Intuit Deactivates Older Versions of Quicken

The bank I work for signed up with Intuit this year to enable downloads using the new OFX-compliant format that they have created for Quicken. The new format comes with some nice features for users, including automatic duplicate resolution. The older QIF format forced the user to find and eliminate dupes. I also noticed that this new OFX-complaint format sent version information to Quicken each time a download was initiated, and wondered why. Well, now we all know.

Norvy sez, "I bought Quicken 2002 when it was the current version. I received a letter in the mail this week telling me that Intuit will be disabling the online bill pay feature for my version because it's too old! I'm really dissapointed because these transactions pass through my bank, not Intuit, so they shouldn't have any real interest in terminating my service, other than to sell more software. When I bought this software I didn't expect a product whose license would expire and force me to buy a new one three years later. Intuit has lost a customer on this one."

To be fair, here is Intuit's official notice from their website.



Personally, this leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Unless they can show that the older versions are a "clear and present danger" through inadequate security, there is no excuse for deactivating a contract between a user and their bank. But it is what you get when you sign up with Intuit. Now we know. And between this and last year's TurboTax activation debacle, I think this shows that there is plenty of room for a competent competitor to beat Intuit at their own game.