The days of personal finance tool Mint are numbered and users are being forced to look elsewhere to manage their household budgets.
The Early Days of Mint
Founded in 2006 by Aaron Patzer, Mint was born out of a vision to demystify personal finance for the average person. Despite initial hurdles, a major turning point was its victory at TechCrunch40 in 2007, which catapulted Mint into the limelight. At the time, the tool was unique in its ability to pull information from almost any other online financial site and allow the user to manipulate, categorize, and aggregate into useful views. Key to Mint’s growth was its modern interface (including a slick native mobile app), comprehensive overview, automated budgeting and transactions, and of course, being free to its users. They relied on referral fees, targeted advertising, and selling data trends and insights to generate revenue. By the time of its acquisition in 2009, Mint had demonstrated its popularity and potential by growing its user base to over 1.5 million users.
Acquisition by Intuit
Mint was acquired by Intuit in 2009 for $170 million. This acquisition was notable not only for the significant amount but also because it reflected Intuit’s strategy to expand its portfolio in personal finance management and leverage Mint’s rapidly growing user base and innovative technology. Intuit quickly integrated its own targeted advertising and credit score feature into the tool.
For most of the next decade though, Mint was unchanged aside from small feature enhancements and improvements to its account connection functionality. Intuit does not share Mint’s user numbers but in 2016 they reported the tool had grown to over 20 million users. To Mint’s users, it seemed the tool was a low priority but viable enough to continue to support. In 2020 the website and mobile app saw a major redesign that repositioned it as a leader in the personal finance space and stoked enthusiasm that the tool would become an important part of Intuit’s product strategy. However, the redesign was then followed by a similar pattern of inactivity.
The Future of Mint
Recently, Mint users were informed that the tool would be going away on March 23, 2024, and they would be forced to move to Intuit’s credit monitoring site Credit Karma. That tool would be enhanced to include most of Mint’s features. The notable exception being Mint’s centerpiece feature: budgeting. This creates a dilemma for users considering migrating to Credit Karma. What is the value of a personal finance tool without budgeting?
It's also a curious situation Intuit has put itself in. While it makes business sense to consolidate products, they have a window of opportunity to move users from one product to the other. By forcing users onto a tool missing its key feature, they open the window of opportunity for them to leave for its competitors. Intuit's unique advantage during this window is access to its user's historical financial data. When its users move onto a competitor platform (or after March 23 when Mint shuts down), Intuit no longer has that advantage.
The competition knows this and there is no shortage of offers, promotions, and incentives to try other tools. Apparently, despite their investment, Intuit seems ok with letting possibly a large share of their Mint users walk away. Key concerns that their users are considering:
Intuit’s migration process seems to be only limited to the last 10k transactions in Mint (roughly 5 years). So it's not necessarily moving all historical data.
After migration, there is no export feature in Credit Karma.
Interestingly, it is possible to export Mint’s entire transaction history (in multiple CSV files) and then import it into a competing tool.
A Modest Proposal
Perhaps there’s a method to this strategy. Or perhaps this is a typical case of corporate dysfunction that no one wants to call out. Time will tell, but here are a few things Intuit could consider in the short term:
Add budgeting to Credit Karma (or at least tease it as coming at some point).
Make sure their migration tool exports everything. Especially since preserving the historical record is their primary selling point.
Consider supporting Mint until Credit Karma has a more comparable feature set.
What Mint was able to create was exceptional. I only hope that whatever is next either by Intuit or a competitor can build on its legacy. In the comments, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the change and how you plan to manage it.
The days of personal finance tool Mint are numbered and users are being forced to look elsewhere to manage their household budgets.
The Early Days of Mint
Founded in 2006 by Aaron Patzer, Mint was born out of a vision to demystify personal finance for the average person. Despite initial hurdles, a major turning point was its victory at TechCrunch40 in 2007, which catapulted Mint into the limelight. At the time, the tool was unique in its ability to pull information from almost any other online financial site and allow the user to manipulate, categorize, and aggregate into useful views. Key to Mint’s growth was its modern interface (including a slick native mobile app), comprehensive overview, automated budgeting and transactions, and of course, being free to its users. They relied on referral fees, targeted advertising, and selling data trends and insights to generate revenue. By the time of its acquisition in 2009, Mint had demonstrated its popularity and potential by growing its user base to over 1.5 million users.
Acquisition by Intuit
Mint was acquired by Intuit in 2009 for $170 million. This acquisition was notable not only for the significant amount but also because it reflected Intuit’s strategy to expand its portfolio in personal finance management and leverage Mint’s rapidly growing user base and innovative technology. Intuit quickly integrated its own targeted advertising and credit score feature into the tool.
For most of the next decade though, Mint was unchanged aside from small feature enhancements and improvements to its account connection functionality. Intuit does not share Mint’s user numbers but in 2016 they reported the tool had grown to over 20 million users. To Mint’s users, it seemed the tool was a low priority but viable enough to continue to support. In 2020 the website and mobile app saw a major redesign that repositioned it as a leader in the personal finance space and stoked enthusiasm that the tool would become an important part of Intuit’s product strategy. However, the redesign was then followed by a similar pattern of inactivity.
The Future of Mint
Recently, Mint users were informed that the tool would be going away on March 23, 2024, and they would be forced to move to Intuit’s credit monitoring site Credit Karma. That tool would be enhanced to include most of Mint’s features. The notable exception being Mint’s centerpiece feature: budgeting. This creates a dilemma for users considering migrating to Credit Karma. What is the value of a personal finance tool without budgeting?
It's also a curious situation Intuit has put itself in. While it makes business sense to consolidate products, they have a window of opportunity to move users from one product to the other. By forcing users onto a tool missing its key feature, they open the window of opportunity for them to leave for its competitors. Intuit's unique advantage during this window is access to its user's historical financial data. When its users move onto a competitor platform (or after March 23 when Mint shuts down), Intuit no longer has that advantage.
The competition knows this and there is no shortage of offers, promotions, and incentives to try other tools. Apparently, despite their investment, Intuit seems ok with letting possibly a large share of their Mint users walk away. Key concerns that their users are considering:
Intuit’s migration process seems to be only limited to the last 10k transactions in Mint (roughly 5 years). So it's not necessarily moving all historical data.
After migration, there is no export feature in Credit Karma.
Interestingly, it is possible to export Mint’s entire transaction history (in multiple CSV files) and then import it into a competing tool.
A Modest Proposal
Perhaps there’s a method to this strategy. Or perhaps this is a typical case of corporate dysfunction that no one wants to call out. Time will tell, but here are a few things Intuit could consider in the short term:
Add budgeting to Credit Karma (or at least tease it as coming at some point).
Make sure their migration tool exports everything. Especially since preserving the historical record is their primary selling point.
Consider supporting Mint until Credit Karma has a more comparable feature set.
What Mint was able to create was exceptional. I only hope that whatever is next either by Intuit or a competitor can build on its legacy. In the comments, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the change and how you plan to manage it.
The days of personal finance tool Mint are numbered and users are being forced to look elsewhere to manage their household budgets.
The Early Days of Mint
Founded in 2006 by Aaron Patzer, Mint was born out of a vision to demystify personal finance for the average person. Despite initial hurdles, a major turning point was its victory at TechCrunch40 in 2007, which catapulted Mint into the limelight. At the time, the tool was unique in its ability to pull information from almost any other online financial site and allow the user to manipulate, categorize, and aggregate into useful views. Key to Mint’s growth was its modern interface (including a slick native mobile app), comprehensive overview, automated budgeting and transactions, and of course, being free to its users. They relied on referral fees, targeted advertising, and selling data trends and insights to generate revenue. By the time of its acquisition in 2009, Mint had demonstrated its popularity and potential by growing its user base to over 1.5 million users.
Acquisition by Intuit
Mint was acquired by Intuit in 2009 for $170 million. This acquisition was notable not only for the significant amount but also because it reflected Intuit’s strategy to expand its portfolio in personal finance management and leverage Mint’s rapidly growing user base and innovative technology. Intuit quickly integrated its own targeted advertising and credit score feature into the tool.
For most of the next decade though, Mint was unchanged aside from small feature enhancements and improvements to its account connection functionality. Intuit does not share Mint’s user numbers but in 2016 they reported the tool had grown to over 20 million users. To Mint’s users, it seemed the tool was a low priority but viable enough to continue to support. In 2020 the website and mobile app saw a major redesign that repositioned it as a leader in the personal finance space and stoked enthusiasm that the tool would become an important part of Intuit’s product strategy. However, the redesign was then followed by a similar pattern of inactivity.
The Future of Mint
Recently, Mint users were informed that the tool would be going away on March 23, 2024, and they would be forced to move to Intuit’s credit monitoring site Credit Karma. That tool would be enhanced to include most of Mint’s features. The notable exception being Mint’s centerpiece feature: budgeting. This creates a dilemma for users considering migrating to Credit Karma. What is the value of a personal finance tool without budgeting?
It's also a curious situation Intuit has put itself in. While it makes business sense to consolidate products, they have a window of opportunity to move users from one product to the other. By forcing users onto a tool missing its key feature, they open the window of opportunity for them to leave for its competitors. Intuit's unique advantage during this window is access to its user's historical financial data. When its users move onto a competitor platform (or after March 23 when Mint shuts down), Intuit no longer has that advantage.
The competition knows this and there is no shortage of offers, promotions, and incentives to try other tools. Apparently, despite their investment, Intuit seems ok with letting possibly a large share of their Mint users walk away. Key concerns that their users are considering:
Intuit’s migration process seems to be only limited to the last 10k transactions in Mint (roughly 5 years). So it's not necessarily moving all historical data.
After migration, there is no export feature in Credit Karma.
Interestingly, it is possible to export Mint’s entire transaction history (in multiple CSV files) and then import it into a competing tool.
A Modest Proposal
Perhaps there’s a method to this strategy. Or perhaps this is a typical case of corporate dysfunction that no one wants to call out. Time will tell, but here are a few things Intuit could consider in the short term:
Add budgeting to Credit Karma (or at least tease it as coming at some point).
Make sure their migration tool exports everything. Especially since preserving the historical record is their primary selling point.
Consider supporting Mint until Credit Karma has a more comparable feature set.
What Mint was able to create was exceptional. I only hope that whatever is next either by Intuit or a competitor can build on its legacy. In the comments, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the change and how you plan to manage it.