Does download from USAA require Quicken cloud services?

deriter

The following is in the Quicken instructions for making changes to be able to download from USAA after their security update:

"After you sign in to your account in Quicken with your Access ID and PIN, you will be asked to link your downloaded USAA accounts with the existing accounts in Quicken. These should have matched automatically, but you can verify on the Link Accounts screen. The option should say Link. (If you do not want to download an account, set it to Ignore.)"

My accounts are not supposed to be in Quicken online. They are supposed to only be on my computer. I understand very little about this syncing and linking, and prefer to have as little info as possible stored on some server somewhere in the clouds. Does the above instruction mean that my account information has to be stored with Quicken online in order for me to download from USAA?

mrooney

[Removed-Disruptive/Unhelpful]

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @deriter

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community to ask your question. 

The Quicken Cloud facilitates downloads through Express Web Connect, the use of Online Services such as eBillers/Online Billers, Investment Quote Updates, Credit Score Updates, and more.

While you can choose to not sync the data for use with the mobile or web app if you are using any of the above services Quicken will still sync to the Quicken Cloud to facilitate these services.

To learn more about the Quicken Cloud, please take a moment to review the information available here.

I hope this helps to clarify!

-Quicken Tyka

Chris_QPW

Just to clarify what @Quicken_Tyka said in reference to USAA.

You can setup "most of" your USAA accounts with Direct Connect or Express Web Connect.
With Direct Connect as long as you don't use Quicken Mobile/Web nothing is stored in the Quicken cloud account.

The "most of" was stated because if one setups a loan account for downloading, that is only supported with Express Web Connect.  Of course if it is setup as a manual entry account then it isn't.

Express Web Connect does store "some of your transactions" on servers (and your usernames and passwords).

Direct Connect works like:
Quicken talks directly to the financial institution using the OFX protocol.

Express Web Connect works like:
Quicken syncs transactions with the Quicken Cloud account, which gets its transaction data from the Intuit servers, which in turn get it from the financial institution's unstandardized website using an "agreed upon method", and caches the transactions for the Quicken Cloud account to pick them up.

Note in the past the Quicken Cloud account wasn't involved, but still the Intuit servers always needed the username and password because they log in at timed intervals, not just when the user requests the information.  Quicken Inc pays Intuit for this service.

If you are using the new Access ID and Access PIN I believe you have to be using Direct Connect, but you can check in the account list (Ctrl+A) or at the top of each account register.