Microsoft Money is headed for the grave.
The personal finance software, one of the big two desktop programs (along with Quicken), is being discontinued for sale at the end of this month.
The reason? Banks and other online services are doing the job, according to a posting on Microsoft’s Money site.
With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options for managing personal finances, the consumer need for Microsoft Money Plus has changed. After suspending annual updates of Money Plus in 2008, Microsoft is announcing today that we will no longer offer Microsoft Money Plus for purchase after June 30, 2009.
We would like to thank the many dedicated users who have been enthusiastic supporters of Microsoft Money over the years, as well as our partner financial institutions who helped pioneer a digital vision of financial management.
Current Money users will still be able to use the software and automatically download banking information, at least until January 2011. At that point, says CNET, the back-end support will stop and transactions will have to be downloaded manually.
I never used Money, but tried Quicken once. The fact that I had to pay to access my transactions and other banking information made no sense, especially with account aggregators and enhanced online banking services.
Given Microsoft’s propensity to lag behind on online products, it wouldn’t be totally shocking to see them develop a Web-based Money service or account aggregator. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Update: The Mint blog has a post welcoming former Money users to the site.
