Is anyone using personalcapital.com?

[bigadventure]

I got a post card yesterday. It’s from personalcapital.com
At first I thought it was from my bank. It had similar colors. They are offering a free retirement planner and an app. It says they have millions or users. They want you to create an account and link your to it. On the surface it seems like a firecalc.

 

[firedata]

I signed up a long time ago but got too many calls from them to use their account management that I quit. When I used it, it looked like an account aggregator (you give them login info to all your brokerage accounts) so you can see the big picture.

It seems like a ton of FIRE bloggers "use and recommend" personal capital as well. I assume they have a fairly good affiliate program if you get people to sign up.

 

[Bigdawg]

I have been using it for over a year now. I link all of my acounts. Periodically they try to get the hook in me for a financial review. I don't bite. I don't need that from them. I only use it to track all my financials.

 

[bobandsherry]

I talked with them. They do a good job of trying to sell you. But at end of the day I found that their performance wasn't as good as just investing in S&P etf, and then you pay them 1% for that. When you peel back what they do it's basically creating another ETF fund made up of other ETF's. I took a pass. I use Quicken to aggregate my accounts, have no need for them.

 

[KB]

I opened an account once and linked all my accounts to it. I did like being able to view all the accounts in one spot, but started getting calls from them to invest my assets with their advisors. I ended up deleting my account because of the calls.

 

[Toocold]

I use it to track my net worth. They stop calling after awhile.

 

[Rowej]

I have been using it for a little over a year, and I find it is a good aggregator of all of my accounts, including estimated property values tied to Zillow. It’s quick and easy. I have only gotten two calls, and I let them both go to voicemail and never called back. We have about 12 accounts all linked, so we like it for that.

 

[COcheesehead]

I used them for awhile to aggregate my accounts. I then created a spreadsheet to do the same and deleted the data from their app. I thought it’s one less entity to have all my sign ins. I stopped using them about 18-24 months ago.

 

[CoolRich59]

I have been using it for a little over a year, and I find it is a good aggregator of all of my accounts, including estimated property values tied to Zillow. It’s quick and easy. I have only gotten two calls, and I let them both go to voicemail and never called back. We have about 12 accounts all linked, so we like it for that.

Same here. I like being able to see all my accounts in one place. I did “delink” Zillow as the estimated value for my property is way off.

Like others, I started getting sales calls from them. So, I edited my profile and changed the phone number to the local IRS office. I trust the feds are happy with PersonalCapital’s FA service.

 

[Ready]

I find it useful to keep track of transactions and account balances. I put an erroneous phone number in my profile so I’ve never been contacted. I see no reason to give them my real phone number.

 

[donheff]

Do you give all of your account login credentials to this site? What assurances of security do you have?

 

[Amethyst]

I opened an account years ago to get a $10 incentive. Unfortunately, like most aggregators, theirs didn't recognize several of our accounts. And they pestered us to death for at least 2 years with phone calls, leaving messages about wanting to be our financial advisers.

 

[SumDay]

I mainly rely on Quicken, but like being able to use Personal Capital from my phone or tablet. I like the Net Worth, investment performance and transaction aggregators. They did call a couple of times, but apparently got the hint because I never answered.

Harmless, helpful and free. I haven't found a downside in using them.

 

[HarveyS]

I've used PC for about 3 years. I like being able to see my holdings and allocation over 3 different brokerages (VG, Fido, TD). You can also drill down and see allocation across sectors. The robo recommendations on fees and allocation is nice to have as well. I get maybe one call per quarter, and a simple "no thanks" is all it takes.

 

[mrfeh]

I use it to track my net worth. They stop calling after awhile.

+1

I use them to track our portfolio and NW. The occasional sales calls are simply ignored.

 

[njhowie]

Do you give all of your account login credentials to this site? What assurances of security do you have?

This is always my concern with account aggregator sites - I really do not trust any of them and so, though I may be denying myself of some really good apps, I pass. These folks at Personal Capital do have a good security approach, and utilize a third party (Yodlee) which is a trusted entity in this space...sort of works like Paypal - an intermediary that actually maintains all of the credentials.

Notwithstanding, it's obvious to me that by creating an account on their site and linking up to all your outside accounts, their advisors have full access to review your information. I went ballistic a few years back when making a deposit at my bank branch and the teller quickly reviewed my information while I was standing at the counter and was trying to get me to set up an appointment to meet with one of their advisors. I certainly would not go for what these folks are doing and may be doing with my personal info - even if just internally.

Remember - you rarely get anything for free.

https://www.personalcapital.com/financial-software/security

 

[CaliKid]

I have used them for almost 3 years and really like them as an aggregator of our assets. It recognizes 100% of our accounts (and we have a couple of odd ball ones), uses zillow to value most real estate if you want, updates values daily, and is simple to navigate. I do not use it for much more than the aggregation but it can show you diversification, spending and projections for the future. I spoke with their sales guy and they tried to sell individual security ownership not funds. They had some whiz bang theory about it which I didn't go for. They call once or twice a year, goes to voice mail, I delete it, and that's that. The security issue is a concern though not a major one to me. However, certainly it's not one to ignore anytime you give your login credentials out.

 

[Chuckanut]

I do not use the service. After all the cases of big companies not being able to protect my confidential data - often due to incompetence and mismanagement - I no longer trust them to do so. Thus, I would not give my account data to any outfit other than the one's I directly do business with, and I have a legitimate need for them to know the information.

 

[RonBoyd]

I have used Personal Capital for quite a number of years (search this forum for many threads on this subject).

Anyway, they have not tried to contact me in well over a year... and even then, it was only about once a year.

I have not had a problem with it recognizing all of our accounts. However, the few time I did, it was always the account's fault and PC's tech people took care of it quite quickly.

In any event, I have come to the "can't live without" stage with their Daily Monitor e-mail.

 

[dvalley]

I have used Personal Capital for quite a number of years (search this forum for many threads on this subject).

Anyway, they have not tried to contact me in well over a year... and even then, it was only about once a year.

I have not had a problem with it recognizing all of our accounts. However, the few time I did, it was always the account's fault and PC's tech people took care of it quite quickly.

In any event, I have come to the "can't live without" stage with their Daily Monitor e-mail.

Ditto on everything! Been using it for 3+ yrs now. I used to use Mint before PC which I still do but I like PC better for investment tracking as well as retirement planning much better. In my retirement planner I have SS payments, DD's wedding, college all milestones in there.

 

[COcheesehead]

I think there is a poster on here that likes to say "if the product is free, you are the product".

 

[CoolRich59]

I think there is a poster on here that likes to say "if the product is free, you are the product".

This is one of my favorite quotes.

This is the version I saved: "If you're not paying for something, then you're not the customer—you're the product being sold."

I would love to know who said this.

 

[braumeister]

Probably just a riff on the old chestnut:

"When you sit down at a poker table and you can't figure out who the sucker is ... it's you."

 

[CoolRich59]

Probably just a riff on the old chestnut:

"When you sit down at a poker table and you can't figure out who the sucker is ... it's you."

Love it.