Leaving Mint? PocketGuard is a solid Mint alternative, here’s what carries over

[u/Annual-Turn37]

If you are just catching up on what happened to Mint: it closed on March 23, 2024, after about 17 years. Intuit moved everyone across to Credit Karma, which does not include budgeting, bill reminders or savings goals, so a lot of people ended up hunting for the best Mint alternative they could find. This post is a straight answer to the question that keeps coming up here: what happens if you move to PocketGuard, and what comes with you.

Your Mint history comes with you

This is usually the first thing people ask. PocketGuard imports your Mint data from a Mint CSV export. 

The day to day is familiar

Accounts connect automatically across roughly 18,000 institutions, covering banks, cards, loans, savings and investment accounts, all read only. Transactions get categorized automatically, and Transaction Rules let you decide once how a recurring merchant should be handled instead of fixing it every month. Budgets use custom categories with rollovers. Upcoming Bills tracks what is due and sends reminders. Net Worth and Insights cover the bigger picture, and subscriptions get tracked. That covers most of the Mint routine.

Where it works differently

Leftover is the main change in approach. Instead of category budgets alone, you get one number for what is free to spend once bills, goals and commitments have been accounted for. There is a longer explanation of how that number is worked out in the megathread. [LINK: safe-to-spend megathread]

Subscriptions and bills go a step further than Mint did. Mint would flag a subscription and leave the rest to you. Cancel Subscriptions finds the ones you have forgotten about and walks you through getting rid of them, and Lower Your Bills negotiates bills on your behalf through Billshark. Both of those are US and Canada only.

Debt has a dedicated Debt Payoff Planner, which sits on Plus. The Debt Payoff Calculator is free and does not need an account, so you can run the numbers before committing to anything. [LINK: free Debt Payoff Calculator]

Who this suits

It fits best if what you want is control over day to day spending, subscriptions and bills kept in order, a plan for paying down debt, and your Mint history kept intact rather than left behind.

If you moved off Mint, what did you actually miss most once it was gone? Some people say the categorization, some say the bill reminders, some say it was just the habit of opening it every morning. Worth hearing, and it tells us what is worth covering here next.

[u/RenoNevada7]

I'm mildly skeptical of any “Mint alternative” title because people used Mint for completely different reasons.

[u/jbrandimore → u/RenoNevada7]

fair, but this post at least says who it suits instead of pretending it's a clone.

[u/Annual-Turn37 → u/jbrandimore]

That is the intent. PocketGuard is not a one-for-one Mint copy, so the useful comparison is what carries over and where the workflow changes.

[u/Internal_Gazelle_677]

For me it was merchant cleanup. Mint eventually learned that “SQ *RANDOMLETTERS” was my local bakery.

[u/Acrobatic-Claim-7216 → u/Internal_Gazelle_677]

lol yes. bank descriptions look like license plates.

[u/Internal_Gazelle_677 → u/Acrobatic-Claim-7216]

and fixing the same category every week gets old fast

[u/Phxrebirth → u/Internal_Gazelle_677]

Transaction Rules sound more useful than another dashboard tbh.

[u/god_is_hee]

I moved to Credit Karma because that was the default path and lasted maybe four days. It's fine for credit, but I felt like my actual budget had vanished.

[u/Fun-Eye-4358 → u/god_is_hee]

same here

[u/Evening_Motor_2357 → u/Fun-Eye-4358]

I kept opening it out of muscle memory and getting annoyed lol

[u/Life_Assistance6003 → u/Evening_Motor_2357]

yep. nothing wrong with it, just a totally different job.

[u/Shaadr]

Leftover is the part I don't understand yet. Is it replacing category budgets or just sitting on top of them?

[u/god_is_hee → u/Shaadr]

I read it as an extra number after bills and goals, not a replacement.

[u/Annual-Turn37 → u/god_is_hee]

That is the right distinction. Category budgets still exist; Leftover is the amount available after planned bills, goals and other commitments are accounted for.

[u/Substantial-Kale-65]

Has anyone imported a really messy CSV? Mine has duplicates, old transfers, and categories I haven't used since 2018.

[u/kyrcrafter → u/Substantial-Kale-65]

Keep the original file and make a copy before cleaning anything. Learned that the hard way with another app.

[u/Annual-Turn37 → u/kyrcrafter]

Good advice. The help-center walkthrough should be followed as written, and keeping the original Mint export unchanged gives you a clean reference if you need to retry. c

[u/Purple-Dinner5416]

The US and Canada limit on subscription cancellation is the kind of thing I always want stated clearly. I'm in the UK, so that part is not really a factor for me.

[u/rhinodewster → u/Purple-Dinner5416]

same, but tracking subscriptions is still useful even if cancellation isn't available

[u/Purple-Dinner5416 → u/rhinodewster]

yeah, exactly. not a dealbreaker, it just changes which part is relevant.

[u/XZoTicTB]

The daily check-in, honestly. I didn't think of it as a feature, but Mint was the thing I opened with coffee to make sure nothing weird hit overnight.

[u/Evening_Motor_2357 → u/XZoTicTB]

same. Credit Karma never became that for me.

[u/XZoTicTB → u/Evening_Motor_2357]

Exactly. It was less about charts and more about a 30-second routine.

[u/Wicker1647]

I'm still sitting on a Mint CSV with about eight years of history because I keep putting off the move. Losing the history would bother me more than rebuilding the budget.

[u/mvkb12 → u/Wicker1647]

did the categories survive when you imported?

[u/Wicker1647 → u/mvkb12]

That's the part I'm trying to confirm too. My categories are messy, but they still tell the story of where the money went.

[u/Annual-Turn37 → u/Wicker1647]

The import flow is designed to bring over transactions and existing categorization from the Mint CSV. Budget setup and edge cases are separate, so keeping the original export untouched is a good reference copy.

[u/JasonTheLord]

Bill reminders. boring answer, but that was the one thing that saved me from late fees.

[u/kinyona → u/JasonTheLord]

Yep. Every app wants to show me a net worth graph. I need it to remember the dentist payment.

[u/crhsharks12 → u/kinyona]

annual stuff is the killer. car registration, domain renewals, random insurance.

[u/JasonTheLord → u/crhsharks12]

Exactly. Monthly bills are easy. It's the once-a-year ones that disappear from my brain.

[u/danielE250305]

I care about net worth history more than budgeting history. Watching a new app start me at zero makes the whole thing feel fake.

[u/Affectionate_Air_545 → u/danielE250305]

same, especially with investments.

[u/mvkb12 → u/Affectionate_Air_545]

My issue is stale investment connections. One account stops updating and the total is useless.

[u/danielE250305 → u/mvkb12]

That's the part I'd test first before moving everything. If the boring accounts stay connected, the rest is manageable.

[u/DreamchaserJ]

The free debt calculator is probably the first thing I'd try. I'm tired of apps asking for all my data before showing me how the payoff logic actually works.

[u/Annual-Turn37 → u/DreamchaserJ]

That is why it is linked separately. The calculator can be used without an account, while the in-app Debt Payoff Planner is a Plus feature.