Seriously annoyed with Quicken!

[Lisa99]

Got notice that my version of Quicken would basically stop working in April. I use Quicken for EVERYTHING so bit the bullet and upgraded to 2011.

The new version does nothing that the old one didn't do (that I can find so far). AND I have to get used to the new GUI which I don't think they made better.

Paying for the new version was less painful than starting over with a new way of tracking expenses and investments but I feel like I've been hijacked!

Sorry, rant over.

[haha]

I hear you. For this same reason I decided to learn whatever it took to migrate to a system of my own design in Excel.

Still a WIP, but the data is being saved and I have the accounting structure planned, just need more Excel knowledge to execute it.

Ha

[Lisa99]

I really admire you for taking this on!

I use Quicken daily to download our bank acct spending detail and track to budget. We both work so right now I don't have the time or inclination to try to do this manually, but I will be searching for another solution so Quicken can't pull this little gotcha on us again.

[FIREd]

I am one of the weirdos who think that paying 20 odd dollars a year for Quicken is good value considering the software's capabilities and the use I get from it. YMMV.

[RonBoyd]

See, for instance:

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ken-48037.html

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ool-48580.html

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...his-53004.html

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ort-53118.html

[Zathras]

Lisa, check out 'View' in the menu. You can change from 'Standard menu' to 'Classic menu'.
Probably not a complete fix, but it may bring some of the 'old GUI' characteristics back for you.

As far as the changes, any software program will occasionally change its GUI. Hopefully for the better, but even if it is for the better, it can be disturbing to need to change.

I have it for the reports and the automatic downloading as well. Very handy, however I had to learn the GUI from scratch as I never used it before.

Good luck to you!

[zinger1457]

Quickens policy of shutting down your ability to download online transactions for unsupported versions is irritating. Having to update Quicken every 3 years ends up costing me less than $15/year so it's still worth it for me. I've been using Quicken for so long and have everything setup the way I like so I'm hesitant to switch to another product just to save a few bucks.

[W2R]

I think my finances are too simple to get much use out of Quicken. I thought of buying it last week ("Gee, Mom, EVERYBODY has Quicken!", y'know...).

The description of Quicken says something like "finally all your credit cards and bank accounts will be in one place". They already are, though. My debit card, checks, and automatic bank deductions are all in one place, on my bank statement. In total, they amount to about 10-15 transactions per month so it's not hard to keep track of them. My bills are automatically paid already so it can't help there, either.

I think Quicken is probably a lot better for couples and those singles whose lives are not as simple as mine.

Another concern is the reviews that it gets. Apparently it annoys quite a few people.

Like Ha, I keep an Excel file which is really all that I need.

[4merKPer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FD I am one of the weirdos who think that paying 20 odd dollars a year for Quicken is good value considering the software's capabilities and the use I get from it. YMMV.

I don't think you're a weirdo, but I think Intuit should be more honest with Quicken users. Essentially, they've moved to a subscription model, where you pay a periodic fee to continue to make full use of their product. They have a right to do that, but they don't make that clear when you purchase or upgrade the product. I agree the fee isn't much to pay, but how about giving customers the option to pay an annual fee without having to go through an upgrade process and the learning curve for a (mostly cosmetically) changed product? The fee should go to maintaining support with the product as well as download support with the various financial institutions.

[easysurfer]

Used to swear by using Quicken years ago. But when I had the mindset of not trying to find a program that "did it all" that freed me to pick and choose, mix and match what I needed (a buget program here, a spreadsheet here, a spreadsheet there, etc.) to get the job done for me instead of being tied to Quicken.

[SecondCor521]

I've taken a slightly different approach.

I own Quicken 2006 and lost the ability to download transactions probably in about 2009 or so. Being the cheap person I am, I started manually entering transactions, share prices, dividends, etc. After a bit of an adjustment period, it isn't too bad.

2Cor521

[kyounge1956]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinger1457 Quickens policy of shutting down your ability to download online transactions for unsupported versions is irritating. Having to update Quicken every 3 years ends up costing me less than $15/year so it's still worth it for me. I've been using Quicken for so long and have everything setup the way I like so I'm hesitant to switch to another product just to save a few bucks.

I use Quicken too. I don't know if this is possible with a brokerage account. , but at my bank (B of A) I can export my transactions as a .qif file, which Quicken can import. I think it's only the Web Connect feature that will stop working when the new version comes out. The other advantage of using a .qif export is that I don't have to use the Intuit Online Banking service for my transactions, so I don't have to pay the monthly charge. Also, my online banking is free, but that may be because my paycheck is on automatic deposit, and that's another monthly subscription I'm not paying to Intuit. I've got Quicken 2007 for Mac, and it still works fine, even though I'm pretty sure there is a newer version. I think it will keep working indefinitely unless Intuit changes the .qif file format.

I don't like Intuit's habit of forcing me to upgrade every few years, but I finally decided it's worth the money, just for the time I save on balancing my checking account and doing my taxes. It's so much easier to find a mistake in balancing, and finding the total of my itemizable deductions for the year takes seconds instead of the hours I spent when I kept a hand written checking account register.

[walkinwood]

Quicken will not stop working. It is the online downloads of stock price, transaction data & bill pay that will stop working.

I think of it as a biennial subscription. The ease of tracking that Quicken affords me is worth the money to me.

[RonBoyd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by walkinwood The ease of tracking that Quicken affords me is worth the money to me.

Worthy, also, is that Excel can do that. Let me Google that for you:

excel +"stock prices" - Google Search

[U1964]

Another Quicken user who dislikes the hidden subscription model. Just got 2011 at Costco where they have it for $20 after instant rebate this month.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecondCor521 I own Quicken 2006 and lost the ability to download transactions probably in about 2009 or so. Being the cheap person I am, I started manually entering transactions, share prices, dividends, etc. After a bit of an adjustment period, it isn't too bad.

I'd do that, too, if it wasn't for a few annoying bugs that Intuit won't bother to fix.

Downloading portfolio share prices (all four of them) is pretty addictive too...

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FD I am one of the weirdos who think that paying 20 odd dollars a year for Quicken is good value considering the software's capabilities and the use I get from it. YMMV.

I don't have a problem with that per se. But as a guy with a software background, the idea that consumer software intentionally cripples itself after a certain amount of time unless you upgrade fails the smell test.

By all means, if new versions of an operating system break ancient software or it doesn't play well with other versions of new applications,, don't expect much support or new development to fix it. But don't *intentionally* break some of the functionality.

[walkinwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RonBoyd Worthy, also, is that Excel can do that. Let me Google that for you: excel +"stock prices" - Google Search

It is more than the stock prices, Ron. It also downloads all my credit card, bank and investment account transactions & categorizes them automatically (for the most part).

[Texas Proud]

I stopped using Quicken back in 2003 or 4....


I mostly used it to track the return on my investements... funny, now that I have a LOT more savings I am not as worred about that... I look at it still, but am not as concerned with short term changes and look at what the Vanguard sites tells me...


Now that I am married and have to track separate from community items... I track my spending budget in excel... I cut and past all transactions from the various CCs and the bank stmt... put the number in the correct category and it fees to a cover sheet on what I spent for the month... I then have to transfer this to a global worksheet and make adjustments according to sep/community.... I do not have that many categories... so not a big deal...


A funny thing is that I have not done a combined balance sheet for us... I really don't keep track of my wife's property... I wonder what it would show

[rescueme]

I'm also one of those that find value with Quicken (along with TT) and have $5.30 in my monthly budget to purchase current copies each year.

I can afford $1.22/week (hey, I'm FI )...

PS: I'm also one of those weirdo's who have Carbonite rather than copying data and taking the copies to the bank every few weeks (if you have a backup drive, you still have risk if you keep it on your property). Since I was responsible for the data center DRP for a time at my previous j*b, I've learned that it's much easier to have somebody else do the work, if the price is reasonable (did I mention I'm FI?)