Others say...

"Just a way to charge for doing nothing"
I am in the same boat as others. MS stopped online access for the older product. I do not think this was made know when I got my copy of 2004. I do not see that they have improved anything for the money they want for the newer version. I had something similar with Quick Books. The last update release for the version I had, made it stop working with IE 7. When removed and reinstalled it worked with IE 7, then I downloaded the updates and it quit working again. So for a 2nd time I wiped it out and reloaded from the CDs. This time I did not download the updates and it continued to use it for another 18 months. MS is using the same sort of tactic here. I'd like to know how much new code there is in the 2008 release. It is time for a good open source version of this software. Where developers have no incentive to create obselence without a meaningful improvement. This really annoys me. Maybe MS is trying to soak us to find the money to pay all those EU fines. They used to give MS Money away when you bought Tax-Cut. I guess not anymore.

"Product activation problems"
I was a pretty happy Money 2004 user and decided to upgrade to Money Plus Deluxe for my new Vista Ultimate (32-bit) PC and have had trouble since. I have had to contact customer service via e-mail twice regarding product activation issues. Phone support has banker's hours and is also toll call, so I avoided this option.

The first issue occurred when I tried to enter the product activation key. There are a number of boxes where you enter the code. The problem was that I could not enter the last digit in each box. The solution was to enter the activation key in Notepad, including the dashes, then copy and paste it into the first box in Money. Come on Microsoft, there is no excuse for this, it is running on your operating system and entering text in a box is very basic stuff. (yes, I did update to Money SP1 and it still wouldn't work)

The second issue also had to do with product activation. The EULA states that you can install Money on two separate computers, or two times on the same computer. I finally got it installed and activated on my laptop, but when I attempted to install this on my desktop PC, I got the following error: "this key has already been installed on the maximum number of computers". Microsoft support wants me to supply my Hardware Fingerprint code to them, and they said they will generate a new key. I am still in the process of this, but I am assuming they will allow me to activate this. Even so, this has been a major hassle. I just want it to work, there has to be a better way.

So now I need to contact Microsoft every time I upgrade hardware or buy a new PC so that I can access my financial information? I don't appreciate being treated like a criminal after paying them. I will be looking for a replacement to this. I am done with Money.

"Please bring back 2004 "
I used the 2004 version until I could no longer download staements from my bank, and I never had a second of trouble. After my forced upgrade, I've had nothing but problems. I've spent days online with support and even more time implementing the fixes they wanted done. This has been going on for 6 months. In that time I have been unable to download statements correctly or balance any accounts. With the fixes Microsoft is asking of me becoming ever more complex and causing system wide problems, I have no option but to dump the software and start all over again. Meaning I will lose 5 years of data. I am buying Quicken but based on reveiws have very low expectations. Microsoft, if it ain't broke PLEASE don't fix it!

"Upgrading to this was a big mistake"
I've been using Microsoft Money for about 10 years, and have been happy with it for the most part. I was using the 2004 version, but I thought budgeting features could be better, so I thought I would try Money Plus. As the title of this review states, Big Mistake! A much documented (note to self - read complaints in user forums before buying any software!) but unresolved issue is that the program takes about 10 minutes just to start if you happen to have the Spending Tracker on the Money home page (in Vista at least). The Spending Tracker module in the Budget section behaves the same way. It is one of the features I thought would make budgeting better than 2004, so I was fuming when I found out I can't even use it. Then I went to the Bills list and realized that I can't select more than one bill at a time to see what my bank balance would be after paying the selected bills. This might not be an issue if you haven't been using Money for 10 years, but I have become very dependent on this feature! So, I'm going back to 2004, and might consider Quicken. Buyer beware!

"It works"
This product is the same as the 2004 version I had been using. I upgraded primarily to allow my wife to bea able to check the accounts on line and to have them automatically update, or at least easier than what we were doing. This part of the program has worked without problem. However, I downgraded my ranking because of the interface for the product. The 2004 version was a little "clunky" comparatively, but at least all of the tools were right there for you to use. However, MSMoney's attempt at being intuitive did not work for me. First, it failed to merge my accounts from the 2004 version. Second, I had to set up all of my accounts again. Lastly, I had to go in and figure out how to allow for automatic entries.
I chose MS Money because I thought that it would be something that I was familiar with, however with all of the tweaks over the last 4 years they have made it difficult for the person wishing to upgrade.
Would I purchase this again? Yes, because now that I have it set up, it works beautifully. We are happy that we don't have to go to the websites to manually download our information. I am still getting used to the differences but our primary reason for the upgrade was the automatic merging of banking data into our local register. If you were happy doing this manually (by going to the bank website) then I would say keep what you have until it is no longer supported.

Enjoy!