Nordstrom and Mint.com relationship ends

[ame]

I am an avid Mint.com user and love it. Lately I have noticed a lot of financial institutions are severing relationships with the service. Discover did for a short time, and their cardholders revolted in such a way that it was extremely short-lived. My credit union did as well, and again, the members revolted and the credit union tried to install their own version of something similar, and the members again revolted. So they opened the path back up again. The latest is Nordstrom. I noticed it about 4 months ago, and when I called Nordstrom about it, they said it was a "security measure". I commented to the agent that I found that ironic since I found that Mint was far more secure than I found the Nordstrom credit site to be. Yesterday I received an email from Nordstrom with the following message:

Dear Customer, Thank you for being a valued Nordstrom
> cardholder. Based on your status as a Mint.com user, we wanted to inform
> you of a recent change in our practices. Effective November 15, 2012,
> Nordstrom Bank made the decision to terminate Mint.com’s ability to access
> your account as we explore a variety of options for online financial
> management services. While Mint.com will no longer have access to your
> account, you are still able to manage your account information through
> nordstromcard.com. If you have any questions about your account, or the
> decision to terminate Mint.com’s ability to access your account, please
> contact us at the number on the back of your card. Our Customer Service
> Specialists are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please do not
> reply to this automatically generated e-mail message. Sincerely, Nordstrom
> Bank

I immediately emailed customer service with the text quoted, and told them how I thought of them as the epitome of customer service, and this change knocks that down a little, especially when paired with the recent downgrades to their "rewards" program for cardholders requiring you spend even more money to earn rewards, and the disappointing selections at Anniversary of late coupled with the quality issues of some of the higher end merch in that sale....that it's changing how I feel about them and their formerly exemplary service standard.

Making me have to log in to the site to check my balance is an extra step that I don't want to take, and when I know I have a zero balance, I am inclined to keep it as such and use a card with better rewards in the store instead, one I can use on Mint.com.

I got two emails within 5 minutes, one from a rep, one from someone with a manager of credit services in her signature, both claiming to send my message up the chain for review, and that they take customer feedback very seriously.

I really hope that especially the mint feedback is heavy, and that enough people complain.

 

[amc80]

What is mint.com?

 

[ame]

It's an online aggregator for financial stuff. Kind of a budgeting tool.

 

[rubybeth]

What is mint.com?

It is a totally awesome budgeting/financial goal site and I use it every.single.day. I have used it for years, even prior to getting married when I had fewer accounts, and it was (and is) an excellent way to see your overall financial picture. Now that DH and I have some shared accounts and more retirement accounts and investments, it's even more handy to see what's going on.

Ame, that's a big bummer about Nordstrom severing ties with Mint. I have dealt with that with my Old Navy Visa card for years. For a while, it just didn't work sporadically, but they 'closed' the issues since it seems ON does not want to deal with Mint. It's a bummer because that is the card we use most often because the rewards are sweet. I just make it a habit to check in on Mint.com and Old Navy a couple times a week. My student loan servicer also does not work with Mint, so I am manually entering that debt offset so I can see our overall net worth change each month after we make our payments. I am kind of obsessive about our personal finances.

 

[ame]

What is mint.com?

It is a totally awesome budgeting/financial goal site and I use it every.single.day. I have used it for years, even prior to getting married when I had fewer accounts, and it was (and is) an excellent way to see your overall financial picture. Now that DH and I have some shared accounts and more retirement accounts and investments, it's even more handy to see what's going on.

Ame, that's a big bummer about Nordstrom severing ties with Mint. I have dealt with that with my Old Navy Visa card for years. For a while, it just didn't work sporadically, but they 'closed' the issues since it seems ON does not want to deal with Mint. It's a bummer because that is the card we use most often because the rewards are sweet. I just make it a habit to check in on Mint.com and Old Navy a couple times a week. My student loan servicer also does not work with Mint, so I am manually entering that debt offset so I can see our overall net worth change each month after we make our payments. I am kind of obsessive about our personal finances.

I am too, I just refuse to use any card that won't work with Mint. So hopefully everything we still have continues to work with mint so I can continue to use them, since Mint wins.

 

[AmeliaG]

I just got mint.com. I have to start using it.

 

[iheartscience]

Wow, I had no idea credit cards were doing this. I guess I've been lucky because every account I have works with mint.com, even the credit union. I would absolutely ditch a card if it wouldn't work with mint.com. I am a HUGE fan and have been using mint.com for at least 3 years-one of the few things I got on board with early!

 

[pandabee]

Interesting. Wonder why companies would be severing their relationship with mint.com? I've only used it for over a year but I absolutely love it. I only have cc through my bank though, so there isn't a problem with either of those.

 

[missy]

I love mint.com too and would not want to use any card that wouldn't connect with mint. That would just take too much effort. We check into mint several times a day. No desire to do that with separate accounts.

 

[ame]

Interesting. Wonder why companies would be severing their relationship with mint.com? I've only used it for over a year but I absolutely love it. I only have cc through my bank though, so there isn't a problem with either of those.

They claim it is "security". DH said "I have a feeling it's all money, either mint wants them to pay for that accessibility or the banks that control these cards think that they'll get more out of you if you can't use mint and are forced to go to their sites". Well..ill just not use the card.

 

[luv2sparkle]

I have never heard of Mint.com, Ame! Thanks for posting this. I don't understand how it works with retailers yet, but I can't wait to show this to my hubby when he gets home this morning. He is going to love it. It is right up his budgeting/tracking little heart. Thanks.

 

[distracts]

I LOVE MINT.

I don't have Nordstrom card but just thought I would fangirl about Mint a little. I use it on the ipad but I should really see what they have on the website. It's soooooooo much easier to keep track of everything from one centralized place. My fiance has used it for a really long time and he introduced me to it when we started combining finances (we're in a semi-combined state right now). I really like the pie charts and graphs.

 

[Rosebloom]

What is mint.com?

It is a totally awesome budgeting/financial goal site and I use it every.single.day. I have used it for years, even prior to getting married when I had fewer accounts, and it was (and is) an excellent way to see your overall financial picture. Now that DH and I have some shared accounts and more retirement accounts and investments, it's even more handy to see what's going on.

Ame, that's a big bummer about Nordstrom severing ties with Mint. I have dealt with that with my Old Navy Visa card for years. For a while, it just didn't work sporadically, but they 'closed' the issues since it seems ON does not want to deal with Mint. It's a bummer because that is the card we use most often because the rewards are sweet. I just make it a habit to check in on Mint.com and Old Navy a couple times a week. My student loan servicer also does not work with Mint, so I am manually entering that debt offset so I can see our overall net worth change each month after we make our payments. I am kind of obsessive about our personal finances.

I could have written this verbatim. Ditto everything!

 

[rubybeth]

I LOVE MINT.

I don't have Nordstrom card but just thought I would fangirl about Mint a little. I use it on the ipad but I should really see what they have on the website. It's soooooooo much easier to keep track of everything from one centralized place. My fiance has used it for a really long time and he introduced me to it when we started combining finances (we're in a semi-combined state right now). I really like the pie charts and graphs.

YES, you totally need to login on a computer and see everything it can do. Not all of the features work in the app versions (I have the Android version on my phone and the iPad app). I like watching our investments grow and our debt shrink. I also like that you can't actually *do* anything with the money with it. For those who haven't used it, you simply give Mint.com your login/password info. and it downloads your transactions and account balances, but you cannot transfer funds, pay bills, or actually edit any account information, so it is very secure. Even if someone got your Mint.com login or stole your phone, they could not do a thing with your money.