Quicken moving to subscription model

[RE2Boys]

I've been a MS Money user since about 2000. It's on my computer and it's free and it does the job of keeping track of my checkbook and basis for all stock purchases. Hope I never have to move but someday MS may come up with a version of Windows where I've a problem.

Oh, and never an update to deal with.

 

[audreyh1]

You have to take their word for it, and that they have good IT security policies in place, and that employees don't easily get phished or go rogue.

Not being argumentative, but the same applies at your financial institutions......

Understood. But I have various long relationships with them and various guarantees, and not all my eggs in one basket - certainly any one institution doesn't see all my accounts. They also must have certain personal critical info by govt requirement. Software companies, not so.

 

[CDRE]

I'll bail too, depending on the price. I'd tolerate a yearly fee if it equals the current 3 year frequency divided by three. No way will I tolerate my data on a server not under my control.

This would be a great time for a true competitor to arise and capture some market share.

 

[ejman]

Gnucash is a Quicken alternative that works quite well (and it's free). I use it in a Linux environment but I understand there are Windows and Mac OS versions as well. Reporting is not as sophisticated as Quicken's but really everything that is commonly needed is there.

 

[tulak]

I'm a happy Moneydance user since 2013. It has it's own set of quirks, but nothing too bad.

I've also had quite a bit of fun playing around with Python support in Moneydance. I know that's not everybody's cup of tea, but for those so inclined it's a powerful tool to access all of your data.

 

[rodi]

Note to self... Gnucash and Moneydance when and if Quicken decides to get rid of 90% of their customers.

 

[Corporateburnout]

I have been a Quicken user for a very long time. I would hate to lose the data history and the reports available in it so I will tolerate a reasonable yearly fee if I'm unable to manually input data.

 

[T-Minus]

I just did the 3-year upgrade to Quicken Premier 2017. I'm planning on retiring this July, and am about 1 year into the process of simplifying my finances. I guess I'll be switching to an Excel spreadsheet sometime over the next year or two...

 

[JoeWras]

For history, gnucash should be able to import Quicken.

I dabbled at gnucash a few years ago and gave up because it was too buggy. People were losing data. It was having a hard time ingesting large quicken IIF files, etc.

But I'd be willing to give it another try now that time has passed. It isn't like Quicken has added any features of note over those years of improvement of gnucash.

Heck, if retired, I'd even be willing to help in the open source effort.

 

[zinger1457]

I just did the 3-year upgrade to Quicken Premier 2017. I'm planning on retiring this July, and am about 1 year into the process of simplifying my finances. I guess I'll be switching to an Excel spreadsheet sometime over the next year or two...

Why switch to Excel so soon? With Quicken 2017 you'll have until 2020 before losing some of the features and even then will be able to make manual entries. If I can continue to make manual entries with my current version of Quicken I don't seen the advantage of converting over to Excel.

 

[ejman]

For history, gnucash should be able to import Quicken.

I dabbled at gnucash a few years ago and gave up because it was too buggy. People were losing data. It was having a hard time ingesting large quicken IIF files, etc.

But I'd be willing to give it another try now that time has passed. It isn't like Quicken has added any features of note over those years of improvement of gnucash.

Heck, if retired, I'd even be willing to help in the open source effort.

I don't know if my experience with Gnucash is typical but I haven't had any problems at all with crashes, bugs and such- it's been completely stable. I have version 2.6.12 running on my ancient HP desktop (Originally windows XP) now running Linux Mint 18 Sarah - XFCE distro.

 

[burch64]

Now I know why I had to log in to Quicken web site before I could even manually enter data into Quicken 2017 that I had just purchased and installed.
I only had to log in on the initial install but I suppose they have the means to make me log in again if they choose.

 

[JoeWras]

Now I know why I had to log in to Quicken web site before I could even manually enter data into Quicken 2017 that I had just purchased and installed.
I only had to log in on the initial install but I suppose they have the means to make me log in again if they choose.

Yep. It is that way for 2016 too. I thought it was my imagination when I got prompted to re-enter recently.

Basically, they are testing their ransom-ware pathways.

 

[T-Minus]

Why switch to Excel so soon? With Quicken 2017 you'll have until 2020 before losing some of the features and even then will be able to make manual entries. If I can continue to make manual entries with my current version of Quicken I don't seen the advantage of converting over to Excel.

Simple - I don't trust whomever now owns Quicken. I want to have a tested substitute in place and ready to go, and make the switch-over on my terms, instead of being forced to be reactive on their schedule. So, when I retire, I will take stock of our financial needs - which will be considerably simplified from what they are now. Then I will modify and expand my first spreadsheet efforts to accommodate said needs. Once complete, I will run both in parallel for a quarter or two, then make the switch at a year-end. Benefits will include true cross-platform functionality (PC, Mac, iPad, etc.), and a solution that is custom-tailored for our needs. I currently have a couple spreadsheets for tracking various parts of our finances, plus a simplified YNAB-type rolling monthly budget balance sheet that I've created...so I'm not starting from zero. So, it's not switch to Excel so soon. It's put a plan in place that anticipates future changes, and start moving forward on that plan.

 

[neihn]

There is a mac version for gnucash too.

 

[Freedom56]

Link below is article from PC World magazine:
Quicken shifts to software subscription model, but there's a big catch | PCWorld

Subscription model already started in Canada and will be coming to US soon. As a long time Quicken user, I'm not happy about this. Now I'll have to pay yearly for many things I don't want or need (sounds like my cable service). Also, if you don't pay the subscription, you can't enter any new transactions, even manual transactions. Essentially your database is frozen in time.

I have been using MS Money since 1989. they discontinued it in 2011 and made a Sunset Edition that never expires and is available for free. I continue to use it and it works well. It served me well as it kept me organized financially for decades.

You can download it for free from Microsoft (See link below):

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20738


The automate update of bank accounts has been disabled but you can still download your bank transaction directly from your bank.

The link below shows you how to automate downloads of bank and stock quotes using Python scripts:

https://sites.google.com/site/pocketsense/home/msmoneyfixp1

I use the scripts for downloading stock quotes. I tried Quicken in 2010 when Microsoft announced their discontinued support for MS Money. I found Quicken to be horrible and lacking in many of the features of MS Money. So I opted for the free option. The updates really are not needed. I didn't find too much of a difference between my 2007 edition of MS Money and the 2011 sunset edition. There are over 19 million users of MS Money so there is a support community out there and it's free.

 

[The Rodent]

OP here.
Had an interesting online chat with Quicken Support Canada today about the new subscription based products. Only 2 products available - Quicken Cash Manager for Personal Finances and Quicken Home & Business for Investments and Business Finances. Cost $40/yr and $90/yr respectively.

I'm a Quicken Deluxe user so I asked which would be the comparable new product. Answer: Quicken Home & Business. Cash Manager can't even track loans.

Let's compare costs:
Quicken Deluxe cost me $70 for 3 years of full functionality (or $23.33/yr). Even at full retail cost of $75 that's only $25/yr for full functionality. The new subscription based equivalent, Home & Business is $90/yr.

I asked, $90/yr vs $25/yr, what great new benefits do I get for the increased cost of the subscription based product? Answer: "you are entitled to free support from us" Seriously, that was the answer.

If my math is right, under this new pricing model, Quicken could lose 72% of their customers and still break even! By the way, last year, Intuit sold Quicken to H.I.G. Capital, a Miami private equity firm. I understand they need to monetize their investment, but this is ridiculous. They have limited the product offerings and greatly increased the price without adding consumer benefits. Regarding customer support, reviews on this site are not encouraging. http://tinyurl.com/zrykfdp

The FAQ's on the Quicken Canada website confirm that you will not be able to add any new transactions when your subscriptions ends.

Just a reminder, Quicken has not introduced the subscription based model to the US, YET. Could be coming next year. If you don't want this to happen, please voice your opinions to Quicken any way you choose. In the end, we will all choose with our wallets.

 

[pb4uski]

As much as I love Quicken I'm not sure whether I will go a little model. Too expensive!

 

[HadEnuff]

I can't remember when I didn't use Quicken. Being a Mac user, it did become a lot quirkier and more cumbersome at some point.

Should I decide to stop using Q, are there ways to bridge the old information to a new program? Without too much pulling of hair?

 

[rbmrtn]

Should I decide to stop using Q, are there ways to bridge the old information to a new program? Without too much pulling of hair?

It will depend if the new program can import a quicken .QIF or .QXF file, and still may need manual tweaking. Only reason I moved to quicken was MS money being discontinued, had used it since early 90's. Maybe time to go back with the sunset edition.

I did find that someone wrote an addon for money to get online quotes, here's info link https://gaiersoftware.com/Money

 

[Walt34]

I asked, $90/yr vs $25/yr, what great new benefits do I get for the increased cost of the subscription based product?

Are they on drugs? No way I'm going to pay $90/year for Quicken. Freedom56, thanks for the link, I just downloaded Money Plus Sunset. I'll keep the file until it is needed.

 

[socca]

I use Quickbooks for personal finance. It's probably overkill for most people, but I like it. There was no learning curve for me because I was already using it for small business bookkeeping.

 

[tulak]

I can't remember when I didn't use Quicken. Being a Mac user, it did become a lot quirkier and more cumbersome at some point.



Should I decide to stop using Q, are there ways to bridge the old information to a new program? Without too much pulling of hair?

When I moved to Moneydance, I mostly started from scratch. The only items I imported or manually entered was for investments. It's been a few years, so I don't remember if I did this from scratch or used some of the imported data from Quicken.

I tried to import all of my Quicken data, but it wasn't clean and I didn't want to spend the time reconciling all the transaction/accounts.

 

[The Rodent]

If you would like to share any comments with Quicken, Inc. CEO, Eric Dunn here's the link
https://www.quicken.com/about-us/team

 

[H2ODude]

Mac user here who has Quicken 2011 for windows set up on older iMac with VMFusion. That's ALL it does; keep VMFusion over there so it doesn't hog resources on main machine. Figured until something breaks no need to update ANYTHING.

I don't even need this connected to net; all I do is load expenses and use it to balance cash/checking accounts. So will this become disabled for that purpose at some point?

I'd find it very frustrating to move to another system, but wouldn't pay $90 a year to do just this. I used to be fairly competent with excel but frankly, I've sort of let that skill go away gladly with others related to w**k. I'm sure I could manage though.