Here is a brief review of the three best finance apps out there to organize your money, help you budget, and spend your money wiser. These services are perfect tools that put all your financial accounts in one place and graph different trends such as your spending habits, net worth and budgeting. They’re great for everyone, but I think these are excellent tools for rising entrepreneurs and college students who want to manage their own finances.
I’ve been using Yodlee’s moneycenter finance application for almost a year now. It’s helped me manage my bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts and even student loans with a very concise and powerful interface. What Yodlee does is agregate data from all of your financial accounts - you have to give your userid and password for each - but I’ve had no problems with Yodlee and by looking at their company’s history, its management and investors, I think its web tools are secure enough to trust. Of the three web apps I’m reviewing, Yodlee has the interface that most resembles a bank. Yodlee does not concern itself with much social networking like Mint.com or Wesabe.
Mint.com is all about interface. Their intuitive graphs really help display where you’ve been spending your money. You can tag different purchases and Mint will learn what the types of purchases you make and further display them in their very dandy graphs. They also give you some tips on how you can better use your money. This is my favorite finance application because it’s feature rich and graphically pleasing. However, there are a few problems I’ve been experiencing… For example, even though I’ve only added one Paypal account, the grand total of my money figures in my Paypal balance five times. Mint.com is still in BETA but I really think their the best at what they do. They have options to send you a text message, email or phone call when a bill is due or one of your accounts has reached a certain threshold. Mint is Verisign secured, TRUSTe certified and protected from phishing attacks from RSA. These are industry-leading protection services. I trust it, so that says a lot.
And finally, Wesabe. I don’t wanna bash Wesabe, but for what it is and what it does, it’s horrible. Wesabe employs an intensive social networking approach to your finances. Personally, I do not feel that this aspect of my life needs any social intervention - but hey, I could be wrong. Basically, the Wesabe community gives you a bunch of tips based on where you shop and what you spend your money on. For example:
Come on, I know a croissont from Au Bon Pain will set me back $4.00 while one from Dunkin Donuts would be $1.00. This is just common sense. I guess if you want to know where and how to spend your money better at comparable places, Wesabe is for you. But come on, does my money management have to become this social?
I think Mint.com is the best service out there with Yodlee right behind. Mint.com incorporates all the power of Yodlee with the elegance of beautiful code and usability. Wesabe, just chill a little.
