2-Factor Authentication via App

iBaum

I appreciate the services Quicken provides, but I’d like to share two areas where I believe improvements would benefit customers:

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA):
Currently, 2FA is limited to SMS, email, or phone call. These methods are increasingly considered insecure compared to authenticator apps (such as Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator, or Authy). Since Quicken is a financial company entrusted with sensitive data, I strongly encourage you to offer app-based 2FA. This shouldn’t be mandatory, but for security-conscious customers, it would provide a significantly stronger protection option.

Online Storage Fee:
The $1.99/month charge for online backup feels unnecessary. Quicken already stores customer data in the cloud as part of its operations. Allowing paying customers to use that same secure infrastructure for backup and recovery at no additional charge would demonstrate goodwill and align with industry standards.

Quicken Anja

Hello @iBaum,

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback and suggestions! We really appreciate hearing how we can improve both security and user experience for our customers.

I’ll make sure your suggestions regarding app-based 2FA and the online storage fee are noted for our teams to review. While I can’t guarantee immediate changes, feedback like yours helps guide future improvements.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts!

jacobs

The $1.99/month charge for online backup feels unnecessary.

It may feel unnecessary to you, but I'm sure the folks at Quicken feel otherwise! 😂 They spent a lot of time designing, building and testing the software, and they pay ongoing data storage costs, so at a minimum they seek to coup what it cost them to build and maintain this feature. And they likely look for ways to create add-on features which will generate additional revenue.

Quicken already stores customer data in the cloud as part of its operations.

This is not completely accurate. Some users don't enable syncing data to Quicken's cloud because of issues with syncing, but even for those who do, what's stored in the Quicken Cloud is not a complete copy of your data. It doesn't include all accounts, and it doesn't include decades of transactions — it's a subset of your data. And it doesn't include other things in your desktop data files, from settings to custom reports. In short, it's not a complete backup and shouldn't be viewed as such. (And currently, there is no way to create a new desktop file from data stored in Quicken Cloud in the event your desktop file is corrupted or lost, although it's possible they could build the code to allow that in the future.)

Chris_QPW

Personally, I don't get why anyone would want Quicken backup. It is like people believe that the only valuable data they have on their machines is the Quicken data file. Anyone that is doing a proper backup of their data would have their Quicken data file backed up with the same method.

But there are people that obviously use it, and as @jacobs said, Quicken Inc obviously spent a lot of effort to create this feature for the people that asked for it, and there are ongoing costs associated with it.

jacobs

Personally, I don't get why anyone would want Quicken backup. It is like people believe that the only valuable data they have on their machines is the Quicken data file.

@Chris_QPW I agree. Why pay for a service to back up just your Quicken data instead of paying for a service to back up ALL your data (documents, pictures, music, etc.)?

But not everyone has local and/or cloud backup services on their computers. I think Quicken Support found they were constantly encountering upset users who had lost everything because a computer died and there were no backups, as well as very non-technical users who had trouble restoring a locally-saved Quicken backup file Quicken produced. I think Quicken's Online Backup was built mostly for less tech-savvy users who would appreciate a two-click process to restore a Quicken data file. (And, as a way to generate some incremental revenue.)