Have you heard of Mint? It is online financial planner software that helps you keep track of all your financial accounts. The financial accounts can be anything from an IRA to a car loan to checking accounts. Mint.com also helps you reach financial goals whether it’s saving for a car or reducing your debt.
I used Mint.com for about 3-4 months, and this is what I thought:
Things I liked:
- Mint.com is like a big dashboard for you to see your entire financial profile on one screen.
- It helps you keep develop and keep track of your financial goals.
- Easy to use
- The graphics and pie charts are great visual representations of your finances. They give you an idea of where you may be doing well or where you may need to improve.
- Reminds you of bill payment due dates via email. This is great if you have bills due on multiple days of the month (Like most of us!)
- Alert you of finance charges and late fees. This feature gives you an idea of how much you’re spending in fees that you could potentially avoid
Things I didn’t like:
- It was separate from all of the financial institutions we were involved in so we were required to provide the logins and passwords for all of our different accounts. This made me extremely uneasy in the case there was a security breach.
- The accounts did not always update automatically so just about every time I logged in, I had to enter my passwords again for some of the accounts.
- You can only have one goal per bank account –This makes sense but if you are using one savings account for multiple goals, it makes it difficult; particularly for more short term goals like saving for vacation
- There were some purchases that were not included in the budget which would throw it off – especially if you wrote checks
To summarize, there were more things that I didn’t like, specifically giving the account name and password. I felt that it wasn’t for me, however, I do think the concept is great and is a good option for personal finance software! If you have used mint.com what was your experience like?
Disclaimer: Please use this review at your own discretion. You are reading this product review at your own risk. This is a personal blog, and this product review is my personal opinion that has not been influenced by anyone including anyone who represents http://www.mint.com. I was not compensated for this review.
freelyfatima.wordpress.com 
Great post! I love using Mint for the budgets I set for myself. It’s a great way to shame me into sticking with it..lol which sometime I definitely need!
I liked mint.com for a while, but soon realized there was a fairly long lag in time between when I would spend, and when mint would update with the change in my finances and budget. This was a little while ago though, so maybe it’s better now. I’ll have to look into it again! 🙂
Yep that was one of my issues too. Everything can’t be perfect but I definitely didn’t want to feel like I was doing more work!
Great post! I also love using Mint for my budget tracking! The big red color when I go over definitely reminds me that I need to be saving, not spending!
So true it’s something about red that makes you want to pull the reigns a little bit lol
IT’s something about seeing your budget in the red! It definitely makes you want to slow up lol
My friend was just telling me about this site. She said it helped her a lot! I am a little hesitant about providing my bank login info, but other than that I think it is a great way to organize your finances and save for your goals.
Yeah i was very hesitant about that. Hey it works for some and doesn’t work for others! Glad it is working for your friend 🙂
I used mint for a while a few years ago. But it really is more work than it’s worth I think, you have to constantly double check the numbers which becomes tiresome.
I agree with you
We use Mint. It sounded great at first, and there are some good qualities to it, but overall I’m not a huge fan. My husband still uses it occasionally. It never updated our student loan companies so we always had to do it manually and if I wanted to do that I could just look at the company website haha. Great review!
Exactly! It just seemed like more work
I’ve heard of Mint.com before and it’s good to hear what others think of it. I sure don’t need another thing to take up too much of my time! Thanks for sharing your thoughts Fatima!
Exactly! You get my drift. It just seemed like more work
I am still a little iffy about Mint. I have used them it the past but I do better when I make my own savings budget!
That’s how I felt too. I’d rather do it myself than have to do more work
When I was working I use to use mint.com all the time! I loved it. But I do agree there are def ways it could be improved a little!!
Glad you liked it! And with these softwares, it won’t always be 100%
We love mint!!!
Glad to hear it!! I tried to love it i really did lol
I’ve never heard of this but would be interested in trying it out. I could use something to help me keep track of my finances better.
Definitely give it a try! Some people love it, some people don’t care for it
Very interesting! I’ve never heard of mint before… thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by!
I have a Mint account, but have not used it much. I definitely do not like having to input my password and such for my bank account.
I use the mint app. I love it. It all connects with my bank just fine. The only down fall is when I got to target and buy clothing, food, cleaning products on one transaction I can’t split it. Drives me crazy!
I use the mint app. I love it all except how you can’t split the transactions. For example when I go to target I buy food, clothing, make up, cleaning supplies etc all in the same transaction. It drives me crazy!
Anything that can help with budgeting and financial planning is a good thing…Now if I can get my man to take a look at it, lol!
ha!! thats a struggle in itself lol I feel your pain!
I’ve never heard of Mint before! I think it would make me nervous to put in all those passwords too!
I have heard of mint.com before but I have yet to give it a try. I am going to check it out! Thanks!
Yeah I don’t think I could use any third party site that required my banking information! Too bad, otherwise it sounds like a very useful service!
I’ve used meant before and there were some things I liked about it but overall I wasn’t a big fan.
I’ve heard mixed reviews on Mint but I think the concept is nice. Anything that can help us better budget our money is something I would take time to learn about.
I used to love Mint. I used it for a while, and then stopped because I have my own systems that seem to work out well. But it’s a great idea.
Thank you! I hadn’t heard of Mint.
Very interesting concept! I don’t think it would work very well for me as I only have one savings account, and I would want to set multiple goals, like you said. Also, giving out my bank password info seems weird to me too!
Fair analysis of mint’s services. 🙂 I think security-wise, it’s a matter of comfort with technology… 15 years ago, I was highly skeptical of shopping online (giving out your cc #), and now it’s my main way of shopping.. so maybe this will become more widely-accepted over time. I don’t personally use it, but some of my friends work for the company, and I’ve heard lots of great things about it…
xo,
lauriel
EyeForElegance.com
Ohhh man. I have been using mint for years and I’m not sure how I survived without it before.
This sounds like such a useful site, never heard of it before. Thanks for sharing.
LOVE mint, it’s one of my favorite apps!
Funny this is what I’ve heard about mint! I’m always looking for a one stop shop! My bank offers a similar type of program, that works! Thanks for this honest review. The lag time would have been a bummer
I’d be uneasy about the security too. I need something like this though.
I registered with them a while back. I never got into it for some reason.
I appericate your comments on this. I was looking into them but didn’t get very far.
I’ve heard of mint and it’s on my phone but I haven’t actually used it. I’m kinda weary of putting all my info into an app.
I hav actually used mint for a while, but found some of the similar annoyances that you discovered. The whole reason to have things centralized is that I don’t have to keep entering, well in my case, remembering all these different usernames and passwords. I do like the concept however, I just don’t think they are completely there yet.
Thrifting Diva
http://www.thriftingdiva.com
Exactly! You are spot on!