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

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.

I'd love to use an app like this but I live in the UK which, strangely enough for a global finance centre, is a barren wasteland when it comes to third-party app access to banking accounts.

I'd even consider changing banks just to get something like this.

Ynab ftw.

Direct Access: completely optional

iBank 5 has bill pay and allows for updating of all my investment accounts, stock prices, bank transactions, etc. That's great. But they charge $40 a year for updating my investment accounts.

There is no cost for updating investment accounts in iBank 5.

I anxiously awaited iBank5, but it's got absolutely no value to me if I have to pay to update my account balances.

Let's clarify: iBank 5 can download account data via OFX/direct downloads - that costs nothing (unless your bank charges you, and some do). iBank 5 can also be updated via web downloads - always at no cost and available from nearly every financial institution (including investment accounts). You can also update accounts manually.

Direct Access is a separate, exclusive, more advanced service that fetches data from over 10,000 banks worldwide, without any extra effort on the part of subscribers. It is more convenient, more accurate (capturing even pending transactions), automatic, and totally optional. You can use iBank 5 without it; finance management is even better with it. More info is here: http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibankforipad/direct_access.php

I'd love to use an app like this but I live in the UK which, strangely enough for a global finance centre, is a barren wasteland when it comes to third-party app access to banking accounts.

I'd even consider changing banks just to get something like this.

I'm writing from iBank's developer, IGG Software, so forgive any evident bias here. But I do wish to point out that, particularly with iBank 5's Direct Access subscription service, many UK banks are supported for automatic updating of transactions. You can download a trial copy of iBank from our website, and start a free 30-day trial of Direct Access as well. It may be the solution you are looking for, without switching banks.

On the subject of Direct Access, I should point out that it is not a requirement for users of iBank who are satisfied with direct downloads via OFX (or simply downloading a current transaction file from online accounts). But some banks charge for direct connections, while Direct Access streamlines, automates and even improves account updating in some cases - showing pending transactions, for example, when standard updating does not, and accessing many more banks internationally. So for some users this optional service will be worth its cost.

Also, I want to add my .02 to any questions and comparisons to both Mint and YNAB. Mint is free - not usually a bad thing - but is a limited tool for active money management (as pointed out elsewhere above). By the same token, YNAB offers good budgeting tools and dispenses good advice, but as our iBank comparison charts (linked to above by others) show objectively, YNAB does not provide for bank downloads, mortgage tracking, bill pay, check printing, tax export or investment support - etc. - while iBank 5 does. Those features are pretty essential, and hardly constitute "bloat" (as someone said), for anyone seeking full-featured money management.

In any case, we encourage people to monitor their finances, however they go about it. iBank 5 is just one solution out there, and we're happy to have interested users give it a test drive. Trial downloads and more info are at our site. http://www.iggsoftware.com/index.php

Ynab ftw.

Amen. There's nothing that tops it. It's the only finance software that I have successfully used. It's made a big, positive, difference in my financial life.

Ynab

After spending time with quicken and bank, YNAB is by far the best money management system out there. We use Quicken for mac to download transactions, and then after inputing them into YNAB, we clear them in quicken. YNAB is extremely useful with the iPhone app because it lets you know how much you have remaining in a category if you are out shopping.

I run Quicken Home & Business in Parallels because I haven't found anything even remotely close to it for managing personal finances with business finances. Fortunately my bank has a robust iOS app for iPhone and iPad so I can check balances, pay bills, deposit checks, etc. without getting my MacBook out.

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 (https://qlc.intuit.com/questions/783111-update-11-from-quicken-marcus):

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.

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.