[angdis]

Yes, I've been a mint user since well before they were bought by Intuit.

I didn't think it was a bad idea, because it is clearly explained that Mint can't make changes to your accounts. It is only used for query. I am under the impression that the banks only allow Mint query capabilities. They've lately released a new service called "Mint Bills"-- which does make changes but that is separate from their main "Mint" service.

I've recommended Mint to friends and those who've tried it like it.

Things are changing lately, however. Banks are providing more and more "Mint-like" analytic services for their customers. These days, if you have your stuff at one bank there's little need for something like Mint.

I think there will always be room for a service that can work with multiple financial services/banks/accounts at the same time and with a uniform interface. Unfortunately, this is an exceedingly hard business for start-ups to crack (my opinion). To do it right (without asking users to literally surrender control of their accounts), services like Mint need to negotiate with multiple financial institutions-- not fun at all, just to get to the starting-point where one can compete with Mint.

[IanCal]

> I didn't think it was a bad idea, because it is clearly explained that Mint can't make changes to your accounts.

Mint can do anything that you could do with the same credentials. Unless you have read-only credentials, they can technically make changes using your details.

[gcb0]

i wouldn't expect people from this site falling for this marketing shenanigans...

[angdis]

I wouldn't call it "shenanigans" unless there were ever a case of Mint making any change to a user's account. So far none. They're clearly not trying to trick people into giving up credentials for nefarious purposes.

[jlgaddis]

I sort of agree, but to say that they can't do anything besides query if certainly false if they have the credentials that I, myself, use to log in and perform transactions.

It's kinda like when Dropbox said they couldn't access user's files even though they technically could.

[angdis]

The fact that I didn't need to provide answers to security questions for Mint to use means (I think) that Mint has worked out some agreement with the banks which allow "query-only" interactions.

Also, many banks have a way to alert users to logins from new machines and many have things like 2-factor authentication and security questions which would make it hard for a criminal to use my credentials if they were somehow swiped from Mint.

[jlgaddis]

s/query if/query is/

(Too late to edit)