permanently switch.

Quicken has not been perfect, but some of the interface drawbacks were outweighed by the superior reporting functionality and tracking of investments. I revisited Microsoft Money occasionally in the last few years but never saw a compelling reason to switch back. With Microsoft’s announcement, I am pleased with my decision.

After June 30, 2009, Microsoft Money Plus — the newer name for the desktop software — will no longer be available for retail purchase. The feature that allows bank activity to be downloaded and reconciled with the transactions entered in the software will cease to function after January 31, 2011. For those looking for a seamless switch, Microsoft is working on a file converter that will allow users to directly upgrade from Money to Quicken 2010.

While Intuit claims they are committed to to customers like myself who prefer the robust desktop application over the free and lightweight Quicken Online, I expect the company’s focus to continue shifting toward the more mainstream online product.

Announcement from Microsoft, June 10, 2009
Microsoft to discontinue MS Money, Ina Fried, CNet News, June 10, 2009

The original version of this article, Microsoft Money Will Be Discontinued, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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If you’re interested in tracking your money with Intuit Quicken 2009, and you’d like to upgrade to or install the newest versions, there are three days left before prices for the software go up. On June 1, no discounts will be offered on Quicken software, and if discounts do return later, they may be not as generous.

I’ve been an avid Quicken user for several years, after switching from Microsoft Money. It appears that Mac users are unfortunately still out of luck, with no new releases of Quicken for Mac since the 2007 version was released in 2006.

Here are the discounts, valid until the end of May. Note that some discounts have already expired.

More discounted Quicken products and other deals are available here.

Consumerism Commentary is an authorized affiliate of Quicken.

The original version of this article, Quicken 2009 Discounts Available for Three More Days, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

If you enjoyed this article, follow @flexo on Twitter and visit Facebook for more updates.

Starting today, Mint will begin beta testing some significant new features. Mint, a web application that helps you track your financial transactions, account balances, debt and budget, is branching into financial advice. For a few weeks, beta testers will have exclusive access to these new features described below. I have 200 invitations to share with Consumerism Commentary readers who would like to be part of this beta testing group. Keep reading to find out how you can receive an invitation to the beta testing program.

Almost two years ago, Consumerism Commentary contributor Sasha reviewed Mint, freshly minted. As I mentioned at the time, I figured I would not become a regular user of this software. I am a devoted user of Quicken Home and Business, and I am comfortable with my process. When Smithee noticed that Mint.com had been offering new features earlier this year, I still didn’t pay too much attention.

But I had the chance to speak today with Mint’s CEO Aaron Patzer and experience a preview of the new features the company plans to release to the public in a few weeks. To prepare, I signed into my Mint account for the first time in several months. I was pleasantly surprised to see Mint now supports automatic updates of a variety of investment accounts, loans, and house values, as well offers the option for manual entry accounts for cash expenditures. The charting and reporting functions are much improved.

New features now available for beta testers

Mint wants to get the word out about new additions that take the application’s financial insight and visibility to the next level: action steps to help you improve your financial situation. The developers worked with real, live financial advisers to develop five broad principles for guiding their users towards making healthy financial decisions: knowing your money, spending less than you earn, using debt wisely, investing your savings, and preparing for the unexpected.

A number of tasks are provided for each of these principles, and when you complete these tasks, Mint awards you points. The more points you earn, the higher your score. Mint also explains why each of these tasks is important for a financially fit lifestyle. Here’s what their task suggestions look like:

For each of the tasks, Mint walks you through the decision making process. Based on what Mint knows about your finances — and if you use Mint right, it will know just about everything — the application will provide you suggestions for high-yield savings accounts, even giving you a breakdown of the fees and minimum balance requirements if anything. For optimizing your credit card debt, Mint takes the amount you pay towards your debt each month and tailors its suggestions to your particular spending and payment habits. Based on a few assumptions, Mint explains how much you will save by switching.

It’s true that Mint has a relationship with many banks and credit cards. In other words, if you sign up for a savings account or credit card through Mint, these companies will pay Mint a small fee. According to Aaron Patzer, the choices are presented without preference towards these companies. If the best card for you is the Schwab Bank Invest First Visa Signature Card, it will be listed first, even though Mint may not get paid if you sign up for that particular credit card.

As I mentioned earlier, you receive points for making sound financial decisions. Some examples are surviving a month without being charged bank fees, reviewing your transactions each month, checking your credit report for errors annually, and investing for retirement. The points system is based on a game; you are awarded “trophies” for consistently performing well, a fun incentive for making the right choices.

There is some work to be done. Although the options presented for many of the tasks are personalized, the tasks themselves are only those that would apply to everyone. For example, while health insurance is covered in the fifth principle, life insurance is not. Right now, Mint does not know whether you are someone who would benefit from life insurance. This personalized level of suggestions is not yet possible through Mint. When asked about this, Aaron explained that Mint would not ask participants whether they have dependents, which would help determine more personalized financial advice. They may, however, use home ownership as a trigger; those who own homes are more likely to have dependents and would therefore benefit from life insurance. These enhancements might be developed later.

The competition for online financial management is intense, with Quicken Online and Geezeo adding new features frequently as well. I may be too stubborn to discard all that I have done with my desktop software in favor of a web-based application, but as these online applications mature, I’m starting to see the value for people other than financial novices.

How to become a Mint beta tester

I have 200 invitations available for those who would like the chance to enjoy these new features of Mint several weeks before the broader public, and importantly for the software developers, provide feedback and suggestions. Here is all you need to do in order to receive access.

• If you haven’t already, set up an account at Mint.com. It’s free and secure.
• Send an email to consumerism-getfit@mint.com requesting access and include the email address you use to log into Mint.

In a few days, you will be inducted into the beta testing program and you will receive access to these new features.

The original version of this article, Mint.com Will Provide Personalized Financial Advice: Beta Test the New Features, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

If you enjoyed this article, follow @flexo on Twitter and visit Facebook for more updates.

As of Tuesday, March 10 at 10:00 am ET, the giveaway of the free Quicken Home and Business 2009 is closed and no more entrants will be accepted.

I’ve been using Intuit Quicken for the last few years to keep track of my savings, investments and expenses. After trying Moneydance, GNU Cash, and Microsoft Money throughout the past ten years, I’ve settled on Quicken Home and Business edition. It’s not a perfect piece of software, but it’s more complete than any other package.

Today, I upgraded my installation to Quicken Home and Business 2009, the latest version. After separately backing up the financial data files I have been using with Quicken 2008, the installation of the new software removed Quicken 2008, installed Quicken 2009, and download the latest patches and bug-fixes.

The new interface shows there is more to explore. As always, a list of accounts sits on the left. On the right, there a new section which can be toggled between a number of new sidebars. The “To Do” tab displays your outstanding bills, predicted income, and a reminder to download the latest transactions from your banks to reconcile your entries. The other tabs contains hints, help, and advertisements.

Between the two side columns, the main window offers many more options for viewing your data. The program opens up by showing an overflow of your cash flow by default. Here is an example.

The views are customizable, so you can create new views and include the data you would like to see on one screen.

There are several issues with Quicken that haven’t been resolved. When you download transactions from banks, you are prevented from using the software fully. Updates should happen completely in the background, but I find that the screen continually refreshes and Quicken has problems accepting new transactions I enter. Screen refreshes are a problem on its own. I have a fairly quick computer, but if I resize the application window, Quicken continually redraws the screen. This and other processes are slow, and make the software feel sluggish.

Another trend that bothers me is the addition of more advertising to the software interface. Perhaps I erroneously believe that free software can be supported by advertising while software you pay for should be free from commercial interruption, but I may be in the minority. I thank Quicken for providing the option for hiding most of the advertising. On the setup screen, hide the Quicken Tab called, “Quicken Picks.” More advertising is included in the “Services” tab along the right sidebar. This cannot be hidden from view, but you should be able to avoid clicking on the tab by accident. If you want to find out which credit cards Quicken suggests, you can always take a look.

Latest prices for Quicken 2009 software

Here are some of the discounts available to Consumerism Commentary readers. Many of these discounts are better than those shared when Quicken 2009 first became available in August 2008.

Quicken Home and Business 2009 Giveaway

If you would like to receive a free copy of Quicken Home and Business 2009, you have a few options. Leave a comment here with an interesting tip for using Quicken or other financial software such as Microsoft Money Plus, Mint.com, or GNU Cash. If you don’t have any tips, feel free to leave a comment about tracking your own money. By leaving a comment, you will receive one chance in the drawing for Quicken Home and Business 2009.

For a second chance to win, share this article using one or more of the tools listed below, like Twitter or Facebook. I will leave the giveaway open for one week and announce a random winner once I close the giveaway. Thanks and good luck!

As of Tuesday, March 10 at 10:00 am ET, the giveaway of the free Quicken Home and Business 2009 is closed and no more entrants will be accepted.

Intuit provided Consumerism Commentary with a copy of Quicken for this review. Consumerism Commentary is an authorized affiliate of Quicken.

The original version of this article, Quicken Home and Business 2009 Review and Giveaway, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

If you enjoyed this article, follow @flexo on Twitter and visit Facebook for more updates.

Mint.com, a free online money tracking system, has just started including property values like houses and vehicles when calculating your net worth.

Previously, the service would total up your cash and other positive account balances, then subtract your credit card debt, loans and mortgage amounts, leaving you with an almost certainly negative net worth. In my case it was somewhere around -$178,000.

Now you can go into “Your Accounts” and tell it about the real things you own that have value. It uses a service called cyberhomes to estimate your home’s worth. Fortunately, it also lets you override this automatic value, since cyberhomes had no data for my house. I got an amount for my house from the local county appraisal district Web site and added in the Kelly Blue Book value for the two cars we have. Et voilà, our net worth is now approximately $50,000 in the black.

I think it could probably use a little fine-tuning but at least now I don’t feel so bad about our situation. Read more by Flexo about how to calculate your net worth.

The original version of this article, Increase Your Net Worth at Mint.com, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

If you enjoyed this article, follow @flexo on Twitter and visit Facebook for more updates.

This week, Quicken Online (reviewed here), a free service, has added a few new features to help you more accurately and efficiently track your spending and manage your finances.

As credit card offer increasingly unfavorable terms and abandon rewards, and as fewer people qualify for credit cards, more are turning to spending using cold hard cash. Until now, Quicken Online has only tracked spending for accounts where transaction information can be directly downloaded from a bank, limited to credit cards, debit cards, and checks. Although users could enter future transactions for these accounts, spending analysis was never complete; even the most dedicated credit card users still use cash once in a while.

To fill in this hole, Quicken Online has added the facility for users to manually enter and categorize cash transactions. Unlike automatic downloads, this relies on the user’s honesty and accuracy. Here’s the cash entry form you will see as you enter a new transaction. Click on the thumbnail to see the full-size screen.

Remembering your cash transactions where you don’t take a receipt can be difficult, so that accuracy may be in question. Quicken Online offers a companion interface for mobile phones at http://m.quicken.com — and soon, a unique application for the iPhone — to allow you to record your transactions while away from your computer. This integration is key. While it may be somewhat inconvenient to stop whenever you use cash and access a mobile application, it will help improve accuracy of your reports.

You want your spending analysis to be as accurate as possible because this is where Quicken Online really shines. The software now forecasts your future spending and indicates your level of overdraft risk based on your recent transactions and account balances.

Another small but worthwhile improvement is the account bar. Quicken Online has improved the way it lists accounts to be grouped by type. For example, credit cards are grouped together, as are savings accounts and loans.

These new features start to roll out to all Quicken Online customers today. Quicken Online is free, so there’s no financial risk to try it out.

The original version of this article, Quicken Online Adds New Cash Tracking Feature, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Quicken 2009 has been available since last fall. I’ve been meaning to upgrade my version of Quicken 2008 Home & Business, but I don’t think my computer can handle any software changes until I reinstall the operating system. I’ve been using Quicken to manage my finances for the last several years. I used to use Microsoft Money (now called Microsoft Money Plus).

I prefer the desktop software over the free, web-based Quicken Online. I use the investment features of Quicken Home & Business. While Quicken Online offers great cash-flow features, it isn’t strong when dealing with investments.

Anyhow, if you’re interested in purchasing an updated Quicken product, make sure you’re getting the best price. These discounts are available until January 25.

For most of the editions of the software, the new $20 discount is better than the previous 20% discount. The software can be downloaded or delivered to your house on CD-ROM for the same price.

Consumerism Commentary is an authorized affiliate of Quicken.

The original version of this article, New $20 Discounts on Intuit Quicken 2009 Products, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

If you enjoyed this article, follow @flexo on Twitter and visit Facebook for more updates.

Last Monday, I offered a copy of Quicken Premier 2009 to two Consumerism Commentary readers who have suggestions for avoiding overdraft fees.

I’ve extended the giveaway for an additional few days, and the winners will be announced at the end of the week. There is not a large number of participants, so your chances of winning are still very good. If you’re interested, please read about the giveaway and leave a suggestion or comment. Good luck!

The original version of this article, Quicken Premier 2009 Giveaway Extended, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

If you enjoyed this article, follow @flexo on Twitter and visit Facebook for more updates.

Starting today, Quicken Online (review) will be free for all customers. Quicken Online is the web-based financial software that replaces many of the features of the desktop versions of Quicken and competes with Mint (review), Geezeo, and several more emerging web applications.

Until now, customers who wished to use Quicken Online were required to pay a monthly fee. I mentioned in my initial review in December 2007, “For software I will likely not use often [because I prefer the full-featured desktop software], for me it will come down to price. $2.99 per month is actually a very competitive price for an online service, but the other offerings are currently free (though full of advertising).”

The fee elimination will allow Quicken Online to compete with other free web-based offerings. If you’d rather work with the desktop software, as I do, you can find discounts on the 2009 versions of Quicken here.

The original version of this article, Quicken Online Will Now Be Free, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

If you enjoyed this article, follow @flexo on Twitter and visit Facebook for more updates.

I am not a Mac user, so until recently I was unaware that Intuit’s Quicken offerings for Mac are below standard in comparison to Intuit’s similar products designed for computers running Microsoft Windows. It looks like the inferior software is getting a much-needed rewrite from scratch and a new name, “Quicken Financial Life for Mac.”

This should be good news for a number of unhappy customers.

Unfortunately, even this new product will not have the same features as Quicken 2009 for Windows. Like Quicken Online (review here), Quicken Financial Life for Mac will focus on cash flow without sophisticated features for tracking investments.

The new version of the software will provide basic information about your investments, however. Here is a screenshot of an investment summary.

Here are some interesting items to note, according to the product’s FAQ:

The software will be released this winter but you can sign up to participate in the public beta test. To run the software you will need the “Leopard” version of Mac OS. You can import old Quicken Mac data files without losing any information, but you cannot import Microsoft Money data files.

Those running an older version of Mac OS, those who want to track individual investments, and those who want customized reports are encouraged to buy Quicken Mac.

The original version of this article, Quicken Financial Life for Mac: Rebirth of Quicken for Mac, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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I opened Quicken this evening to update a few financial items and I was distraught by what the software was trying to tell me. This is something you never want to see in a piece of financial software that analyzes your spending and offers hints for managing your money.

I’m actually a little insulted. It’s very rare that I eat at Dunkin’ Donuts. In fact, a quick search in Quicken tells me that I’ve eaten there four times in the past four years. It must be time for my yearly doughnut.

The original version of this article, Something You Never Want to See in Quicken, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Fuelly is a new, free online service which helps you track your mileage. It pays attention to what kind of car you’re driving, how much you’re spending, and creates helpful charts to let you know whether your mileage is improving or declining over time.

It has great support for mobile browsers, which is exactly what I needed, since I can’t be bothered to keep a notebook and pen anywhere sensible in my car. What’s more, it also has a social networking aspect so you can invite your friends to compare mileage trends. There are also dozens of tips for improving your driving style, as well as a user discussion forum.

But I think the neatest aspect is the vehicle browser. For example, this list and graph of Toyota Priuses (Prii?), tells me that some combination of factors is forcing my mileage below the average of Fuelly members. Still, it’s a lot better than my friend’s pickup truck, who just clocked in at under 14 MPG…

The original version of this article, Introducing Fuelly, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Are you looking for Quicken 2010? Quicken 2010 is available now and here are the latest products.

The new versions of all the Quicken products are available to purchase starting today, and shipping of the new software will begin on September 9. Intuit, the company that develops the Quicken software and owns the brand, is offering some special discounts to certain websites including Consumerism Commentary. I was not selected to be included in the Quicken 2009 beta test, so I have not seen the software yet. I will most likely download the latest version and share my thoughts as soon as possible.

I’ve been generally happy with my switch from Microsoft Money to Quicken several years ago. There were some improvements I hoped for last year after my dissatisfaction with the earliest release of Quicken 2007 and my reconsideration after Intuit released some fixes. None of the ideas on my wish list were included in the 2008 version, so I’d like to get a look at any improvements in the newest release.

Here are the products now available as well as the discounted price for each. These prices beat even those listed by Amazon.com. All of these products except for the Online Edition can be ordered as CD-ROMs to be delivered to you or as direct downloads.

More discounted Quicken products and other deals are available here.

I will continue to be a Quicken user. There have been many attempts to develop web-based software for money management, including Mint, Geezeo, and even Quicken Online (review here). None of these programs suit my needs at this point.

The original version of this article, Quicken 2009 Available Today, Discounts for Blog Readers, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

If you enjoyed this article, follow @flexo on Twitter and visit Facebook for more updates.

It’s barely been a month since the iPhone update which allows people to download applications written by 3rd-party developers, and there are already more than 1,000 to choose from. Here are a few of the more promising entries in the field of Personal Finance:

Loan Shark

(Web | iTunes)

It’s unreasonable to expect that a person, when presented with a loan offer, can glance at the numbers and determine whether the salesperson is trying to rip them off. If it hadn’t happened to a friend of mine, I might’ve chalked this scenario up to simple paranoia, but it does happen. Thankfully, what with the Internet empowering us all, it happens less and less.

If all you’re looking to do is check the math on a loan offer, there are other ways to go about it. For example, you could point your mobile browser to CalcNexus’s Auto Loan Calculator and get an answer pretty quickly. The major advantage to the Loan Shark iPhone app is that it saves loan details to a Favorites screen so you can compare offers from different banks.

It also shows amortization tables and works as well for credit cards and home loans. For my money, in this case US$4.99, that’s a lot more convenient than carrying around a notepad and a pen.

Save Benjis

(Web | iTunes)

At some point (for me this happens weekly), you’ve been in a store, looking at something you probably want to buy, and you thought to yourself, “I could get this cheaper somewhere else.” Save Benjis answers your doubts for you in a matter of seconds. Best of all, it’s free, so you have nothing to lose if you want to give it a try.

Pick & Choose – Groceries

(Web | iTunes)

“Okay, I’m at Target. What was that other thing I needed to buy?” The analog lifestyle solution to this conundrum was always to keep a shopping list on the fridge and take it with you. But more often than not, I’m coming straight from work, or I forgot the list at home.

You may have noticed by now that I have a sort of contempt for paper records. Anyway…

This app has a built-in database of over 1,500 grocery items, so you barely need to type anything. In fact, I think I’m going to buy this app right now.

The original version of this article, iPhone Finance (Mostly) Apps, Vol. 1, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

If you enjoyed this article, follow @flexo on Twitter and visit Facebook for more updates.

Nicholas emailed me with this question.

I’m trying to find some kind of free accounting software for balancing my checkbook, and that sort of thing. I already use Mint.com, but it isn’t much good if I plan on writing a check, or if I want to create a recurring transaction.

I don’t need something to actually connect to my bank account, although it would be convenient to be able to import transactions. I just need to be able to keep track of everything. Right now I’m using Excel, but Excel really isn’t meant to be this kind of tool. I’d appreciate any recommendations you might have. Thanks!

Nicholas is right about Mint, Yodlee MoneyCenter, and other online services. These websites rely on downloading information from banks, and banks don’t know when you write a check unless you have sophisticated business services. For Nicholas’s purposes, these services fall short.

If Intuit Quicken and Microsoft Money Plus are out of the question — and Nicholas’s requirement according to his email is free — then there aren’t many solutions available.

I would suggest GnuCash. GnuCash is free accounting software available for Linux and other flavors of Unix, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. Like Quicken and Money, GnuCash allows you to track your financial accounts, including cash, credit, and investments.

Unlike Quicken and Money, the designers of GnuCash take an approach more true to professional accounting principles like double-entry accounting. While the more popular (and more expensive) software programs use “accounts” to represent assets and liabilities and use “categories” to record expenses and income, GnuCash considers assets, liabilities, income, and expenses to all be accounts. That means that every transaction is recorded as a transfer between two accounts.

It’s a little weird at first, but it begins to make more sense as you have more practice.

GnuCash will let you easily track your checkbook. When you create a new book of accounts (which GnuCash calls a file because the database is stored in a computer file), the default options include a checking account. You can use the default checking account, or add more if you have more than one to track, to keep your checkbook up to date.

When you write a check, you could record a decrease (GnuCash calls this a “withdrawal”) to your checking account and an increase (GnuCash calls this an “expense”) to the appropriate expense account, such as your telephone expense account. In this manner, your checking account in GnuCash will always match your checkbook. You will be able to see at a glance how much money you have truly available in the account, to help prevent overdrafts.

The problem with tracking a checking account is the reconciliation between your book of accounts (ledger) and the bank statement. If you have outstanding checks — checks you have sent out but haven’t been cashed by the recipients — then the balance in GnuCash won’t match the balance at the bank.

While the above method will be fine for most people and has the benefit of tracking the usable balance in your checking account, if you want to keep a true reconciliation, then you need an additional account. The other option is to create a liability account called “Outstanding Checks.”

When you write a check, record an increase to Outstanding Checks and an increase to the appropriate expense account, perhaps the telephone expense account like above. Then, once the phone company deposits your check and your bank has decreased your balance, you can record a decrease to Outstanding Checks and a decrease to your checking account.

Both options are accurate, so it’s up to you which method to use. If you download GnuCash, both options are free as well. GnuCash does more than just balance your checkbook, as well. It does more than you might expect from free software. Here are some of the features you might find useful:

• QIF and OFX support, so you can download files from your bank and reconcile your accounts
• Schedule recurring transactions
• Track your investment accounts and download stock prices
• Use multiple currencies
• Generate reports and graphs to illustrate your finances

There’s one drawback. If you want to run GnuCash on an operating system other than Windows, you’ll have to “compile” the software yourself. There are instructions for installing and using GnuCash here.

The original version of this article, GnuCash: Free Software for Balancing Your Checkbook (and More), is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

If you enjoyed this article, follow @flexo on Twitter and visit Facebook for more updates.

“Stat Crazy” wrote in to ask a few questions about recording personal finances in Quicken. His first question is about recording expenses.

If you purchase something during the month one June 15 with a VISA card, then submit an online payment on June 28, and the card says it is paid off on June 30 but it does not pull the cash from your bank account until July 3, then which month do you apply the expense? In my balance statement I am lazy and just say I have no balance AND the money is still in the bank account since I strictly take data from my online statements and reported transaction dates.

I track my finances using a hybrid accrual method. That means that I take most expenses and income on the day they occur, not the day I receive or withdraw the associated cash. You’re free to use whatever method makes the most sense to you, but this is how I do it.

On June 15 you experienced an expense in the form of a purchase using your credit card. If your purchase was, for example, a birthday gift, you would record the category as Gifts Given (an expense category in Quicken). On June 28 and June 30, you wouldn’t record anything in order to reflect your true savings account balance for the end of the month.

Even though your credit card’s website shows that your payment was applied on June 30, I would prefer keeping the cash recorded in your savings account until your bank debits your account. Therefore, on July 3, record a transfer in Quicken from your savings account to your credit card account. In your savings account, you would record the description as something like “Credit Card Payment” with the category as [VISA Credit Card] — the name of your credit card account in Quicken. A category in brackets denotes a transfer of money, not an expense.

Using this hybrid accrual technique, your income statement will reflect your Gifts Given expense in June while your balance sheet will reflect your proper June account balances (with accuracy in the savings account taking precedence over the credit card account). Your expense should come when you make a purchase, not necessarily when your bank account is affected.

The cash flow report is used less often. If you paid your credit card from your active checking account, and if your checking account is properly configured as a cash flow account for that report, then it would reflect an outflow in July when you transferred money to your credit card. This might be different if you paid the card from a savings account, as savings are generally not cash flow accounts.

If you use Microsoft Money or any other financial tracking program, the concept is the same but some of the details in terms of category names may be slightly different.

This is the method I use because it makes the most sense to me. The beauty about personal finance is that you don’t have the SEC knocking on your door asking for accurate reports nor must you follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

The original version of this article, Question From Reader: When Do You Record an Expense?, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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For the purposes of this article, the term “iPhone” includes “iPod Touch”, and I’m assuming that your operating systems are up to date.

Along with new firmware for existing iPhone owners, and the new iPhone 3G itself, Apple is releasing this week a new service called “MobileMe”, succinctly described as “Exchange for the rest of us.” In short, it automatically syncs your contacts, calendar, e-mail and photos between your home computer and/or work computer and/or iPhone. It stores these items in a 20 GB cloud of data and is smart enough to push updates to you from any of these categories, wherever you are, as long as you have an Internet connection or cell phone signal.

It sounds wonderful. Unfortunately, it costs $99 (US) a year for one person or $149 for a Family Pack. Calendars and contacts don’t take up much hard drive space, but between e-mail attachments and photos, it wouldn’t be that hard to bump up against the 20 GB ceiling, and it’s $49 for another 20 GB (or $99 for another 40 GB). As of this writing, a 500 GB hard drive goes for around $100. I will admit that managed data storage should be more expensive than buying yourself a hard drive, but twelve times as expensive?

I think we should hold off on signing up for MobileMe for a little while, because if the goal is automatic syncing of your contacts, calendar, e-mail and photos, I predict Google and Yahoo! are going to make this possible for free (and probably with “unlimited” data storage) in the near future. Taking each one in turn:

E-mail

If you use GMail (and I believe everybody should, even if your e-mail address is at a different domain), your e-mail is already syncing with GMail on your iPhone. Having it automatically pushed to your phone isn’t happening, yet, but it will be possible for all applications to take advantage of the “cloud computing” scenario that Apple designed for the iPhone. Do you suspect that Google won’t make a GMail app for the iPhone with push e-mail?

Contacts

With the update to OS X 10.5.3, you can already sync your contacts between your iCal (and by extension, the iPhone) and Google. See previous comment about future push scenarios, but for the time being, it would be a weird kind of emergency needed to make a lack of push technology a serious problem in this arena.

Calendar

I actually originate my calendar with Google Calendar, and subscribe to it in iCal, and by extension, my iPhone. See previous comment about future push scenarios, but Google already has a nicely iPhone-formatted version of the Calendar that loads in the Web browser.

Photos

This is probably the first thing that made me second-guess my temptation to subscribe to MobileMe, mainly because I love my Flickr account. It’s got a long history, and all my friends are there, etc. I can already e-mail photos from my iPhone to Flickr using a customized e-mail address, so that could hardly be simpler. Even so, it appears that Flickr has every intention of making their site as friendly as possible for the iPhone.

Now, I’m merely speculating that Google will come out with native iPhone apps that mimic most of the functionality of MobileMe, but look at Google’s track record. They try everything, and succeed at most of them. My plan as described may not be as elegant as a MobileMe account, but I think it’ll be just as easy, and it’ll cost 100% less.

This is only a prediction. Don’t blame me if I’m wrong. But unless you know something I don’t about Google’s plans, it’d still be smart to wait a month or so and see what they have to offer.

The original version of this article, Just Like Apple’s MobileMe, But Free, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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August 25 update: Quicken 2009 is now available for purchase. Consumerism Commentary readers get good discounts here.

I’m a heavy user of Quicken, so I’m considering signing up for the “beta test program” of the new version that will be released later this summer. If you’re approved for the beta test program, you will receive a link to download an early version of Quicken 2009, a work in progress released to a sample of users who would ideally provide feedback.

You can expect bets releases like these to contain bugs, so if you’re concerned about your data integrity, you may not want to sign up. Once you convert your Quicken data to the 2009 formats, you won’t be able to turn back if you decide the program doesn’t work as well as expected or if you don’t like it.

More information about how to sign up for the beta program is within this post.

From the Intuit communication:

Intuit is currently seeking applicants who are interested in participating in the Beta test of Quicken 2009 for Windows. If you would like to be a part of our Beta team, we invite you to apply.

This is the beta test of Quicken 2009 for Windows. Testers will be expected to use Quicken 2009 for Windows as their personal finance software during this beta period of 3 months, report any problems encountered, and complete specific tasks that provide feedback on the product.

Before you apply please note, those selected to test will be expected to:

• Start testing when notified sometime in the coming weeks
• Provide data files and logs when requested
• Install the product (desktop products) or access the product (web-based products) and use it
• Submit bug reports at the tester website
• Complete specific testing tasks through Summer 2008

If you agree to the above and are interested in participating in this test, please click the link below to apply. The application process may take about 5 minutes of your time and will ask questions about your computer system and Intuit product use.

Please understand that applying for this test does not guarantee that you will be selected for participation. All online applications must be submitted by Thursday, June 26, 2008.

Please note that all product information is strictly confidential.

Best Regards,
Intuit Beta Team

Here is the link to apply for beta testing.

The original version of this article, Quicken 2009 Beta Open to Volunteers for Testing, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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As I mentioned briefly, I was in San Francisco for a few days to meet with software developers and strategists from NetworthIQ, ExpensR, and MyStrands. The companies are working together to develop web-based personal finance management software, with the intention of meeting customers’ needs that are not met by Mint, Geezeo, Quicken Online, and others. The companies invited a number of bloggers who write about personal finance to share their experiences and needs with each other.

This workshop gave me the perfect opportunity to meet many of the writers I’ve been working with for several years. Not only did we discuss financial software, but we also got to know each other quite a bit and share blogging tips and tricks. However, the main questions of the day pertained more to financial management software.

I would have to say that personal finance bloggers are not the typical consumers. For example, I track my finances in great detail — though less detail than I did six years ago — using Quicken’s desktop software. Several times a week, I update my transactions and reconcile my accounts against information downloaded from my banks, and once a month, I review my reports to get a good handle on the bigger picture. I do not want to spend any more time than I do now, especially if it involves categorizing my expenses. Software like Mint (reviewed here by Sasha) and Quicken Online (previewed by me) will connect directly to your bank for downloading your transactions and attempt to categorize your spending based on patterns, but this system is not perfect and requires significant manual correction.

Additionally, for most people, the information downloaded from banks does not create a full picture of spending. Although more spending takes place through electronic transactions, cash still plays a large role. Software must include a way to enter cash transactions, not downloadable from any bank. In order to save current Quicken users from expending more effort, I suggested allowing the new web software to “plug in” to existing desktop software. This would allow users like me to take advantage of some of the planned “Web 2.0″ features, like “social networking” and cross-segment comparisons.

All the bloggers had great suggestions for what we’d like to see, but the big questions are how to make personal finance mainstream and what would the most people want to see as the 21st century brings technological advances. So this leads to one question for readers, particularly those of you who think outside the box: What do you want your personal finance software to do and how does that differ from your existing solution?

The original version of this article, Financial Management Software: What are Your Needs and Wishes?, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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The other day, I participated in a preview of the new Quicken Online product, scheduled to launch on January 8. This new product is intended to compete with some of the existing money management web tools currently existing, like Mint, reviewed by Sasha here, Geezeo, and Wesabe. Intuit has spotted a need for a more robust solution for managing cash flow, and the targeted audience, “young and responsible,” is increasingly turning towards the web for software.

The philosophy behind Quicken Online is that people are living beyond their means and need help managing short-term cash flow. The most pressing question for many younger earners is whether they will have enough money to pay their bills. Therefore, they haven’t built in tools yet to manage investments. Quicken Online will track your checking, savings, and credit card accounts.

Right away I saw that Quicken Online is very different than the traditional Quicken desktop software.

The purpose of Quicken Online is not reconciliation or tracking your full financial situation. There is no manual entry of financial data once you’ve set up your accounts and entered your passwords.

Once you sign up for an account on Quicken Online, you will be asked to set up at least your primary bank account by providing the username, password, and any other information you would normally use for logging into that bank’s online interface. Quicken Online will use the same multi-factor authentication (MFA) used by the participating bank. Rather than connecting to the banks through a third party service like Yodlee as many of the other tools do, Quicken Online fosters Intuit’s existing relationships with over 5,100 financial institutions.

It’s fairly easy to find your bank when adding an account. Here’s an example of how you might add a Bank of America account to your profile. You can click on the thumbnail for a closer look.

Rather than entering your transactions manually and matching them with information from the bank as you would do with the desktop version of Quicken, all information is retrieved directly from the financial institutions each night.

Since you are not maintaining your own financial records, Quicken Online will not know whether you have any outstanding checks. To solve this, Quicken Online allows you to manually enter any checks written but unposted. The software then calculates your RealBalance, which is shown alongside your bank balance when viewing your accounts. This will help you visualize how much money you will have available, possibly saving you from overdrawing a checking account.

Once the check clears, Quicken Online will automatically match the downloaded transaction with the one you entered.

Like Mint, Quicken Online will automatically and intuitively rename your payees based on the naming habits of all other customers, but your own changes will always take precedence. The new software will also categorize your expenses through the same community-based technique. Every day, Quicken Online will be smarter about suggested payees and categories than the previous day, and Intuit expects this feature to be much more accurate and intuitive than both their own desktop software and the competing online software.

As I mentioned, the primary goal of Quicken Online is to help people organize their bills. There are features in place to build awareness of your financial condition into daily life. Once your bank information is saved, Quicken Online will retrieve activity for the last 90 days in each account. From this data, the software will suggest a list of recurring bills. You can edit these bills and activate settings for bill reminders, which can be sent via email or text message. Unfortunately, when the software launches, the bill payment feature will not be ready.

The main portal or home page of Quicken Online looks very much like the desktop software’s cash flow screen. There is an area on the left in which all of your accounts and balances are listed, but the main focus is your income, expenses, and what is left over. You can use the pie charts to drill down into your data for more information. Here is an example of my account’s home page in the beta version of Quicken Online. (My list of accounts disappeared during this session; I can attribute this to the instability of unreleased software.)

Quicken Online also provides special features for iPhone users. If you have an iPhone, you can log into your account to view your latest balances and 5 latest transactions in each account, all downloaded nightly.

An important feature missing right now, but planned for the future, is the ability to pay your bills directly from the software. I see this as an important part of fulfilling Intuit’s stated goal of managing short term cash flow. Also planned is the ability for your information to tie into TurboTaxOnline. If this connection is seamless, then it should save significant time and effort when preparing to submit tax returns for 2007.

For those of us who have grown comfortable with the Quicken desktop product, remember that Quicken Online is a different product. This isn’t a replacement; in fact, the software is targeting individuals who are not currently customers of Quicken. I don’t believe the pricing is finalized yet, but the fee for the initial year will likely be $2.99 per month or $29 per year, although there will likely be a free introductory period. Other online services with the same features are currently completely free.

Quicken Online has some positive factors that will help its success. They have the power of their brand name, a trusted direct relationship with banks, strong multi-factor authentication security, and 80% market share of the desktop market (according to Intuit). The “intuition” features rely on the behavior patterns of the entire community, and this software has the potential to attract more customers than other online software. As time passes, Quicken Online’s intuition will only continue to improve.

Personally, I haven’t been a fan of what’s been offered for online money management tools so far. I’ve grown comfortable with desktop Quicken, and cash flow is not my biggest issue at the moment. I am concerned more with asset allocations and investing for the future. Due to these issues, I am not the primary demographic Intuit is targeting for this software. However, I like exploring and experimenting with financial tools. I will use Quicken Online occasionally, as long as it doesn’t require any effort beyond the time I already spend managing my finances. This is where the software shows a strength: I could refrain from visiting Quicken Online for months, but as long as I don’t sign up for any new accounts, I can come back to Quicken Online and view current information.

For software I will likely not use often, for me it will come down to price. $2.99 per month is actually a very competitive price for an online service, but the other offerings are currently free (though full of advertising). For the intended audience, the planned features of Quicken Online should put it ahead of the other choices.

The original version of this article, The New Quicken Online: A New Direction for Money Management Software, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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On Wednesday, I announced the release of Quicken 2008 by hosting a giveaway. As of yesterday evening, more than 60 people have entered the “contest” for a chance to win one of five downloadable copies of Quicken Premier 2008. Some wrote in with interesting comments, so I’d like to address a few.

Rue asked, “The Paypal link should be terrifically useful! However what did you mean by ‘in theory?’ Does it not work?”

In the beta version I’ve been testing, setting up PayPal for automatic downloads would only work for “new” accounts — those set up initially from the new version. My PayPal accounts were already configured in Quicken, so I had to create a new account mirroring the existing account. So I’ve had success downloading transactions, but I have not attempted to match downloaded transactions with existing entries in the software. I assume it would work as well (that is to say, moderately well) as matching transactions in other bank accounts.

Also, I have two accounts at PayPal — one regular business account and one for micropayments. Quicken allows only one set of credentials per bank.

In another week or so, I will post a full review of the final version of Quicken Premier 2008 using a fresh file rather than the one I’ve been using to track my finances for the last several years.

Scott asked, “As a beta tester, can you give any tips on how to get on their program? I’ve applied a couple of times and never really heard from them.”

From what I understand, the process is a mix of selection based on technical set-ups and random choices. They want the pool of testers to have a variety of operating systems, hardware, and even Quicken usage habits.

Reagan says, “Wesabe‘s price (free) is great. My only issue with Wesabe is the lack of reporting options. You associate each transaction with one or more tags, then you can view a bar chart using one tag at a time… I would love to be able to see a monthly trend of multiple combined tags.”

Quicken 2008 supports tagging of transactions. The tags are completely configurable, and you can assign more than one to a transaction. Your “Projects” from Quicken 2007 are automatically converted to a set of tags you can use when you upgrade, and more can easily be added from the transaction entry form. While you can build reports based on tag criteria, in the beta version I tested, there was no pre-configured report. You’ll have to customize a default spending report to make use of the tags in reporting.

Rjw is considering coming back to Quicken. “I find myself tempted to go back to Quicken for Mac and give it one last shot… If I were chosen for a free copy (as long as its a mac version) then I will even provide you with a review in return if you want.”

Unfortunately, I only have Quicken Premier 2008 for Windows.

The giveaway will continue; rather than doing holding separate giveaways, I have enough responses to give away all five copies from the responses to one article. I’m glad to see there is so much interest. If you would like to enter, leave a comment on the giveaway post or here, in response to this post.

The original version of this article, Responses to Your Thoughts and Questions About Quicken, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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I’ve been beta-testing Quicken Home and Business 2008 for the past few months. Despite common sense, I’ve been using this development version for managing my real, active financial data.

I have found the 2008 version to be an improvement over last year’s. I particularly like being able to download PayPal transactions for easy reconciliation, at least in theory. I also like some of the new categorization options.

There are new navigation options, and the locations of some functions have changed, so long-time Quicken users may find that it takes some time to adjust. Intuit calls the navigation “smarter,” but with more options in different places at the top of the window, I feel it’s more confusing.

Quicken Premier Giveaway

The company has provided me with five free copies of Quicken Premier 2008 in the form of secure download links. Quicken Premier is identical to the Home and Business edition, save for the functions necessary to track a business in addition to your personal finances. I will give away one copy at a time, the first to a lucky commenter who expresses interest in the software in the comments below (and the more creative, the better).

When it comes to the Quicken vs. Microsot Money battle, I switched from Money to Quicken in 2003 and miss the monthly reporting features, but I’m otherwise happy with the switch. In general, I’d have to say the two pieces of software are on equal footing. My past thoughts about Quicken are documented here on Consumerism Commentary, including reviews, tips, and hacks.

For a chance to win this new version, don’t forget to leave a comment below. Leave a valid email address; the winner will be contated by email and expected to respond within 2 business days. If there is no response, a new winner will be selected.

Update: The giveaway is now closed and winners are being notified.

The original version of this article, Intuit Quicken 2008 is Here! And Here’s a Giveaway!, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Here’s a question about reconciliation and running reports in Quicken from a reader:

I have quicken and would like to use it to run reports (net worth, where I’m spending, etc.). But it seems to be forcing me to do “reconciliation” which from what little I understand is to make sure there aren’t mistakes that the banks are making etc. I’ve connected to my accounts online, but the totals for those accounts in Quicken don’t match what they should be.

I usually just review my bank statements to check for mistakes, and reconciliation seems like way to much work. Can Quicken be used in the way I’m thinking, or am I way off base?

Before you run any reports, you should do what you can to make sure all the data are accurate, and that’s what reconciliation is for. The software doesn’t force you to reconcile, but you my have set up Quicken at some point to automatically reconcile each time you download your activity from your bank. If that’s the case, you can turn that off by performing a manual reconciliation of each account and turn off the option for automatic reconciliation.

Click the image thumbnail to the left to see where this option is in Quicken 2007 Home & Business.

Perhaps this is because part of my day-job responsibilities involve working with bank-to-ledger reconciliations for a company with thousands of bank accounts, but ensuring the validity of your data is important before running any net worth or spending reports. Reconciliation catches mistakes on the bank’s side (improper fees, incorrect amounts, extra or missing transactions) and well as mistakes on your own side.

Whether or not you choose to reconcile, Quicken can be used to run all kinds of reports, but the reports will only be as accurate as the information in the software. In the menu bar, under Reports, select “Reports & Graphs Center” to see all the different types of reports you can run. The standard reports are displayed on the left of the resulting window, and any custom reports you have saved are on the right. Click on the image thumbnail for an example from my personal Quicken file.

The original version of this article, Reader Question: Ignoring Reconciliation in Quicken, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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A while ago, I participated in a little contest sponsored by the fine folks at Mint, and for some strange, cosmic reason, I was selected to be the recipient of 20 pounds of mints. I was trying to move, yet people still wanted to send me boxes. I’m not complaining, though; the mints came in the form of Wint-O-Green Life Savers.

Here is what 20 pounds of mints looks like, in addition to an unshaven, tired-from-moving-boxes Flexo.

The original version of this article, 20 Pounds of Mints, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Wachovia Bank April statements are now arriving in customers’ mailboxes. Some customers are in for a surprise. The bank is now charging a $5.95 service fee for many account holders who use Microsoft Money or Intuit Quicken’s “direct connect” feature to download transactions directly into the software (without visiting the website). The fee is listed as “PFM Online Access,” leaving many customers confused about the debit.

I knew this was coming as far back as February because the bank sent a warning notice earlier this year. I promptly removed my settings in Quicken so the software would never try to connect to Wachovia again. When I’m ready to reconcile Quicken with the bank statement, I now go to wachovia.com and download the statement directly.

Some customers were still unaware that Wachovia would start charging for this feature. Here’s a recent comment from R. Hash:

The $5.95 just showed up on my statement with no warning whatsoever. I called Wachovia to find out what PFM was and the agent said it was Microsoft Money and Personal Finance Manager. She said the charges were from Microsoft and I have been on a wild goose chase until just now to find out who and what this was all about. This misleading info what worse than the charge itself. I have wasted over an hour trying to find out what this was. Now that I know I am really ticked. I will download on my own and get a refund from Wachovia. This is just sad all the way around.

In this case, it’s the customer’s fault for not reading the bank’s communication. But there is a catch; Wachovia is still being sneaky. Here’s an email from a frequent visitor, showing how Wachovia may be extending its pool of affected customers, followed by some instructions for having the fee removed if it should not have been assessed:

You may want to let your readers know about an idiosyncrasy I discovered with the Wachovia online access charge. I just had to call yesterday and got the $5.95 “PFM Online Access” charge erased from my account. I didn’t expect to get the charge because I’ve only tried MS Money out once back in January, but apparently on the basis of the fact that I had once downloaded my account information, they decided to consider me a regular downloader and “enrolled” me (their words) in the monthly extra charge plan, even though that plan just went into effect recently.

How deeply annoying of them. Luckily I caught it and got it pulled, but everything I’d read about the charge led me to believe it would only affect transactions after the fee implementation date, not before. I bet hundreds of people who used to use Money or Quicken but stopped are now going to be unknowingly paying every month.

This customer used direct connect only once, before Wachovia announced they’d be implementing the fee. In fact, the warning letter indicated the fee would take effect after April 1. Shouldn’t that mean that only customers who used direct connect after April 1 would get hit with the fee? Apparently not.

If you’re a Wachovia customer, check your statements for the “PFM Online Access” fee. If you have any of the following types of accounts, you should not be charged, even if you do use direct connect with your software. Call the bank any time, any day at 800-WACHOVIA and ask nicely to have the fee removed if you should not have been charged.

These accounts are exempt from the online access fee:

* Crown Select
* Crown Classic
* Crown Banking
* Crown Access
* Crown Regular
* Crown Interest
* Custom Banking
* Performance Banking
* Command Asset Program

As some commenters have noted recently, you may wish to simply move your accounts to a local credit union. I think we’ll start to see more of these online access fees as Microsoft and Intuit charge the banks to use their technology. This banks will simply want to pass an increasing amount of these expenses to the customers.

The original version of this article, Wachovia Charging Monthly $5.95 for Microsoft Money and Quicken, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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If you’re interested in a free copy of Quicken Property Rental Manager, you have one more day to enter for the chance. Just leave a comment on this post after reading the other comments and reviews, and leave a valid email address so I can contact you if you win.

I’ll be holding the “drawing” Thursday evening, and if I hear back from the winner that night, I’ll be able to have the software in the mail the following day.

The original version of this article, Quicken Giveaway, One More Day, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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I recently logged into my ShareBuilder [affiliate] account to check to see if there were any tax forms I needed to consider. I was greeted by a new message describing ShareBuilder’s new support for direct downloading of account data into Microsoft Money and Intuit Quicken.

These days, with the fees that the software makers charge financial institutions for this support and many brokerages react by dropping support, it’s nice to see ShareBuilder adding the feature.

The original version of this article, ShareBuilder Now Supports Quicken Direct Connect, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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I have a copy of Quicken Rental Property Manager 2.0 to give away. I’ve never used the software before, so I can’t provide any reviews. I don’t see owning rental properties in my near future, so I’d like to send the CD-ROM off to someone who will be able to use it.

Quicken Rental Property Manager 2.0 helps rental property owners organize their rental income and expenses in one place, saving hours at tax time. Quicken Rental Property Manager is designed specifically for rental property owners with up to 10 properties and approximately 25 total units, but it can be used to support up to 100 properties with 100 units each.

If this software sounds useful to you, simply leave a comment here with a valid email address and I’ll choose a random individual. Your email address is safe with me. I won’t send you spam or sell your address. I’ll only send an email to the commenter who is selected. Your comment can say anything you like.

Unbridled and excessive praise are my favorite comments, but any kind of comment gets you just one entry. Here is what the software claims to accomplish.

* Organize all your information in one place, into simple sheets
* Track all your income, expenses, and tax information
* Save time retrieving financial information — Easily categorize your financial information throughout the year using the income and expense log
* See how your properties are performing — get instant answers to your questions about profitability
* Take every allowable deduction all year, as you record your expenses into a Schedule E category list

I’m going to leave this giveaway open for a while. This software doesn’t appeal to everyone, so I’d like to give a chance as many people as possible.

Update: Savvy Saver has a review of the software: “The value-added features of Quicken Property Manager are few and far between, and I’ve yet to encounter any functionality that exceeds that of an Excel workbook…” Still, leave a comment here if you would like a chance for the free copy.

The original version of this article, Giveaway: Free Quicken Rental Property Manager 2.0, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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Last week, I asked for Quicken tips and hacks in return for the chance to win a free copy of Quicken Basic 2007. The random number generator selected Erin and her comment as the winner. Here was her tip:

Quicken 07 no longer supports QIF imports for most account types, but it DOES support them for liability accounts. I found a workaround to import QIF files from some of my credit card accounts.

1) Create a new liability account – call it what you like, I used “temporary QIF imports�.
2) Create an account for the account that only offers QIF downloads (for me, these are small-outfit credit card accounts).
3) Import your QIF file into the liability account.
4) Highlight the imported transactions in the liability account’s register, right click and select “move transactions�. Choose your credit card’s account from the list, and you’ve just saved yourself a bunch of manual entry.

This workaround can be helpful for those with bank accounts that only support QIF downloads. QIF was Quicken’s own format that quickly became an industry standard. Quicken no longer supports it for most account types because the format isn’t as versatile as QFX.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment, with or without a tip.

The original version of this article, Congratulations to Erin, Winner of Quicken Basic 2007!, is copyrighted by Consumerism Commentary.

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