CNet's take on Quicken 2006 vs Microsoft Money 2006. I'm a diehard Microsoft Money user. Although I do have a long wish list for Money developments, I love the sophistication of Microsoft Money that allows me to manage my personal finance in granular ways.

Quicken and Money are easy-to-use, elegant programs to help households keep track of their finances. Both choices allow you to pay bills electronically and see your expenses and income from multiple accounts in one place. However, the latest editions of each app don't offer revolutionary features that make an upgrade a must-have for the average household. We recommend that you stay with the program you use now if you're satisfied with it.
Still, we rated the setup and the interface of Quicken higher than that of Money. To start, Money 2006 works only with Windows, but Quicken 2006 works with Windows and Macs. We aren't thrilled that Microsoft requests that you log in to Money with your .Net Passport account, nor are we happy that it stores your personal financial data on its servers. Yes, these servers are secure, but we'd prefer to keep our finances tucked away on our own computer, as Quicken allows.

Quicken also offers a few more features than its contender, such as the ability to attach images of, say, a canceled check to your transactions. And the new mini reports let you view a pop-up window within a ledger to see the latest activity on certain expenses.

We've received many irate comments from CNET users who are upset that their bank now charges to download data in Quicken's new file format, OFX, which replaced the QIF format in version 2005. While Intuit charges financial institutions to use OFX, it has no control over how much a bank might pass along to the consumer. Microsoft doesn't charge financial institutions to download to Money, but some financial institutions nevertheless demand a fee from you to download data for Money. You may be able to ask your bank, credit card company, or investment firm to waive such a fee.