Quicken Wants Passwords to Our Accounts - Should We Provide Them?

George Costanza

A Friendly Liberal
Mar 10, 2009
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Los Angeles area.
The other day, I bought the basic version of Quicken. I wanted to organize my finances and keep track of a number of accounts we have.

I loaded it onto my computer and started in. The second thing they want you to do (after registering the software, of course) is provide the online passwords to all of your accounts, i.e., checking, savings, retirement, brokerage house accounts, etc. The idea is that, once you do, Quicken will then be able to download all of the information into the program so that the program can then organize the information and display it in various formats (graphs, charts, etc.) in a way that will allow you to manage your accounts.

I am more than a little apprehensive about forking over online passwords to our bank accounts, retirement accounts and, least of all, our brokerage accounts. If those passwords were to fall into the wrong hands, we could be ruined - literally.

Has anyone else been faced with this problem? How did you resolve it? What do you think about the advisability of providing this kind of information to a Web site maintained by a company such as the company behind Quicken?
 
I would not provide that information.

If you can't download that data yourself then I would not be using that feature at all.

Immie
 
I would not provide that information.

If you can't download that data yourself then I would not be using that feature at all.

Immie

I'm wondering, though - is this a situation where you are merely inputting the various passwords into the Quicken program on your hard drive and then you have the program seek out the information - you never provide the information to any Web site or anything other than the Web sites for your various accounts, which you do anyway every time you go there to check on your accounts?

Know what I am trying to say here?

In other words, the passwords never leave your hard drive - they merely become imbedded in the Quicken program that is also on your hard drive.

Is that the situation?
 
I'm still using Quicken Basic 2000. Never did any online stuff with the thing- never would.

Why not?

I track my investments where they reside, like Morgan Stanley and Scottrade, etc.

Re: your other post- does Quicken have a number you can call with your question? Or maybe there's an FAQ page that addresses security issues.
 
I'm still using Quicken Basic 2000. Never did any online stuff with the thing- never would.

Why not?

I track my investments where they reside, like Morgan Stanley and Scottrade, etc.

Re: your other post- does Quicken have a number you can call with your question? Or maybe there's an FAQ page that addresses security issues.

Oh, me too. I have several Excel spreadsheets which I update at regular intervals.

But I have yet to get into online banking, and I thought Quicken was the way to do it. I have a pal who says no - you can online bank by dealing directly with your bank (or other institution) at their Web site.

I know that you can online bank using Quicken (or MSMoney) - but I am beginning to suspect that doing it that way might be overkill.

Good suggestion regarding phone support for Quicken. I'll look into it.
 
The other day, I bought the basic version of Quicken. I wanted to organize my finances and keep track of a number of accounts we have.

I loaded it onto my computer and started in. The second thing they want you to do (after registering the software, of course) is provide the online passwords to all of your accounts, i.e., checking, savings, retirement, brokerage house accounts, etc. The idea is that, once you do, Quicken will then be able to download all of the information into the program so that the program can then organize the information and display it in various formats (graphs, charts, etc.) in a way that will allow you to manage your accounts.

I am more than a little apprehensive about forking over online passwords to our bank accounts, retirement accounts and, least of all, our brokerage accounts. If those passwords were to fall into the wrong hands, we could be ruined - literally.

Has anyone else been faced with this problem? How did you resolve it? What do you think about the advisability of providing this kind of information to a Web site maintained by a company such as the company behind Quicken?

Oh stop worrrying.

Nothing can go worng.
 
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I track my investments where they reside, like Morgan Stanley and Scottrade, etc.

Re: your other post- does Quicken have a number you can call with your question? Or maybe there's an FAQ page that addresses security issues.

Oh, me too. I have several Excel spreadsheets which I update at regular intervals.

But I have yet to get into online banking, and I thought Quicken was the way to do it. I have a pal who says no - you can online bank by dealing directly with your bank (or other institution) at their Web site.

I know that you can online bank using Quicken (or MSMoney) - but I am beginning to suspect that doing it that way might be overkill.

Good suggestion regarding phone support for Quicken. I'll look into it.

i would be very reluctant to provide my passwords to a third party for any reason. i do my online banking directly through their web sites and even then i'm still not completely comfortable.
 
I can see how Quicken would easily consolidate accounts and investments that are spread all over the place. You could monitor them all simultaneously and be able to analyze and compare data and print a multitude of reports. My guess is that your password(s) would be as safe and secure as they are with the individual institutions. Hopefully the people at Quicken could verify this and offer some peace of mind.
 
If Quicken is already on your computer, how do you know they don't already know your passwords?

Are we going to have to move this thread to the Conspiracies forum? :eek:

But seriously - let's think about that one. You install a program on your hard drive. Without your voluntarily putting your passwords into that program, how is that program going to learn your passwords?

And even if you do put your passwords into the program, then what? Is the program going to magically go online, seek out the Quicken Web site and transfer that information to the site? I am not a computer expert, but I don't think that could happen. I think it would be necessary for you to voluntarily go to their Web site through the program on your computer, before any password information could reach the site.

But here I am, playing devil's advocate . . . Thank you for the thought. Any response to my post here?
 
If Quicken is already on your computer, how do you know they don't already know your passwords?

Are we going to have to move this thread to the Conspiracies forum? :eek:

But seriously - let's think about that one. You install a program on your hard drive. Without your voluntarily putting your passwords into that program, how is that program going to learn your passwords?

And even if you do put your passwords into the program, then what? Is the program going to magically go online, seek out the Quicken Web site and transfer that information to the site? I am not a computer expert, but I don't think that could happen. I think it would be necessary for you to voluntarily go to their Web site through the program on your computer, before any password information could reach the site.

But here I am, playing devil's advocate . . . Thank you for the thought. Any response to my post here?

i don't know, either, but i do know that i don't voluntarily seek updates for windows on line, but they keep showing up and nagging me to install them.
 
If Quicken is already on your computer, how do you know they don't already know your passwords?

Are we going to have to move this thread to the Conspiracies forum? :eek:

But seriously - let's think about that one. You install a program on your hard drive. Without your voluntarily putting your passwords into that program, how is that program going to learn your passwords?

And even if you do put your passwords into the program, then what? Is the program going to magically go online, seek out the Quicken Web site and transfer that information to the site? I am not a computer expert, but I don't think that could happen. I think it would be necessary for you to voluntarily go to their Web site through the program on your computer, before any password information could reach the site.

But here I am, playing devil's advocate . . . Thank you for the thought. Any response to my post here?
I'm just saying...if you don't trust Quicken you don't trust Quicken. There's no reason they couldn't add a program (with your installation) that records your keystrokes. That is a very common way for malware to fuck you over. Which is why, on further thought, I'd trust Quicken with the passwords because then a malware program couldn't read your keystrokes every time you logged on to your financial accounts.

:eusa_whistle:
 
i am way too paranoid to hand over my passwords to a third party.

I use Quick Books and I do not even use the import statements function. I opt to reconcile manually instead.
 
I would not provide that information.

If you can't download that data yourself then I would not be using that feature at all.

Immie

I'm wondering, though - is this a situation where you are merely inputting the various passwords into the Quicken program on your hard drive and then you have the program seek out the information - you never provide the information to any Web site or anything other than the Web sites for your various accounts, which you do anyway every time you go there to check on your accounts?

Know what I am trying to say here?

In other words, the passwords never leave your hard drive - they merely become imbedded in the Quicken program that is also on your hard drive.

Is that the situation?

I doubt there would be a problem, but I would sure as hell regret finding out I was wrong.

Immie
 
The other day, I bought the basic version of Quicken. I wanted to organize my finances and keep track of a number of accounts we have.

I loaded it onto my computer and started in. The second thing they want you to do (after registering the software, of course) is provide the online passwords to all of your accounts, i.e., checking, savings, retirement, brokerage house accounts, etc. The idea is that, once you do, Quicken will then be able to download all of the information into the program so that the program can then organize the information and display it in various formats (graphs, charts, etc.) in a way that will allow you to manage your accounts.

I am more than a little apprehensive about forking over online passwords to our bank accounts, retirement accounts and, least of all, our brokerage accounts. If those passwords were to fall into the wrong hands, we could be ruined - literally.

Has anyone else been faced with this problem? How did you resolve it? What do you think about the advisability of providing this kind of information to a Web site maintained by a company such as the company behind Quicken?

What? Me Worry?

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