Issues with Personal Capital

[Weisass]

Anyone else having issues with Personal Capital not uploading information correctly? Their site has failed to upload my spending on my USAA account for the last six months, and there is no sign of it being dealt with, and it won't upload my HYSA at Discover, either.

[Michael in ABQ]

Anyone else having issues with Personal Capital not uploading information correctly? Their site has failed to upload my spending on my USAA account for the last six months, and there is no sign of it being dealt with, and it won't upload my HYSA at Discover, either.

Yep, my USAA accounts show as last being updated in October. They did finally fix the issue with the Thrift Savings Plan for dual accounts - albeit it took a year or so.

Also, I feel like half my transactions are now categorized automatically as ATM/Cash. Personal Capital (or the data source which I think is Yodlee) does not appear to have any programming to recognized that if the payee has the word "power" or "electricity" in the name it should be categorized as utility. Or if I've gone in and changed something 20 times to the correct category it doesn't learn that and do it in the future - or allow you to setup any automatic rules.

[Weisass]

Anyone else having issues with Personal Capital not uploading information correctly? Their site has failed to upload my spending on my USAA account for the last six months, and there is no sign of it being dealt with, and it won't upload my HYSA at Discover, either.

Yep, my USAA accounts show as last being updated in October. They did finally fix the issue with the Thrift Savings Plan for dual accounts - albeit it took a year or so.

Also, I feel like half my transactions are now categorized automatically as ATM/Cash. Personal Capital (or the data source which I think is Yodlee) does not appear to have any programming to recognized that if the payee has the word "power" or "electricity" in the name it should be categorized as utility. Or if I've gone in and changed something 20 times to the correct category it doesn't learn that and do it in the future - or allow you to setup any automatic rules.

I had noticed in the past that the categorization automation seemed to rely mostly on how I had previously categorized purchases. So the more time I put in checking things and recategorizing, the better it got.

It is really frustrating that they haven't fixed this problem with USAA. I really liked the program before then.

[eyesonthehorizon]

I haven't had to try in over a year, maybe two, but every time something broke & I reported it, I got a reply & a fix within a week, which was really impressive to me for a free service. Have you reached their support?

[Weisass]

I haven't had to try in over a year, maybe two, but every time something broke & I reported it, I got a reply & a fix within a week, which was really impressive to me for a free service. Have you reached their support?

I have reached out. Thanks.

[eyesonthehorizon]

Let us know how it goes!

[Weisass]

Let us know how it goes!

No fix so far.

[maisymouser]

They also stopped being able to work with PenFed. Major bummer for me because I used their credit card for 2% cash back for all of my transactions.

[Extramedium]

I’ve had problems with USAA and our Target RedCard, and a few other accounts, for over a year. Imperfect, but still useful.

One thing I’ve noticed lately is that the “Investment” category total doesn’t seem to be constant from one day to the next. Whatever the total is at the end of the day on a Tuesday is a little different (less, usually) if I look back at it on the Wednesday or later. I don’t know which is more accurate, and why it would change.

I realize that it’s only a thumbnail sketch of a moment, but am confused by the inconsistency.

[eyesonthehorizon]

I’ve had problems with USAA and our Target RedCard, and a few other accounts, for over a year. Imperfect, but still useful.

One thing I’ve noticed lately is that the “Investment” category total doesn’t seem to be constant from one day to the next. Whatever the total is at the end of the day on a Tuesday is a little different (less, usually) if I look back at it on the Wednesday or later. I don’t know which is more accurate, and why it would change.

I realize that it’s only a thumbnail sketch of a moment, but am confused by the inconsistency.

It might be drawing from aftermarket prices on the investment accounts in the evening, then reverting to price at close thereafter. Unless you have mutual funds, in which case, no idea.

Weisass, did they at least reply to you?

[Weisass]

Weisass, did they at least reply to you?

They did. Boilerplate “we are working on it” but no movement since august of 2022, so color me skeptical.

[LightStache]

Yep I noticed this middle of 2022. From PC:

https://support.personalcapital.com/hc/en-us/articles/10820424780823-USAA-No-Longer-Supported

[joemandadman189]

I am having issues with my mortgage being pulled in correctly, as in the reported balance is wrong and not updating

anyone else see they are doing away with the personal capital name and using empower exclusively in just a few days

[cool7hand]

We always had issued with P Capital uploading external data. It's a secondary reason for why we stopped using it.

[CatamaranSailor]

I quit using Personal Capital because they called me more than my family, friends, scammers, and job combined.

[FLBiker]

Here's a tip -- if you tell Personal Capital you no longer live in the US they'll stop calling you (but you can keep using the service).

[Michael in ABQ]

I quit using Personal Capital because they called me more than my family, friends, scammers, and job combined.

I get emails from them trying to sell me advising services, but I don't think I ever got any phone calls. Maybe since 99% of my investments are in retirement accounts, they figured I wasn't a good enough sales lead to constantly call.

[eyesonthehorizon]

Well, they just dismantled the original Personal Capital branding in favor of Empower, who I just learned acquired them in 2020. I've had experience with Empower & wasn't impressed, so maybe the service is aligning along with the parent company. Bummer.

[Weisass]

I will be honest, I’m gearing up to likely shift to a different app. Maybe mint.

[snic]

Well, they just dismantled the original Personal Capital branding in favor of Empower, who I just learned acquired them in 2020. I've had experience with Empower & wasn't impressed, so maybe the service is aligning along with the parent company. Bummer.

Do you mind sharing those experiences with Empower?

[eyesonthehorizon]

Mint is decent for cash management but PC did far better with analysis of investments.

Do you mind sharing those experiences with Empower?

This was years ago in a corporate setting, but the young-sounding phone personnel knew less about retirement accounts than I did (hadn't heard of nondeductible contributions), their website offered plenty of clunky graphical presentations of "calculators" with few actual parameters to adjust, the investment offerings had higher expense ratios than I approved of. Nothing egregious, the "offerings" just felt like second-rate marketing fluff without substance. The new navigation bar on Personal Capital while still functional feels inelegant in a familiar way.

[Extramedium]

Mint is decent for cash management but PC did far better with analysis of investments.

I agree; it's how I track my investments more than my cash flow.  It's also satisfying to see the mortgage diminish.

[Weisass]

Mint is decent for cash management but PC did far better with analysis of investments.

I agree; it's how I track my investments more than my cash flow.  It's also satisfying to see the mortgage diminish.

So so yall have any other alternative options to PC, assuming it won’t improve?

[snic]

So so yall have any other alternative options to PC, assuming it won’t improve?

The old fashioned way - a spreadsheet!

PC usually fixes updating issues eventually. It just takes time.

[Weisass]

So so yall have any other alternative options to PC, assuming it won’t improve?

The old fashioned way - a spreadsheet!

PC usually fixes updating issues eventually. It just takes time.

😝 I do have that, but it’s not as pretty to look at!

[eyesonthehorizon]

I'd be curious what different brokerages offer in terms of visualization. I always wondered why their tools (that I've seen) tend toward such bare bones in terms of portfolio review.

[snic]

I'd be curious what different brokerages offer in terms of visualization. I always wondered why their tools (that I've seen) tend toward such bare bones in terms of portfolio review.

That's like asking "why can't every tech company make an iPhone?" It takes a LOT of expertise and expense to devise a good, informative, user interface. The company has to believe it's worth it. PC's whole business model is to make people's financial information easy to see (so that they can then convince you to become a paying client). Other brokerages have different models. And I suspect that in some cases they prefer the information to be opaque so that their clients have to contact their adviser anytime they want to know what's going on. Every contact like that is another opportunity to make money off the client in some way, right?

[eyesonthehorizon]

I'd be curious what different brokerages offer in terms of visualization. I always wondered why their tools (that I've seen) tend toward such bare bones in terms of portfolio review.

That's like asking "why can't every tech company make an iPhone?" It takes a LOT of expertise and expense to devise a good, informative, user interface. The company has to believe it's worth it. PC's whole business model is to make people's financial information easy to see (so that they can then convince you to become a paying client). Other brokerages have different models. And I suspect that in some cases they prefer the information to be opaque so that their clients have to contact their adviser anytime they want to know what's going on. Every contact like that is another opportunity to make money off the client in some way, right?

Honestly the tools aren't hard to make. I worry it's that latter possibility. Why empower people when you can squeeze more revenue by leaving them in the dark?

PC didn't have an advisory service back when I signed up. That came along years later. The tools were built in the same venture capital way a lot of tech tools are - build something cool, establish a large userbase, with the hopes of cashing out later by monetizing or selling it. They eventually did both, first attaching an advisory service, then selling to Empower.

I have seen that happen before & the free services were eventually all drawn down or restricted to paying customers only. I won't be terribly surprised if PC goes that way, but I suspect the cost of offering a free service is worth the revenue it generates as advertising to them. Mint does similar, monetizes by advertising referrals to financial services & credit cards with targeted marketing which can leverage the huge amount of data they have about their users.

[Michael in ABQ]

I'd be curious what different brokerages offer in terms of visualization. I always wondered why their tools (that I've seen) tend toward such bare bones in terms of portfolio review.

That's like asking "why can't every tech company make an iPhone?" It takes a LOT of expertise and expense to devise a good, informative, user interface. The company has to believe it's worth it. PC's whole business model is to make people's financial information easy to see (so that they can then convince you to become a paying client). Other brokerages have different models. And I suspect that in some cases they prefer the information to be opaque so that their clients have to contact their adviser anytime they want to know what's going on. Every contact like that is another opportunity to make money off the client in some way, right?

Honestly the tools aren't hard to make. I worry it's that latter possibility. Why empower people when you can squeeze more revenue by leaving them in the dark?

PC didn't have an advisory service back when I signed up. That came along years later. The tools were built in the same venture capital way a lot of tech tools are - build something cool, establish a large userbase, with the hopes of cashing out later by monetizing or selling it. They eventually did both, first attaching an advisory service, then selling to Empower.

I have seen that happen before & the free services were eventually all drawn down or restricted to paying customers only. I won't be terribly surprised if PC goes that way, but I suspect the cost of offering a free service is worth the revenue it generates as advertising to them. Mint does similar, monetizes by advertising referrals to financial services & credit cards with targeted marketing which can leverage the huge amount of data they have about their users.

I'll never give PC/Empower a dime, but it is useful to see all/most of my accounts in one place. At this point I've got years of history - albeit with adding and closing some accounts plus some large movements of cash from investments into a business (not tracked) it's not as accurate as it could be. There's definitely a switching cost at this point so unless it gets to the point where they're forcing me to pay for that aggregation of accounts or more keep breaking (i.e. USAA) I'll stick around.