The other day I received a phone call from my local police department stating that somebody was “using my name to cash checks at 5/3 Bank.” It turns out some scumbag has my information and used it to open a checking account at this bank early last year and proceeded to use this account to pass fraudulent checks, one of which amounted to $6,000. After validating with the detective that I did not have an account at this bank, he provided me with some information related to the police report and stated that I should contact the three credit agencies to freeze my credit report given that my information was compromised. I was kicking myself for a second given that I was going to freeze my credit reports a long time ago and never got around to doing it. One thing I did mention to the dective that did not make sense to me was that I was never alerted of this new account opening. I figured it would have hit my credit report (some banks do a hard or soft pull of your credit report), and I was never alerted of this happening. Having formerly worked for one of the major agencies (worst time of my life), I have free credit monitoring. Maybe I have to re-evaluate if that service even works?
Enough of my complaining, what I really wanted to state here was my experience calling the three different agencies to have my credit frozen.
TransUnion – The process for TU was extremely easy and pleasant. The representative that I dealt with was very helpful and provided me with an address to mail in my police report, which would provide me with a free seven year freeze of my credit report.
Experian – Like TransUnion, this process was very fast and easy. The representative on the phone was very friendly and helpful.
Equifax – Unfortunately, not all credit agencies are created the same. I was shocked at the service that I received from Equifax. The representative was not very helpful and, even after I provided the police department and police report number, still told me that in order for Equifax to freeze my report, I would have to pay a fee. I was amazed and proceeded to read the representative their own policy online, however she still stated that they would have to charge me. After explaining to her that no other agency did this and that all took the information that I provided as proof of ID fraud, I was still told that I would be charged a fee. Rather than argue any longer, I paid the fee and moved on. Unfortunately for all of us, we are forced to use Equifax and cannot choose who we deal with related to credit.
If you are a victim of ID fraud, you can contact each agency at the numbers and addresses below:
TransUnion
To report fraud, call the Fraud Victim Assistance Division: 800-680-7289
or write: P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92634
Equifax
To report fraud, call: 800-525-6285
or write: P.O. Box 740256, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
Experian
To report fraud, call: 888-EXPERIAN (397-3742)
or write: P.O. Box 9532, Allen TX 75013
For additional information on how to stop ID theft, the blog Red Tape has a very thorough write-up on the overall process.
Moneystrands.com plans to release their updated and redesigned PFM later this month. Included in this release are key features such a goal definitions and a bill calendar, along with a new look and feel. Check out the screenshots below to get a glimpse into what the new site will look like. If you want to know up to date information on Moneystrands, I’d recommend following them on twitter @Moneystrands.
As many people are getting frustrated with Mint’s lack of communication and bug resolution, Moneystrands may be a good alternative given that, like Mint, it is Yodlee-based, so the majority of the accounts you use with Mint will also be available in MoneyStrands, with the exception of investment accounts.
The iPad, with all its magic and sorcery, took the world by storm in 2010. Various companies saw this platform as a required offering for their service, well most did at least. Mint is one of those companies that has yet to release an iPad app. Hell, they have yet to really even reply to their user base as to their plans to either publish an iPad app or change their enhanced budgeting, trending, and analysis features from Flash to HTLM 5.
In a thread created over 11 months ago titled “Will Mint be updating their iPhone app for the iPad?”, one can easily tell there is demand. People have even stated that they would pay for the app!
Stats
- 1042 like this idea
- 211 people are participating
- 281 replies
- 1 Mint employee is participating (use that term loosely)
While I do not expect Mint to pull an iPad app out of thin air tomorrow, I do expect them to set clear expectations with their user base. By not participating in their threads and communicating with their user base, they are going to wind up losing this base. Many blame this on the purchase of Mint by Quicken. That Mint went from a fast, lean, agile company that listened to its user to a big, bloaty, shareholder-driven company like Intuit. So slowwwwwwwwwww to release anything. That may not be the case, but if they do not communicate with their customers and leave them in the dark, then people will start to wonder what’s going on at Mint.
Some of the interesting feedback from the users:
“I Haven’t logged into Mint since I got my iPad.”
“Obviously the world is moving fast. Why is mint waiting the have and ipad app and transitioning the graphics. This should be a matter of weeks. Why wait until someone comes up with an alternative and sends this to the domain of nice starts.”
“It’s official… 14.8 million iPads sold in 2010… It’s time to get serious and create a proper iPad mint.com app. Please, no more mucking about… Hire some proper iOS developers and create a TRULY useful app – one that is ON PAR with the website in functionality (unlike the fairly useless iPhone mint.com app – sorry, but that’s how I feel).”
“I too am frustrated that there is no iPad version for mint.com. I know that it is rated “Under Consideration”. Please move to “Under Development” and then to “Available”.”
“Mint should be well advised that for every single expression of frustration over the lack of an iPad app, there are at least 10 others (like more) who didn’t even bother to write.”
As you can see, people are frustrated. If Mint does not move soon, they will begin to lose users. I’ve moved from Yodlee to Mint as my primary PFM. While they are currently top dawg, other sites such as Moneystrands.com, Bundle.com, and HelloWallet.com are moving in on Mint in terms of functionality and mobility. Moneystrands hopes to have an iPad application out this year, and actually communicates with their users via @Moneystrands. That coupled with a new release from MoneyStrands may drive me away from Mint.
For those of you that use Evernote on both a Mac and Windows box, there is a difference in the way saved searches function. On the Mac you can create a saved search from any notebook, including All Notes, and it will work without issue. If have another notebook selected and go back to that saved search, it will move the scope of the search back to All Notes. This is not the case with the Evernote for Windows client. With this client, you cannot specify All Notes, and any searches you created on your Mac that had this scope will not function as desired unless you highlight All Notes. Not a big deal, but it was somewhat annoying not knowing this difference.
Example, the saved search: “notebook:archive tag:wine tag:cellar” would provide all notes tagged with wine and cellar in the archive notebook. This would work in either client. Now if you remove archive, this would provide all notes with wine and cellar, depending on the platform you are on. If you are reviewing your notes on using the Web, Mac, or iPad clients, this search would provide results for any notes in your Evernote account. If you were using the Windows client, this search would provide results, however only if they are in the notebook that you have selected.
Confusing? I thought so. I actually wrote Evernote support thinking that I found a bug (great success!), however was told:
Currently in the windows program you do need to select the notebook. There is some advantages to this. It is working as designed, so its not a bug, but a difference in the way the application works on the Windows computer vs. the Mac. There are several others. We apologize for the inconvenience.
I immediately responded asking if I could designate All Notes with the notebook tag. It would make sense right? You are just changing the search scope. However I was disappointed yet again:
I should have anticipated that question. This is not currently an option with the saved search. We apologize for the inconvenience. In the windows app you will have to select the notebook to run the saved search.
What I’m wondering is what are the other differences between the two clients? The few that I am aware of are:
- Watch folder (Windows client)
- Drag and drop images from web pages (Mac client)
Hope this help if you were beating your head on the ground regarding these differences in Saved Search. Have any other know differences? Feel free to drop them in comments.
One last thing to note, Evernote support was extremely fast to respond to my questions. They replied back within an hour of me asking a question. This is one of the many benefits of going Evernote Premium!
As I attempted to backup my now 4th iMac in less than one year (the three previous have had numerous issues – string of bad luck or product flaw?), I encountered a problem: I could not backup to my ReadyNas because the Time Machine partition was full. No problem I thought, I’ll just go into FrontView and delete some backups…no luck there. How about I just launch Time Machine, goto the mounted Time Machine backup volume and delete there…nope. After search and reading various forum posts, I decided to write up what worked for me. Here she goes:
- Launch Finder, click Go | Connect to Server
- In the Server Address field, enter afp://<your readyNas ip address>
- When prompted for authentication, do not use the admin account, rather use the ReadyNAS account and password used for Time Machine. The account always the user "ReadyNAS", your password is whatever you defined when enabling this feature in FrontView
- Finder will mount /Volumes/ReadyNAS and you will now be able to view the Time Machine sparsebundle files
- From here, you can now delete whichever sparsebundle files you want. Prior to deleting, if you first want to view the content inside, hold down Control and click the sparsebundle you wish to view. This will allow you to view the contents of the backup prior to deleting.
Hope this helps. If you know an easier way, please leave a comment.
Well I guess that answers my previous question regarding Rudder. Rudder officially announced that they are closing their doors effective 11/3:
Thank you for using Rudder. Over the last 2 years, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed building Rudder.com and especially enjoyed incorporating the feedback received from our users. However, after working hard to make this product as useful as possible in helping consumers manage and plan their finances, we are sad to announce that we will be closing down Rudder. Rudder as a business has simply become unsustainable and we have had to make the hard decision to shut down.
Please note that this has no bearing on your bank or credit card accounts. You should be able to continue accessing your financial accounts and statements online through your institutions’ respective websites.
All data on our servers will be permanently deleted on November 3, 2010. Your data will not be shared, sold, or divulged in any way. We may be shutting down, but we still have the utmost respect for your privacy. We sincerely thank you for your support over the years.
If you have any questions, please contact holler@rudder.com and include ‘Shutdown Question’ in your subject line.
For anybody with a Safari Books Online account, Safari released a must-have iPad application, Safari-to-Go. No more having to download books and use your tokens, no more having to import PDFs into iBooks. Now you can easily connect to and read books on Safari Books Online!
The Safari-to-Go app includes the following features:
- Use native iPad pinch to zoom and drag and drop functions to read easily, manage folders and navigate through the simple user interface
- Search technology to help users find exactly what they need by searching the vast collection of books and articles available
- Search within the content of a book to pinpoint specific information quickly
- Sign up for trials and subscriptions from the application
- Access the sample content of each book (for non subscribers)
- Gain access to folders and notes with tagging and bookmarking of book content synchronized between the app and the full product site
- Cache book content to the iPad for offline reading (AWESOME!)
- Navigate quickly and easily via a simplified, touch screen interface, optimized for iPad users and designed to allow users to quickly start where they left off and spend more time reading and less time searching
Having been a power user of OneNote for sometime, I had always had one issue with the product: I cannot do anything with OneNote outside of the OneNote fat client! While Microsoft has finally made some changes with Skydrive running Office WebApps and Windows 7 OneNote Mobile, it is a year too late. This lack of mobility is what lead me to move my personal workflow out of OneNote and into Evernote. The shear fact that I can be on any device, be it an Ubuntu workstation, my iPad, really anything that could connect to the web and be able to process “stuff”, made Evernote a clear win.
iPhone
The iPhone app for Evernote is spot on! You can very easily read and create new notes from within the app itself. EvernoteAndrew has provided a brief video on the various features of the iPhone app.
I constantly use this app when on the go. It really helps you gather whaterver you want via the following methods:
Photo/Camera Roll: If I see something interests me, I’ll take a photo and dump it into Evernote. Any business card I get, rather than keep the card, I snap a photo of it and dump it into Evernote with a tag of business card. For family photos taken with my phone, I upload those to SmugMug, but that’s another post.
Voice Notes: If I need to just blab something real quick and do not feel like writing, I’ll just create a quick voice note. Evernote: Talk to uncle owen, tell him I need to go to the Tosche station to get some power converters. Sync and voila, the voice note is in your notebook!
As I mentioned in my second post on Evernote, you can very easily add data to Evernote via email. I am constantly dumping new items into Evernote via email. For instance, on my iPad I use Reeder as my RSS feed reader that pulls various feeds from my Google Reader account. When I find something that I would like to keep or read later, then I email the entire article into Evernote.
iPad
The Evernote iPad app is very similar to the iPhone app, only larger real estate and, of course, the lack of a camera. Honestly, while I love my iPad, I rarely use Evernote on my iPad since I have my laptop and phone with me whenever I have my iPad.
To Do List
I have a few “To Do” lists in Evernote for things like race schedules, recipes, and shopping lists. What I always found difficult is managing those lists in Evernote via their standard app. Then I found Egretlist. This iPhone app syncs with your Evernote account and pulls down anything that is a “To Do” and presents it in a easy to use interface. Just to be open on this app, I have been given feedback by other Evernote users that they are not big fans of Egretlist, however for me it just seemed to be exactly what I was looking for…at least for now! As I just found Egretlist, I am always open to suggestions for alternatives.
That’s all for mobility, hope you found this useful. My next post on Evernote will be dedicated to features that I would like to see in the next releases.
It is scary how easy it is to drop files in the cloud. Dropbox has a client which syncs on-demand, but the free version limits you to 2GB worth of data. Microsoft offers Skydrive, which gives you a freakish 25GB quote for whatever you want. Currently there is not a client (at least I could not find one..not sure if Mesh will connect), however you can easily map a drive to your cloud storage.
1. Launch Excel 2010 (Word or Powerpoint work as well)
2. Click File | Save & Send | Save to Web
3. Click Sign In
4. Login using your Live account. You now see the following screen:
5. Click Save As
6. You are now provide with a Save As dialog. Click in the address bar and select Edit address
7. Here you will not see a URL similar to this: https://jiylis.docs.live.net/laksjdflajsfdlkjdsaf/^.Documents
8. Copy this URL
9. Right-click My computer | Select Map a Network Drive
10. Choose your drive letter | Paste the URL in the text box replacing https:// with \\
11. Continue clicking next until completed
You can now copy data to your 25GB Skydrive via drag and drop in Windows Explorer. Pretty scary when you think about how easy it is to transfer data to the cloud.
Much has happened in the PFM space since Intuit acquired Mint one year ago. Many of the major competitors in the space have either disappeared, scaled down staff and development, or are in the process of overhauling their offering. Let’s take a quick look at some of these and determine what else is out there besides Mint:
No longer with us
- Wesabe ceased operations in 2010
- Geezo removed their personal PFM operations, only providing services thru banks and credit unions
- Quicken Online was retired after Intuit’s purchase of Mint
- UPDATED: Rudder closed shop in 2010
Scaled Back Operations and Development
- Lending Tree cut back on Thrive. Is anyone even developing for Thrive? I haven’t seen or heard from them in well over six months. Sad because as many of you know, I really liked what Thrive had to offer
- Buxfer. I have only given their live demo a spin and since it really hasn’t changed over the past two years, I have always passed on this offering given that they charge fees to use the service.
Continuing Development
- Mint is continuing to improve their product by adding additional banks, features, and improving support. Many of the issues that I had in my previous review are no longer open. Their Goals feature coupled with their easy to use budgeting makes Mint my top choice for managing my finances.
- MoneyStrands is readying a new release of their software. I love their reporting, however they lack investment accounts, which is a deal breaker for me. Overall, I do like where they are going and hope to see them push innovation in this space.
- Bundle is the NKOTB. It provides an interesting visualization of your financial life. I have played with this software on and off over the past month and while it will not replace my current primary PFM, it is an option for others to look at if you do not like Mint.
- Yodlee is preparing to launch Yodlee 10. In its current beta state, I am not a buyer. Hopefully we see some major changes prior to launch.
Unknown Status
Rudder? I really do not know much about them, having only used their software a few times and since deleting my account. Does anyone use Rudder? Any opinion on it?- Mvelopes. I am not an “envelope” budgeter, so I have no comment on this offering. Plus they charge for their service, which if a turn-off.
Well there you have it, at least from what I can find. If you know of any other PFM offerings, give me a shout as I am always looking for my dream PFM (Yodlee account base, MoneyStrands reports and analytics, Wesabes tagging, Thrives ease of use, and Mint UI). Not too much to ask for 
