• james
• Feb 3,2009
• In: Finance

Should You use Mint.com and Why?

I was surfing the internet on StumbleUpon a few months back when I came across this site called Mint.com. The site was very aesthetically pleasing, with a beautiful logo and a great color scheme. It all looked very legit, and I wanted to know what I was looking at.

I started reading on the site and found that it was basically a one-stop site for keeping track of all my finances. “Awesome” I thought, I hate having to go through 7 different sites each week to check my bank balances and make sure I don’t have any credit card bills due. I always avoided auto-payments on my credit cards so I can make sure I have sufficient funds, and I can pay more than the minimum so that I can be out of debt one day. That’s the smart way to do it, but smart can be tedious. This site was going to let me do all that wonderful stuff in one place, saving me time, and putting minutes back into my life for all the things I’d rather be doing. Sign me up!

So I started signing up. Put in an email address, put in a password, put in those funky characters I have to refresh 6 or 7 times before I can actually read them, and then the unthinkable happened. This website started asking me for the usernames and passwords to all of my bank accounts and credit cards! Holy buttsex Batman, I’m not bending over that easily. I guess I never realized that when I was eating up how great the concept was, that it would only physically work if I gave the site that kind of sensitive information. This is pretty much the point when anyone who has heard of Mint.com but doesn’t use it quits. Those people are seriously missing out on one of the best financial tools out there.

I took to Google, doing all sorts of searches on if Mint.com is safe; Mint.com & Fraud, “I got screwed by Mint.com”. Here is what I found… Nothing. Not one sob story or con job, just a lot of doubters and skeptics. Mint.com is squeaky clean, and full of endorsements from industry experts. Obviously there are a lot of people saying they’d never use it on premise alone, and yeah, I guess something could happen to compromise your data, but that could happen to any one of your banks. Mint.com is no more or less secure than any other financial website.

The one potential risk is if the Mint.com database became compromised, the hacker would theoretically get all your accounts instead of just one. However, you’re still not liable for any unauthorized purchases under any credit card I’ve ever heard of, and with so many people now using Mint, I’m confident that they have industry leading security and fraud prevention. Rather, I would argue that Mint actually does more to protect you from fraud than it could ever do to jeopardize your information.

By having instant access to all your accounts in one place that you can check from your computer, or even on your iPhone, you would most likely notice unauthorized spending on your accounts immediately. No one has the time to check all their different accounts every day, until now that is. Mint also sends me alerts by e-mail and SMS whenever I make any purchase over a certain amount, and also whenever my spending exceeds my historical patterns or self-imposed budget. It’s great not only for fraud prevention and monitoring, but also for personal money management and meeting my budgetary goals. Mint also sends me alerts if any card I have is going to be due within a week, so I never miss a payment.

Below is a graph from Mint showing me where I spent my money for the month of January. As you you can see, I should probably cut back on the Sushi. Car payments, Rent and Health Insurance are pretty much mandatory, but surpassing all three with restaurants and bars is pretty unacceptable. One of the many lessons Mint is slowly teaching me…

Not only is Mint the most useful financial interface available, but it’s also completely free. They make their money by recommending you different credit cards and accounts that have better interest rates or reward schemes than the ones you’re currently using. That actually sounds very useful for some people, and that info is all stored under the “Ways to Save” tab. Personally, I am very happy with the local bank I use, and I love my American Express Blue Cash Card, so I just never click on this tab; I’m not a huge fan of thinly veiled advertising. I essentially use Mint completely for free and I never have to see an advertisement of any kind. That’s pretty sweet.

I didn’t write this because I feel bad about using Mint and not giving them a chance to sell me on anything, and you shouldn’t either. Rather, I wrote this because you should seriously consider starting to use Mint.com. I use it and I love it. It will make your life easier, less stressful, and more manageable. You can see where your money is going each week and each month, and that helps a lot when you’re trying to get out of debt.

In the state of things today, money management is more important than ever. Any service that helps us not only stay on top of our finances, but also shows us where we might be able to save a little more, protects us from fraud, guards against missed payments, and all the while puts precious minutes back into our day is something too good to pass on.

Related Content

• RunKeeper, one of the most useful iPhone apps ever (0)
• Why I love my iPhone (2)
• The American Express Black Card, Are You High Class? (2)