Categorizing "No Category" Transactions

[mpatzer]

I love the new graphics for the Spending Trends, however, I miss being able to click on a piece of the pie to take me to a list of those transactions.

Especially in the case of the "No Category" transactions. I would like a simple way to recategorize all of my non-categorized transactions, and clicking on that pie, or even a link at the side saying "Would you like to categorize these transactions?" would be nice.

It would save the hassle of having to go to the transactions tab and search for all the "no category" transactions.

[Damon]

Very cool suggestion!

Is there a type of category that we're missing that you want to see added? In other words, are you unable to categorize the transaction because an applicable category isn't available?

[mpatzer]

None that immediately come to mind, but I will post a thread when I run into some. The list under "Home" is so lengthy that it runs into the "Shopping List", at least in Firefox.

Another related concern I had was clicking the links to merchants under "Your Favorites". It should take me to a list of transactions from that merchant, and it takes me to this URL for example:

"https://alpha.mymint.com/transaction.event?search=Amazon"

however, it just takes me to the complete list of transactions.

Using Firefox 2.0.0.6 on Mac OS 10.4.10.

[Damon]

Thanks...appreciate any info/feedback you send our way.

I am wondering if the issue has to do with FF & a Mac OS. The site isn't fully optimized for use with all Apple products right now (see list of supported browsers below).

Here's the current list of supported browsers:

Internet Explorer 6 (Windows)
Internet Explorer 7 (Windows)
Mozilla Firefox 2 (Windows)
Safari 2 OSX (Apple)

[PandemicSoul]

Is there a type of category that we're missing that you want to see added? In other words, are you unable to categorize the transaction because an applicable category isn't available?
Maybe I'm just blind, but I don't see any way to categorize automatic savings plans and "Keep the Change" type features. i.e.- each month, I have a specific amount go into savings. But the closest thing to savings seems to just be the "Finance & Investments" category, as opposed to a more specific sub-category.

[Damon]

If it isn't available in the main choices right now, probably the best option would be to tag the transactions with what you would like.

As always, do feel free to mention specific categories we should add & I can include them in my feedback reports.

[sparklerawk]

You guys should come up with a better name for the "No Category" category. Especially since it had sub-categories and since it's included in the spending trends. It's sad to see a sizable portion of my spending comes from "No Category" as opposed to "Cash/ATM" or "Withdraw"

[Damon]

Hmmm...what would you suggest? I think the main thing we hope for is that folks would recategorize the transactions to applicable categories.

[sparklerawk]

Well, "Cash/ATM" is the applicable category for a transactions that's a $100 withdraw from an ATM. There's really nothing else to categorize it as since it gets spent on different things.
I guess what I mean is that I understand having a "No Category" category, but Cash/ATM and Check shouldn't be a sub-category of that.

[MrsThorsen]

After I added my bank accounts, one of the first things I saw was the message in the "Your Alerts" column, "This month, you spent $1,213 on Fees & Charges. Usually you only spend $515." Well consider me alerted! I immediately went pale and wondered how I could possibly not have noticed my banks fleecing me like that. But when I clicked further I saw that all ATM withdrawals were automatically categorized "Fees & Charges". I don't know if that's peculiar to me, or if anyone's ATM withdrawals were automatically categorized to "Fees & Charges". I mention this since I think it would be for the common good to make really sure this automatic categorization (is that a word?) never happens in the future since it's a bad first impression of your product when one adds their accounts and then gets a heart attack. I got over it, but then again I'm young and healthy. . . :D

And now the reason for posting in this particular thread: I agree with Elissa that "ATM/Cash Withdrawals" should be its own category not included in "No Category".

[Damon]

I see your point. I will report this.

Note: You should try to recategorize these in the short-term.

[MrsThorsen]

I see your point. I will report this.

Note: You should try to recategorize these in the short-term.

I was actually able to recategorize the ATM withdrawals quickly and intuitively which allowed me to find out right away that my *actual* bank fees (excluding ATM fees) were the amount I expected and all was well. So I think Mint has done a great job making recategorizing quick and easy.

One thing I did notice after I corrected ATM withdrawals to "cash", was that direct deposit paychecks were automatically labeled as "cash". Which puzzled me since 1) they were deposits and 2) the word "PAYROLL" was in the electronic description sent from the bank. I assumed that your software would have a category rule that any money going *into* the bank account should default to "other income" (just because that subcategory doesn't exist is no excuse! ;) ) while money going *out of* the bank account is assigned one of the many expense categories.

[jbodoff]

Very cool suggestion!

Is there a type of category that we're missing that you want to see added? In other words, are you unable to categorize the transaction because an applicable category isn't available?
One category I can think of is Tolls (under Auto). It does not seem to fit under any of the other subcategories.

[jdsmith]

Hmm... this list of supported browsers for MacOS seems a bit strange, since Safari 3:

a) ships with Leopard (>20% current installed base on Macs);
b) was pushed by Apple to all network-connected Tiger users in a Software update last Nov 14th;
c) is the browser core on the iPhone.

So, as of now, Safari 3 should account for the majority of Mac Safari usage. Those who aren't using Safari use FF, so real Mac support really does equal Safari 3 + FF.

I recently (last 2 days) lost the ability to categorize (the "Categorize" button no longer functions) on Mac FF and Safari 3. Possibly related.