For Quizzle?

Quizzle?  What’s Quizzle?  Well its a new FREE service provided by Quicken that provides some features of Quicken Online, wrapped up with features from Zillow, FreeCreditReport, LendingTree (but with QuickenLoans as the lender).

• Check your credit. Quizzle allows you to check your credit score and review your Experian credit report, all without entering a social security number. Credit scores are vital for most financial transactions and knowing your score and correcting inaccuracies on your report are crucial to a healthy financial future.
• Determine your home’s value. Quizzle will estimate your home’s current market value, while also calculating the equity you currently have in your home. Through Quizzle, you can also review the selling prices of other homes in your neighborhood.
• Examine your mortgage. Quizzle will use your credit report to conduct an in-depth review of your mortgage, in comparison to loan programs currently on the market, to make sure your mortgage is working as hard for you as you are for it.
• Analyze your budget. Quizzle will use the information in your credit report to begin a review of your monthly budget. Users can then insert information for expenditures such as utility bills, grocery and entertainment expenses to determine your monthly cash flow.
• Review your rainy day fund. Quizzle will review the money you have set aside in savings accounts and investments to make sure you are adequately prepared should any of life’s storms come your way.
• Calculate your Quizzle Score. Based on all your credit and financial information, Quizzle will determine your ‘Quizzle Score,’ a simple score between 0 and 100 that measures your overall financial health.

Now is it me, or does there seems to be some redundancy with Quizzle and Quicken Online?  Why wouldn’t Intuit want to provide these features as a method for differentiating Quicken Online and the other PFM tools out there?

Sign-up

Sign-up for Quizzle was quite simple.  You provide basic information and off you go.

Now you have to provide some additional detailed information.  After entering this information, you are required to validate your identity by answering a series of questions based off of your Experian Credit report.

Once you have validated your information, you are redirected to the Quizzle dashboard, where you can view your Quizzle score, Credit grade and score (from Experian), Home Value and Mortgage grade, and your rainy day fund status.  Again, I’m baffled that Quicken has a totally separate app for this information.

Credit Score

One thing that peaked my interest was the credit score section.  I was shocked that the credit score provided you a score based off FICO and also provided a grade.  Having worked at one of the big three credit bureaus recently, I would not expect to see the grade score alongside the FICO.  Actually, I was more surprised to see the FICO score period.  Soon FICO will be synonymous with dinosaurs as all three are formulating their own method for determining a consumers credit score.  FICO is fighting this, but in due time, scores will be replaced with simple grades.  Hallelujah since FICO has so many loopholes and obstacles.

Conclusion

I wouldn’t run out and sign-up for Quizzle.  Personally I see no real value in it as a stand-alone application.  These features belong in Quicken Online, plain an simple.  If Intuit really wants to make a play in the online PFM space, maybe Quizzle will be a thing of the past and these features will instead be where they belong, Quicken Online.