Mint.com released a new and free iPhone application early Monday. Similar to PageOnce's mobile efforts, Mint's lets you monitor your credit card and bank accounts from your phone. It also throws in things like your monthly budget, incoming cash flow and expenses, along with any investment accounts you have synced up to Mint.com.
For security, Mint seems to have taken a page from PageOnce in letting you enable or disable mobile access from Mint.com. If your phone gets lost or stolen, you can simply cut off its access to your account, keeping any would-be identity thieves from taking a look at past purchases, or getting an idea of your net worth. It doesn't show any of your account numbers, or even let you add new accounts from your mobile device (which PageOnce does), but can be a treasure trove of information in the wrong hands.
Another thing worth noting about security is that if you don't have your iPhone passlock-protected, anyone can fire up the application and see the dollar value of each of your accounts. I'm a little surprised Mint hasn't placed its own special passcode security system for those first using this app, or even provided the option to require a password between sessions. The best you can do is simply log off in between use, but that's not a good long-term solution.
Security issues aside, it's a good first start for Mint, and for regular Mint users this is yet another way to get at things like your budget and accounts without having to rely on your bank offering a site that can be accessed on mobile devices. The alerts are also very handy and can tell you if a credit card bill is close to being due, if you're spending more than usual, or if there have been large deposits or withdrawals into your various accounts. For those things alone, it's worth downloading the app, just be sure to flip on your iPhone's built-in security lock feature.
Mint's iPhone app lets you check out bank accounts, credit cards and monthly budgets.
(Credit: Mint.com)
Windows Mobile users looking for a way to manage their personal finance from their phones ought to take a look at SplashMoney for Windows Mobile smartphones and PocketPCs, which just became available this week. The two-way app synchronizes with a desktop companion (included in the mobile download) to keep information current between the phone and computer, though SplashMoney also works as a standalone app on the phone as well as the Mac or PC.
Similar to most mobile money managers, SplashMoney lets you store and track financial data such as credit card details, account balances, budgets, and expenses. You'll also be able to download information from an online account and view data in chart and report form. There are, of course, customization options to assign icons to entries and to change colors.
Since you input the data into categories, the app requires some time investment up front, either on the device or on the computer companion app. Though SplashMoney is password-protected with 256-bit Blowfish encryption, we always recommend ramping up the security settings on any device containing sensitive personal or financial data, in case it gets stolen or tampered with.
Until now, SplashMoney has only been available for Palm OS. The 30-day trial is fully functional on Windows Mobile phones, including touch-screen models, and costs $29.95 to own.
Intuit will release the Web version of Quicken on January 8. I just got a demo and spent some hands-on time with the beta of the app. The answers to the two big questions about the app are: Yes, Mint should worry. And No, Quicken Online is not going to cannibalize Quicken's software sales. (See previous news story: Intuit building Quicken Online.)
Easier to use, but does less
Uh-oh.
Like Mint, Quicken Online is targeted at people with "simpler financial needs" than typical Quicken desktop users, Quicken product manager Jim Del Favro told me. By that he means younger users who haven't yet seen their financial picture complicated with mortgages, investment portfolios, and employee stock option plans, financial instruments that Quicken Online does not support. In contrast, Quicken desktop lets you cook your own books a hundred different ways. (See reviews: Mint; Quicken 2008.)
Like Mint, Quicken Online pings your financial institutions on your behalf and always shows you just what your banks and credit card holders know about your accounts. Quicken Online is based on a very strong cashflow management message. The home page is titled, "Am I living within my means?" It shows you, in three big boxes, the money you've earned in the last 30 days, what you've spent, and the difference. If the income is less than the outgo, the very stark third summary box tells you by how much, with the headline, "So, I overspent."
The product does not provide bill payment or presentment services. Rounding out the billing functionality is slated for future updates. However, Quicken Online does try to determine which of your expenses are bills, and it will remind you each month before it expects those bills to come due. It can even send reminders to your mobile phone.
A quick snapshot of your cashflow
(Credit: Intuit)For tax year 2008, Quicken Online will integrate with TurboTax Online (review), Del Favro told me. That's big.
In the beta I tried, setting up accounts was easier than it was in Mint's early days. The service knows about more than 5,000 banks and credit card issuers, and getting it to download your data is a simple matter of providing user IDs and passwords. As with Mint, you have to trust Intuit to keep your passwords safe. Intuit has the marketing advantage in this regard, since the company has been in the personal finance business for more than 20 years and has earned users' trust.
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