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Mint.com Has Added Canadian Banks

Tom Drake — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:00:14 +0000

Back in September I wrote about how it was expected that Mint.com was coming to Canada in early 2010. Then a week later it was announced that Intuit was buying Mint. This led to more speculation on whether Canadian banks were still in the cards and if so, when would it happen?

Well now we can see that Mint has made some major improvements towards full access for Canadians!

What has been added to Mint.com

Mint has made lots of progress in what is probably the most technical aspect to adding Canadian support; getting our banks working with their site.

4 of the “Big Five” Canadian banks. You’ll find Royal Bank, TD Canada Trust, CIBC, and Bank of Montreal (including BOM InvestorLine).
Scotiabank does not seem to be available, though their Scotiabank Brokerage and Scotia iTrade are both up and running.
Smaller institutions like President’s Choice Financial, HSBC and the MBNA credit cards.

What Mint still needs to do

Aaron Patzer, the Founder & CEO of Mint, sent me an email to point out a few things that they are still working on before the official Canadian launch.

Canadian categories
spelling “cheque” correctly
TSX symbols
Tips for saving with Canadian accounts, not 401ks and 529s.

I’ve noticed a few things too that I am hoping will be in place in time for the official launch.

You need to enter a zip code to sign up. I used one in Montana since it’s close to Alberta, but when in doubt, for a real zip code, there’s always 90210!
My RRSP with Royal Bank is showing up as a credit card. It does show as a positive amount though, not a negative, so the net worth is calculated correctly. Unless I missed it, an option to recategorize this to Investments would be an easy fix.
My TD e-Series RRSP does show up correctly under Investments, but it shows the price paid and market value as the same amount, which unfortunately is not the case.
No way to enter a postal code to track the value of your home. There is an option for a manual price entry, but it would be interesting to see a moving value and it’s effect on my net worth.
Credit cards from retailers like Sobeys and Canadian Tire.
Not sure if this is a Canadian issue, but my credit card shows the correct balance and credit limit, but the available credit calculates as if I had a credit limit of $0. This sets of a warning message that I am over my credit limit.

While there is still some work to be done, I’d suggest you head over to Mint.com and check out what’s available right now. From what I’ve seen so far, Mint is a great free service for budgeting and tracking your expenses.

Update August 20: As Charles pointed out in the comments below, it appears CIBC, including PC Financial, are now blocking Mint from pulling their data. While this is an attempt to protect their clients privacy, hopefully Mint will work out an arrangement with them so Canadians have full access to all their accounts in Mint.

A Quick QuickTax Online Review

Alan Schram — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:00:34 +0000

I got my first real job when I was in Grade 12. I worked for about four months, at slightly above minimum wage, so I didn’t exactly make a ton of money. Over the next four years I went to college, so I had jobs over the summer but I never made enough money to pay a lot of taxes. In fact, most of my paychecks didn’t even deduct tax because I knew, and the government knew, that I would just get it all back anyways.

Of course that all changed when I graduated from college and started making real money. 2009 was the first year where I worked for a full 12 months. It was also the year that I got married. It was also the year I started writing about personal finance, so I figured that if I ever was going to do my own taxes, it was now. After reading some of Tom’s reports on possible free online versions of tax software, I bookmarked a couple and decided to try them out. One afternoon I navigated over to QuickTax Online, where I perused the “requirements” for the free version.

*note* There are free and not free versions of QuickTax Online. Here is a link to the free ones, and here is the link to the not free ones.

You qualify for the QuickTax Free Online Edition if…

* You receive T-slips such as T4s and T4As
* You have tip income or pension income to claim
* You are not self-employed
* You do not have investment income
* You only receive standardized federal & provincial deductions

Well, as far as I knew, I qualified. The only deductions I was planning on making were from transit passes, student loan interest payments, and carry forward from college tuition. I was a little hesitant because I was going to be filing as a married couple – something that I knew I probably should do, but wasn’t sure about the rules/regulations that were associated with doing so.

Using QuickTax Online

After creating an account, QuickTax will walk you through your personal profile. It will ask you questions about you, your spouse, your work, and your income. How you answer these questions will determine which parts of the QuickTax program you will go through. For example, if you have retirement income, then they will ask you about it, but if you don’t have any, then they won’t. It was good because it answered all my questions/fears to do with filing as a married couple all within the first few minutes.

After you create your profile, the online software will take you through each relevant area of your finances. It will ask you about your income, which is where you will copy the information from your T4 and related documents, it will ask you about your RRSPs, if you have any, your deductions, any relevant provincial tax questions that are specific to the area in which you live, and will finally review your entire tax application with you to ensure that everything makes sense to them and to you.

I found that using QuickTax Online was very easy. All the questions were fairly straightforward, and almost anything I didn’t understand had a link to a definition or instruction to help further explain. In fact, it was so easy, it was almost frustrating. Because of your profile, it simply skips over entire sections. Sections that I wasn’t sure whether or not I needed to fill out. I could see that they existed, but the program wouldn’t bring me to them, because it knew that I didn’t need them. It was very smart software, it just never explained to me why it was being so smart.

The program was so smart that it even predicted what I needed without me prompting it. I had finished the deductions section, but there was no place for me to insert my transit pass deductions. So I figured I would continue through the review and if I never found where I could place them, I would take my tax return elsewhere. However, out of nowhere, a popup box told me that I might qualify for a special deduction on transit passes, as it “applied to me”. I never said I had transit passes to deduct, I wasn’t even in the deduction section anymore. It just knew. So I filled out that information and moved on. I still can’t find where I can alter that information if necessary, but it is in there somewhere.

Sadly, I have two complaints. The first is that every so often QuickTax would try to up-sell me to a paid version, or addition, to their tax preparation software. This would be in the form of pages that would look identical to the actual forms I was filling out, so I was forced to carefully read the entire paragraph of an advertisement before realizing that it was simply asking me to give them $5 here, or $10 there, for peace of mind monitoring or a live helpful call agent. To get past it you simply have to click “no thanks” but it was still intrusive. Especially since “free” wasn’t so free for me.

While I thought I met all the requirements, somewhere along the way QuickTax helpfully informed me that I do not actually meet those specifications, and must pay for my returns. I’m not sure if it was because I was filing jointly as married, if it was the student loan carry over or interest deductions, or what, but I ended up paying about $15/return, for a total of about $33 including tax. Oh, and they waited to tell me this when I was nearly done filing the return, so I felt like if I walked away now I’d be losing a lot of time and effort by not filing through them. So not overly expensive, but certainly more than I was hoping for.

All in all, QuickTax Online seems to be a good program for those that have simple returns (like mine) without complicated (or any) deductions. It is a good way to do it yourself. So if you have a couple of hours and all the necessary documents, and you feel like it is worth the time, effort, and potential cost, then QuickTax Online is a viable way of filing taxes on your own – even if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Budgeting Tools Online And Beyond

Guest — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:00:19 +0000

One of the biggest obstacles to making and keeping a budget is not knowing where to begin. Thankfully, the Internet age has brought with it some wonderful tools designed to help you keep an eye on your spending. Here are just a few.

1. Wesabe.com: A lot of Web-based budgeting tools are similar, but one of the things that set Wesabe apart is its promotion of a user community. In addition to monitoring your spending and getting investment tips, you can chat with other users and get firsthand advice about saving and budgeting from people who know what works.

2. Billster.net: Billster is a free service ideal for helping you plan your monthly debts and payments, and it also has a great function called “Shared Bills” that lets you monitor things you owe as part of a group, e.g., if you and your roommates are splitting the cost of utility bills.

3. Yodlee.com: Yodlee is another fantastic service that lets you centralize your accounts, from checking and savings to credit cards and loans, and to visualize how to save money.

Those services are all free, but if you want to pay for programs, there are some helpful ones on the market:

1. Quicken: Probably the most recognizable name in budgeting software, Quicken will run you about $100, but you can download it directly to your computer and start working. You can set up auto payments and see your spending over weeks, months, quarters, or entire years.

2. Mvelopes: You can buy either a one-year or two-year membership for Mvelopes, which is a great tool for digging into your personal finances and finding ways to cut needless spending. They’re also on Twitter.

Again, those five tools are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to personal finance software online. With a little research and determination, you’ll have your finances organized before you know it.

This guest post is contributed by Raine Parker, who writes on the topic of accounting degrees. She welcomes your comments at her email: raine.parker6@gmail.com.

Manage Your Canadian Accounts With BudgetPulse

Tom Drake — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:00:10 +0000

BudgetPulse is a money management website that could be a great way for you to report and budget based on all your Canadian accounts. It’s actually something that they DON’T do that makes it work so great for Canadians looking to track and forecast their personal expenses.

I’ve previously written about other websites like Mint, Quicken Online and Wesabe. A common complaint with all of these have been either no or little support for Canadian banks and credit cards. This is because these websites use your log-in credentials to pull data from financial institutions. While some support the major Canadian banks (but not credit unions and many credit cards), other will not allow you to even sign up.

There is another issue related to these sites logging into your financial information. While it can be convenient, it’s quite a security risk for one site to hold your passwords for every financial product you have.

However, BudgetPulse has neither of these problems since they do not sync to your banks and credit cards. It’s a simple online money application. You enter your income and expenses and create reports, budgets and goals. You can either enter the information manually or import it from MS Money, Quicken or data files that you can download from your bank’s website.

Then you are able to manage your transactions, budget with handy sliders and set savings goals. Savings goals are interesting since not only can you work towards your own objective, you can share it with friends or family and they can contribute towards your goal. There are also charts and graphs that can give you different perspectives on your financial situation.

A new feature they recently launched is online fundraising for non-profit organizations. This shows your goal and how far you have come to completing the goal. People can contribute by PayPal, Amazon or pledge to pay money.

So give BudgetPulse a try if you want to get your own finances reported in one place, which can be a great way to find expenses to cut and save more of your money.

Intuit Is Buying Mint.com

Tom Drake — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:00:34 +0000

Just last week I wrote that Aaron Patzer, the Founder and CEO of Mint Software had stated that Mint could be coming to Canada and the U.K. in early 2010.

Well, plans may have changed now that Intuit, the company behind a similar service called Quicken Online has bought Mint.com for $170 million. Buy doing so, it improves their online offering by using the Mint technology and eliminates the competition that they had been trying to catch up to.

So what does this mean for Canadians looking for a decent online budgeting product to track their finances and keep them within their budget? Since the deal is expected to be finalized by the end of this year, Mint.com in it’s current state would not likely add support for Canada. Quicken Online has Canadian banks and financial institutions in it’s system, but it doesn’t officially support Canada (despite being a Canadian company).

Intuit is currently stating that they plan to run the two websites separately, though I would expect that will change once they figure out how to merge the two. If what results is a new version of Quicken Online that uses the Mint interface and Intuit’s financial connections, then we could be in for a great money management system. Now hopefully they don’t start charging us to use it.

Mint.com Coming To Canada?

Tom Drake — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:00:57 +0000

I’ve previously written about Quicken Online and Wesabe as these are the best money management sites currently available to Canadians. Well that may all change in early 2010 if Mint adds support for Canadian banks and users. Aaron Patzer, the Founder and CEO of Mint Software Inc., recently told VentureBeat that “Canada and the U.K. would definitely be the first. I would like to say early next year.”

Since 2007, I’ve been looking for Mint to branch out into Canada. It will require some effort for Mint to add the Canadian banks and deal with a different set of privacy laws. On top of that, they’ll have less to gain for these efforts due to our comparatively smaller market. That said, Mint will need to expand to other countries, including Canada, in order to continue it’s growth.

Being Canadian, I can’t give you my own personal review of Mint as a budget planner. However, here are some great articles about Mint.com so that you can see what all the fuss is about!

Mint’s Fresh Take on Personal Finance – BusinessWeek

Mint: A Fresh New On-Line Personal Finance Tool – Get Rich Slowly

Why I Use Mint.com – The Oblivious Investor

Mint.com Review – Personal Finance Software Reviews

Mint and Wesabe: Online Personal Finance Tools Are Gaining Ground – The Digerati Life

Update: September 15, 2009 – A week after writing this post, it was announced that Intuit Is Buying Mint.com.

Update: April 12, 2010 – Calvin Martini commented below that PC Financial is now available on Mint. Hopefully the major banks will be accessible soon as well.

Update: July 26, 2010 – Many of the major Canadian banks are now available in Mint. While an official launch is still to come, this is a major improvement!

Money Quantum Private Beta Begins Today: An Interview With Flexo, From Consumerism Commentary

Tom Drake — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:00:25 +0000

A new social networking site is entering private beta today. Money Quantum fills a niche for people that want to discuss anything money related, from getting out of debt to retiring early. Maybe you want to find out about great deals or what to know when buying a car? There’s discussions going on about these topics right now!

I interviewed Flexo, the site’s creator, to learn about what he’s done previously and what’s in store for us with Money Quantum.

How long have you been blogging and what keeps you motivated to continue?

I’ve been writing on personal websites since 1995. In 2000, that came to be known as blogging through the help of the software Blogger. I started Consumerism Commentary in 2003 to help keep myself accountable for my financial decisions. I was towards the beginning of my journey towards financial independence at the time, and I had — and I still have — a lot to learn about finances and money. This is exactly what keeps me motivated to continue learning and writing on the website. I’m constantly learning something new, whether through research I do for posts or through comments and emails from Consumerism Commentary readers.

Tell us about Consumerism Commentary and what has led to its success.

Consumerism Commentary started out simply as a place for me to post my monthly financial reports and comment on the money-related current events. It was not created with the expectation that there would be an audience, and it was certainly not created with expectation of creating any income. I think the site remains successful because I have a unique style of writing and I am not afraid to let some of my personality to show through. At least, that’s what regular readers tell me. I also try hard not to pander or assume my audience is not intelligent. Much financial advice I see is written in a way that is overly simplified or assumes readers need to be coddled. Additionally, I try to present both sides of an argument rather than taking a combative or unnecessarily controversial point of view. It may not attract a lot of attention, but it is genuine.

Financial success is another matter. I was one of the first to write about personal finance on a blog, so I had a time advantage. I didn’t add any advertising until late 2004, and it took another 6 months for that to pay off. Actually, I prefer to frame it that it took 15 years before my internet activities produced any income. I was creating online communities as I was entering high school in 1990, and Consumerism Commentary was the first to make any money. So I’ve been at this for a while.

Any tips you learned along the way that could help other bloggers?

My favorite tip to help other bloggers is… to help other bloggers. I’ve made it a personal mission to help others build their websites with an eye towards their success. I also strongly believe that a blog is a part of a community; it’s best to acknowledge those who are in effect your colleagues rather than building your blog on a virtual island. And perhaps most importantly, don’t be afraid to find your own voice. It’s true that lots of blogs write about the same things, but there is always an opportunity for individuality — even as a member of a community. Oh, and don’t use your real name if you want to post your net worth or income each month and believe there is a possibility that a future employer might research your name and find your blog and your bank account balance.

You have been a major part of the personal finance blogosphere. Tell us about other sites you’ve launched.

I’ve launched quite a few websites. Some have succeeded, some have failed. The Carnival of Personal Finance — the first weekly “traveling” round-up for personal finance bloggers — is one of the successes. I launched a website called The Money BBS, which was a forum or bulletin board system, which soon after its launch was consolidated and rolled into the Money Blog Network Forums. I created pfblogs.org, which is a massive aggregator of over a thousand active personal finance blogs, and extended that to include the Friends of pfblogs.org, a way for serious personal finance bloggers to show that they stand out among the rest.

And now you have a new project launching as a beta version today, Money Quantum. Can you tell us what to expect from this site?

Money Quantum is a social networking website, created as a way for people whose life involves money to talk about important financial topics. My vision is for Money Quantum to be a hub for connecting experts with novices and everyone in between. There are many features, including forums, affinity groups, customizable profiles, personal blogs, and of course, live chat. This is for more than just bloggers, this is for everyone, with the goal being half social and half education. Learning from your peers is one of the most effective methods of acquiring knowledge, and Money Quantum will facilitate that in a way that is not possible with blogs alone.

Thank you Flexo for talking the time to talk with The Canadian Finance Blog. You’ve been a great help to many readers at Conumerism Commentary and I’m sure the social aspect of Money Quantum will open up many great discussions about personal finance! If you’d like to receive an invite to Money Quantum while in private beta, email beta@moneyquantum.com.