Why Golden 1 Credit Union not updating Credit Card Transactions

shenner8

Quicken will not even let me switch G1 to Express Web Connect. Get the error cc-501 and says do not contact G1 because they cannot fix the problem. Then who can?????

Ps56k2

there was a message posted the other day - from Golden 1 -

indicating that all users would have to switch as Direct Connect was being terminated - I'll have to go find the posting

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7892262/golden-1-credit-union-direct-connect-will-be-disabled-as-of-friday-april-16

Ps56k2

bumping up

jacobs

I'm surprised and impressed to see a financial institution directly posting information for it's Quicken customers on this site; that's not typical, so kudos to Golden1 for doing so.

That said, the link above doesn't go directly to the page they intend. Here's the text when you hunt down the link on Golden1's website:

Is Open Financial Exchange (OFX) Direct Connect available with Quicken or QuickBooks?
No, Open Financial Exchange (OFX) Direct Connect is not currently available. To increase online security and protect your privacy, we will be disabling the Direct Connect connection to Quicken and QuickBooks for a more modern and secure connectivity method called Express Web Connect (or Quicken Connect for Mac).
 
Quicken automatically defaults the connection type to Direct Connect. Please change the connection from Direct Connect to Express Web Connect (or Quicken Connect for Mac) within Quicken or QuickBooks.

As an alternative, you can still manually download your transactions into Quicken or QuickBooks through the Account History Download page in Online Banking, accessed by going to the tab Accounts  > Download. 

It seems odd to me to see Express Web Connect/Quicken Connect described as "more modern and secure" than Direct Connect; Direct Connect is always described as the gold standard for connectivity, because users connect directly to the financial institution's server for bi-directional communication without going through a third-party aggregation server. Perhaps from the bank's standpoint, one-way communication to an aggregation server is more secure for them because outside users can only download data and can't initiate transfers or other transactions? (Or perhaps it's actually because they prefer pushing traffic into wee overnight hours when servers are less busy? Or perhaps they need to pay less to Intuit by dropping Direct Connect? We'll probably never know.) At least they took the proactive step to tell users "this is what we're doing, and what you need to do to roll with it."

Chris_QPW

Personally I think it all has to do with money, not security.  There is no doubt that Direct Connect costs them more money to maintain (at least until all the "Quicken Connect/Express Web Connect" complaints come in.  And there is no doubt that the number of Quicken users are tiny.

The claim about security is hogwash though.

One might focus on the the "login" and say because we are forcing users to use multiple authentication and such they are more secure.  Well I could go into all the details why Direct Connect "login" can be at least as secure or even more secure than Quicken Connect/Express Web Connect" but security is more than just the login so lets contrast the two.

Quicken Connect/Express Web Connect.  Quicken is syncing with the QCS (Quicken Connection Service/server), and it connect to the Intuit server is logging into their website, as you.  And the transfer of data is based some "agreed upon method."  So the "hacking target" is their whole website (which quite "known" to hackers) using a "method" that hasn't be approved by any standards board, and who knows what kind of security audit (which has to include the Quicken Inc servers, Intuit servers, and the financial institution/method of transfer.

Direct Connect/OFX is running completely different software than the web site.  In fact that server doesn't even have to be on the same machine(s).  And as a standard protocol the server only accepts the commands that it knows.  What's more in most cases it is no more "bi-directional" than Quicken Connect/Express Web Connect.  Yes, the financial institution can support "bill pay" through it.  And so transfers and the like.  But in fact very few financial institutions support that.  It is entirely up the financial institution, and it isn't "magic".  In other words the OFX server is a "middle man".  It knows nothing about your finances.  It has to be tied into fetching data from their backend servers.  And the same goes for issuing commands to do bill pay/transfers.  The OFX serve can be configured not to respond to those commands, but even if someone knew how to hack it and get it to "obey the command" the financial institution has to provide the backend for that command.  So no backend support, no processing of that command.