"Chris Cowles" <NoSpam[at]For.me> wrote in message
news:eUlaTUmvFHA.3860[at]TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
- quote -

Obviously, I can't make or break MSFT, but sometimes its the principle
that's important

And if enough of us little folks squawk, MSFT will back off.

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I disagree. MSFT is making plenty on Money because the development costs
have been recovered long ago. Second or third string people are now on the
job as evidenced by the almost total lack of substantive improvement of the
product since Money 2002.

If MSFT wants more sales of Money and loyal upgraders, I suggest that the
legitimate way to get them is substantive improvements to the personal
finance functions. I bought every version of Money from day one through
Money 2002 with pleasure because every upgrade was a real upgrade. Starting
with Money 2003 the "upgrades" were mostly hype or bug fixes, not substance
and it has gotten worse not better thanks to more bloat and advertising.

If MSFT and Intuit get away with this idea of mandatory upgrades via
automatic cancellation of important features, we as users are the loosers.
As I have stated before, if a company can "force" you to upgrade by turning
off a feature that already has you hooked, what incentive is there to
improve the program? Product improvement has always been the traditional
way of inducing customers to upgrade. If we sit by and accept this new plan
we will see stagnation and "phony upgrades" (to use another poster's term)
instead of better software.

Regards

Bill Wood

"William R Wood" <w.wood[at]cox.net> wrote in message
news:eegYE6ivFHA.2312[at]TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
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And how much were you planning to spend with them, otherwise, that would
make them change their mind?

MSFT isn't making much money on this product. A single tech support call
costs them more than they make on the application, and tech support is free.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

A one year limit was announced for M03 Standard. People have already been
here wondering what broke. Further, Microsoft seems to be "breaking" quotes
periodically for old versions, one by one.

"William R Wood" <w.wood[at]cox.net> wrote in message
news:eegYE6ivFHA.2312[at]TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
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"John Pollard" <invalid[at]invalid.com> wrote in message
news:uTwbvljvFHA.664[at]tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
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John,

Give me a break, just a figure of speech. I'm quite certain you knew that.

MSFT's new effort to force people to upgrade is bad business no matter what
you call it.

Regards,

Bill Wood



- quote -

William R Wood wrote:

- quote -

I presume you just lost control here. Extortion? What a crock!
Excuse me, not a crock: a lie.

--
John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
Please reply to newsgroup

"PattiWagen" <sandynpat[at]hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eioua3gvFHA.2540[at]TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
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This is what nobody knows for sure. MSFT's announcement is not clear
enough. My guess it that it will not work because that makes it too easy to
circumvent the mandatory upgrade policy. Plus MSFT might change its mind by
2008 when this issue first comes into effect. I believe that if most folks
boycott 2006, MSFT will drop the whole idea. They will never get another
penny of my money until they do.


So far with 2002 I can still use direct downloads for my Citibank credit
cards and manual downloads for my bank/broker accounts. This is fine with
me since we have huge credit card bills and write less than 10 checks a
year. I don't day trade anymore so investment transactions can easily be
entered manually.

Regards

Bill Wood

"PattiWagen" <sandynpat[at]hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eb1MJ%23gvFHA.664[at]tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
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Yes, extortion is not acceptable to me either.

But Quicken is not an answer because Intuit is as bad as MSFT and they are
pulling the same stunt by disabling downloads for older versions. Plus the
last time I checked there was no way to import Money data into Quicken that
was practical and effective. This may have changed but I doubt it.

If you want to switch look at Moneydance.com. This program does almost
everything a basic personal finance program should do right now. It is weak
on reports and has some functionality quirks but it works. Small, fast and
clean. No bloat or advertising and downloads work great. MD will never
disable downloads. A major update is due this fall. Definitely worth a
free tryout.

Regards

Bill Wood






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"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:OQkQeaVvFHA.2864[at]TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
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I go to the financial institution and download to quicken since they no
longer support Money 2000. This produces a .QFX file which Money 2000
treats as a bank statement when I import it. This is a bit inconvenient, so
I thought if I upgraded to 2006, the file formats would be compatable and I
wouldn't have the hastle of importing the file. This looks like a marketing
scheme to force people to upgrade more often. If I have to upgrade in 2
years, I will probably change to Quicken. I don't like to be extorted by
Microsoft.
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"Cal Learner-- MVP" <via_newsgroup[at]please.tnx> wrote in message
news:1fkti19onja6n7sp35drj0pb77dcp74ufm[at]4ax.com...
- quote -

I go to the bank site in Internet Explorer and tell it to download my
statement. Using Money 2000, if I download it as a quicken file, it
downloads a .QFX file and I import it as a bank statement. Will this still
work in Money 2006?

Before my broker and credit card company changed their software, I just had
them download to money from their site.
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"PattiWagen" <sandynpat[at]hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:OUiHMrNvFHA.2348[at]TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
- quote -

I asked the same question myself and have concluded that Microsoft has not
been adequately clear and forthcoming about the consequences of not
upgrading every 2 years if you buy into version 2006. The wording of MSFT's
warning statement (cited by Cal) is confusing. I suspect that MSFT has
intentionally confused this issue to allow some wiggle room in the future.
This new policy of automatic expiration of download services is clearly an
experiment and I believe MSFT intends to make it painful not to upgrade so I
expect them to disable manual downloads of active statements as well as
direct downloads. In other words if you try to download manually from your
bank/broker, you will fill Money with duplicate transactions unless your
bank separates transactions into discreet statement periods. This might
also mean that you could download only once a month. If Money sales fall
significantly MSFT will back off this policy.

There are 2 ways of looking at this issue. Steve states the first view
succinctly - if you like convenient downloads and are willing to pay an
upgrade fee every 2 years and put up with the increasing bloat and
advertising and lack of substantive improvements, then buy 2006 and upgrade
forever as required by MSFT. The other view is that MSFT has gone over the
line on this one and should not rewarded for its unfriendly behavior.

Consider this: since version 2002, there have been few substantive features
added, interface changes have appeared for the sake of change not improved
functionality, bloat (silly features as opposed to improvements to the core
personal finance functions) has increased, advertising is now in your face
everywhere, some important features have been removed, bugs still exit,
report logic has changed without warning or explanation and tech support is
weaker than ever. In short MSFT has not made a bona fide effort to make
Money a better personal finance program, instead they are attempting to
convert it into a perpetual cash producing machine by milking customers for
mandatory upgrades and selling advertising.

If MSFT pulls off this new marketing scheme, I feel that its incentive to
complete or improve Money as a personal finance program will be zero. If
users are forced to upgrade in order to keep downloading services, MSFT does
not need to make the program better to induce folks to upgrade. Personally
I do not wish to support MSFT any longer and I will never upgrade beyond
Money 2002 which I am currently using unless MSFT reverses this new policy.
Money 2002 and older versions are not subject to the mandatory disabling of
download features - at least not yet.

Your decision is similar to mine. I used the trial versions of Money 2003,
2004, 2005 and 2006. Not a single useful feature was added by any of those
versions. Money 2002 is not perfect but it is vastly superior to any of the
newer versions and it does not contain any of the bloat or advertising or
negative interface changes imposed by newer versions. I also used Money
2000 and loved it but 2002 was an improvement. Version 2006 runs fine and
appears to do everything that 2002 does but I detest parts of the new
interface, the bloat and advertising and mandatory upgrade policy. So I am
staying with 2002. If MSFT somehow disables my downloading with 2002, I am
prepared to switch to Moneydance - a new competitor that shows great
promise. Money 2002 is available for purchase on Amazon.



Regards,

Bill Wood
Fountain Hills, AZ

In microsoft.public.money, Dick Watson wrote:

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I believe you will have all transactions that were already there,
plus the ones you download-- even if you get duplicates as a result.



- quote -

So you are assuming that ONLY QIF imported as recovered account will be
supported and QIF and OFX imported as statements without regard to how the
files got to the PC will be disabled.

As an aside, QIF as recovered account will do what to other data already
present with the same account name? I tried an import as statement trying to
move a complex transaction to the M06 test rig from the M04 production
system and import as statement caused all manner of nasty side effects like
it started assuming forevermore I'd be downloading transactions.

"Cal Learner-- MVP" <via_newsgroup[at]please.tnx> wrote in message
news:9laui1ppfhugmfr0bg8976r6aaaa4jaedd[at]4ax.com...
- quote -

In microsoft.public.money, Dick Watson wrote:

- quote -

When you import QIF as a statement, Money looks for duplicates. With
common settings, you accept the transactions. When you import a new
or recovered account, Money does not look for duplicates and does
not have you accept each transaction.

That is my understanding at this point.

Would you assume that "QIF file import (as backup files) will continue to be
available" precludes getting the .QIF (as just a transaction file--what's
"backup" got to do with anything?) or .OFX from the bank without Money
involvement and then importing then without Internet involvement???

"Cal Learner-- MVP" <via_newsgroup[at]please.tnx> wrote in message
news:1fkti19onja6n7sp35drj0pb77dcp74ufm[at]4ax.com...
- quote -

In microsoft.public.money, PattiWagen wrote:

- quote -

Be aware that your definition of *manually* (clicking a few
buttons) and Microsoft's (enter the numbers) differ.

Then see http://money.msn.com/Money/2006/IBSP.asp

- quote -

What you have to decide is what value is it to you to have a personal
financial program like Money. You currently have to do some
manipulations in order to get your stock data. If you don't want to
spend $25 every couple of years in order to get this data downloaded
easier, then stay with Money 2000. I spend $25 every year to upgrade
Money even though it probably isn't that much better each year. I get
enough value from the product that, quite frankly, the $25 is small
change to me. If it is a big issue for you, then just don't do it. Good
luck. Steve

comments inline.

"PattiWagen" <sandynpat[at]hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:OUiHMrNvFHA.2348[at]TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
- quote -

This ability to migrate the interfaces is surely one reason for the explicit
cutoff.

- quote -

Presumably an off-line import of data you fot yourself in .OFX or .QIF
format will still work, bu tI don't think we know this for sure. Microsoft's
hope is certainly that you'll buy a new version--or subscribe to the
web-based service that's likely coming.

- quote -

Can't say as I blame you, but probably for other reasons. See
http://umpmfaq.info/Money2006.htm.

I have been using money 2000 for years and finally decided to buy 2006
premium. Before I loaded it on my computer I saw a notice that internet
based services would be good for 2 years only.

I use money to download stock and bond prices as well as my bank, broker,
and credit card statements. There was no 2 year limitation on Money 2000.
Downloading statements is more complicated now because my institutions
support the newer versions of Money and I have to download to quicken and
then import the files. But this still works 5 years after I activated Money
2000.

I don't have Money download statements automatically, but go to the
institution and download it manually. I don't understand if there is a 2
year limitation on this.

What will happen in 2 years when internet based services are no longer
valid? Will I need to buy a new version of money every 2 years? I was
hoping I could use Money 2006 for many years like I did Money 2000.

I am delaying loading money 2006 until I get the answer.

Thanks in advance.