I’ve been a user of an online money management site called Thrive (http://www.justthrive.com/) for some time now. It’s marketed as “Free online money management, just for you.” I’d previously used their main competitor Mint.com but had a couple of bad experiences which is why I went with Thrive. As I was going through my email this morning, I saw this subject line which concerned me: “URGENT: END OF SERVICE NOTIFICATION”.
Here’s the content of the message:
Dear Greg,
On June 17, 2011 Thrive services will permanently shut down and you will no longer be able to access your account.
We apologize for any inconvenience. All accounts and associated data will be permanently deleted on June 17, 2011.
Thrive does not have your bank account numbers or credit card numbers and your login credentials are not stored on our systems. All transactions you have imported into Thrive will be permanently deleted when your account is deleted.
If you have any questions, please contact us at support@justthrive.com.
– the Thrive Team
I wasn’t sure if this was a legitimate message or SPAM and I let my fingers to the walking with a quick Google search. I found nothing about the impending shutdown so I called the 800 number for Lending Tree to see if I could find some answers. After dialing through their phone tree I finally talked to someone. Initially she’d never even heard of Thrive! She spoke to her supervisor and she confirmed that the service is indeed being shut down. She said that as of June 3rd the site was being shut down (contrary to what my email stated). She said it was due to “technical difficulties”.
I looked at the site this AM – http://www.justthrive.com/ – and there is no mention of an impending shut down. Nothing in their “In The News” section, their Press Release (last updated in 2009) and if you look at their home page it looks like things are humming along just perfectly. If you’re looking for an online money management site I’d strongly advise against signing up. If you’re already a member, I’d suggest you going into your account and removing all of your date. Thrive does NOT store your login credential but for my peace of mind I’m removing all of my data.