Bogleheads

[aadwen]

Is Mint.com safe? It looks like you grant them limited power of attorney by signing up????

By using the Service, you expressly authorize Mint to access your Account Information maintained by identified third parties, on your behalf as your agent. When you use the “Add Accounts” feature of the Service, you will be directly connected to the website for the third party you have identified. Mint will submit information including usernames and passwords that you provide to log you into the site. You hereby authorize and permit Mint to use and store information submitted by you to the Service (such as account passwords and user names) to accomplish the foregoing and to configure the Service so that it is compatible with the third party sites for which you submit your information. For purposes of this Agreement and solely to provide the Account Information to you as part of the Service, you grant Mint a limited power of attorney, and appoint Mint as your attorney-in-fact and agent, to access third party sites, retrieve and use your information with the full power and authority to do and perform each thing necessary in connection with such activities, as you could do in person. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT WHEN MINT IS ACCESSING AND RETRIEVING ACCOUNT INFORMATION FROM THIRD PARTY SITES, MINT IS ACTING AS YOUR AGENT, AND NOT AS THE AGENT OF OR ON BEHALF OF THE THIRD PARTY. You understand and agree that the Service is not sponsored or endorsed by any third parties accessible through the Service.

[TRC]

I used it for about a month canceling my account It was unable to link up a number of my accounts, so it only gave me a partial view of my financial profile. It's free...you get what you pay for.

[junior]

[aadwen]

That didn't answer my question....

Seems like the service is excellent. I want to make sure the power of attorney gives them the right to pull my info and nothing else

[junior]

[Ice-9]

[sscritic]

[Ron]

[downshiftme]

How can any service that you give your passwords to be safe? Of course it's not safe. I'm sure they have procedures to guard the accounts and they used to make a big deal about the fact that they do not store the passwords (they pass them to another company to store. lol)

Many people use the service and seem to feel the risks are acceptable. I think this is far too much risk for me and I would never give them access to my accounts. YMMV.

[Ron]

[CaptMidnight]

[TRC]

[Steelersfan]

I really like the convenience of accessing cash using my debit card from an ATM, both in the U.S. and when I travel to Europe. Is there a risk? Someone inside the bank or somewhere between the ATM and my bank could steal my account number and password. Sure there's risk, but the convenience way outweighs the risk.

I think that risk is actually greater than giving some information aggregator the right to access my account balance and transaction history.

Disclosure - I worked in technology for a large financial institution who provided both ATM access and information aggregation.

[vgoel]

I used Mint for a number of months and then deleted my account. I did not like Mint employees getting interviewed on TV talking about trends that they were seeing on their site. I run a lot of my life using Google and other cloud based services but I got uncomfortable with Mint.

[mfen]

[Larry Johnson]

Giving a limited power of attorney to strangers is simply stupid.

[aadwen]

What program can I buy that can do all of this safely with no risk?

[greg24]

[Cloud]

[Lbill]

Wonder if you are giving limited POA to Quicken also when it accesses your accounts to download transaction data.
_________________
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." ~ Mark Twain
"Everyone has a plan, until they get hit." ~ Mike Tyson

[fsrph]

[CaptMidnight]

[Steelersfan]

[gh0st]

I use mint.com to track my expenses only. Specifically, I have mint tied in to my credit cards, but *not* my checking, savings, or retirement accounts. Since I run most all of my expenses through credit cards the mint analytics are very useful for looking at spending habits. It has completely replaced my old spreadsheet budget.

I figure that in a wost-case scenario I'm pretty safe since credit card companies are usually good about reimbursing fraudulent charges. With cash accounts it's usually not so easy, so I keep them far away from mint.

[amp]

There are always tradeoffs. I probably have accounts at something like 10-15 financial institutions. Aside from my primary checking account and my brokerage, I just don't log into most of them very often. Consider the risk if some money went missing from one of those accounts, due to theft or bank error or something else. Mint's aggregation provides a safeguard, so I will be aware of any problematic transactions much quicker than if I had to wait until the monthly statement arrived in the mail -- and that assumes that I'd even notice the error on the statement.

I also like that I can have Mint automatically email me if I get charged any bank fees or transaction charges. A $20 or $30 garbage fee is exactly the sort of thing I would miss on a complex statement with many transactions.

[Rajsx]

After hearing about Yodley on this Post (Ice-9), I linked all my accounts (Quite a few) on their Website. This went very smooth, except 1 or 2 accounts which I am still working on.

DW has been using Quicken, which I find difficult to work with. Yodley gives me a very useful, accurate & up to date Summary.

I will keep you posted of any negatives.

Warm Regards
_________________
We do not stop laughing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop laughing !!

[Cloud]

From my bank:

[eas]