Users of Quicken 2005 started getting a rude awakening recently when attempting to download their financial data from their bank, credit, and brokerage accounts a message pops up informing them that Intuit/Quicken intends "to discontinue support for Quicken 2005" as of April. But Quicken is going further than merely "discontinuing support" - they are going to disable essential functions of the program, the ability for users to download their financial data online, effectively turning Quicken 2005 into an on screen, but not "online" checkbook register that requires every individual entry for every account be manually entered.
Quicken is not a terribly expensive program - I've been using it since roughly '92 and found it invaluable. Additionally Quicken is offering current users a $20 discount on updating, but the reality of the situation is this:
There is nothing wrong with Quicken 2005 and not one additional feature I need in Quicken 2008. Further, this intentional disabling of an entirely functional product - only 3 years old - is part of a larger blackmail of financial institutions to pay additional tens (or is it hundreds?) of thousands of dollars for the privilege of using Quicken's newer proprietary file format - since users will not be able to import the older. Qif files into Q2008.
I repeat, they're not just discontinuing support - they're DISABLING existing working products to force an otherwise unneeded upgrade on consumers and to enforce an even more expensive blackmail of financial institutions. Class act? No. Class Action? I hope so.
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