As a companion to the powerful Mint.com money management system, the free Mint.com Personal Finance app is a disappointment.
Time will tell if Intuit, which recently acquired Mint.com for $170 million, will refresh the company’s mobile development efforts.
Presently, Mint.com Personal Finance comes with more negatives than positives, placing it far from leading the pack of personal finance-specific iPhone apps. The app is good for viewing account balances, tracking expenses and monitoring cash flow; however Mint.com Personal Finance doesn’t let users re-categorize or label transactions, giving a somewhat inaccurate view of the budget until you can log on to Mint.com.
Also, the updating of transactions isn’t as seamless as it is on the Web site, which can paint an inaccurate picture of how much money is actually in your accounts.
When I downloaded the app, I was nervous about all my financial information being so readily available on my iPhone since Mint does not have password protection. Hence, I need to enter my PIN every time I want to use my iPhone. Not cool. Mint does offer a service to deactivate your iPhone if it’s lost or stolen, but I need to do that through the Mint.com Web site. It would be better if the Mint app had it’s own password protection.
That said, Mint is still a very useful money management app if you’re looking for a big-picture overview. But it leaves much to be desired when compared to the company’s own Web site.
