Is Mint allowed to share user data with other Intuit entities?
I wound up asking Mint over email so I'll share the answer I received: Thank you for contacting Mint.com.  From my understand you want to know if Mint can transfer data to other   Intuit products and vice versa. Let me address your concern based from   what I can see on my tools. Upon confirming, while Mint and other Intuit products are under the   same company, Mint.com is not yet integrated to other Intuit products.   We’d like to thank you though for giving the idea to us. With this, we   would know which future enhancements will our customers appreciate. We have forwarded your request/suggestion to our Product and   Development team for their review. At this time though, we can't make   any guarantee that your request/suggestion will get implemented as we   must balance customer demand with resources and business objectives. Oops...
On a summary level, there are three conceptual ways of clearing money electronically. Immediate clearing, where banks (often, but not necessarily) with support of the supervisory entities, send immediate drawing rights against their own cash reserves, and dedicate this right to the account of the receiving customer. This is rather expensive, as it limits the banks ability to use their cash reserves for their own banking operations (crediting etc). This is often the only way to wire significant (in comparison to the bank size) amounts of money.  Internal clearing, where the money actually never leaves the bank - it's just moved between accounts of two different customers of the same bank. It's usually free, as the bank is still free to use your money to do it's banking, and it's usually immediate since nothing actually needs to happen besides a change in the banks entries.  Batch clearing, where banks submit outstanding requests against each other, and calculate the net settlement. Basically, when you from bank A wire money to me in bank B, there is a high chance that a similar amount of money is wired between two other users it the opposite direction. After a bit of accounting the net imbalance is computed (and often drawn via immediate clearing) but the bulk of the money actually never leaves any of the banks, it just is reassigned between each banks customers as per agreed books.  There are also additional ways where companies decide to open accounts in each of the banks and provide some sort of immediate clearing backed by the operators cash reserves rather than the banks.. and so on.. How does it happen in Indonesia? I have no idea, but I think a good overview of how it happens around the world is a publication by a partner entity of ours; http://pymntsreportstore.com/products/global-wire-transfer-choices If you are really curious, I'd research under what legal form does Paypal Indonesia operate (it should be somewhere in the archives) and figure out what other wiring options are available. For question #1, at least some US-based online brokers do permit direct purchases of stocks on foreign exchanges. Depending on your circumstances, this might be more cost effective than purchasing US-listed ADRs. One such broker is Interactive Brokers, which allows US citizens to directly purchase shares on many different foreign exchanges using their online platform (including in France). For France, I believe their costs are currently 0.1% of the total trade value with a 4€ minimum. I should warn you that the IB platform is not particularly user-friendly, since they market themselves to traders and the learning curve is steep (although accounts are available to individual investors). IB also won't automatically convert currencies for you, so you also need to use their foreign exchange trading interface to acquire the foreign currency used to purchase a foreign stock, which has plusses and minuses. On the plus side, their F/X spread is very competitive, but the interface is, shall we say, not very intuitive. I can't answer question #2 with specific regards to US/France. At least in the case of IB, though, I believe any dividends from a EUR-denominated stock would continue to accumulate in your account in Euros until you decide to convert them to dollars (or you could reinvest in EUR if you so choose). Alright, team!   I found answers to part 1) and part 2) that I've quote below, but still need help with 3).  The facts in the article below seem to point to the ability for the LLC to contribute profit sharing of up to 25% of the wages it paid SE tax on.  What part of the SE tax is that?  I assume the spirit of the law is to only allow the 25% on the taxable portion of the income, but given that I would have crossed the SS portion of SE tax, I am not 100%.  (From http://www.sensefinancial.com/services/solo401k/solo-401k-contribution/) Sole Proprietorship Employee Deferral The owner of a sole proprietorship who is under the age of 50 may make   employee deferral contributions of as much as $17,500 to a Solo 401(k)   plan for 2013 (Those 50 and older can tack on a $5,500 annual catch-up   contribution, bringing their annual deferral contribution to as much   as $23,000). Solo 401k contribution deadline rules dictate that plan   participant must formally elect to make an employee deferral   contribution by Dec. 31. However, the actual contribution can be made   up until the tax-filing deadline.  Pretax and/or after-tax (Roth)   funds can be used to make employee deferral contributions. Profit Sharing Contribution A sole proprietorship may make annual profit-sharing contributions to   a Solo 401(k) plan on behalf of the business owner and spouse.   Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a)(3) states that employer   contributions are limited to 25 percent of the business entity’s   income subject to self-employment tax. Schedule C sole-proprietors   must base their maximum contribution on earned income, an additional   calculation that lowers their maximum contribution to 20 percent of   earned income. IRS Publication 560 contains a step-by-step worksheet   for this calculation. In general, compensation can be defined as your   net earnings from self-employment activity.  This definition takes   into account the following eligible tax deductions: (1) the deduction   for half of self-employment tax and (2) the deduction for   contributions on your behalf to the Solo 401(k) plan.  A business   entity’s Solo 401(k) contributions for profit sharing component must   be made by its tax-filing deadline. Single Member LLC Employee Deferral The owner of a single member LLC who is under the age of 50 may make   employee deferral contributions of as much as $17,500 to a Solo 401(k)   plan for 2013 (Those 50 and older can tack on a $5,500 annual catch-up   contribution, bringing their annual deferral contribution to as much   as $23,000). Solo 401k contribution deadline rules dictate that plan   participant must formally elect to make an employee deferral   contribution by Dec. 31. However, the actual contribution can be made   up until the tax-filing deadline.  Pretax and/or after-tax (Roth)   funds can be used to make employee deferral contributions. Profit Sharing Contribution A single member LLC business may make annual profit-sharing   contributions to a Solo 401(k) plan on behalf of the business owner   and spouse. Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a)(3) states that   employer contributions are limited to 25 percent of the business   entity’s income subject to self-employment tax. Schedule C   sole-proprietors must base their maximum contribution on earned   income, an additional calculation that lowers their maximum   contribution to 20 percent of earned income. IRS Publication 560   contains a step-by-step worksheet for this calculation. In general,   compensation can be defined as your net earnings from self-employment   activity. This definition takes into account the following eligible   tax deductions: (i) the deduction for half of self-employment tax and   (ii) the deduction for contributions on your behalf to the Solo   401(k).  A single member LLC’s Solo 401(k) contributions for profit   sharing component must be made by its tax-filing deadline. Well, that's the whole point of this issue, and why there's a debate.   And concerning the Cotsco analogy, whether retail and manufacturing can be the same entity or not, and whether as a retailer you can push only your own brands, is also up for debate.  It's called regulation, it's meant to prevent monopolies and cartels from forming, among other things. We've seen this happen elsewhere too (transportation, electricity, water, healthcare, etc...). Businesses *do not* have the right to do whatever they want.   I also think what has not been mentionend is that internet provision is effectively a cartel in the US, with different ISPs holding monopolies in different parts of the country, which has been allowed to continue.   Anyways, I'm not in the US, so I'm not affected by this (where I live has confirmed net neutrality and anti-monopoly legislation is important, and anyways there's ISP competition so this bullshit cannot be applied unless they work together) but I think if this goes through the US internet will end up even more like the US cable industry, to the detriment of users. I'm also worried about the knock on effects this will have with the rest of the World. Yodlee will also work. I asked a similar question (and provided answers) here. Thrive, so far, is the best in my opinion. Their tech support is top notch and their UI is far superior to Yodlee's (which provides the backend for Mint). One reason why they limit it is to protect you. If I hack your account, I get your entire financial history. I can see a copy of every check you ever wrote. I can see the account number with every doctor, utility, and credit card. I can also see the account information on the back of those checks for all your relatives who you sent $10 for their birthday.  I can use the information in those accounts to see where you used to live, this allows me to spoof you when applying for new credit. If they ask if I ever lived on Main street in Anytown USA. I can confidently say yes. If I only let you download a window of time, the responsibility is on you to protect that data that is before the window. They protect it in file isolated from the internet, and finally only in archive locations. Some of the information doesn't exists in electronic form. Data from the 1990's and earlier may not exist in the form you want. They have been expanding the windows over time. I can see/download a pdf of my monthly statement going back 7 years. Of course that data can't go directly into quicken. Some places do let you get a file that goes back farther, but they charge you for it, and it can only be done by them sending you the file. That prevents you from downloading your entire  history everyday. That times 70 Million customers would overwhelm their server and other infrastructure. Regarding the amount of data: You could keep an eye on BankSimple perhaps? I think it looks interesting at least... too bad I don't live in the US... They are planning to create an API where you can do everything you can do normally. So when that is released you could probably create your own command-line interface :) "I've hired a lawyer to make sure all the T's are crossed.   - I am not charging my employer for the service. I created a ""Free tier"" that fits the scale of my employer, and implemented it that way for them. Larger government bodies are paying for the higher tiers. On multiple levels, i've been sure that nothing conflicts with either our purchasing policy, or any written employee policies.    - I did 100% of the work on my own time and using my own resources. I was extremely careful to ensure this was the case. There is no clause anywhere in my employment agreement that says the company owns anything I do outside of company time. Believe it or not, this is actually less of an issue for a government body because the government doesn't exist to make a profit from services, and because they are getting an expensive service for free, it's actually a significant net benefit for them.  I certainly would be at a significantly higher risk if I was working for a for-profit corporation as they certainly would try to go after me.    - I was also careful in how the software was presented. While I agree there is a level of a obfuscation without a doubt, I've confirmed it certainly not a legal issue for the company, nor is it grounds for a lawsuit, and likely not even grounds for termination (although at this point, I don't really care as I have bigger fish to fry)"