Does Quicken still have a nag screen for expired subscriptions?

Lou_S

I know this has been discussed in the past, just wondering if Quicken has rethought their position. I have an old copy of Deluxe 2016 that I would happily convert to a modern version, but only if they dropped the policy of monopolizing a substantial amount of screen real estate should I choose to not renew. A small "subscription expired" line of text would be fine, but harassing customers who dont find their hosted services valuable isn't. I submit that they should make people want to renew vs trying to nag customers into renewing.

Quite possible I would keep subscribing, so a "nag the customer" policy has done nothing but keep me from spending money that I'm willing to spend. If they no longer have the nag screen, I will buy an update today.

Chris_QPW

Nothing has changed, if you let the subscription lapse about 25% of the window is taken up with two "ads" suggesting that you renew.

jacobs

Lou_S said:

A small "subscription expired" line of text would be fine, but harassing customers who dont find their hosted services valuable isn't. I submit that they should make people want to renew vs trying to nag customers into renewing.

I agree with you, but apparently the executive at Quicken don't. They now have more than three years of data on subscription expirations and renewals, and they clearly feel that nagging/annoying customers gets them more renewals than not.

Fundamentally, they want you to pay for Quicken while you use it. If they lose people to some other product, so be it, but they don't want to lose renewals to people still using their own product without paying to support it. 

BMax

I have been a Quicken Deluxe user for many years but their renewal policy and cost is out of line. I can go to their website and purchase a new (in box) version for $20.00 less that their renewal fee. [Removed-Disruptive]

RTramp

The ads are very annoying. Used Quicken for over 30 years. Buy desktop versions on disc every couple of years. Made the mistake of getting the 2020 version. I don't want the online subscription. I want to keep this discussion open to removing the ads if you pay for a desktop version you should be able to use it without the stupid ads.

Boatnmaniac

I understand the frustration with the ads.  A lot of people are frustrated with that.  It was even posed here as a product improvement idea to allow for the ads to be turned off but the response back from Quicken is that the ads will not be removed or turned off. 

I'm pretty sure that what they want is to gently remind people who plan to resubscribe (or be coerced into doing it) which is good marketing.  I'm also pretty sure that they also have no desire/incentive to accommodate the wishes of ex-subscribers who will not resubscribe. 

On the brighter side, after the subscription expires you do get to continue using Quicken manually (all editions except for Starter which will be read only) for as long as your operating system supports it without needing to resubscribe....even though the visual is not ideal.  That is far superior to most software companies which will simply turn off access to their software when the subscription expires.

mshiggins

@RTramp if you can find yourself a Q2016 or Q2017 version, you can use Quicken without the ads. Your subscription version data file is backward compatible with Q2016 or Q2017. 

One tip if you do revert back to Q2016 or Q2017, I recommend not allowing Quicken to access the Internet. 

garysmith87

BMax said:

I have been a Quicken Deluxe user for many years but their renewal policy and cost is out of line. I can go to their website and purchase a new (in box) version for $20.00 less that their renewal fee. [Removed-Disruptive]

Make sure the "new in box" version isn't labelled NEW USERS ONLY.  Because you won't be able to extend your subscription using that version.  

Greg_the_Geek

Just create a new Quicken ID and you're a new user.

jacobs

I am assuming @RTamp is using Quicken Windows, but for anyone reading this thread who is on the Mac, I wanted to note that, unlike on Windows, you can't go from subscription Quicken Mac back to Quicken Mac 2017, because the database has been changed many times in the interim. Quicken Mac 2017 won't open a 2020 subscription database. 

@RTramp I also understand the frustration with the ads. The issue is that you want to use Quicken as you did for many years, buying a new copy every few years, but the company made the decision four years ago to change their approach to products and pricing. Prior to 2017, they had to maintain the three previous years of products with patches and updates, which was time-consuming. Prior to 2017, the developers worked throughout the year on new features or improvements, but they were held back until the next annual release so they'd have something new to promote. Prior to 2017, some users updated annually, some every two years, some every three years, and some less often than that; it made their cash flow inconsistent and hard to budget for. And, it seems, with many people buying every three years and with deep discounts to retailers, Quicken simply wasn't making enough money to support ongoing development of the products, plus paying the investors who bought them out from Intuit.

So they decided to switch to an annual subscription pricing plan. One year now costs less than the old annual product releases, but more than you would have spent buying every third year. That's intentional; they needed to bring in more revenue. But there were also some benefits for users. It allowed them to stop holding new features for a once-a-year new product release, and deploy them whenever they were ready. And by not having to deal with patching code in the three prior years of products, because every subscriber would be on the current product, they could devote more of the development team's times to bug fixes and improvements. Anyone can, of course, disagree with the subscription model, but that's been the reality for the past 4+ years.

So that brings us to the annoying ads. Quicken's original plan was that if you let your subscription lapse, Quicken would become read-only: you could still look something up or generate a report, but you'd be unable to edit transaction or enter new ones. From their standpoint, the goal was simple: the company only stays afloat if they have people paying money every year to use the products. But users complained about he read-only plan, and so Quicken came up with what they called a compromise. They would turn off data downloads but not lock the program into read-only mode when a subscription expired, so people could continue to use it manually if they needed or wanted. But to dissuade most users from taking that way out of paying the subscriptions fee, they imposed the screen-stealing ads to nag users to re-subscribe.

As noted above, there was a lot of negative outcry over this as well, but Quicken management drew the line and said the ads would remain in exchange for being able to use the software manually. For someone who just needs to open an old Quicken file to look up some financial details, this is workable. For someone who wants to continue using the software for free for a few years before paying to get the latest version, it's an annoyance. Some people live with the ads and loss of screen space, and others give in and pay the subscription fee. Since nothing has changed after four years, we can assume that Quicken has the stats to convince them they gain more in getting people to resubscribe than they do from people who walk away from Quicken entirely over this. And they are only likely to remove the ads if they determine it is costing them enough users that it is driving down their revenue.

jacobs

@BMax Longtime Quicken users were used to lower prices and buying their new versions at a discount, but that's just not the way it works any more. No matter how you look at it, they raised their prices. Yes, there are still discounts for new users, because they are trying to attract new users. But they have been slowly eliminating the ability for existing users to get the new user price. Today, from retailers, you can find some boxed copies which are marked for new users only, but there are still some which may work for existing users; it seems like they are getting those out of the market, so that the discounted copies sold at retail will only work for new users. Unless you want to start over with a new email address and new QuickenID each year to try to keep getting the new user price, you're probably going to need to pay the renewal price going forward.

When you say the price is "out of line," you need to think about whether it feels out of line based on what you're used to paying in the past, or based on what other comparable personal finance software costs. Some people may regard $50/year for Quicken as too much to pay. Others may evaluate the cost of cell phones, cable TV, streaming services, and other subscriptions and conclude that $4/month for Quicken is acceptable. Each of us has to decide what value we get from Quicken. If you believe there is a different product out there which meets your needs as well as Quicken for a lower annual cost, then you have an alternative. If you find that other products actually cost a similar amount, or lack features you find important in Quicken, then you accept the price and stop comparing to what it used to cost.