Anyone upgrade to Quicken 2017?

[RockyMtn]

Any Quicken users upgrade to Quicken 2017? I am currently using 2014 version. I think that I will lose on line services in April of 2017.

 

[littleb]

Any Quicken users upgrade to Quicken 2017? I am currently using 2014 version. I think that I will lose on line services in April of 2017.

I have Quicken 2015 and do not plan to upgrade. What online services will you lose?

 

[RockyMtn]

I have Quicken 2015 and do not plan to upgrade. What online services will you lose?

Quicken 2016 – Expires on April 30th, 2019.
Quicken 2015 – Expires on April 30th, 2018.
Quicken 2014 – Expires on April 30th, 2017.

Quicken shuts off all online services three years after the software release date. That means key features like online bill pay, downloading bank and other financial data, and uploading your data to quicken.com all stop working on a predetermined date.

 

[Animorph]

Quicken 2016 – Expires on April 30th, 2019.
Quicken 2015 – Expires on April 30th, 2018.
Quicken 2014 – Expires on April 30th, 2017.

Quicken shuts off all online services three years after the software release date. That means key features like online bill pay, downloading bank and other financial data, and uploading your data to quicken.com all stop working on a predetermined date.

Just got the notice from my 2015 copy. The best reason for upgrading that it could come up with was an improved mobile app. Guess I'll have a better reason in another year.

 

[wanaberetiree]

I have been running QW2016 and QW2017 (beta version) for awhile now. Not mush difference, even data file won't be converted to new format during install.

But it's OK if you wish to run the latest and greatest.

Bigger question is - there is no good alternative to QW

 

[Senator]

I run Quicken Rental Property manager 2016. I will likely upgrade as I do not want to be in the position where I cannot upgrade. Every two years at the most I upgrade, but typically every year.

 

[littleb]

I have been running QW2016 and QW2017 (beta version) for awhile now. Not mush difference, even data file won't be converted to new format during install.

But it's OK if you wish to run the latest and greatest.

Bigger question is - there is no good alternative to QW

This has come up many times on the Bogleheads site and most people state there is not a good alternative available.

Quicken is a good financial program when everything works correctly. The problem I have is reconciling bank accounts. I have spent hours trying to balance and find some of the strangest errors. Quicken will not transmit certain deposits and I have to go line by line to find the error. Many times I have found 10-15 deposits and checks that were duplicated by Quicken. No reason for these strange transaction errors. It makes me wonder if all the financial data so many rely on to do their taxes is accurate.

Does anyone know if another company bought Quicken? It was in the news about a year ago that they were selling it off.

 

[wanaberetiree]

https://www.quicken.com/about-us/press/quicken-completes-acquisition-hig-capital-and-outlines-vision

 

[tulak]

This has come up many times on the Bogleheads site and most people state there is not a good alternative available.

I went from MS Money to Quicken to Moneydance.

Moneydance has been a good enough alternative for me. I'm glad to be gone from Quicken and forced upgrades. Moneydance has its own set of quirks, but having used three different personal finance apps, they all have their quirks. On the plus side, the few issues I've had with Moneydance I was able to get resolved through their support.

 

[pb4uski]

One of the best features of Quicken I have discovered only after retiring. I have virtually all my recurring checking account receipt and disbursement items defined as memorized transactions and the projected balances of my checking account for the next 90 days gives me a good sense of whether I need to do a special transfer from our retirement cash to avoid a the checking account being overwithdrawn. In fact, I have found the Projected Balances feature so handy I have defined it as my Home screen.

 

[exnavynuke]

I tried it this weekend. Still not able to gather my 401k information directly and the import never seems to work right so I returned it already.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I upgraded from 2014 Premier to 2017 Premier over the weekend. Download and installation was a snap, and it automatically backed up and upgraded my data. The new mobile app is more capable and while it still isn't Quicken in your pocket, it's a step in the right direction IMO. Reviews talked about a "new interface" but so far the biggest thing I've seen is new fonts and colors.

I'll be digging deeper soon, and I'll post anything that goes wrong. So far, so good.

OH, and at the moment the Quicken website was cheaper than Amazon, etc. Always a good idea to keep an eye on that, as prices have fluctuated with the season in the past.

 

[zinger1457]

If you're going to upgrade my suggestion would be to shop for the best price over the next few months but wait until close to the April cutoff date before installing the update. Quicken has been known to be buggy with their new releases, let someone else work the bugs out of it.

 

[IBWino]

We're still using quicken 2006. Yes, we have to enter everything manually, but it's not that big of a deal to us. Intuit's extortion methods burned a bridge with us. We'll switch to something else before we ever pay for another version of Quicken (I know it's no longer an Intuit product, but they started it).

 

[dvalley]

Any specific advantages over the free online money management

I've seen a lot of folks reference Quicken so I was wondering if there's a specific advantage to using Quicken over the free online tools like Personal Capital, Mint etc? Of course, if you manage a small business or real estate then Quicken is likely a better tool but for basic portfolio management is there a major difference?

I'm curious because the aforementioned tools have their own quirks as they aggregate the data from various sources; nothing major as long as you know how to get around them but I was curious if switching to Quicken would be a significant advantage.

 

[Katsmeow]

Wondered about any feedback specifically on Quicken 2017 (not prior versions). Also, one question. First the question:

1. Can I manually download transactions? For example, with YNAB4, I go to American Express and can download a Quicken format file. I like doing that. I did use Quicken a few years ago and I know I could put in my login info and automatically download stuff. But, I don't want to do that as I know some financial institutions say that if you do that then they aren't responsible for any loss of funds in your account (that is, I seem to recall some saying that and I don't want to take a chance).

Now about Quicken 2017. I know that this is the first year with the new owners and they completed the sale recently enough that I understand they didn't really have much opportunity to do anything new.

The negative I've seen on Amazon reviews is that 2017 is very slow and renders very slowly. Also, that it can't be resized for different monitors. Also, many reports of crashes and some say it is very buggy. But, the overall review is a 4 average.

I did use Quicken 2014 awhile back. I liked it OK, but the mobile version suddenly quit working properly and I couldn't download bank transactions properly and it suddenly quit letting me attach images of receipts (something I loved) so I quit using it.

Instead I stayed with YNAB. I liked YNAB (although I liked some features Quicken had that YNAB didn't). But, when nYNAB came out I tried it and didn't like it. It wasn't that it was cloud based or subscription based. I could deal with both of those. What I didn't like was that it had much reduced functionality compared to YNAB4. So, I just kept using YNAB4. But, they are not going to support it officially after this year so I am getting a little antsy using it.

I know I will need to jump to something else. I can maybe hold off another year. But, I could also jump at the end of this year. I have looked at alternatives and think Quicken Deluxe will end up being the best option. The question is whether to do it now or whether to wait another year.

I'm leaning to jumping to it now, but was concerned about the reports of slowness and it being very buggy. For those using it (again, only the 2017 version) what have you found?

 

[Corporateburnout]

Quicken shuts off all online services three years after the software release date. That means key features like online bill pay, downloading bank and other financial data, and uploading your data to quicken.com all stop working on a predetermined date.

I use the 2014 version of Quicken but I stopped downloading financial transactions because I didn't want to share my passwords. I manually enter the data at month end which is time consuming but safer in my opinion.

Downloading quotes is the only feature I still use. Will this feature go away in April?

 

[Senator]

I upgraded to Quicken 2017 a couple of weeks ago, from Quicken 2016. It is on R3 now.

I had a few crashes, and it was a bit slow at first. Maybe I am used to the slowness, but I really do not think it is too bad. I think I crashed 3-4 times so far.

It is a different technology now. More web-like, but it is still a fat client application. A few defaults field sizes I had to change in regards to registry size and my screen.

I also downgraded from Quicken Rental Property Manager to just Quicken Home and Business.

 

[NW-Bound]

Wondered about any feedback specifically on Quicken 2017 (not prior versions). Also, one question. First the question:

1. Can I manually download transactions? For example, with YNAB4, I go to American Express and can download a Quicken format file. I like doing that.

If the financial institution offers file download in Quicken format, then yes you can import it into Quicken. That's what it is used for, and other programs just know how to read this format.

I used to do that, then got tired with the process, plus I often forgot. So, I caved in and entered all my passwords. I believe the account info is stored on your computer (the "Password Vault"), and not the "cloud". I could be wrong.

 

[pb4uski]

I upgraded to 2017 last week... I figured since I would have upgraded to 2017 in 2018 why not just do it now. I have not seen any difference in functionality of downloading. No crashes here. Same speed that it was before in my experience.

One slightly annoying difference is that I usually have my Windows taskbar at the top of the screen since I transitioned to Windows from Mac and the 2017 version does not play well with having the taskbar on top... the windows taskbar hides the Quicken menu selections at the top of the Quicken screen, but I have just moved the Windows taskbar to the bottom of the screen.

 

[NW-Bound]

... I did use Quicken a few years ago and I know I could put in my login info and automatically download stuff. But, I don't want to do that as I know some financial institutions say that if you do that then they aren't responsible for any loss of funds in your account (that is, I seem to recall some saying that and I don't want to take a chance)...

I wonder how using Quicken to download from your institution would expose you to risks that you do not already have by using a browser to log into your account.

I think a lot of people lost money due to malware that resides in their computer, and captures the passwords that they type, then sends them back to the bad guys. That will compromise any software on the PC.

Perhaps someone with more knowledge will chime in.

 

[Katsmeow]

Thanks for the feedback all. I am leaning to just going ahead and jumping now. I usually start a new budget file for each year, so I would be starting it as of 1/1.

I wonder how using Quicken to download from your institution would expose you to risks that you do not already have by using a browser to log into your account.

I don't know that it does expose me to more risk. But, I recall (I think) some people saying that some financial institutions say that if you do that then you don't have financial protections. Not really sure, though, as to whether that applies to putting the passwords in Quicken versus using something like Mint. Maybe I'll go look into that.

 

[NW-Bound]

Here's how bad guys can use so-called "keystroke loggers" to steal your passwords:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystroke_logging.

What we need is a "Security Token", or something similar to the chip inside smartcards.

 

[pb4uski]

I may have spoke too soon... it has froze on me a couple of times today.

I upgraded to 2017 last week... I figured since I would have upgraded to 2017 in 2018 why not just do it now. I have not seen any difference in functionality of downloading. No crashes here. Same speed that it was before in my experience.

One slightly annoying difference is that I usually have my Windows taskbar at the top of the screen since I transitioned to Windows from Mac and the 2017 version does not play well with having the taskbar on top... the windows taskbar hides the Quicken menu selections at the top of the Quicken screen, but I have just moved the Windows taskbar to the bottom of the screen.

 

[braumeister]

I may have spoke too soon... it has froze on me a couple of times today.

Serves you right for going over to the dark side!

since I transitioned to Windows from Mac.