Download from Alliant Credit Union not working

Roger Miller

> @SeattleSummer76 said:
> "Personal Finance Management (PFM) tools such as Quicken and Plaid were recently overly aggressively accessing our Online Banking system causing slowness for all members.

I find that laughable. I haven't noticed any slowness in Alliant's online banking through their website. Thanks for pursuing this. I too have noticed OSU problems during that particular 4 hour window. I no longer check for transactions in the morning, only in the late afternoon.

Dale G

I submitted my logs from Help, Report a problem. Error CC-503 for Alliant CU and San Diego County CU for three weeks.
Has any one submitted this? Anyone who wants, please do so, too.

Peggy S

I don't usually get any error messages. Things just don't download. And my download summary report usually only contains a couple of my various financial institutions. I reported this to Quicken several months ago but have no response - and no solution.

Dale G

If you are looking for great credit unions, here is a good place to begin reviewing them. The top 100 credit unions (by total assets).
usacreditunions dotkom slash top-100-credit-unions-by-cash-assets

SeattleSummer76

A quick update. I've been able to successful do updates from within Quicken over the past several days. Anyone else seem to be noticing any improvements or is this a fluke?

mvwabc

@SeattleSummer76,

I have two Alliant accounts – a checking and a savings.  A few days ago I got a failure on both accounts.  Since I knew I had transactions for the checking account, I logged into the Alliant site and did a download from the site.  I got my transactions download fine.  After the checking account downloaded, I noticed that the user name in Quicken for the checking account had been changed to a number and the savings account was still showing the user name for logging into the Alliant site.  Because of the two different user names, the accounts were updating separately.

The next time I did the download, the checking was successful and the savings failed.  Again this morning the checking was successful and the saving got a 503.  I did a download from the Alliant site for the savings account and it was successful.  After the download of both accounts the same numeric user name showed for both accounts, not the user name I use to log into Alliant site.  I then ran the One Step Update for just Alliant and got a 503 for both accounts.

The answer to your question is I don’t think things have improved.  For now I will leave Alliant in the OSU and see if it continues to fail.  When I know I have transactions and get a failure, I will go the Alliant site and do the download.  I am also transitioning most of my Alliant transactions to another credit union. So, if it never gets fixed, I will not have to do the download from the Alliant site very often and the other credit union has better interest rates.  Maybe, I should be thanking Alliant for incentivizing me to look elsewhere.

What channel are you using for downloading - FDS or QCS?

Thanks for all your work on this problem.

Roger Miller

> @SeattleSummer76 said:
> A quick update. I've been able to successful do updates from within Quicken over the past several days. Anyone else seem to be noticing any improvements or is this a fluke?

I have seen improvement over the last several days, in that I have not received any errors when doing a OSU, even if there are no transactions to download. However, I do still avoid doing a OSU during the early morning times that were flagged by ACU.

Roger Miller

@mvwabc
By doing a download from ACU website, you are using the Web Connect method. In the past, when I have done that, Quicken automatically switches my download method for that account from EWC to WC. Then, when trying to do an EWC afterwards, I would get 503 errors. I ended up having to deactivate the account, and reactivating it as EWC.
Check your account download method. Is it now set to EWC or WC?

I forget how to check if the EWC connection is FDS or QCS.

SeattleSummer76

I'm on a Mac and my understanding is that the Mac version uses EWC with QCS. I don't think I have the ability to try the older FDS method.

Dale G

I keep a log of errors. In OSU, Alliant CU gives CC-503 once or twice each month since at least a year ago. After three weeks of CC-503, I submitted the logs (Help, Report a problem) a few days ago. I just de-Activated and Activated them to clear it. OSU is OK for now.
Are any of you submitting the errors in Help, Submit problem?
If/when CC-503 recurs, I will once again submit the logs by Help, Submit problem. I urge everyone to do this so they realize it's affecting many of us and look further into this.

Peggy S

My connections are all set up as EWC. But my Update Summary report only shows a couple of my accounts, and never the 5 Alliant ones, so the only way I know if things have downloaded or not is to log onto the web site and check if there has been any activity. Last year I switched to an Alliant Visa as my primary card, and Quicken’s inability to automatically download my daily charges is a real pain. I’m considering canceling it and switching back. I do not use my Alliant checking account much.

mvwabc

@Roger Miller,

After the OSU and the failure (503) on both accounts, Quicken shows Express Web Connect with the time I ran the OSU.

mvwabc

@Roger Miller,

Quicken Anja says how to check or change the Quicken connection channel here - https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20136586#Comment_20136586

SeattleSummer76

Here's an update from my BBB complaint:

"Please know that Alliant does not impede members’ direct access to Online and Mobile Banking. However, we do manage the access of Personal Finance Management (PFM) tools, such as Quicken and Plaid, which when aggressively accessed has been causing slowness to our online banking system for all members.

We provide Quicken with a dedicated portal which supports Express Web Connect but not DirectConnect. This portal is refreshed daily between 8:30am and 12:30pm CST, and Quicken might report that it cannot refresh the data during this time period. If possible, we suggest avoiding this time period to ensure a successful data transfer. We recognize this limitation is not ideal for PFMs accessing Alliant accounts on behalf of the member. Alliant continues to monitor this and we are working to eliminate it, but we do not have an ETA at this time. Again, this limitation only applies to PFM tools like Quicken, and all members can directly access their online banking or mobile account during this time period without limitations." - Alliant Credit Union 3/23/2021

Alliant Credit Union seems to be saying:

1 - We block your ability to access your online accounts using Quicken from time to time because it makes our computers slow. We won't tell you when we're blocking you, nor can we tell you if or when we'll stop blocking you.

2 - Also, we update the data for Quicken between 8:30am and 12:30pm CST. If you try to access your data through Quicken, you might get an error, so try not to access your data during this window.

Dale G

Why isn't once each day good enough for downloading transactions?

Roger Miller

> @mvwabc said:
> @Roger Miller,
>
> Quicken Anja says how to check or change
> the Quicken connection channel here - https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20136586#Comment_20136586

Thanks. My EWC is using QCS.

Dale G

Throttling internet traffic should be a temporary measure only. The correct solution is to reduce bottlenecks, improve efficiency and increase capacity.