Quicken Personal - Forced Upgrade

wsuffa

wsuffa

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Bill S.
And we thought it was just Quickbooks.

Quicken has made it known that in April, all online downloading (even downloading of financial instution data) will be disabled for Quicken 2003 or earlier.

https://quicken.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/quicken.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3874

"As of April 25, 2006, in accordance with the Quicken sunset policy, online services1 and live technical support will no longer be available for Quicken 2003 users. These services include online bill pay; downloading financial data from your bank, credit union, credit card, brokerage, 401(k) or mutual fund accounts; downloading stock quotes, news headlines and other financial information into Quicken; uploading portfolio information from Quicken to Quicken.com; and access to the investing features on Quicken.com including portfolio tracking, any watch lists you have created, One-Click Scorecard™, Stock Evaluator and Mutual Fund Evaluator."

time to complain. And complain LOUDLY.
 
Well, in their defense, it has been three years. That's a long time to support old versions. BTDT and didn't like it one bit.

Everything has to end sometime. If you can do without those services, you should be fine. If not, that's the price for staying current, unfortunately.
 
I just wish my bank would upgrade their download format to the 2004+ format! :(
 
Yeah, Quicken bumped us a couple of years ago the last time they did this.

Since we'd been using their on-line bill-pay for quite a few ( about 10 ) years, they gave us an upgrade at no charge.

This time around we weren't affected. Next time, though, who knows?
 
Greebo said:
I just wish my bank would upgrade their download format to the 2004+ format! :(
Click to expand...

Well, Quicken is trying to force them.

Quicken charges the banks $$$ based on asset size and total number of customers (NOT number of quicken users).

That's why Quicken has removed ALL support for .qif from the product, and why they are forcing users to upgrade.

We're in the era of software rental, whether we like it or not.

I'm looking at alternatives - there is something that might well be a good alternative out there. I certainly don't need all the features in Quicken or Money.
 
Brian Austin said:
Well, in their defense, it has been three years. That's a long time to support old versions. BTDT and didn't like it one bit.

Everything has to end sometime. If you can do without those services, you should be fine. If not, that's the price for staying current, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Brian,

It's not an issue of "current". It's an issue of forced pocket-picking.

Don't need the new features, don't want the new features, still need the .qif file import features (which have been eliminated to force users to .qfx that Quicken charges the banks for).

It's not even an issue of software support - the software works fine. It's an issue of not allowing - as in completely eliminating - the ability to do online banking and other tasks that were *fully functional* prior to the shutoff date. They will shut down your ability to use the features. And, the new versions eliminate the ability to use the older .qif formats, which offer a workaround.

Quicken is suggesting - on their website - that people change financial institutions.

I'm not asking for ongoing "support", I'm asking for features I "paid for" to continue. Features that shouldn't involve Quicken/Intuit at all.
 
wsuffa said:
Brian,

It's not an issue of "current". It's an issue of forced pocket-picking.

Don't need the new features, don't want the new features, still need the .qif file import features (which have been eliminated to force users to .qfx that Quicken charges the banks for).

It's not even an issue of software support - the software works fine. It's an issue of not allowing - as in completely eliminating - the ability to do online banking and other tasks that were *fully functional* prior to the shutoff date. They will shut down your ability to use the features. And, the new versions eliminate the ability to use the older .qif formats, which offer a workaround.

Quicken is suggesting - on their website - that people change financial institutions.

I'm not asking for ongoing "support", I'm asking for features I "paid for" to continue. Features that shouldn't involve Quicken/Intuit at all.
Click to expand...
I guess I don't get it then.

If your version of Quicken can still download the qif files and your bank continues to support them, why would you have to change? Is your bank changing the file format, too? Or is Intuit acting as an intermediary in the bank/client transaction? When I used it, I just downloaded directly from the bank and imported into Quicken.
 
Brian Austin said:
I guess I don't get it then.

If your version of Quicken can still download the qif files and your bank continues to support them, why would you have to change? Is your bank changing the file format, too? Or is Intuit acting as an intermediary in the bank/client transaction? When I used it, I just downloaded directly from the bank and imported into Quicken.
Click to expand...

What it does is go out to the Quicken server, get the current address and parameters for the bank, and then tells the program how to contact the bank. IOW, Intuit is an intermediary of sorts for the program. (note there are some banks where you can download the files directly from their websites, but you have to log into their websites manually first... those banks don't show up in Quicken's list of approved institutions because they aren't forking over to Quicken....). In other words, Intuit operates a redirect (or virtual DNS) server.

What will happen, I gather, is that Quicken will stop that redirect service. Meaning that the program won't be able to locate the bank's interface server.

If your bank provides the manual download service, you can manually download, find the file, then import it into Quicken, apparently (unless Quicken is planning an update that will 'disable' the import feature, which they might well do). Automatic imports will be stopped. Completely.

But one of my institutions does not provide for manual file downloads through their website - you have to use the Quicken automatic redirect (meaning all import ability stops in April). Likewise, Intuit has dropped all support in the new product for the .qif file import function, and one of my institutions refuses to pay Intuit for the new proprietary format... meaning that I can't upload new data from that institution in the new version except by typing it in.

The net effect is this: Intuit has dropped in the new version all import/export support for the .qif standard, for which it receives no royalties. It then forces you to the new version of the software by dropping support for automatic imports, even those using their proprietary format, on the 2003 version of the software, hence forcing you to stop using the standard format for which they receive no royalties. The other reason a lot of folks won't upgrade is that Quicken has dropped ALL support for CheckFree corp's services. The only bill pay service that Quicken permits within their program is the Quicken Bill Pay. Older versions of the Quicken product support CheckFree.

It's like saying "well, that GPS you bought will still work, but you can't update the database, and if you want a new one, we'll sell it to you at 5% off retail. All updates from the new one must come from us, not Jepp, and we won't support data import or export to any of the software you have now".

Bad business, and signs of an arrogant monopoly, IMHO.

They are doing to the consumer market what they did to the Quickbooks market.
 
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Ehh, I was forced to upgrade too. I use the small business edition to manage my leaseback. Just look at it this way, you can spend a few hours learning all those new features you will never use ;)
 
Brian Austin said:
Well, in their defense, it has been three years. That's a long time to support old versions. BTDT and didn't like it one bit.

Everything has to end sometime. If you can do without those services, you should be fine. If not, that's the price for staying current, unfortunately.
Click to expand...
It's got nothing to do with support. It has everything to do with churn. They can't get people to pay for an upgrade every year by adding (Hey! The new version now has PINK as a color for the charts!) new features.

All software companies want a recurring revenue model like Symantec gets with Norton, Microsoft gets with Windows and Office, and Apple gets with OS X and iLife.

In Apple's case they don't force you to upgrade. Microsoft uses lock-in. "Here's boss, you can have Office 2010 for FREE. See if any of your employees can open your stuff wihout upgrading. We'll have a utility to convert the file format online in a year or two." Symantec? "YOUR COMPUTER WILL ASPLODE IF YOU DON'T BUY ANOTHER YEAR"S SUBSCRIPTION!"
 
All I can hope for is that normal market forces take over and someone comes up with some decent accounting software similar to that of Intuits but without all the beta testing on customers, the mandatory upgrades, the marketing schemes, the disabled functions, version incompatibilities, etc etc.
(just go to any intuit chatboard, they are rife with such complaints)
There should be a dozen choices out there; I don't understand why not - c'mon its just accounting!
 
Ok, Bill, that makes more sense. Until there is a viable alternative though, they seem to own the market. It sucks.
 
I also find their software "upgrade" policies outrageous.

I have a client who was a licensed user of "Master Builder," a high-dollar program for contractors. He had purchased a very costly and long-terms support agreement from the manufacturer, and after Intuit bought them, they tried to disclaim their obligations. Only after being called on it (they tried to just slip it by as a "policy change"), they created a special class of support agreement, occupied by one licensee- my client.

It is one thing to refuse further support for the software when it gets old (2003? Old?); but to actually take affirmative steps to kill its functionality? Makes me think that, when I bought it, I was defrauded.

Bastids.
 
By the way, who thinks that a worthy addition to the open-source marketplace (where one finds the richly-featured office suite "OpenOffice" for FREE), would be, say, "OpenMoney"?

Anyone? Bueller?
 
I did a quick check, just for kicks, and found these:

Moneydance seems to be a favorite:
http://www.moneydance.com/

If you're into GNU/Linux/OS X:
http://www.gnucash.org/en/index.phtml

http://www.maxprog.com/iCash.html
Interesting blurb on iCash (and the others support OFX as well):

OFX | QFX Imports
iCash now also supports the OFX import format (Open Financial eXchange). OFX is a unified specification for the electronic exchange of financial data between financial institutions, businesses and consumers via the Internet. OFX is very common as the online Banks preferred export format as it is based on the XML standard.


Finally, there's this: http://www.simplymedia.com/customer/product.php?productid=120080&cat=4&page=1

It looks pretty lame, and we can't use it because it's "a simple and fast check-writing program that you don’t need a pilot’s license to run" :rofl:


-Rich
 
Another would be Peachtree.
Right now I am rabidly worried about transferring all my customer accounts and such to a new program.
 
Our credit union advised all their customers a while back to that they were dropping download support for Quicken for this very reason. I went to Money (bundled with the machine) and haven't looked back...even though I'd been using Quicken since DOS days.

wsuffa said:
Well, Quicken is trying to force them.

Quicken charges the banks $$$ based on asset size and total number of customers (NOT number of quicken users).

That's why Quicken has removed ALL support for .qif from the product, and why they are forcing users to upgrade.

We're in the era of software rental, whether we like it or not.

I'm looking at alternatives - there is something that might well be a good alternative out there. I certainly don't need all the features in Quicken or Money.
Click to expand...
 
Steve said:
Our credit union advised all their customers a while back to that they were dropping download support for Quicken for this very reason. I went to Money (bundled with the machine) and haven't looked back...even though I'd been using Quicken since DOS days.
Click to expand...

Steve, sadly enough, M$ reserves for themselves the right to do the same damned thing.

I can't find the link, now (damn) but it's there.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Another would be Peachtree.
Click to expand...
Wow! Now there is a name I had forgotten about. Talk about a blast from the past -- I believe Peachtree Software started up right down the road from me in Norcross, GA in the mid-80's. Man...I thought they were long gone...
 
Yea, but until they tell the credit union to ante up, I'll stay with it. If it comes to it, I can download CSV and balance the books in Excel.

SCCutler said:
Steve, sadly enough, M$ reserves for themselves the right to do the same damned thing.

I can't find the link, now (damn) but it's there.
Click to expand...
 
SCCutler said:
Steve, sadly enough, M$ reserves for themselves the right to do the same damned thing.

I can't find the link, now (damn) but it's there.
Click to expand...

I think they even have that in the EULA for Windows! :hairraise:

..that they can disable functionality...
 
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