Is it just me or Personal Capital loses its mind every now and again?

[dvalley]

Perhaps it's just me but this has happened two years in a row where at some point during the year if I go back to the YTD networth numbers it no longer shows what it showed previously and there's no way to fix it either. As an example it would show say $200k being the balance as of 1/1/16 then a few months later it would now show $120k as the start balance for 1/1/16 for no rhyme or reason.

As much as I like PC better than Mint for investment tracking this issue is making is less usable for a historic look at the data. Has this happened to anyone else?

Additionally, I never really found a good explanation of how they calculate the 'Your Index' number.

 

[JohnT]

The elegant interface, variety of graphs, and useful data analysis was what attracted me to Personal Capital. They have a really nice mobile app as well. I really like the retirement account expense analysis, and have used it (in part) to manage down my annual expenses in my IRA/401Ks.

Unfortunately, like you said, they suffer from unexplained data changes from week to week. So my net worth history swings by almost $1M from week to week, sometime from day to day.

I read that several financial institutions do not allow these "aggregators" to login and gather data - due to security issues. Wells Fargo is one (my bank), also TRowePrice (which I use as well). That has a lot to do with these wild swings and inaccuracies, I think.

 

[dvalley]

Totally agreed on the UI/app etc. Also glad to hear it's not just me because it's driving me crazy trying to track down why its happening. I just looked at the Retirement Planner section which until last week (and for the past year) was showing me around 60ish% success rate according to their Monte-Carlo type simulation, but today it's showing 37% even though the total networth hasn't changed much at all in the last couple of months.

 

[Markola]

PC is the best aggregator I've found but these flaws mean I'll keep tallying progress in each of my accounts twice/year in my 20 year old notebook with a pencil. I didn't understand the Wells Fargo account above since PC does access my WF accounts successfully. What's the problem again, please?

 

[RonBoyd]

Has anyone considered speaking PC directly? I have found them very responsive to these type of complaints. As an example, a month ago, I discovered that our checking account data (on the left side of the "home" page) had not updated since last November --I don't check in very often. I sent them an e-mail describing the issue-- "Support" in the drop-down menu of "your account" in upper right; this opens a new page in which you have to "sign-in" again to get a "SUBMIT A REQUEST" link. It took them a month to fix it but, to their credit, they did keep me informed as to the progress. This is the third time I have asked them to fix a "problem" in the past four years. They treated each request in a very professional manner including treating each request as very serious. (Whether that was lip service wasn't apparent from their feedback as each issue was resolved to my satisfaction.)


FWIW, I only use the free services they offer and none of the "advisory" stuff.

 

[SoReady]

I really like the retirement account expense analysis, and have used it (in part) to manage down my annual expenses in my IRA/401Ks.

I use PC for some analysis along with Mint, but I am not sure where the retirement account expense analysis is in PC. Can you detail how to get to that?

 

[JohnT]

I use PC for some analysis along with Mint, but I am not sure where the retirement account expense analysis is in PC. Can you detail how to get to that?

It's one of the Advisor Tools, and it's properly called 401K Fee Analyzer.

It ranks all of your retirement accounts by expense ratio or by fees/yr, which takes into account your balance in that account.

 

[exnavynuke]

The primary reason I'm not more interested in PC is that they don't have support for my 401k, so everything about it is required to be done manually and that's kind of a pain to keep up with regularly.

 

[JohnT]

PC is the best aggregator I've found but these flaws mean I'll keep tallying progress in each of my accounts twice/year in my 20 year old notebook with a pencil. I didn't understand the Wells Fargo account above since PC does access my WF accounts successfully. What's the problem again, please?

Regarding WFB and PC, this was an issue that made headlines late in 2015.

J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo Attack Aggregators Like Mint.com

Wells, BofA, Chase and several other banks were not supporting the "aggregators" such as PC and Mint. According to a WSJ article at the time, competition with these banks private wealth mgmt practices was the underlying motivation - and the banks used security exposure of shared passwords as the publicly stated reason.

Recently, I've been able to link my WFB account (thanks for prompting me on that) as well as my TRowePrice accounts. So maybe they fixed this issue.

 

[Cobra9777]

I've had temporary issues with every account aggregator I've ever used (Personal Capital, Mint, Fidelity Full View, even Quicken). Usually one of the financial institutions just quits updating. A few days later, all is well. I also had a weird issue with PC duplicating certain transactions at Fidelity, and no way to correct or manually override. It also quit working altogether when I implemented 2FA at Fidelity. Never had the issue described by the OP. But I use my own spreadsheets for long-term tracking, like NW, so if it happened I probably didn't notice. These aggregator tools only serve to collect and categorize data that end up in a spreadsheet.

I haven't used Mint in many years. I mainly use Full View since most of our accounts are at Fidelity, although currently they seem to be having difficulty linking up the new Elan credit cards. So I've started using Personal Capital more and I really like the interface better. The analytical content is quite good as well and the retirement planner shows some promise.

 

[savory]

This has been my experience. I use Yodlee, which is Full Views interface from what I can tell. And recently, Yodlee is going through MANY individual account updating issues.

I've had temporary issues with every account aggregator I've ever used (Personal Capital, Mint, Fidelity Full View, even Quicken). Usually one of the financial institutions just quits updating. A few days later, all is well. I also had a weird issue with PC duplicating certain transactions at Fidelity, and no way to correct or manually override. It also quit working altogether when I implemented 2FA at Fidelity. Never had the issue described by the OP. But I use my own spreadsheets for long-term tracking, like NW, so if it happened I probably didn't notice. These aggregator tools only serve to collect and categorize data that end up in a spreadsheet.

I haven't used Mint in many years. I mainly use Full View since most of our accounts are at Fidelity, although currently they seem to be having difficulty linking up the new Elan credit cards. So I've started using Personal Capital more and I really like the interface better. The analytical content is quite good as well and the retirement planner shows some promise.

 

[CaliKid]

I love PC. Easy way to check in on all assets on computer or smart phone. Have not gone for their advisory services and do not think I will.

 

[Markola]

Me neither and, after I politely declined twice when they called, they stopped asking. I have to give it to them that providing the service for free seems a smart strategy to qualify a wealthy prospect pool. I wonder how long it will last, though.

 

[Mo Money]

I love PC, though occasionally, my Barclays 1% savings account demands verification. I assumed, as has been mentioned above, that Barclays doesn't like the competition and so raises the security concerns.

 

[Montecfo]

It is disappointing to hear that Personal Capital is so unreliable. I have been using Sig Fig which also has these quirks.

I guess only real recourse is consolidating all of your accounts (which is hard with an active 401k) or get out the old spreadsheet.

 

[Amethyst]

I don't know about PC's software since I don't use it, but their reps have been on a rampage lately, pestering us with emails and phone messages. Previously I might get a call or email once a quarter.

 

[nash031]

It is disappointing to hear that Personal Capital is so unreliable. I have been using Sig Fig which also has these quirks.

I guess only real recourse is consolidating all of your accounts (which is hard with an active 401k) or get out the old spreadsheet.

I don't think anyone's really saying that. In fact, several are saying the opposite. I would rate PC as accurate 90-95% of the time based on individual account uploads or requiring further verification for security. I have ignored their solicitation phone calls for the better part of three years and can't even remember the last time they tried.

I highly recommend PC, even with the once-a-year glitch that might happen. It's revamped how I'm able to look at and parse through my accounts and is overall a great aggregator.

Note: my accounts are all through USAA, Vanguard, TSP, PenFed, Discover and AMEX. Can't speak for the other banks mentioned.

 

[COcheesehead]

It is disappointing to hear that Personal Capital is so unreliable. I have been using Sig Fig which also has these quirks.

I guess only real recourse is consolidating all of your accounts (which is hard with an active 401k) or get out the old spreadsheet.

I haven't experienced any problems with it. So saying it is unreliable is a stretch.

 

[dvalley]

OP here, so I can live with the quirks (as I have been for 3 yrs) but it definitely skews the overall picture when it shows a completely different start of the year networth than it had been previously. I've sent them an email, we shall see what they say. Good thing I make a note of monthly networth and I also have Mint so I can cross reference the info. PC still has the best investment tracking user inferface of any other free/online tool I'm aware of.

 

[sengsational]

I'm surprised so many INTJ types risk their credentials for unreliable stats. Last I looked, one was unable to type in their own data. It would be of zero assistance to me since, like the other poster said, they don't have my 401k positions. I could type in some very similar publicly priced positions, but I don't think that's a feature.

 

[ducky911]

Hi,
I would like to try setting up a free account. Does anyone know if they work with these companies

Schwab
B of A checking
chase visa
alley savings
Capital one savings

 

[RonBoyd]

Hi,
I would like to try setting up a free account. Does anyone know if they work with these companies

I can only speak to CapitalOne: I have a credit card and a CapitalOne Investing account and both sync with Personal Capital. (I seem to recall that several years ago, I had a BoA card that synced with no problems but wouldn't swear to it.) In fact, I have not had a problem with any account not being compatible with PC.

But having said that, it is more a question of the financial institute "working" with CapitalOne than the other way.