06 appears to have numerous fixes that make it worthwhile for 05 users. I
think the 05-06 decision is more of a no-brainer than an 04-06 decision.

--

"DietRite" <lowboy[at]comcast.net> wrote in message
news:TvOdnQeYrtuAN5feRVn-1Q[at]comcast.com...
- quote -

I upgraded from Money 05 to Money 06 for no real reason except that the ads
say that 06 allows you to use your own bank's billpay service through Money,
which I took to mean an end to duplicate entering of payments (1 to Money
and 1 to the bank's billpay service). Now I discover that my bank's billpay
service is free UNLESS I use money or quicken and it must coordinate with
money or quicken, in which case it costs $8 a month. I see no reason to pay
that much for such coordination, though that might eb a poor decision.


What I'm wondering is: Any other reason to stick with Money 06 over 05?

dr


"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:%23AAj2UzpFHA.1048[at]tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
- quote -

Hard to take an article that makes that sound like it's new this year too
seriously.

"Steve" <der[at]tye.inv> wrote in message
news:gmtjg1poj7s3t4rv5pd9u3ugjvlmmquiuh[at]4ax.com...
- quote -

Excerpts from
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...082000176.html


If it's August, it must be time for new versions of Money and Quicken.
And once again, neither update is an overwhelming necessity.

The most interesting upgrade bait this year comes from Microsoft,
which allows anybody in the United States to download Money Deluxe to
use free for three months or until the year's end.

The key changes trumpeted by Microsoft are a Spending Tracker, the
ability to pay multiple bills from multiple accounts at once,
automatic download of investment prices and the ability to track
exchange-traded funds - none a major breakthrough and only the latter
an instance of Money trumping Quicken.

Money does, however, continue to offer a dramatic difference in
presentation styles. Money's designers have thoroughly embraced the
browser metaphor, making the program easy to navigate and comfortable
for new users. Much of the program's content comes on demand from the
MSN Web site.

That dependence on the Web, however, comes with a future liability -
your purchase of Money buys only two years of access to Microsoft's
Internet services, after which you must upgrade.

Quicken 2006's unchanged user interface relies heavily on charts,
lists and account registers. We could find only two changes in Quicken
that argue for upgrading.

First, Intuit has finally updated its reporting system, giving that
module a new look and much greater flexibility, including the ability
to get one-click views of spending by category and quickly compare
current and average expenditures.

Second, Intuit now lets you download check images from your bank or
scan in receipts or other records, then attach them to transactions or
accounts. This can save you from having to pay your bank to retrieve
this documentation later on and can also ease the record-gathering
pain associated with filing expense reports and preparing your taxes.
This image storage remains somewhat clumsy, but look for it to improve
in future years.

Like Microsoft, Intuit enforces mandatory retirement on older
versions, but its sunset policy allows three years of use, not two,
before you lose access to online services and account downloads.

Quicken 2006 for Mac is a thoroughly unremarkable update. It adds some
convenient scheduling options for recurring payments and transfers,
remembers how you rename downloaded transactions, and can
automatically back up an encrypted copy of your data file to Apple's
..Mac online service. But it lacks the one feature Mac users have been
demanding for years: the ability to download account data from the
same institutions as the Windows version, instead of a smaller subset
of firms that offer downloads in a separate, Mac-specific format.

Mac owners - as well as Windows and Linux users - can also consider
Moneydance, which we profiled in our April look at personal finance
alternatives. This $30 program from Richmond-based Reilly Technologies
has been slightly updated since; it will do all the basic tasks that
the two giants will, though with fewer high-end features and less
ability to customize.