From: "rob." 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: Re: Would anyone recommend Microsoft Money?
Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 20:21:10 +0100

NC wrote:
> well... I'm going to fight the tide here!
> I've been using it for some years now - started with money 2003, and
> now use 2004 (reviews say there's no real point going up to 2005 as
> the changes are very minor).
> As to using it - depends on what you want / expect it to do.
> I am currently paying off a couple of credit card debts (almost
> there!) and as a result run a very tight ship. The best thing about
> the software is the ability to track regular payments - these are set
> up once in the 'Bills and payments' section and allow you track you
> projected weekly/monthly etc spending according to their schedule
> (very flexible, bills/deposits can be set to
> daily/weekly/bi-weekly/monthly etc etc). Therefore, start of the
> month our two salaries go in, I then work for the rest of the month
> on the final account balance for the month given to me by Money (if
> that makes sense ?!) rather than whats actually in the bank. For the
> last few years I have NEVER been caught out by a bill, or ran out of
> money at the end of the month. This allows me to pay down the maximum
> I possible can on the debts at the start of month, taking into
> account everything else that has to be paid out later in the month.
>
> I also use a few other features - reports on spending catagories etc,
> but none of the advanced bits like tracking investments / mortgages /
> tax etc.
>
> YMMV with Money depending on your bank. Natwest used to allowed me to
> download transactions from their online banking; however I moved to
> cahoot and they do not. As a result, I spend about 2 mins a couple of
> mornings a week entering transactions. Sounds a pain, and takes
> getting used to, but I dont see it as a problem now.
>
> At the end of the day, earlier versions of MS Money go for pennies -
> pick one up and see what you think...

A trial version is available from the MS web site, however I think this is
only for the 2005 version. 2004 seems to be better.

Note if you create a file with the 2005 trial you will have trouble getting
the data into an earlier version, also if you get the USA trial the file
will not work with the UK version.

Various banks allow downloads from their online banking pages that Money can
load and process.  Nationwide allows you to use Money to download all your
statements directly, without going to the site.

For any other questions you might want to try  the microsoft.public.uk.money
newsgroup.