Charles Schwab, Switch FI to use Direct Connect

ww.finance · November 2020

This post describes the steps I took to convert an existing Charles Schwab Investor Checking account to use Direct Connect, which required switching Financial Institutions (Schwab has multiple FIs available).

I couldn't find a post with a lot of detail, so I documented my steps for my own use, then decided to share them here. Hopefully this post can help someone else.

I love my Schwab checking and savings accounts, but they were not set up with Direct Connect. With the demise of Quicken Bill Pay, and Quicken Bill Manager not working with a single one of my payees, I wanted to switch both checking and savings accounts to Direct Connect so that I can pay bills from within Quicken and not do the double-entry required if I use Schwab's online bill pay. I did all of the following steps and successfully converted my Schwab accounts to Direct Connect. However, using the Online Center (found in Quicken's Tools menu) still does not allow me to pay bills using my Schwab account. I feel like these steps were pointless, but perhaps I'll be ready if it is offered some day. And I hope that these steps could be used by others that need to switch not just their connection type but completely switch financial institution for any other reason, such as a bank merger.

I started by locating Schwab in the list of financial institutions (https://www.intuit.com/content/dam/intuit/intuitcom/partners/documents/financial-institution/icom-partners-ofx-fi-list-quicken-windows.pdf) , noting that both "Charles Schwab & Co., Inc." and "Charles Schwab Bank, N.A." have red lightning bolts, indicating that they are direct connect. I'm going to assume that you know how to view account details in Quicken. Both the savings and checking accounts had a financial institution of "Charles Schwab Bank - Investor C" which isn't even on the official list. When I set up these accounts a few years ago, it was the only one that worked.

Here are my steps... remember that I have both a Schwab Investor Checking and Investor Savings accounts, set up with Quicken but not using Direct Connect (probably Web Connect but I didn't write it down!).

Step 1: Sync and approve all transactions for both Schwab checking and savings.

Step 2: Back up data file using the File menu in Quicken, just in case disaster strikes.

Step 3: Enter the Schwab checking account register, and edit account details. The Financial Institution is non editable, and for me it was set to Charles Schwab Bank - Investor C.

Step 4: Click on the "Online Services" tab. FYI, at the bottom of the window I am connected to Quicken Bill Manager, which isn't really usable for me, but the link has been established.

Step 5: Click on the "Deactivate" button. (this disconnects your quicken account from online sync and also makes the financial institution on the general tab editable)

Step 6: If you have a Savings account, repeat steps 3-5 for the Savings Account.

Step 7: Go back into the edit account details, and the Financial institution is now editable. Change it to "Charles Schwab Bank, N.A." (I copied & pasted this directly from that long list I linked to earlier).

Step 8: Repeat step 7 for your savings account, if you have one.

Step 9: Back on the "Online Services" tab, click the button to set up. You will need to enter your ID (not email) and Password exactly as you enter them when logging in via the schwab.com website.

Step 10: You should get a list of your Schwab Banking accounts. For me, it listed both checking and savings, but for you it might just show checking. This is important: you want to link to your existing quicken account! It wasn't hard, the options are to the right. And like magic, you are done!

Step 11: It did download some recent transactions. All of these transactions were a flagged as a "match" so I did an Approve All.

Step 12: In the "One Step Update" check the box in front of "Charles Schwab Bank, N.A." so that your account(s) are synced with the rest.

Step 13: Go back to Edit Account Details | Online Services tab. Ideally, at the bottom of the window, I would be able to activate "Bank Bill Pay" but that sadly isn't an option for Schwab. My understanding is that it is a Schwab issue, not a Quicken issue.

Step 14: Sigh of relief.

Here's a quick summary of some different Schwab financial institutions. There are additional FIs on the list, I don't know what they are for.

Charles Schwab Bank - Investor C
Old, not on the list, does not use Direct Connect but worked with both Schwab checking and savings accounts.

Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.
This FI is used for Schwab Brokerage.

Charles Schwab Bank, N.A.
This FI is Direct Connect for Schwab checking and savings.

Rocket J Squirrel · November 2020

Thanks for sharing your learning experience. We appreciate it when people share what they know, especially such a long, detailed explanation.

Now if you want to put on your Secret Decoder Ring, you can dive into the guts of Quicken to determine what FIs offer what services.

Using your favorite text editor (not word processor), open the file
C:\ProgramData\Quicken\Inet\Common\Localweb\Banklist\2019\fidir.txt

Search for Charles Schwab and you'll find the following lines:

08888 08888 08888 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. https://www.schwab.com/ 866-855-9102 https://www.schwab.com/ ACTIVE INVESTMENT,ACCOUNTINFO&DIRECT NOT_QBP NA

27522 27522 27522 Charles Schwab Bank - Investor C https://www.schwab.com/ 866-232-9890 https://www.schwab.com/ ACTIVE BANKING,ACCOUNTINFO&EXP-WEB-CONNECT NOT_QBP NA

03793 03793 03793 Charles Schwab Bank -Web Connect http://www.schwabbank.com/ 888-403-9000 http://www.schwabbank.com/ ACTIVE BANKING&WEB-CONNECT BANKING,CREDIT,ACCOUNTINFO&EXP-WEB-CONNECT NOT_QBP NA

54969 54969 54969 Charles Schwab Bank Mortgage http://www.schwabbankmortgage.com 1-866-266-4756 https://rocketaccount.com ACTIVE BANKING,CREDIT,ACCOUNTINFO&EXP-WEB-CONNECT NOT_QBP NA

10655 10655 10655 Charles Schwab Bank, N.A. http://www.schwabbank.com/ 1-866-266-4756 https://online.schwabbank.com/login.do ACTIVE BANKING,ACCOUNTINFO&DIRECT BANKING,ACCOUNTINFO&EXP-WEB-CONNECT NOT_QBP NA

The words in all caps denote the capabilities of each FI. You can see the first line shows INVESTMENT and the last line shows BANKING, and they both show DIRECT.

Unfortunately, the attribute you were hoping to find is PAYMENT, which is absent from all the Schwab FIs. If you browse through the Fidir.txt file, you might find a FI you like which shows PAYMENT&DIRECT. Those are the ones which provide the mechanism for direct payments from Quicken. Whether those FIs actually offer that capability (as opposed to it being possible) is something you'd need to learn from each FI.

Rocket J Squirrel · November 2020