Canadian Finance Blog

Posted: 26 Jul 2010 02:00 AM PDT

Back in September I wrote about how it was expected that Mint.com was coming to Canada in early 2010. Then a week later it was announced that Intuit was buying Mint. This led to more speculation on whether Canadian banks were still in the cards and if so, when would it happen?

Well now we can see that Mint has made some major improvements towards full access for Canadians!

What has been added to Mint.com

Mint has made lots of progress in what is probably the most technical aspect to adding Canadian support; getting our banks working with their site.

4 of the “Big Five” Canadian banks. You’ll find Royal Bank, TD Canada Trust, CIBC, and Bank of Montreal (including BOM InvestorLine).
Scotiabank does not seem to be available, though their Scotiabank Brokerage and Scotia iTrade are both up and running.
Smaller institutions like President’s Choice Financial, HSBC and the MBNA credit cards.

What Mint still needs to do

Aaron Patzer, the Founder & CEO of Mint, sent me an email to point out a few things that they are still working on before the official Canadian launch.

Canadian categories
spelling “cheque” correctly
TSX symbols
Tips for saving with Canadian accounts, not 401ks and 529s.

I’ve noticed a few things too that I am hoping will be in place in time for the official launch.

You need to enter a zip code to sign up. I used one in Montana since it’s close to Alberta, but when in doubt, for a real zip code, there’s always 90210!
My RRSP with Royal Bank is showing up as a credit card. It does show as a positive amount though, not a negative, so the net worth is calculated correctly. Unless I missed it, an option to recategorize this to Investments would be an easy fix.
My TD e-Series RRSP does show up correctly under Investments, but it shows the price paid and market value as the same amount, which unfortunately is not the case.
No way to enter a postal code to track the value of your home. There is an option for a manual price entry, but it would be interesting to see a moving value and it’s effect on my net worth.
Credit cards from retailers like Sobeys and Canadian Tire.
Not sure if this is a Canadian issue, but my credit card shows the correct balance and credit limit, but the available credit calculates as if I had a credit limit of $0. This sets of a warning message that I am over my credit limit.

While there is still some work to be done, I’d suggest you head over to Mint.com and check out what’s available right now. From what I’ve seen so far, Mint is a great free service for budgeting and tracking your expenses.

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Monday, July 26, 2010