That headline sounds like one of those designer imposter perfume commercials (chuckle). I’ve only mentioned Yodlee (link here) at CreditMattersBlog.com once. And I have never mentioned Quicken before (except when I mentioned the Chase Quicken card (link here) — but that doesn’t count). Anyhow, Quicken, a household name, has a service that’s very much like Yodlee’s. Like Yodlee (link here), which is free (and has always been free), Quicken is now free as well. What’s more, both companies are account aggregators. That means that you can see all of your accounts, in real time, all in one place. (Of course, these sites also do a whole lot more as well — track spending, bill alerts, etc. — but they’re best known for giving you access to all of your accounts in one place.) Quicken is owned by Intuit. Intuit owns TurboTax (a tool that many of us have used). Intuit also owns QuickBooks. If you have a password to any of those services, you won’t have to create a new user name and password at Quicken’s online site. Your user name and passwords for Intuit’s other sites work at Quicken, too. Anyhow, if you have never used an account aggregator before, let me explain how it works. Once you have logged into your Quicken account, or Yodlee account (if that’s your choice), you are prompted to enter your bank account information. You’ll be asked for your bank’s user name and password. You’re asked for that information so that Quicken’s computers can log into your bank account for you. Once it has done that, your bank account balances will show up on Quicken’s site. Quicken stores this information on its secured site and you’ll never have to use your login credentials again. After you have entered your bank account information, you can then start adding credit card accounts to the mix as well. Again, you’ll be prompted for your user names and passwords that pertain to each of the credit card sites you visit. Once you’ve entered that information, it’s stored by Quicken. And, once again, you’ll be able to see your card balances and other pertinent information on Quicken’s site.Now, here’s the rub. There is always a rub, isn’t there? By using these account aggregators, you are housing all of your user names and passwords in one place. If Quicken, Yodlee, or any other company ever has a data breach, you can see how scary that might be. I mention this only because it’s a risk. As far as I know, these companies have never suffered a breach like that. I imagine their encryption and security features are world class.
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