Customer Reviews

Quicken Deluxe 2006 [Old Version]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

So far I haven't seen a drastic change between the 2005 and 2006 version of Quicken Deluxe, though I just installed it today. However, I have found two features new to the 2006 version that I love. One is the ability to click on a category assigned to a transacton and immediately get a report of all prior transactions recorded for it - a really nice feature that allows you to quickly see the payments that have been made, the dates and the amounts. The other feature is the ability to attach receipts and cancelled checks to transactions. I do a lot of payments and shopping online and this is a great way to keep up with the receipts. Sometimes it's the small things that make a difference. While users of Quicken 2005 may not find it necessary to upgrade, users or prior versions may want to take a look at the 2006 models!

Seems you either love Quicken or hate it. I'd like to give an unbiased review, if that is possible.
If you look at reviews in magazines, they basically recommend quicken or Microsoft money by a nose over the other. I think you have to take this with a grain of salt. I mean, how much advertising money do these two giants pay those mags?
I've been using quicken over a decade. It seems each new yearly product offers more bells and whistles, a few design changes, but not too much else as far as useable programming. I liken it to car upgrades. They basically change the shapes and lights, but the bottom line is you just want it to get you back and forth where you need to go.
The most noxious thing about quicken is the cost. When you already have a functioning version that does what you want, there's no need to pay 60 bucks just to say you've got the latest version (unless you've got money to burn. If you did, you probably don't need this product!) These companies that give you 20-30% off aren't exactly doing you a favor when you don't have to buy the product at all.
Secondly, the lack of support of its previous product used by banks was the ultimate in customer disservice. This essentially forced an upgrade upon its users (myslef included). Customer loyalty be damned!
Third, it seems each new version has more glitches, at least according to numerous individual reviews. That's a sign the company is putting more into getting you to buy the product than working on the product to make it better. There is no excuse for this (Symantic, are you listening?)
Fourth, there are clearly a few minor things they could do to make the product better. Do they get any customer feedback and try to add it to the next version???? ((Case in point: whenever I download mutual fund data, certain funds get reclassified. Can't they come up with a reliable way to lock features on certain accounts so they can't be changed when you download internet data?))
That said, I continue to use quicken, but to get around their mistreatment of their customers, I tend to buy only after the product has been out a while and I can get it at a discount of 60-80%. For instance, I bought 2004 in 2005, and I bought 2006 a month ago. I read the bad reviews and just wanted to see for myself what the problems were. I always save a copy of the previous year's data, since you can't go back without deleting and starting from scratch with an older version. I'm satisfied with the 2006 version, but it doesn't do anything more for me than 2004,2002, or 2001 for that matter.
Bottom line, read between the lines of the reviews. A five star, I'd take with a grain of salt. A one-star indicates a faulty disk or a customer dissatified customer, probably for one of the reasons I mentioned above. This is still an above average product, but Intuit certainly doesn't command customer loyalty based on the way they operate.

I have been using Quicken since Quicken DOS 2.0 and most of the time upgraded to the current version when one came out. One "upgrade" to Quicken 2004 was so bad (I had to revert to prior version) that I stopped doing it. This version (2006) seems to be stable and does not crash all the time like 2004 did.

The layout of screens improved somewhat and there are new nice views of investment accounts. I do not care much for reports browser, when a drill down or modification of options create a new page, like an Internet browser.

The biggest problem for me is lack of support for QIF format. If you want to download historical transactions from Fidelity you are out of luck. Ironically if you use an old version, prior to 2004, you are fine. Typically you expect more in the new release, not less.

The overall balance is somewhat neutral. Improvements are mostly cosmetic but numerous. The dropped support for QIF import is a single big flaw that comes to mind, but is a big one.

I tried upgrading from Quicken 2001 to Quicken 2006 Deluxe and liked everything about it except the most important thing: Quicken 2006 will not allow me to import my transaction data from my bank.

Why? My bank, like MANY others, supports the QIF file format. Intuit deliberately disabled this feature after Quicken 2004. I spoke with my bank and discovered that the new download method, "direct connect," requires the bank to pay large fees to Intuit.

Big disappointment!

**Like several folks who wrote before me, I was satisfied with an older version that I had purchased but was forced to upgrade by Intuit because they would not continue to let my older version connect to my bank. That really does not seem right. Other reviewers noted that there installation had trouble or the software did not work with their particular banks, a problem that I did not have. Changing to this new software was really a pain though.
**There are no features in this new product that I need or want. The interface is significantly different from my 2003 release so I have to spend time learning how to deal with that. **When you go on-line for the first time, it treats you as a new on-line user as though you had never done it before, and runs you through a burdensome registration procedure and insists that you must know your quicken.com userid and password, something long since forgotten.
**I am very annoyed with the amount of advertisements that this product puts you through. Without asking, it installed six icons on my desktop for credit cards and other financial services that I don't want. Within the application, it points you to a star in the ledger screen, when you click on it; it takes you online to rate local businesses.
**I have not used application but only a few hours and already I'm finding silly bugs. For example, when you're on-line session finishes, Quicken flashes up a big summary screen that outlines all the things that it did (number of transactions exchanged, that sort of thing). There is a check box you can check that says to not show you the screen again unless there is some sort of error. Even when you check it, you still get the screen even when there are no errors.
**When you first sign on, it asks to go online and check for updates, that seems like a find thing to do. But once the update is downloaded, the process to apply the update insists that Quicken must be closed but will not let you get to the window to close it.

Low ratings for making me pay to an upgrade that I did not need or want, for all the stupid advertisements, for a clunky upgrade process, and for moving me from a stable product to a buggy product.

I've been a user of Quicken software for years, upgrading most every year. This year I upgraded from the 2005 version.

There are a number of enhanced features new to this year. First, the reports feature has been improved substantially, making it much easier to customize the information desired. Second, there is now the ability to attach digital images of cancelled checks to their transactions in the register. While it takes a few moments to copy each check image then paste it to the transaction, it is a great feature. With an increasing number of Quicken users opting for electronic bill pay and debit cards, the number of checks written is becomingly relatively small, so the copying and pasting is not a hassle. Third, with each category entered for a transaction, there is a drop-down report of recent expenditures in that category. This feature is helpful on getting a better grasp on spending trends.

I've tried Microsoft Money trial versions, including MS Money 2006. MS Money doesn't come close to the versatility and reliability of Quicken. With Quicken 2006, the best is now even better!

After being a loyal quicken user for twelve years, this is the last version of quicken I'll ever buy. I wish I could get my money back. I'm switching to Moneydance.

Here's my beefs. The program scrolls annoying ads across the borders of my screen; no way to turn them off. Without permission, it accesses the internet and downloads new ads. It hangs my computer. I can only use it for about half an hour before I have to reset. If that's not enough, after three years, it will automatically download an "update" that will disable major portions of the software. The "fix," according to Intuit, is to buy a new version. Check out the fine print, if you recently got new glasses.

Bad news and bad software from an increasingly arrogant company. Even Microsoft doesn't intentionaly destroy their customer's software to get us to buy new versions.

I have run Quicken accounts since 2000.
From 2000 to late 2005 all my balances, both stock and bank, have been fine, and generally everything else was accepatble.

Prior to using Quicken, I used Managing your Money (MYM, remember that one?) and a Schwab software package back to the early 1990s.

Since I "upgraded" to Quicken 2006, both my stock and bank accounts have gone out of whack. In over 15 years of using personal accounting software, I have never experienced the kind of problems I have now encountered.

Quicken help has been of no help at all - Quicken help is now outsourced to India, and the people I contacted (and which you would need to contact) dont use Quicken, so they don't really know much about it. In my case, I got instructions about how to use the "command" button to fix a problem (I use a Dell PC - command buttons only exist on MACs), then I got instructions about how to export to QIF files and import back (which of course, duplicates the account entries).. Basically, there appear to be indexing (and other) problems that are not easily resolvable from any Quicken menu entries.

Just my opinion, but after 5 years of relatively smooth Quicken operation, the waters have gotten awfully rough.

I can't help but think this is because the software development and help was outsourced.

Whatever the reason, now the system seems like it is falling apart.

Intuit disables downloads from financial institutions three years after the Quicken version date. Early this year users of Quicken 2003 will be forced to pay for a new version, even if they are happy with their current version. Intuit also no longer imports QIF files and requires institutions to pay Intuit for the right to use its QFX format. If your financial institution won't pay Intuit to use QFX you are out of luck and won't be able to download data. The bottom line is that Intuit no longer makes an upgrade that most of us want to buy so they are forcing us to purchase upgrades to make the company more money. This is a disgraceful, sleazy practice. Beware if you "purchase" this product. You are actually only renting it.

Microsoft Money is not a good alternative because it also "sunsets" and stops downloading data after two or three years, and data conversion is usually a problem. Someone needs to offer a good alternative to Quicken and Money.

If you need to upgrade I recommend Quicken Deluxe 2005, provided you do not need QIF downloads. Intuit tells you in its letters and on its website, when indicating you need to upgrade in order to continue downloading account information, that you need to upgrade to the latest version (2006). That is not true. Buying the 2005 version on Amazon or eBay costs much less and allows you to continue downloading for a few more years. Also, by buying an older version you get the latest "fixes" the first time you download data, which should correct most of the bugs other users complain about.

The technical professionals who create the Quicken program are to be praised for their ongoing innovation and desire to help customers manage their finances effectively and efficiently. Quicken is a very good program.

Unfortunately, Intuit, the parent company of Quicken, tends to treat its customers as if we are trusting tourists in a foreign land who don't realize we are in the presence of very skilled pick pocketers. Turn your back and Intuit will snatch more of your cash, whether it's for an unnecessary upgrade, a support call, or an add-on service you really don't need.

Beware signing up for Quicken Bill Pay. The screen that keeps popping up encouraging you to sign up with a BillPay free trial can be confused with a registration screen. For that and other reasons, it's not unusual for people to inadvertently sign up for BillPay twice or even three times.

Does Intuit contact you given that they are billing the same person two or three times for the same product? No. When you discover the error and then ask Intuit for a refund or to credit your account for the double (or triple) payments, they point to the legal fine print, which of course their attorneys have crafted in such a way to protect Intuit from any legal challenges to their extra revenue scheme.

If I didn't already have a lot of data on Quicken I would look at Microsoft Money. But then that company isn't exactly known for stellar customer service either. I guess that's one of the problems with a monopoly (or duopoly in this case): They don't have to provide good customer service because they control so much of the market for their products.