I'm so over Quicken subscription!!##??/..

[bobandsherry]

Long time Quicken user here as well. However this is the first time I have had to renew my subscription. I bought a discounted retail download from Office Max. I entered the Application Key into Quicken and got the message that this Key is for new users only.



After researching I still am not certain how an existing member can renew with a discounted membership. Everything seems to point me to Quicken.com and buying at full retail price.



I did let my subscription expire before entering the new Key. I think that might be the issue. Maybe I needed to do this before expiration. Anybody have thoughts on this?



Thanks

I've not heard of that with any activation, but not sure what you bought. You mention it was a discounted download so maybe something specific with that. For me I purchased a full version of the software.

The only restriction I've heard is you can't apply an activation sooner than 6 months before your subscription end date.

 

[bobandsherry]

For those who are looking for cheap alternative Microsoft Money Sunset Edition may be worth a look. I used MM many years ago and loved it, moved over to Quicken only because of EOL on the product. Honestly Quicken has evolved over the years and MMSE wouldn't be for me, but seemed better than other alternatives I had looked at.

https://windowsreport.com/microsoft-money-windows-10-2/

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I've been using Quicken for Mac for the last several years and have had none of the problems described above. Schwab worked fine throughout November.

The downside to the Mac version is that although they've renewed developing it after years of letting it wither on the vine, it still lacks features of the Windows version such as the retirement planner and investments analysis tools. But for me, since I don't use those tools, it just works.

 

[Ready]

The Mac version is much better now than when Intuit owned Quicken. While it's not as full featured as the Windows version it has enough functionality to be useful. And it's been very stable.

Sometimes when I go to quicken.com they offer me 40% off the retail price which brings it down to around $30. While it's more expensive than when we just needed to upgrade once every three years it's really not a lot of money we are talking about. And it's pretty much the only financial management product that allows you to download transactions and store them on your computer rather than in the cloud.

I also use Personal Capital just to double check the numbers but I don't trust it as my only tool because I can't download my data.

 

[Onward]

Still using Quicken 2017, and it does everything I need and more (I don't sync transactions). I do my own backup to cloud storage.

I don't want to pay annually for a "subscription" to features I don't need, so I've been delaying the upgrade.

My only concern is ... how long till 2017 data files are completely obsolete--not even readable by whatever current version I eventually upgrade to?

I seem to be a Quicken newbie on this thread, so what's your experience with Quicken "obsoleting" data files from old versions?

In other words, what are the odds that I finally upgrade to, say, Quicken 2025, and it can't read or convert my 2017 data files?

That's the scenario I'm most worried about.

 

[Ready]

I seem to be a Quicken newbie on this thread, so what's your experience with Quicken "obsoleting" data files from old versions?

In other words, what are the odds that I finally upgrade to, say, Quicken 2025, and it can't read or convert my 2017 data files?

That's the scenario I'm most worried about.

Historically data files have always been readable and convertible to any newer file format so I would say the chances of that happening are close to zero.

 

[Jerry1]

I seem to be a Quicken newbie on this thread, so what's your experience with Quicken "obsoleting" data files from old versions?

In other words, what are the odds that I finally upgrade to, say, Quicken 2025, and it can't read or convert my 2017 data files?

That's the scenario I'm most worried about.

It does happen. However, Quicken has a very large community and it won’t take a lot to stay on top of changes. There will be an uproar when it happens but it is very likely to happen at some point.

 

[Jerry1]

Historically data files have always been readable and convertible to any newer file format so I would say the chances of that happening are close to zero.

Yes, but if you skip a new file update, the next one will not read a two version old file. Version in this case is the underlying file structure, not the program version.

 

[Onward]

Ok. Thanks for the info.

 

[kblagron]

I started using Quicken in 1987 (The old DOS Days) and as most here, upgraded every few years. Had some problems over the years with probably everything, but when the 2017 Premier version quit downloading, I purchased the subscription version. I have had very few problems, but do have the occasional quicken balance not matching the financial institutions balance, and that is an easy fix with an Adjustment or trying to figure out what didn't get downloaded.

I can't imagine switching as it gets me a quick snapshot each day on what is happening with my investments, plus allows me to look at my net worth and transactions from 1987 to present.

 

[Onward]

So is it safe to say that the problems with recent subscription versions are all related to downloading/syncing?

That would make me feel better about upgrading, since I don't sync.

 

[Montecfo]

For those who are looking for cheap alternative Microsoft Money Sunset Edition may be worth a look. I used MM many years ago and loved it, moved over to Quicken only because of EOL on the product. Honestly Quicken has evolved over the years and MMSE wouldn't be for me, but seemed better than other alternatives I had looked at.

https://windowsreport.com/microsoft-money-windows-10-2/

It is certainly very tempting. I do not use online banking or update investments using online tools. The one online thing I do is download monthly statements from a single credit card.

I could stop doing that in detail, or download to a spreadsheet and analyze there. The details of those transactions are less important, but I do use the details to track things like auto maintenance, when/where did I buy that major purchase, etc.

But my largest concern would be getting 2 years into it, hit some problem and can't recover. That happened to me a few decades ago with MoneyCounts.

Probably stick with quicken, but I may create a new data file. In retirement things are a lot different and I might like to reimagine my chart or accounts,etc.

 

[Jerry1]

I may create a new data file. In retirement things are a lot different and I might like to reimagine my chart or accounts,etc.

That’s exactly what we did. We set up a new file with a much simpler chart of accounts and, I started using the budgeting function. It’s easy to open the old file to look for common things like when did we but something or how much did we pay for something.

 

[skipro33]

I love my Quicken. I download from all my various accounts just about daily. It will instantly tell me if there's been any breach to any account. I enjoy having everything right at my fingertips in one spot with just the click of a button. I bought the subscription in May of 2018 for $25 and renewed this year in August for $50. Chump change considering how well it solves my book keeping needs.

 

[EnricoPallazzo]

I love my Quicken. I download from all my various accounts just about daily. It will instantly tell me if there's been any breach to any account. I enjoy having everything right at my fingertips in one spot with just the click of a button. I bought the subscription in May of 2018 for $25 and renewed this year in August for $50. Chump change considering how well it solves my book keeping needs.

+1

I've been an avid Quicken user for ~25 years and use it religiously. Is it faultless? Nope. Is it a 100% solution? No, I have a few spreadsheets to cover the gaps (mostly based on data exported from Quicken, though). But it's my daily diary for all things financial for our family and helps me track current activities, instantly find historical transactions, and forecast future needs. [full disclosure: I could easily be labeled as enjoying personal finance as a hobby...]

 

[bobandsherry]

+1



I've been an avid Quicken user for ~25 years and use it religiously. Is it faultless? Nope. Is it a 100% solution? No, I have a few spreadsheets to cover the gaps (mostly based on data exported from Quicken, though). But it's my daily diary for all things financial for our family and helps me track current activities, instantly find historical transactions, and forecast future needs. [full disclosure: I could easily be labeled as enjoying personal finance as a hobby...]

100% there with you. Years of data available. Will I ever need to go back and use it, who knows. But it's there. Dump of data to my personal spreadsheets for further analysis, sure thing as Quicken can twist and turn the data like I want to, Excel does it easily. Made my career out of data analysis tools so I guess it's just in my blood. Worth the cost of admission but I admit I still look for deals on renewal of the subscription and take advantage when I can.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

So I did a validate and repair of the file and my missing transactions came back and the report listed tons of errors from 2005/2006, there was about 40 lines of errors that it said it could not repair so definitely bad corruption. Haven't done it yet but I'll save a backup of this current file and then try year end copy. I think I can enter a start date of maybe 5 years ago and see if dumping all the data from 2000 to 2014 will resolve my problems moving forward. I will still be able to look at the save backup for previous years if need be.

 

[ncbill]

I have not found an offline financial program with which I'm happy...tried Quicken for Mac, Quicken for Windows (via Parallels), Moneydance, etc.

So for right now I just use Mint.com.

 

[samcat]

We've used Quicken since 1992. We last upgraded in 2017 so if we wanted to continue to download transactions, we had to go to the subscription service this year. We only use Quicken on our desktop and have had no problems that I can think of. We are bookkeepers so use it for quite a few complicated clients and have had no problems with them either.

 

[barak]

No problems here...

Can you believe I'm still running Quicken 1999 on a 2006 laptop?!
Yep, that's the only thing that laptop gets used for each week...an hour or so to deal with personal finances.
I just have not found anything good enough to replace what I have. We tried the new subscription version this year but it would not download credit union data. We asked for a refund but never got a response.
Yep, I'll be firing up that 2006 laptop tomorrow and using Quicken 1999

 

[BeanCounter62]

I let my subscription lapse for a few months, then found a $45 renewal rate from Quicken which I opted for so I could return to being lazy (using downloads).

Don't really like paying annual renewals, but haven't seen anything else that matches Quicken. (My records go back to 1992. I used Quicken 2001 for 15 years.)

I only reconcile every few months. BIGGEST annoyance is that the last few times, the MATCH feature was not working.... it can't seem to see items that were already reconciled. I have to manual match each one (tedious!) Someone mentioned that it has something to do with the Quicken ID? Anyone know the fix?

 

[pb4uski]

....I only reconcile every few months. ...

From a fellow beancounter... if you only reconcile every few months perhaps you should change your screen name to LazyBeanCounter.

One of the feature that I find handy is Projected Balances. I have all my majot items of inflow and outgo to and from my main checking account set up as Income and Transfers... then I use Projected Balances for that checking account... it's my home page... to monitor my cash flow.

I have most of my accounts linked to the financial institution and run one-step update every few days. It bugs DW when I ask "Did you spend $xxx at [vendor] the other day?". I think she thinks that I'm questioning the spend but I'm just verifying that it is a legitimate charge so it serves two purposes.

 

[bobandsherry]

I find Quicken to be great to pull all my financial data together. The biggest benefit is understanding what my income is, that's very important so I manage my MAGI for ACA purposes. Going over the MAGI limits could literally cost me thousands if I'm over by just a buck. The subscription fee pays for itself in that regard

 

[PatrickA5]

Been using Quicken for decades. Before that, the green 12 column bookkeeping pads with pencil. Just like Turbotax, Quicken is so valuable to me that I would gladly pay multiples of what I'm paying now. But, like most I still like to find a "deal" to make me feel better about myself.

 

[indiajust]

I started with quicken for the mac, 1995. did a free upgrade to 97, paid for an update to 2001 ish, and then got free updates till they split from intuit on 2007 version. stayed there till this year I did the update.I opted out of the cloud access, local only since i just keep it as archive.
My experience has been positive, in spite of 13 years of feature shock. I found and corrected many errors that had accumulated over the years. I love the separated and hidden account sections, helps with doing ex finances. Importing transactions much more transparent. I even joined as a beta tester!