Quicken Premier 2019 Personal Finance & Budgeting Software [PC/Mac Disc] 1-Year Membership + 2 Bonus Months [Amazon Exclusive]

I got my last copy of Quicken about 2 years ago and it is still good for another year before I need to upgrade. Now the price is still about the same, but it only lasts about one year. I didn't like upgrading every 3 years, but this new yearly pricing scheme is outrageous. I have been using this software for over 20 years, but I don't plan on continuing with this software once my current copy expires.

Brought and returned my purchase after reading ongoing subscription update purchasing requirements, plus online reviews. Quicken has always had VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE, but with the addition of subscription pricing, they have lost their minds. I only wish there was a comparable competing product. I would switch in a heartbeat from, any and all Quicken Product relationships. Their packaging clearly states 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, but when first contacted Amazon about returning the product they indicated it was not eligible for return.I would not recommend buying this product unless your current Finanical Software is dead.

I've avoided upgrading my 2017 version due to the move to a subscription model and the general lack of value in previous upgrades. However I thought it may be time to make the jump due to more and more issues with 2017 (bit of a coincidence I would say). Worst decision I ever made! The 2019 version is even more buggy. SO far I have had a number of instances of missing transactions, duplicate transactions, and now a completely corrupted file. In 20 years of using Quicken I have NEVER had this many problems. I've said it before but if anyone would develop a competing product that actually works I would buy it in a heartbeat! Don't even get me started on how they have let Paytrust go stale since they bought it a couple years ago.

Once Quicken became a stand alone venture, I was having stability issues. As a long time Quicken user for all of my financials, this unnerved me. So I was a little skeptical of the upgrade but since I was having shut down/back up issues I went for the 2019. I have been very happy. It is only 4 stars because some of the transaction mechanics are still a little cumbersome. Way better than MONEY, or MINT.

After being forced to upgrade to a new version (or lose online banking functionality) shortly before Intuit sold Quicken. The new owners promised major improvements in the future major releases, which has always been the primary complaint. As the initial release(s) came out the reviews all commented on how there were no significant changes. So I figured I would sit tight until they came through on their promise. During this time they changed to subscription based and my thought was they had to make some significant improvements otherwise no one will go for this.Instead they pulled the same stunt as Intuit, pulling the one thing they knew most Quicken users depend on - online banking and data transfer. So I purchased the 2019 version and hoped the reviews were overly critical. But they were right on the money, there are no significant changes from the versions I purchased over the last 10 years. They may have done some cleanup and behind the scenes to make it easier for their programmers, but very little for the end user. There's a new look and feel for the main screen, but many of the dialog boxes are exactly the same as they have been for years.So they gave users no reason to subscribe and were surprised when sales were horrible. And figured if they won't subscribe, we will force them to - we have no competition and Intuit got away with it. I really don't know how there has not been a class action filed.

Update — 2/28/2019I deactivated one or my bank account and verified that they still continued to log in to fetch account updates. I had to change the login password to stop them from accessing my account ————————I found out that for most of my banks, updates are done automatically and stored on their servers even when I thought I did not enable automatic updates. You would think is would not happen if you did not instruct them to save your password in your password vault, turn off scheduled updates and disable their cloud service. By turning off those options, it did not occur to me that they have arrangements with the bank to fetch data daily automatically and store it on their servers even if you don't request to update your data with your computer off. After asking questions on their forum, I got the reply in a matter of minutes that I am using "Express Web Connect" for my accounts as described in a link that was provided them. Google "how-quicken-connects-your-bank" and look at the information provided by Quicken.I found out when I got text notification from one of my bank, (my other account does not have that feature,) every time the account is accessed/logged in. When I first setup the accounts, I set up the accounts to not save the passwords, no scheduled updates, and no cloud. After that night, early in the morning for the next few days, I got notification that there was a log in at exactly 6 AM while I am asleep. My computer was off. Thinking maybe my log in credentials was compromised, I first changed all the passwords for all my accounts. I still got that notification the following day. I then changed the log in name. It stopped.Last night, almost a month later, I have not perform updates other than quotes until then, I perform a account update. It was a pain to change the account name, I had to deactivate/reactivate the account. This morning I got the notification again that my account was logged in but this time exactly at 7 AM. My computer was powered off, not just asleep.What is going on? Quicken supports 3 methods to obtain data/updates - Express Web Connect, Direct Connect and a manual web download and importing of data. The direct online updates supported by the banks are either the Express Web Connect or Direct Connect. You do not have a choice of which one is going to be used.E.W.C allows them to establish a secure connection between Quicken Servers and the Banks to get once data daily, probably to keep the load of the banks system. Problem is once an activation is made, it does it daily and they don't need your password to fetch the data, even if you change the password at the bank. Direct Connect is not available for my banks and credit cards, that method provides connection directly from your computer to the bank without the Quicken server.Quicken probably is secure assuming their servers don't get breached or there is not rogue employee. I personally do not trust the cloud to have a third party direct access to my bank account and retain copies of my bank's data. Therefore, I will not use Quicken EWC to obtain the data, and at least one of my bank does not provide manual downloading of Quicken data file. If I were to keep that bank account in Quicken I have to manually type in the transactions.BTW my Stock Brokerage uses Direct Connect.Since the accounts can be accessed online by passing the 2-step authentication by Quicken and some other SW, I am very concerned about using Quicken if the login/password gets compromised.Now for the program, setting up the initial data and the learning curve is time consuming to get the full advantage of it. The Windows version has a lot of features that the Mac version does not, I'm a Mac user. I found that I can keep the master data on the PC and have the PC data file synced to my NAS (or online file servers,) then periodically import the data file to the Macbook periodicially for reference.

Has been great so far, and am adding more accounts so I can see the full picture. I used Quicken several years ago, and wanted to try it again to get ahold of my family budget, but also organize stock purchases and sales. Really intuitive and easy to use. Great to see everything in one place and understand where some savings opportunities are!