User Rating: 
3/10
Long time Money user finished!by JimsWorth - October 17, 2006
Pros: Dual Category has been brought back
Cons: Must log into Passport network where data is stored.
Review:
I've used Microsoft Money since version 1.0 and have upgraded many times over the years. I unhappy to say that I'm back to using Money 2004 and will not be upgrading to any new versions of Money, and will most likely find another avenue for financial software other than Microsoft. I will not be dictated into logging into their servers to enable the use of financial software that I have purchased. I will decide where and how my financial data is stored. I am certainly not going to store it on Microsoft's servers!
User Rating: 
1/10
Money is Trashby gameover305 - May 12, 2006
Pros: None, MS needs to test their products
Cons: Everything, Will never work as intended
Review:
You HAVE to use their passport system and have them keep your information on their servers. For some reason when you have them connected to your bank account your adj balance will never match your real balance. This is because they process credit card charges twice once for when you pay them the other when your card recieves payment. You end being in the red by a lot.
I manually corrected everything but next time I started up it updates and does it all over again. I'm assuming you'd have to work offline with no updates for it to work so it doesn't throw everything off again. Though that defeats the purpose.
The program is trash. It's online feature is useless. Will try to exchange at the store. I should have known.
User Rating: 
2/10
Online function is horrible!by freckledcat - April 14, 2006
Pros: Are there any?
Cons: Not as intuitive as earlier versions and online registration is awful.
Review:
I upgraded from Money 2004 and was very pleased with the idea of integrating my online account information with my financial software at home. First problem, you have to sign in using a microsoft passport account requiring a hotmail account, which, fine, I signed up for. But, now, no matter what I do, my Money sign-in screen refuses to recognize my login information and, thus, refuses to connect with online services. On top of this, I changed bill payments online as the amounts I was being charged changed, but Money fails to update. When I tried to manually change the bill schedule in Money, it tells me I can't because it has to be done through my bank. It has already been done through my bank! So, I get useless reminders for bills that are months out of date every time I open Money. I hate this program! Everything I wanted it for doesn't work. I'm back to pen and paper. Gah!
User Rating: 2/10
Horrible program...get something elseby murfeezlaw - March 26, 2006
Pros: Everything but Automatic Updates
Cons: Automatic updates don't work right
Review:
I was using MS Money 2000 for 5 years. I never had a problem with it. Wachovia stopped supporting it so I decided to upgrade to MS Money 2006. What a mistake that was. I've had to talk to tech support so many times about this product. The program is so buggy it's not funny. The reason why I got it was for the automatic updates by connecting to my bank. I had no problems whatsoever with M2000. All of a sudden with M2006 not all of my transactions get pulled in and it tries to match the ones that do come in with other transactions. It really doesn't make any sense and it makes it very very difficult when doing updates. If I have more than 10 transactions to pull in it takes me a good hour to fix what M2006 messes up. I really wish I could have stuck with M2000. Do not purchase M2006, you will regret it. Also there was suppose to be a rebate but Microsoft denied it saying I didn't fulfill the requirements. Foolishly I believed them over the phone and threw away all proof that I made the purchase. I then realized that they were wrong when I reread the rebate form at home.
User Rating: 
5/10
Should I go back to Quicken?by rcttexas - March 17, 2006
Pros: Clean interface, simple to use
Cons: Must have a MS passport, MS stores your info
Review:
It is not a bad program, however I should have kept Money 05. Once you convert your 05 or prior Money data to the 06 version, you cant go back. It lost a few features I liked from 05 and I find myself wishing I had 05 back quite often. I was going to check out Quicken, however there is no trial for it.
User Rating: 3/10
Have to agree with others after 3 months of useby edshred - March 16, 2006
Pros: nice looking interface
Cons: works as a simple compiler of account info and not much more
Review:
I rarely write reviews, but I feel the need to steer folks away from this one. I've been using Money since 2001 with only minor complaints. I've had the trial version of 2006 for 3 months now, and i use it for all my bills and banking. I've really tried to like it, (I even got over them storing all my financial info online which was major for me) but every week i find something new that i don't like. Here's the short list. 1. The account register has been simplified so much it's actually harder to read and understand than previous versions. 2. when you enter a transaction, you can't enter the category anymore. it seems that you have to wait for it to be downloaded from the bank first. So, keeping track of your expenses becomes this awkward two step process. Overall, I just find it harder to use than all the pervious versions. I guess if all you do is download your bank info, and look at the totals Money could work as an account aggregator, but if your actually trying to watch your spending, budget it and adjust it I don't think they do a good job any more. For the first time ever, I'm looking for alternatives. which is a real shame since the new interface is soothing and uncluttered. I strongly recommend downloading the trial version and really using it before you buy.
User Rating: 
7/10
Not as bad as some would have you believeby ike0576 - March 15, 2006
Pros: Better Backup options, Better Online Integration
Cons: Passport Required to communicate with bank.
Review:
This program is pretty good. I was a little skeptical about purchasing after reading these reviews. Microsoft has always given a good Money program except for the 2001 program. This one s no exception. It is quite similar to 2005 but there are some fine improvements. It is about time that they gave more back up options. I for one do not use floppy disks anymore, at least now I do not have to take away from the hard drive backups to have it on a CDRW. Also, the backup saves three recent backups in the same directory - Nice! I like the Bill section too. It looks a little easier to modify a Bill series now. Also it seems that Bill Pay will be easier too. Granted this program has its drawbacks, such as all the advertising. Another drawback is that the user can only download updates from banks till 9/1/07 or two years from purchase, whichever comes first! I upgrade every year anyway, but I feel this is unfair to people who are not like myself. There is no need to upgrade every year or two, so why not offer a subscription to those who do not want to buy a new one. At least Microsoft is very blatent about this when you install the program. Get this program if you do not have something to help you with your book-keeping. If you have the 2005 version there is no reason to upgrade just yet. Wait till this fall to get the 2007 version.
User Rating: 2/10
Do not purchase onlineby carpjr - February 3, 2006
Pros: Fully loaded with features
Cons: No rebate without hard copy receipt
Review:
I have had trouble getting "mail-in" rebates from MicroSoft. I keep being refused because I have no hard copy receipt or box item that is requirement when I purchase online and download. This is especially annoying as I keep getting popup boxes trying to get me to purchase when I invoke Money 2005.
User Rating: 2/10
Terrible program unless you just want to do bankingby nuclearbillcnet - January 25, 2006
Pros: Free and that's all I can say for it
Cons: Cannot edit accounts sufficiently to enable downloading
Review:
If it wasn't free I would return it for a refund. Andrew Tobias old Managing Your Money V7.2 for the MAC is over 20 years old and is much more versatile for offline use. Unfortunately there is no PC version and online use was thru compuserve via modem. Trying to convert to a Windows based program but this one is very dissapointing.
2**
User Rating: 3/10
Decent program but unacceptable requirementby neurotwit - January 21, 2006
Pros: Does the job, the forecast (in deluxe) is handy
Cons: REQUIRES that you put YOUR personal data on their servers to use the automatic online update.
Review:
I've been a user since Money 2000. Frankly, it's improved very little since Money 2001, but Money 2001 was a useful program. Money 2003 is decent, and I guess that's what I'm sticking with because there's no way I'm putting my personal financial data on Microsoft servers. That's right! If you want to use the "online features" (which is 1/2 the reason to use this software compared to a spreadsheet), they now REQUIRE you to put your data on their servers. I guess this changed occured in Money 2005 but I never evaluated that.
There's lots of speculation as to why Microsoft requires that, but in the end, that's absolutely unacceptable to me. I've already had several notifications from Banks that lost my personal data, why would I want hand over ALL my personal accounting data to one company to lose? And what are they going to do with it anyway?
I've read that Quicken is doing some very user unfriendly stuff too, so I guess I'll keep using my Money 2003 until someone finally enters the market who cares about their customers.
User Rating: 3/10
Worst Version of Money so far!by RB123 - December 23, 2005
Pros: Feature rich
Cons: broadband internet connection a must for most functions to work properly.
Review:
I have used MS Money for the past 8 years in various versions without a hitch. This program, however, is the first one that constantly crashes. The need for synchchronization with with MSN Money servers slows the program down dramatically. You must disconnect that constant sychronization to get it to work properly. Stand by for hours of time with tech support on this one.
I'm sorry to say, it's time to switch to Quicken.
User Rating: 2/10
Not what they say it isby adhack - December 22, 2005
Pros: Consolidates and updates your accounts
Cons: Does not have online bill pay like it says
Review:
I'm very disappointed with Money 2006 Deluxe. The most important reason I started using a program like this was so that I could pay each and every one of my bills online and faster. The box says that it does it, even the review in PC Magazine says it does. But when I had trouble getting it to work and Money "HELP" also said it had it I finally called MS Help. As of November 18th, 2005 Money no longer has an online bill-pay compenent. You have to leave money and go to another bill-pay service or your bank in order to pay your bills online.
Had I not spent the last two weeks entering every piece of info into Money I'd return it and go to Quicken. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT. Use QUICKEN, at this point it's nothing more than a spreadsheet.
User Rating: 1/10
Don't waste your money on thisby Hitechie - December 16, 2005
Pros: Nothing good
Cons: Terrible software & horrible tech support
Review:
Be warned!!! This software is not working with current updates on the different banks security. You buy the thing and it doesn't work with your bank. Plus, it's not user-friendly at all and when you try to get help from their web site, you have to put up with people who don't seem to give a damn about what you're asking them. They don't know what they;re doing or don't care and the software tries to do everything on the face of the world and in the end does not deliver the simplest functions. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS.
User Rating: 1/10
DO NOT BUY THIS!!!by lumiar - December 16, 2005
Pros: NOT user-friendly
Cons: Conflicts with your bank security
Review:
MS tech support totally sucks!!! After trying for the 4th time today to find out why I could not see the transactions I downloaded into my MS Money program, I spent 1 hour and 48 minutes with the person who was 'helping' me only to find out from his manager that since my bank increased their security measures, MS money is UNABLE TO SHOW DOWNLOADED TRANSACTIONS from my account. Totally ridiculous!!! They said that they'll only be able to fix this in Feb. 06. What if that then my bank comes up with another measure to guarantee their security??? DON'T BUY THIS... IT IS EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING and their tech support has such a smart a.. attitude. NOT GOOD!!!
(((((
User Rating: 1/10
Total garbage that cost me lots of moneyby careymp - November 29, 2005
Pros: Creates fancy pie charts
Cons: Inconsistent and not user friendly for multiple accounts
Review:
This product literally cost me $3000 because payments that were initially set up in Money as recurring, then cancelled through Money because I did not like the program. Only the current month's payments were actually cancelled, resulting in double payments on all accounts the following month. Stick to Quicken or use your bank's web-based bill pay.
User Rating: 2/10
Time to Switchby sgrady - September 18, 2005
Pros: Big Expectations
Cons: crashes continually
Review:
I have been a money user for years and fully expected 2006 deluxe to be the best however, after experiencing dozens of crashes and one lackluster session with Microsoft support that did nothing I am ready to switch.
User Rating: 7/10
Good productby taylormcc - August 22, 2005
Pros: Easy to use
Cons: Downloading account info can be tedious
Review:
User Rating: 
9/10
Simply greatby lanza2 - July 15, 2005
Pros: User interface is very user friendly and easy to understand
Cons: More help needed for the Merge Accounts feature
Review:
I have been using Money for the past 10 years and it keeps getting better every year.
User Rating: 9/10
Clean and sleekby Brytewiz - July 12, 2005
Pros: Easy to Navigate
Cons: Need a little more color
Review:
Overal this is Money's best. It is simple and easy to navigate. Great for any user for all ages.
User Rating: 
6/10
Good - but not greatby g rippy - July 12, 2005
Pros: Great interface, online tools are exceptional, great reporting/budgeting tools
Cons: tight integration with Passport, stiff hardware requirements, not very intuitive in some features
Review:
Microsoft is sticking with the interface from the 2005 version which is a good decision. The GUI is slick with a great color scheme, well organized icons, and very pleasant to use. The use of the product hasn't changed much from 2005 with the exception of the online tools. The upgrade in online functionality make the product worth the upgrade if you pay bills online or have multiple accounts you would like to track (checking, credit card, car loan, etc...).
Money 2006 is a difficult program to use though. The budgeting tools have gotten more complicated since Money 2003. There is an option to a simple interface vs. advanced. This doesn't make sense to me considering the simplicity of the software (it just tracks finances). How about one interface that's easy to use and intuitive?
All in all, a good program but probably not worth the cost to upgrade from 2005. If you are new to finance tracking, Quicken is definitely an easier program to learn, but it doesn't have the advanced features of MS Money.
User Rating: 1/10
Worst Program - I want my $ back!by bookworm29 - July 12, 2005
Pros: None that I can tell.
Cons: Typical Microsoft "do it our way only" attitude.
Review:
Required internet access to start (I temporaily did not have) and tried to signup for a .NET Pass-suck account. Complete lack of startup help/wizards for just setting up accounts, etc.
Been using Quicken for years (much better product). Could not import my Quicken data or history files.
Miscosoft has got Internet fever on it brain -- only works with a connection (and it better be a broadband one). Microsofts typical "do it out way or hit the highway" shows. So I threw the program out ("hit the highway") and circular filed where it belongs.
Worst money mangement program around!! Never even got to trying to setup accounts manually or anything (if it is not online or your do not want to go online (and be exposed to hackers thru MS crappy security) -- it is useless.
