"The free service links with all your bank accounts so you can see your balances, budget and visualize spending patterns in one spot."
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Yes, and when this SaaS provider has a data breach (as so many do these days) all of your financial information, passwords, spending history and account numbers will be conveniently accessible in a single location for clandestine use.
No thanks.
Online personal finance service Mint on Monday announced that it is doubling the number of financial institutions it works with to some 16,000 banks, credit unions, loan providers, investment firms and more.
The service, which was acquired for $170 million last fall by Quicken and Turbotax maker Intuit, is now reaping the benefits of incorporating Intuit’s vast database of banks, credit unions and credit card companies in the United States.
If you’re not familiar with Mint, it’s effectively a smarter way to manage your money. The free service links with all your bank accounts so you can see your balances, budget and visualize spending patterns in one spot.
The service, which began as a web application, also offers custom apps for mobile phones, so you can perform many of the same functions on the go.
According to Mint, most Americans have an average of 11 financial institutions with which they have accounts.
Until now, if you gave Mint a try but didn’t find all of your accounts, the service was effectively useless.
(Case study No. 1: When my bank was acquired and Mint didn’t immediately fix the inconsistencies, I no longer could import data from my main checking account. Without that, budgeting is a complete wash.)
Now that Mint’s bulked up its support, that’s less likely to happen.
“Intuit Financial Services directly serve banks, so its aggregations works better than anything else out there,” said Aaron Patzer, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s personal finance group, in prepared remarks. “If you’ve tried Mint.com in the past and you couldn’t connect to one of your checking, savings, or credit card accounts, come back and check us out.”
That’s good news for the service’s three million users. With more financial institutions under its belt, the service can now focus on its second most-requested feature: more timely transactional information.
