iBank 5 for Mac Adds Bill Pay, Streamlined Updating, and More

[YMark]

I've been an iBank customer for 4 years. I never have like this program due to the lousy UI, bugs, and terrible support. They also have no customer loyalty and consistently charge for minor "revision updates".

I never gave a serious thought to upgrading to iBank 5 because 3 and 4 were such let downs. All in all a piss poor program that has me looking for an alternative. I tried Moneydance 4 years ago, maybe it is time to give it another try.

 

[Weaselboy]

I've been an iBank customer for 4 years. I never have like this program due to the lousy UI, bugs, and terrible support. They also have no customer loyalty and consistently charge for minor "revision updates".

iBank 4 came out in September 2010. iBank 5 is now out over three years later and they do offer an upgrade price of $29.99. If you don't care for the app, that is largely a matter of personal taste and I can't argue with that, but I don't think one upgrade charge in more than three years is really out of line.

 

[DrTosh]

Moneydance 2014 has just been released. I've been a user ever since MS Money was discontinued. It took me about 2 hours to import my MS Money transactions into Moneydance (you have to import each account individually) but it worked well.

Moneydance's main advantage is that it is cheap (they seem to only charge every 2-3 years for an upgrade, with interim upgrades free of charge). There is no annual subscription, just a one-off payment. The software also works on pretty much any computer.

I import my UK bank and credit card transactions by downloading the OFX file and importing into Moneydance. It's really easy and takes less than a minute to do.

 

[mbagnall]

Dismayed

I love iBank. I was a little hesitant to download iBank 5 just because I was so happy with 4 and have come to realize my hesitation was warranted.

There is nothing iBank 5 can do that I can't do on my bank's web site such as bill pay and see my transactions. My financial institution is only available with a subscription of $40 a year which would be on top of my $30 upgrade. That's $70 + $40 every year afterward just for the privilege of something I can now do for free. No thanks. There aren't any features in iBank 5 that scream "must have" to me and the subscription plus the upgrade price do not present enough value to me.

Of course, like many others, they will likely drop support for future versions of OS X after Mavericks and force an upgrade at some point - but even then I find the $40 per year charge just for the privilege of paying my bills and accessing information I can already get for free somewhat offensive.

 

[jimthing]

I love iBank. I was a little hesitant to download iBank 5 just because I was so happy with 4 and have come to realize my hesitation was warranted.

There is nothing iBank 5 can do that I can't do on my bank's web site such as bill pay and see my transactions. My financial institution is only available with a subscription of $40 a year which would be on top of my $30 upgrade. That's $70 + $40 every year afterward just for the privilege of something I can now do for free. No thanks. There aren't any features in iBank 5 that scream "must have" to me and the subscription plus the upgrade price do not present enough value to me.

Of course, like many others, they will likely drop support for future versions of OS X after Mavericks and force an upgrade at some point - but even then I find the $40 per year charge just for the privilege of paying my bills and accessing information I can already get for free somewhat offensive.

I partially agree, but as the dev said above, the subscription thing is OPTIONAL: you can still simply import a file from your bank as before for no charge. It's just an optional extra for those who may like to have the convenience it provides.

...just a shame he does NOT publish the list of institutions it supports, as I think that's underhand – potential customers should at least be able to see a list of what's available before bothering to waste our precious time signing-up for a product, regardless of any 'free trial'. As if we can't use it, it's just wasting our time wanting us to trial it!

That plus the highly limited info on UK usage offered, which is just plainly annoying!!

 

[idoccurt]

cost

Do you have to pay each year for bank 5

I'm in the same boat. Is it worth the $60 + $40/year compared to Mint which is free? Also the iPad app at $20 is pretty pricy. But if the benefits outweigh the price then I would be interested.

 

[Weaselboy]

Do you have to pay each year for bank 5

No you don't, and there seems to be some confusion in this thread on that issue.

If you want to download transactions from your bank with iBank 5, you can do that free using "Direct Connect". This uses the OFX protocol to DL data from your bank and import it into iBank. I currently use this with Bank of America and it is completely seamless. I click "update" in the iBank menu bar and all my new transactions show up in iBank. You can read more about Direct Connect and see a list of supported banks on this page.

The second method of downloading your banking data is by using iBank with "Direct Access" and this costs $39.99 a year. The advantage of Direct Access is you can see pending transactions as soon as they are listed by your bank. You can read more about Direct Access here. For the price, I really don't see any big advantage paying for Direct Access. (I believe I read somewhere iBank is using a third party service called Yodlee for this service.)

So you can use iBank with the Direct Connect transaction download method with no yearly charge.

 

[iggypop]

you can use iBank with the Direct Connect transaction download method with no yearly charge.

There's another way to import your current transactions to iBank 5 at no cost: via web downloads. You'd use this method with banks that don't offer an OFX connection to iBank. Navigate to your account (using iBank's built-in browser if you wish to stay within the app), download new data in one of several formats supported by iBank, and import them to your transaction register. In some cases this also avoids fees imposed by banks for Direct Connect.

There are several reasons why one might subscribe to Direct Access for getting bank data: it's more convenient (acquiring data automatically, in the background), a subscription can be shared with iBank for iPad (and syncs to iBank for Mac), it accesses data from thousands of banks worldwide, and is more accurate (pulling in pending transactions, as noted). But it's not required for users of iBank 5.

 

[paultste]

Have To Pay For Direct Connect??

I had been using iBank4.0 for several years now to track investments and liked it. It would allow me to automatically download all of my investments from the various banks and brokerages. I recently upgrade to iBank5.0 only to find out they now CHARGE for Direct Connect! So not only do I have to priviledge of paying $30 to upgrade, then I need to pay another $40/YEAR to directly download my transactions from my bank/brokerage. This sucks and I'll be looking for an alternative to switch to.

 

[Weaselboy]

I had been using iBank4.0 for several years now to track investments and liked it. It would allow me to automatically download all of my investments from the various banks and brokerages. I recently upgrade to iBank5.0 only to find out they now CHARGE for Direct Connect! So not only do I have to priviledge of paying $30 to upgrade, then I need to pay another $40/YEAR to directly download my transactions from my bank/brokerage. This sucks and I'll be looking for an alternative to switch to.

Read my post two posts up. They do not charge for Direct Connect. If you were using Direct Connect with iBank 4, you can continue to use it with iBank 5 at no charge and it works exactly the same.

You are confusing Direct Connect with the new Direct Access that does have a yearly fee.

 

[Daysight]

My iBank experience has been quite positive.

I've used Quicken for many years. When I switched to Apple a couple of years ago, I researched options and ended up staying with Quicken for Windows, running under Parallels. I could find no Apple OS alternative for our personal accounting with investments for our Canadian bank and other features that matched Quicken.

When iBank 5 came out end of November, I downloaded the trial and have been running it parallel to Quicken. No significant problems importing the Quicken data, just minor cleanup in a couple of accounts. Easy to download/import transactions for free from our bank's website, using Safari. I do bill payment for free on the bank's website. I haven't encountered any bugs. I actually prefer both reconciliation and reports in iBank. The forecast utility is a much simpler way of ensuring cash flow over the next two months than the Quicken method. Investment transaction tracking is going very well. I use various websites and the bank's website for more detailed investment information, not Quicken.

I haven't tried the iBank iOS apps so far because I really don't need them. I can pop into my bank's website to check the accounts if I need to.

No show-stoppers for me so far. I anticipate that I will drop Quicken and Windows from my iMac and fully switch to iBank after year-end.

 

[gwmac]

I've just started using this in the UK and am pleasantly surprised by the range of UK banks now supported. Works nicely for me with

TSB
Nationwide
Halifax
iii
M&S
Barclaycard
Partnership Card

 

[didi1017]

Monthly/yearly fee…?

Hello all!

I have been wanting a good money tracker/budget app for a long time and I came across iBank. Instead of risking the money to purchase it I downloaded the free 30 day trial, but when I look closer to the description in the app store it says something about a monthly/yearly fee. My question is what is this for? I don't want to buy an app and have to continue to pay to use it, if that is the case, nor do I want to waste my time learning the system and entering in all my information if I don't fully understand all the terms.

TIA for clearing this up for a cheapskate.

 

[iggypop]

Hello all!

I have been wanting a good money tracker/budget app for a long time and I came across iBank. Instead of risking the money to purchase it I downloaded the free 30 day trial, but when I look closer to the description in the app store it says something about a monthly/yearly fee. My question is what is this for?

There are no fees required to use iBank 5, and your purchase includes free support and all 5.x updates at no cost.

What you're asking about is a subscription service called Direct Access, which provides an advanced means of updating account data from over 10,000 financial institutions worldwide. It's exclusive to iBank, and a subscription can be shared with your copy of iBank for iPad. It's also completely optional, as you may download your data to iBank for free, as always, via direct connect and web downloads. Read more about Direct Access here: http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibankforipad/direct_access.php

 

[iMerik]

There are no fees required to use iBank 5, and your purchase includes free support and all 5.x updates at no cost.

What you're asking about is a subscription service called Direct Access, which provides an advanced means of updating account data from over 10,000 financial institutions worldwide. It's exclusive to iBank, and a subscription can be shared with your copy of iBank for iPad. It's also completely optional, as you may download your data to iBank for free, as always, via direct connect and web downloads. Read more about Direct Access here: http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibankforipad/direct_access.php

I apologize for the rest of the community that you continually have to reanswer this question over and over when people don't take the minimal time to read.

I would love it if you had the time to instead come here and do more in-depth comparisons and contrasts of iBank versus the other competitors like the newly released Moneydance 2014 and the new Quicken for Mac beta that is supposed to reach external testing phase this month.


Quicken Tamara posted in this thread:

Actually, we're prepping for Beta of the new Mac product to begin in January. If you're interested in testing, taking surveys, getting a preview of the product, then go to https://externaltesting.intuit.com and create your User ID. I'll be recruiting from all sign-ups on our external site.

 

[Deputydog2003]

Beware, no phone support under any circumstance!

IGG Software company (iBank for Mac, iPad, and iPhone), will not speak to their customers on the telephone under any circumstances. I just had a problem with the Mac version, where bill pay stopped working with my bank. My bank would only support Quicken, so I contacted IGG tech support by their only method... "chat". They couldn't resolve my issue after an hour of chatting. I also took the time to send them logs and screen shots of my problem at their request. They said they would get back to me after their lead developer looked at my problem. They never emailed me back. I waited three days and then I contacted THEM again by "chat", and a new representative wanted to start over with me by chatting again. I asked him if he would call me, but he refused, and then he got a "supervisor" to "chat" with me, who also wanted to start over with me by "chatting". Again, I requested a phone call. She refused. Even after giving her the ultimatum to either call me, or to refund my money and I would go back to Quicken, (who offers phone support), the supervisor chose to refund my money, rather than having any desire whatsoever to resolve my issue with a simple phone call. I would never have believed this, if I hadn't just experience it for myself! Sadly, I think they have a nice product, and I believe it would have worked better for me with multiple devices than Quicken. However, iBank is still buggy, and without the company being willing to work with their customers by any other method then by excruciatingly slow "chatting", it is not worth my while. iBank is not cheap either. By the time you've bought it for your Mac, your iPad, and your iPhone, as I had, you're up to $85.00! I simply can't do business with a software company that won't "talk" to its customers. I don't recommend that you do either.

 

[iMerik]

IGG Software company (iBank for Mac, iPad, and iPhone), will not speak to their customers on the telephone under any circumstances. I just had a problem with the Mac version, where bill pay stopped working with my bank. My bank would only support Quicken, so I contacted IGG tech support by their only method... "chat". They couldn't resolve my issue after an hour of chatting. I also took the time to send them logs and screen shots of my problem at their request. They said they would get back to me after their lead developer looked at my problem. They never emailed me back. I waited three days and then I contacted THEM again by "chat", and a new representative wanted to start over with me by chatting again. I asked him if he would call me, but he refused, and then he got a "supervisor" to "chat" with me, who also wanted to start over with me by "chatting". Again, I requested a phone call. She refused. Even after giving her the ultimatum to either call me, or to refund my money and I would go back to Quicken, (who offers phone support), the supervisor chose to refund my money, rather than having any desire whatsoever to resolve my issue with a simple phone call. I would never have believed this, if I hadn't just experience it for myself! Sadly, I think they have a nice product, and I believe it would have worked better for me with multiple devices than Quicken. However, iBank is still buggy, and without the company being willing to work with their customers by any other method then by excruciatingly slow "chatting", it is not worth my while. iBank is not cheap either. By the time you've bought it for your Mac, your iPad, and your iPhone, as I had, you're up to $85.00! I simply can't do business with a software company that won't "talk" to its customers. I don't recommend that you do either.

Interesting. I wonder what iggypop has to say about that. I'll probably start by upgrading my Moneydance 2011 to 2013 and see if I like it enough to stick with it.

 

[24hrpizza]

looks cool! wish one day i would have that much money to keep track of. wah wah wahhhhh

 

[Jessica Lares]

looks cool! wish one day i would have that much money to keep track of. wah wah wahhhhh

Do it anyway, hahaha. No seriously, knowing where your money goes is important, no matter how little of it you have. It tells you exactly where it's going, and you'll be able to decide whether you should cut something out or not.

 

[sampson grey]

Ibank and Neat Receipts...help?!

Hello..first time here so please excuse any lack of protocol!
I have Ibank 5 and I just purchased NeatReceipts...from what i
gather it is supposed to be quite easy to drag a pdf copy of a scanned
receipt right into ibank 5 and voila...all the info is imported.

Sadly, i can't get it to work at all! I was hoping someone here might
have some advice?
thank you!!
happy friday

 

[iggypop]

I have Ibank 5 and I just purchased NeatReceipts...from what i
gather it is supposed to be quite easy to drag a PDF copy of a scanned
receipt right into iBank 5... I was hoping someone here might
have some advice?
happy friday

This is from the iBank 5 Help files:

Does iBank integrate with NeatReceipts?

Yes, if you drag and drop a NeatReceipts PDF file onto an account icon in the iBank source list, or onto an open account register, iBank will automatically create a new transaction for that item in the selected account. The appropriate date, payee, category, and amount will be assigned to the transaction, and a copy of the receipt will be attached to it.

If you're having trouble with that, you should contact IGG Software support via Live Chat.

 

[janitor1999]

Problem I had with ibank 4 was to sync all idevices, I needed access to my mac, so if I was away from home I could not sync my pad and phone, also scheduled transactions can only be used from the iMac, not the mobile apps, so ibank 5 has nothing new, I will continue to use 4 along with money wiz.

 

[iggypop]

Problem I had with ibank 4 was to sync all idevices, I needed access to my mac, so if I was away from home I could not sync my pad and phone, also scheduled transactions can only be used from the iMac, not the mobile apps, so ibank 5 has nothing new, I will continue to use 4 along with money wiz.

A few misperceptions here:

1) you can sync your devices remotely if you've set up a webDAV server, such as with cloudsafe.com - only wi-fi sync needs to be done locally

2) scheduled transactions are more robust in iBank 5 and do sync to the iPad

3) iBank 5 in fact has much more that is new, which is what made it a paid upgrade. see the article at the top of this thread, or review additional info about iBank 5 at our site.

thanks!

 

[janitor1999]

Although I use WebDAV through cloudsafe I still cannot get items entered on my ipad or phone to sync, until I return to my mac and sync that, then I can sync it to my other mobile device. I could enter each transaction on both devices, but this isn't the point, what I do on one device should be synced with all devices, that is the point of the software, but at the moment it doesn't.

 

[Stu Pidasl]

Pocketsmith??

I just found out about pocketsmith today. Although it is a subscription based online personal finance manager, I am easily able to justify costs and would happily pay for a quality solution. Does anyone have experience with this solution?

I love that it has advanced forecasting abilities! I spend 95% of my time looking to the future to see how what I do today, or this month, effects me further down the road. Only 5% of my time is spent looking at past spending, if that.

Similar to getting tired of dealing with the windows/pc world and deciding to switch to Macs, I am tired of living in Quicken for PC, am not very impressed with iBank 5 or any of the other OS X based offering, and feel that Mint doesn't quite fit the bill either. Also, I currently spend way too much time managing my finances and entering transaction and separately managing forecasting spreadsheets to get the information I need.

I want my life back, but also want to continue to manage my finances proactively. Any feedback on pocketsmith or other online based finance softwares is appreciated...