I joined mint.com today! Yay!
I got our Visa account connected (the card we use for everything that's not Costco or Target), and our Target card. I haven't done the Amex because it's in flux (changing from one Costco Amex to a different one with better rewards). Once we get the new card up and running, I'll add it in too.
And then I got to the part where I'd add in the bank account. The place where a lot of my money lives. And it wants both username and password, and maybe I should have had that burst of panic over putting in those items for the credit cards, but somehow it's the bank that's really giving me pause.
We do the vast majority of our life transactions with the three cards: Visa, Target, Amex. But things like the electric bill, auto insurance, life insurance, taxes (estimated and year-end), and the kid's tuition come straight out of the checking account, so they're not included in the handy-dandy breakdown I was able to pull up.
In fact, now that I think about it, the electric bill is one of the few regular monthly bills I pay directly from the checking account; the other regular bills are the three cards. Hmmm... I wonder if I could do auto pay on the Visa for the electric bill too???
We have an HSA account for the first time this year, so medical expenses are also not included in that. I'm barely dealing with the NEW NEW NEWNESS of that without trying to connect it to Mint.com!
If I am trying to get a sense of spending by category, do I *need* to connect my bank account? Am I just a total wuss? Am I missing out on true value by only looking at part of the picture? Or because that's where most of our discretionary spending is, it's okay to do the cards but keep the checking account out of it?