Quicken forced upgrade: Death by a thousand pop-ups

There are several ways to force your customers to upgrade. Death by a thousand pop-ups is one, as Gripe Line reader Jim recently found out.

“I am a longtime user of Quicken Deluxe,” Jim writes. “It worked well. But I recently upgraded my computer and reinstalled it. Then I started to get pop-up warnings. Annoyed, I bought Microsoft Money. It would not install. I’ve downloaded GnuCash, but it’s very cumbersome. Is there anything at all we ‘normal’ people can use?”

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I contacted Intuit to find out why Jim is getting these annoying pop-up warnings. A spokesperson told me that it is likely because Jim is using an older version of the product that is no longer supported. The program should work fine for most actions, but it will no longer connect to his bank and download transactions. And it is alerting him — irritatingly — to this fact. If he is willing to manually enter his transaction, though, it should work. Still, the point of using software to manage money is, for many people, to save time. And entering transactions by hand is a drag.

Of course, upgrading to Quicken Deluxe 2010 will solve Jim’s pop-up problem. But is the upgrade worth it?

According to the spokesperson, Quicken Deluxe 2010 has been completely redesigned to rely on fewer screens, to be easier to use, and to offer improved use of categories. The spokesperson said the new version is also better at converting files from other programs, a major effort given that Microsoft abandoned Microsoft Money last summer. I have been taking Quicken Deluxe 2010 for a spin lately, and I’m pleased with it.

But that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the right product for Jim.

If all Jim is looking for is a checkbook manager, suggests my Intuit spokesperson, the free online Mint.com might be a better choice. (Intuit recently purchased Mint.) Mint.com is tuned to help you create a budget and keep an eye on where all the money is going, even offering alerts to your cell phone when you exceed your budget in key areas. It will also suggest areas where you can save money, and it will provide some measure of financial guidance. It doesn’t do transactions, though; it only tracks your money. I am personally a fan of Mint because it makes it easy to share financial information with my spouse — and send him a text message alert to warn him he’s going over his budget for, say, personal electronics seconds after he drops money on a new toy.

If Jim is managing a complex portfolio of investments, though, he probably does want to step up to Quicken Deluxe or even Quicken Premier. The choice depends, according to my Intuit spokesperson, on the complexity of your finances.

Jim points out that Intuit seems to have “sewn up the personal finance market.” But that’s not quite true. Mint has plenty of competitors. Thrive.com is a similar tool that encourages saving. Geezeo is a set of free online financial tools that also enlist the help of a social network to encourage you to meet your savings goals. And there are others. There are also other desktop software tools out there. For a nice list from a money blogger I like and follow, check out this post at Get Rich Slowly.

Does anyone else have suggestions for Jim?

Got gripes? Send them to christina_tynan-wood@infoworld.com.

This story, “Quicken forced upgrade: Death by a thousand pop-ups,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Christina Tynan-Wood’s Gripe Line blog at InfoWorld.com.