Mint adds SMS access
Personal finance site Mint is getting a useful SMS query capability: You send the word "Bal" or "balance" to short code 696468, and it will send back the balances of your bank and credit accounts. Simple. And potentially useful if you're out and want to know if you have money to pay for or charge an item.
Intuit has a nearly identical feature for its now-free Quicken Online app, called Quicken Beam. Like Mint's SMS query feature, it will send your balance data if you text the word "Bal" to the Quicken short code 636363. Beam actually does a bit more, showing you the five most recent transactions posted to each account.
Being able to access basic account data from a mobile phone is a useful feature, and I'm glad to see these popular services layering in this utility.
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe. 
