Comments on: Mint.com vs. Mvelopes.com: which should I use?

By: Galen

Galen — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 13:31:45 +0000

Yea, I too am surprised about how many people hate mvelopes. I’ve been using if for a few years, and don’t know what I’d do without it. Although I will be the first to admit that it is a little slow and clunky.

For those of you promoting neobudget, manageme, and perfios–you have to understand something:

You’re not really in the game (at least with me) if your software doesn’t perform 2 very important functions (that mvelopes does):

1. Import transactions automatically (and no, uploading a bank statement is not acceptable–I want to know what’s happening in my budget NOW, not at the end of the month after it’s too late to do anything about it).

2. Provide true envelope budgeting. If all your software does is aggregate all your accounts in one place, who cares? There are probably 1,000 different websites and software packages out there that do this, so you’re not really that special.

I think a lot of people do not understand what envelope budgeting really is. They think that being able to classify transactions is “envelope budgeting.” Sorry, not true. Envelope budgeting is pre-allocating income into envelopes so that at any time in the month, you know exactly what your spendable balance is in given “envelope” and allow that to influence your present spending decisions.

Mint is impressive in that it seems to be developing very quickly. I would not be surprised if it would provide envelope budgeting in the near future. Mvelope hasn’t changed much for years–and that kinda annoys me. Unless your platform is constantly improving and growing, you might as well get out of the game.

Mvelopes may be clunky and slow, but I’m still a loyal customer because no other software can rival it’s key features.

By: BN

BN — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:57:59 +0000

I am really surprised at all of the negative comments regarding Mvelopes. My husband and I have been using it for almost 5 years and would never go back! We have helped over 20 friends and family set up an account with Mvelopes over the years and have never heard a complaint (with the exception of the occasional stressfulness when they have ignored it for over a week and are overwhelmed with catching up). The envelope method of budgeting has helped my husband and I plan for so many spending categories in our lives that many people ignore, and since we have those spending categories funded each paycheck, we have a surplus of cash sitting in our interest bearing checking account making money for us on a regular basis. Even though Mvelopes may cost $7-8 a month. I can honestly say, my husband and I make close to $100/month now that we are saving money effectively, know where are money is going, planning and using interest and rewards points in a way we never imagined. I will agree that Mvelopes is lacking the pretty graphs, speed, alerts, etc, but unless those items are going to make me even MORE money if I switch to mint.com or something else, I am an Mvelopes user until the end!!!

By: TJ

TJ — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:23:26 +0000

It’s consoling to hear that others have the same problem with mvelopes. I’ve been using it for a year now and while I tolerate it, I hate it…but I love it because it is the perfect solution for me…at least in theory.
It does what I want- downloads the many daily transactions that I make, leaves them for ME to categorize, and of course the key to the whole thing- Uses Envelopes as the budgeting technique.
Having said that, the interface is horrible, it’s buggy and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone…and I’m still paying for it!
After using an envelope based budget though I could never go back to the “spend from your checkbook balance” method.

By: Brenda

Brenda — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:55:28 +0000

Oh my god! I’m not alone. I was starting to think I was an imbecile not being able to use mvelopes. Exact same problems: my bank and mvelopes don’t always play well together, and I spend more time figuring out where to put the New Transactions than actually paying my bills. And because I dread logging on, the transactions stack up. But not all of it is mvelopes’ fault. A lot of transactions come through with only an address, so I have to do some sleuthing to figure out what they were for. Another problem is my teen daughter has a pre-paid charge card that we fill as we go. She will go to the grocery store for me, call for me to add money to her card, then make the purchase. The problem is those transactions all come through mvelopes as generic transfers.

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:44:38 +0000

Mint is definitely the best, but i was also trying – perfios.com (http://www.perfios.com) check it out – Perfios is for anyone who wishes to solve the problem of managing wealth distributed among various asset classes and among various institutions. If you have bank accounts, credit cards, Mutual Funds, Equity etc with multiple institutions, how often have you felt that – ‘what if all of this could be accessed at one place?’ Perfios addresses exactly this aspect (and more!) and provides access across asset classes on one platform.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:40:18 +0000

Luke,

You should sell NeoBudget to Mint.com! It would be the perfect marriage of two great products. In the meantime, neo-budget is a great program – but if Mint.com were to incorporate all the main features of neobudget with the ease of Mint’s interface, and the ability to manually enter (and then reconcile transactions) – it’d be game over.

Until that happens I highly recommend NeoBudget. It’s cheap, fast, and effective.

By: KD

KD — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:44:31 +0000

Nice post…
but I am more adicted to manageME as with the help of this web application I can track my expenses anywhere,anytime.
I have bookmarked its upcoming enhanced version http://www.manageme7.com/

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:06:19 +0000

Hi Ryan,

I’m the guy who created NeoBudget (that Brett suggested you try). I created it as an alternative to Mvelopes, because in my opinion it’s way too expensive. NeoBudget is just $2.50/month. Check it out for a free 7-day trial: http://www.neobudget.com

Luke

By: Brett

Brett — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:22:38 +0000

Ryan,

have you tried NeoBudget? i just stumbled across it today and don’t know if i want to try it or not…

http://www.neobudget.com

thanks

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:19:43 +0000

I have been using mvelopes for a year and a half and am a HUGE fan. I do agree that their software needs some improvement but the overall concept is perfect–planning where your money is going before you spend it and being able to track exactly how much is left. That way you know if you can truly afford to make a purchase from that category. When you are spending without knowing your exact status against your budget you can only see where you succeeded and failed after it is already done instead of being able to make smart choices beforehand. I would recommend it to anyone!!