Simplify your laptop buying
Entered CNET Catalog: 07/23/2005
SKU: 294950
Manufacturer: Intuit Inc.
Manufacturer description
Optimize your investments and maximize your return with Quicken Premier 2006. You'll get all the features of Quicken Deluxe 2006 plus powerful tools to help you invest, monitor and prosper.User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
User Rating: 
2/10
Riddled with bugs
Pros: Keeps track of finances
Cons: Three year old bugs contine to fester
User Rating: 2/10
Riddled with bugs
Pros: Keeps track of finances
Cons: Three year old bugs contine to fester
User Rating: 
1/10
Frustrating
Pros: Online Updates
Cons: Hard to figure out, inputs data automatically that you don't want it to, automatically copies files to different locations, attaches extensions to file names, etc.
User Rating: 
3/10
bloatware hasn't improved in five years
Pros: online payments
Cons: stupid features; redundant data entry; annoying forced upgrades
User Rating: 3/10
still prone to data corruption
Pros: nice tool for basic money management
Cons: poor choice for those with lots of transactions
It took a long time to discover this pattern, but if you do regular system maintenance on your PC, you will inadvertently corrupt Quicken data files.
Have you used the Disk Defragmenter under Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools? This helps improve system performance by reorganizing your files into a more efficient order. ANY computer doing transactional work needs this done on a regular basis. Heck, its normally a scheduled process!
Unfortunately Intuit does not seem to want to make its data files work with standard system management tools. Support will tell you to re-install the program or super-validate the data. This has not fixed my problem, and makes me create a new data file, starting my recordkeeping anew. I now have to store my data on a thumb drive/memory stick so it won't get 'maintained' during normal system housekeeping.
Intuit would need to make data integrity a higher priority for me to endorse this, or any future version.
User Rating: 1/10
Does not even work
Pros: Can't find any
Cons: Limited to Windows XP US version
Customer support was ingenious and recommended buying the US version of Windows XP and reinstalling the computer. Alternately they recommend to buy the German version of Quicken which will for sure be very helpful with US accounting aspects.
Overall the combination of a dysfunctional product with a customer service of limited skills and language capabilities tells me: "Stay away from this product!" (my question whether the XP incompatibility is fixed in Quicken 2007 is unanswered to date)
User Rating: 3/10
Very disappointing
Pros: Many reports
Cons: Can't get reports to print
User Rating: 1/10
I WANT MY MONEY BACK!
Pros: if I was able to download statements, it might be decent
Cons: CAN'T DOWNLOAD STATEMENTS!!!
User Rating: 2/10
Bad customer service...
Pros: Not much for the price really
Cons: Terrible service, failed install
Please note the amazing online service you get:
Shailendra S.: Hi, my name is Shailendra S.. How may I help you?
Pierre: hello
Shailendra S.: Welcome to Quicken chat. I've reviewed the brief issue summary you provided. Could you provide specific details to help me better understand your situation?
Pierre: When I click help | Contents
Pierre: I get the following error popup message
Pierre: ERROR
Pierre: A runtime error has occured Do you wish to debug?
Pierre: Line 37
Pierre: Error: Object expected
Shailendra S. Has Disconnected
This is what i was finally told to do:
https://quicken.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/quicken.cfg/php/enduser/popup_adp.php?p_faqid=2350&p_sid=JSBFs-gi&p_lva=undefined&p_req_pass=1&p_li=undefined&p_sp=undefined#
Oh my gosh!!!!
Maybe an 18 year old might do this in 15 minutes but at 40, having been in tech support for years, it's not something I necessarily have time to do JUST to get the help screen up and running.
You call their help line. Just like Symantec now, they will only talk to you if you give them a credit card number.
Brand new from the box and the help screen doesn't work... Wow.
Whatever.
Can I convert my quicken data to MS Money and never come back???
Quicken was a great idea when they first came out but like one of the reviewers said, they are really becoming lazy and money hungry.
So did I... Hungry for MS Money.
Thanks Bill.
User Rating: 3/10
It is good program but??
Pros: It works great and providies almost all the feature you need
Cons: Needs to be better priced for continues upgrade
All in all it is a good product, but quicken has been reducing its value to customer with every new release. Do don't upgrade after quicken 2001.
User Rating: 1/10
I wish I had Quicken 98 back
Pros: No much anymore.
Cons: no QIF support, Ads for services
User Rating: 1/10
Deplorable and pathetic
Pros: Adequate for newbies
Cons: Importing restrictions of old data makes it useless
Intuit can go pound sand.
User Rating: 1/10
Unworkable for large volumes
Pros: None whatsoever.
Cons: Unworkable, finally requires leaving Intuit.
Stay away if you are an active trader.
User Rating: 
4/10
Stay with 2005 or earlier at any cost
Pros: Customizable and through
Cons: Can NO LONGER DOWNLOAD STATEMENTS AND MUST BE HAND ENTERED.
User Rating: 
9/10
This is a great product
Pros: Cleaner, streamlined interface, particularly in the reporting section
Cons: None that I can tell yet
I installed the product last night, upgrading from the 2005 Basic version. No problems with the installation whatsoever. I then connected to my bank to download the latest transactions. Again no problems whatsoever. At this point I started playing some with the product.
I'd say the #1 thing I noticed was the much cleaner, more streamlined interface. Particularly in the Reporting section. In previous versions (2004 and 2005) it seemed as though I was always clicking around in the reports to figure out exactly how I wanted the data to display. The interface in 2006 is just much more intuitive, and for me this improvement alone made it well worth the upgrade.
The feature where you can now view summarized historical data from vendors and/or categories from within the register is also very slick, and will definitely come in handy.
I have not yet downloaded any of my investments into the program so cannot yet provide an accurate review on this section.
In summary, the overall functionality of the program is pretty much the same, so if you're happy with your existing setup then perhaps there is no reason to upgrade. But for me personally, the cleaner interface alone made it worth it, especially in the reporting section. This appears to be a very solid product, and I would not let some of these negative reviews discourage you from upgrading if in fact the product and features seem interesting to you.
By the way, I am running this on a 3.5 year old laptop with 128 MB of memory, and it runs just fine, so I don't think most will need to worry about system resources.
One other note, I was able to find this product for $23 online. This was an "OEM" version and so it did not include a box or manual, but this wasn't a big deal to me as most manuals that ship in the box these days are worthless anyway.
User Rating: 2/10
Quicken 2003 was the best version
Pros: Great if you only have a checking account
Cons: Terrible if you download investment transactions
In Quicken 2004 we received a new "feature" that requires that all investment transactions be entered using a form, rather than through the register. This would be OK, except when editing a transaction, certain transactions can not be converted into certain other transactions, and I receive the "you have to delete this transaction and start over message". I see absolutely no reason why the Quicken program can not figure out some way to transform any investment transaction into any other. Even if only the amount is retained through the transformation.
I was sorry that I ever switched from Quicken 2003 to Quicken 2004. I had hoped that this terrible "feature" would be fixed in 2005, but it wasn't.
I was very happy to see that in Quicken 2006, the "new" feature was added to allow editing transactions in the investment register, so I purchased a copy. I was very dissapointed to find that, again, only certain transactions can be transformed into other certain transactions. This feels like a very bad joke.
I believe that someone at Intuit believes that once an investment transaction is entered, "who would ever what to change it?" This person has obviously never actually used the download transaction feature, since quite often the transactions that come down have the wrong type and have to be changed. Having the program force me to delete them and enter them over again, suggest that I should forget about the download entirely and just type them in by hand. In fact, why not just use a paper journal?
Don't buy this program if you own stocks and want to track an investment account.
User Rating: 
8/10
Great product
Pros: Attaching receipts is a wonderful organization tool
Cons: Not as intuitive as MS Money
User Rating: 4/10
Why did I bother....More hassle than what it is worth. I'm sticking with Money.
Pros: Attach receipts to transactions
Cons: No direct connect support for any of my financial accounts & limited support for downloading from other institutions
User Rating: 3/10
Terrible Support
Pros: Not much from previous programs
Cons: Cannot print and no one responds to requests
User Rating: 9/10
Quicken 2006 is Awesome!
Pros: Improved reports, transaction accounts
Cons: QIF data tranfer gone
The new and improved features in 2006 is worth the upgrade cost even if you have quicken 2005 (and I don't generally advocate annual upgrades of Quicken). The reports and investments register have been neatly enhanced and the ability to attach digital copies to transactions is very helpful...see http://tinyurl.com/d9lfw .
Shelley Elmblad - About Financial Software
http://financialsoft.about.com
User Rating: 2/10
Absolutely NO IMPORT FUNCTION.
Pros: Attach Documents
Cons: Only OFX download
BAD IDEA QUICKEN.
User Rating: 2/10
Buggy, Not acceptable - switched to Money 2006 instead
Pros: Access to lots of financial institutions. Able to import Quicken 97 files.
Cons: Crashed often. Bloated, Bad transaction matching algorithm
Also, I have to say that the way in which Money handles transaction matching is more straightforward involving a lot less scrolling around. As I was using Quicken, I was getting this growing feeling that there would be a good chance it would not be giving the correct figures and that I would never know.
Fortunately, although Microsoft does not claim the ability to read Quicken 2006 files (only claims upto Quicken 2005), Money 2006 was able to read my Quicken 2006 files (which contained all the transactions from '97 - phew). Money is not perfect by any means, but it does seem more stable and definitely presents the information in a clearer fashion . So my Quicken 2006 is going back.
User Rating: 2/10
Unstable and didn't and didn't fix any of my problems from 2005
Pros: Attach documents, nothing else significant
Cons: Has crashed 6 times in 2 days, Can't handle my stock option transactions
I downloaded and tried MS Money 2006 and was disapointed in their category/subcategory setup and the fact that all my transactions that had sub-sub categories had the categories removed. But it did allow me to make the necessary changes to the vesting transactions on my stock options. May have to work on getting my Quicken 2005 file to just one level of sub categories then trying the data transfer again. I've been using Quicken since the first Windows release but they may be loosing me with their inadequate upgrades. I think Quicken 2001 was the last time the upgrade was worth it.
User Rating: 9/10
Fantastic!!
Pros: Love the new reports! Its great that I can attach statements. They fixed a lot of older bugs and the program seems to run a lot faster then older versions.
Cons: None that I can think of
User Rating: 3/10
But have they fixed their other problems?
Pros: It does what they claim (at a high level)
Cons: Inflexible to non-existent reports & account structures; terrible support
User Rating: 3/10
Most unstable release ever, feels like beta software
Pros: Great Interface
Cons: crashes all the time, forces you to register
I'm sure they'll eventually fix these bugs, but until then I would wait. I've reinstalled Quicken 2004 and will get a refund for this.
User Rating: 3/10
A Very Cumbersome Program When Compared To Older Versions
Pros: Premium Has Good Research Capabilities For Tracking and Plotting Stocks
Cons: For Older Versions of Windows It Is A Resource Hog. The program locks up when system resources are depleted.
User Rating: 1/10
Cannot Import Data into ANY Quicken register unless it's from a Financial Institution
Pros: Cool Features
Cons: Quicken is restricting users from working with their own data
Beginning with Quicken 2005 products, Intuit began to strictly limit a users ability to import data into their own Quicken registers by phasing out QIF. So, for example, if I have investment transactions in an excel file and I want to import those into my Quicken Investment Register, I CANNOT do it EXCEPT BY HAND (manual input). In an age where freedom to work with one's data is becoming ever more important, Intuit is going backwards because they want to control the way YOUR financial data is entered into your registers so they can charge money to banks everytime you download YOUR OWN data into a register. Your only alternative is to enter data into your registers BY TYPING IT IN YOURSELF! This is 2005 not 1960!
I know QIF had it's issues BUT C"MON INTUIT, give us someway to work with our OWN data by allowing us to import data into our regisers besides just QFX and typing!!! I don't care if it's QIF or some other import method, BUT PLEASE give your customers THE OPTION to work with their data.
I have been a Quicken user for 18 years now and have purchased every version since the very first one. Quicken 2005 was my last upgrade. I will no longer support Quicken with my purchases until they stop this excessive restriction on allowing me the OPTION to work with my data as I see fit just for their own financial gain.
Click on this link to see how other Quicken users have been duped by Intuit when it comes to importing data into your Quicken registers.
http://www.quickenforums.com/thread.jspa?forumID=1008&threadID=100000362&messageID=600002518&start=-1#600002518
Click on this link to see how other Quicken users have been duped by Intuit when it comes to importing data into your Quicken registers.
http://www.quickenforums.com/thread.jspa?forumID=1008&threadID=100000362&messageID=600002518&start=-1#600002518
User Rating: 9/10
Great product!
Pros: New file attachment capability, nice enhancements and excellent customer support
Cons: Could sync with financial institutions easier (though it's likely the fault of the financial institution), wish you could sort downloaded transactions
User Rating: 2/10
Does not work with many financial institutions
Pros: Nothing new that I'm aware of
Cons: QFX file format is Intuit's way to try to squeeze money out of banks. Some don't support that file format and some charge you to use it, but Quicken 2005 and 2006 won't use other formats.
Little did I know that Quicken 2005 no longer uses the QIF file format and that it uses a proprietary version of the OFX file format that it calls the QFX format. The only difference from the OFX format is that financial institutions have to pay a fee to allow you to download your information in the QFX format. Not surprisingly, some don't offer QFX downloads and others charge customers to download in that format, so you may have to pay and you may have to enter your information by hand.
The solution to the problem is to buy Money. It works with the standard OFX format that is provided by virtually all financial institutions. I hate Microsoft as much as the next guy, but Intuit has the powerful market position in financial software and it is the company that is acting like the monopolist in this product line.
User Rating: 4/10
Yet another minimal upgrade
Pros: -Don't see much improvement
Cons: -The cost is too much for too little
User Rating: 2/10
Don't waste your money
Pros: Minor improvements
Cons: Nothing Major
