Joseph Javier Perla

A recently-launched startup, Mint.com won the TechCrunch40 award for best new startup. TechCrunch raves incessantly about Mint.com. I had used Microsoft Money a couple of years ago, and I liked that I could sync up with some of my banks and credit cards. Unfortunately, the process was tedious, Microsoft Money did not automatically categorize my expenses. It did not do what I wanted. Because of the hype surrounding Mint, I finagled an invitation to try out the site. I used Mint.com very early on; I beta-tested their product.

I put in my bank information, which was relatively easy to do. It loaded up my credit card transactions, although that process took a long time. Mint.com showed me charts of my spending and nothing else. Mint.com, not only devoid of features, actively tolerates bugs in the website. Their product loaded the transactions from my Bank of America accounts twice. It said I was spending twice as much as I was, it said I had twice as much money in the bank as I did. Seems like a simple bug to fix, and a common one considering the popularity of Bank of America. As a beta-tester, I emailed customer service informing them about this problem. Their reply: “we know.”

So, the only feature Mint offers to me, expense tracking, I cannot use. The other major feature they claim to offer, as well as putatively their only source of revenue, lies in their “intelligent” financial recommendations. Really, they just try to get a referral fee by directing you to ING or American Express. If you have a low-yield savings or checking account, they recommend a high-yield ING account. If you use a credit card with no rewards, Mint refers you to American Express or another card with benefits. That’s it, I already have both, so Mint offers me nothing.

I closed out my account, and I can only hope they deleted all my financial information. (Either way, knowing how startups and hacking work, I think my accounts are fairly secure). I waited for another new product to rise to the challenge of managing my finances. I had tried another company, Wesabe.com, which is a well-designed website with learning algorithms to categorize expenses, plus they don’t offer to store your passwords for you. But, you have to download a client for you to download financial statement updates yourself. I tried it out to discover that I’d really rather they use up their bandwidth and their time downloading financial updates. Moreover, they didn’t have a Linux client. They recently released a Firefox client, but I prefer Opera now. Finally, on balance, my passwords on my computer have a higher chance of being stolen than my passwords on enterprise servers.

Fortunately, recently, I noticed a relatively new feature on the BankOfAmerica.com Online Banking website: My Profile. BOA offers Online Banking free to pretty much anyone with an account. When I first opened my account, the website loaded slowly, crowded text together, and thirsted for features. Hardly usable, I rarely logged in. Over the past two years, though, the website has significantly improved. Bank of America has won awards for its online banking interface. BOA could rest on its laurels, but instead the company seems to be throwing lots of money and resources at building a truly next-generation banking interface.

First, it innovated in security with its SiteKey program. Recently, they’ve launched added security with SafePass. Instead of typing in your password, potentially revealing it to malicious persons, BOA text messages you a temporary password to use to log in. This looks like a 21st-century equivalent to the old key fobs people had to carry around and click when they wanted to type in a password to a highly-secure area, except better since you can use your own cellular phone normally.

In terms of banking, they offers checking, savings, and business accounts. CD’s, and now stock investment options, IRA’s, and mutual funds. They now have a sophisticated, granularly-controlled alert system, and free online BillPay for automatic payments. I can send money to other Bank of America accounts, even recurring payments, easily at no charge. Sending money to other banks is only slightly harder. They released a new mobile banking interface that let’s you do everything from your cell phone. The site is now fast, secure, easy to use, and I love it.

Finally, my favorite new feature, My Portfolio. It does everything Mint claimed to do and more, but it does so correctly. Moreover, it’s probably more secure. This feature is powered by Yodlee, which is also used by Microsoft Money, ETrade, and many other major companies. They have to be secure.

The features of My Portfolio are extensive. I set it up to automatically update my transactions from ING, Scottrade, my other Bank of America accounts, and American Express. It even let me add my investment in Nexus Capital as a custom account. Bank of America correctly categorizes most expenses automatically, and I can set up rules easily if it doesn’t. The categories are clear and make sense. Simple, beautiful, and clear, the charts actually help me understand my expenses:

Among other charts and views, it shows me a high-level overview of my net worth and investments:

What I like best about BOA is that it constantly impoves its site. The past two years have shown me massive improvements. I do not know what to expect over the next couple of years. I do know that Mint.com still offers no new features since I tried it a few months ago. Their team is small, and they must worry about scaling more than offering useful new features. Bank of America has proven that they are fully committed to offering me more services through the website for free, and I trust they will continue to do that. I can hardly wait to see what new features the bank will be integrating next. 21st century banking is just around the corner.