Press Releases

Despite improvements in technology - or perhaps because of them - many Americans still struggle with the monthly task of paying bills. A wider variety of choices to both receive and pay bills has made it difficult to track and manage the process. The result: missed payments and late fees.

Quicken 2005 Solves Tracking and Payment Problems
Today's consumers often face a dizzying array of bill-paying options. First, there are more ways to receive bill reminders, from standard mail to electronic bills to e-mail. And there are more options available to pay bills. The 2004 Quicken Financial Management Study found that almost two-thirds of Americans now pay bills in multiple ways, including by check, credit card, online payment through biller and financial Web sites, and automatic deductions from checking accounts.

Quicken 2005 balances the equation.
The new Monthly Bills and Scheduled Transactions Snapshot helps customers to easily schedule, pay, and track all monthly bills in one place - no matter what method they used to pay their bills.

The Financial Management Study also showed that knowing there is enough money to cover upcoming bills is Americans' primary bill-paying concern. It is also the main factor in having confidence in their financial management.

Quicken 2005 gives users this confidence by enabling them to schedule both monthly and non-monthly bills and deposits in Quicken to accurately forecast their cash balance for the month. This provides the peace of mind of knowing that there is money available to cover upcoming expenses.

"People are trading control for convenience when it comes to paying bills," said Peter Karpas, vice president and general manager, Quicken Personal Finance Group. "Quicken eliminates the need for that trade-off by giving users both control and convenience. Through our complete bill payment solution, customers can schedule their deposits, view and pay all of their bills in one place - something most financial Web sites and online biller solutions can't do."

Quicken 2005 Built For Customers, By Customers
Quicken's success has been built on listening to customers and improving the product to meet their ever-changing needs. Over the past year, the Quicken team reviewed more than 30,000 suggestions from customers. The result is an "all request" version of Quicken with more than 100 improvements based directly on customer feedback. Some new and improved features in Quicken 2005 allow users to:

• Customize downloaded transactions. Now, when a customer assigns a new payee name to a downloaded transaction, a rule is created. All future transactions that apply to that rule will be automatically renamed. Thus eliminating the need to continually retype downloads containing cryptic names and codes.
• More accurately categorize transactions. Quicken becomes faster and easier for customers to use by automatically remembering the last five categories used for a transaction.
• Better manage categories. The ability to edit, hide and merge categories gives users more control.
• Flag transactions for follow-up. New eye-catching register flags and notes enable easy follow-up.
• Sort and manage transaction information quickly. New register filters make it easier to customize the register to display only items that meet a certain criteria.
• Manage account registers faster and easier. New register options provide easy ways to multi-select, delete, undo delete, reconcile and recategorize transactions.
• Schedule transactions easier. New choices to schedule transactions make it easy to schedule exactly when a payment or deposit will hit the account.

Customers Suggest, Quicken Delivers
"While testing Quicken 2005, I thought to myself, 'This is the best yet!'" said Ann Safir, a Quicken 2005 beta tester from Weston, Mass. "It really has a lot of fabulous new features, including a couple that I suggested like the renaming feature. There are also some new features that I never thought of, like the ability to undo transactions. Occasionally I would make a mistake and be unable to get back the original transaction. Now there's a way to undo it. Quicken just keeps getting better!"

Product Availability and Pricing
Quicken 2005 will be widely available in retail stores on Aug. 11, 2004 and directly from Intuit at http://www.quicken2005.com. Suggested retail prices are:

• Quicken 2005 Basic: $29.95.
• Quicken 2005 Deluxe: $59.95.
• Quicken 2005 Premier: $79.95.
• Quicken 2005 Premier Home & Business: $89.95.

Study Reveals Americans Top Financial Concerns
The Quicken 2004 Personal Finance Study was commissioned to better understand the needs and concerns of Americans when it comes to managing their finances. It was conducted by Decipher, Inc., an independent, full-service market research firm from June 2-14, 2004. A random sample of 1,000 Americans nationwide was contacted via telephone and accessed the survey via Decipher's online system. For complete results from the study, visit: www.intuit.com/pressroom/quickenstudy