At A Glance
Mint, a versatile app, has been around the longest and that’s part of the reason it’s the best. It’s speedy and reliable, offering detailed and in-depth views (in real time) of U.S. and Canadian personal-finance situations. It has a useful, clean design. You can sign up through the mobile app or the website (mint.com).
Mint analyzes your spending habits, income, and other financial transactions through customizable alerts. If you tap on the plus sign and choose “Create Budget,’’ you are taken to a page with a list of spending categories (such as groceries or movies). It suggests a monthly spending limit based on your history, while also tracking your money through a few months historical data. There’s a look at your monthly budget through a simple line graph, so there is a short-term and long-term perspective.
It isn’t an app for accounting software or reconciling transactions, but it’s more about spending and big-picture financial status.
Some deficiencies include an inability to create or manage alerts from its mobile app. The savings and budgeting options are not percentage-based.
Mint can calculate your net worth, but also offer detailed analysis of your spending habits. If you’re looking to set financial goals — such as escaping credit-card debt or purchasing a home — it’s good for that, too.
It will send push notifications for bills. If you’re close to the budget limit in your given categories – too many lattes this week? – you will get a warning.
Mint is supported by advertising, but the ads are more useful than annoying. Because of Mint’s all-knowing, all-seeing approach to your financial accounts, it knows precisely how much interest you’re earning and how much interest you’re paying on your mortgage, loans, credit cards and savings accounts, along with ATM fees and annual service charges.
The targeted ads will suggest banks and financial services from the Mint network that could help your specific financial needs. It will suggest how much money you could be saving. If you think such ads are irrelevant, simply hit “ignore’’ and they will be dismissed.
Meanwhile, the free Web-based version at mint.com can move money between accounts and create detailed spending forecasts.
Safety
When providing access to your online banking and credit card accounts, you are only giving Mint read access to that information. Mint doesn’t have the ability to move money, so if a hacker broke through, they wouldn’t have access to your cash.
You can add a passcode to the app, a four-digit PIN, but it locks you out of Mint when navigating away from the app, so you won’t accidentally leave the app open for someone else to use. Combined with your iPhone passcode, that should be added security.