Is anyone having issues connecting to Citizens Bank?

Jack C

Quicken Premier for Mac, Version 6.2.1 (Build 602.38957.100),macOS 11.4 does not work correctly with Citizens Bank. It has ben dysfunctional for a very long time. I've been a quicken user since Q'98 and this problem has plagued Quicken as long as I can remember. It worked with previous and current versions for a long time but has now not worked for over a year. It does not download transactions using account update function. It duplicates transactions from last week that are entered via Web Connect. Every once in a while it connects and accurately downloads current activity. But Web Connect is the only way to be accurate. And that is extremely cumbersome.

Over the years I've brought this up only to be told its a Citizens Bank problem and to contact them. Right on cue they say its a Quicken Problem. When Quicken was purchased and remade it worked well. Now it's back to the same problems that the new program was supposed to leave behind. 

And, as usual, I'm sure it's a Mac problem. That's the reason the original Quicken for Mac was dying......

They made it more expensive claiming it was NEW AND IMPROVE but reintroduced the same old problem...for me anyway. And maybe other Citizens Bank customers.

jacobs

You ask a question in your subject line about whether others are having a problem with Citizens Bank, but follow that post calling out the state of Quicken Mac. I wanted to answer your actual question to say that I have had no problem connecting with Citizens Bank in Quicken Mac. I don't know what specific problem is affecting your connectivity its; I can only tell you that just because you're having an issue with Citizens Bank, it's not affecting everyone. (And I'm not denying the absolute frustration of the finger pointing as financial institutions and Quicken each claim the other is responsible for problems.)

When Quicken was purchased and remade it worked well. Now it's back to the same problems that the new program was supposed to leave behind. 

Just to correct the timeline a bit, development of the legacy Quicken for Mac was terminated back in 2007 when Quicken was owned by Intuit. Not because Quicken Mac was dying, but because the core technology it had been built on for 20 years was a dead end as Apple revamped the Mac operating system. They tried three times over 7 years to develop a new generation of Quicken Mac: the failed Quicken Financial Life project which never launched (2008), the limited and widely derided Quicken Essentials (2010), and eventually the modern-generation Quicken Mac (2014). All that happened under Intuit's ownership. Then in 2016, Quicken was purchased from Intuit by its current owners, and almost the entire Quicken team transferred from Intuit to the new, independent company. So being a separate company came after Quicken Mac was re-written, and the same development team and executive leadership has been intact through that period.

I'm noting this to say I don't think the change in ownership diminished the trajectory of the program; the redevelopment of Quicken Mac has been generally positive and upward over the past seven years. That's not saying there haven't been some bugs, some questionable design decisions, and a slow pace of development which has been disappointing. But problems with connectivity to a particular financial institution don't indicate a failing of the company or the program overall; there are thousands of financial institutions, and while there are some standards, things are constantly changing… and breaking. Quicken management says improving the underlying connectivity technology is their top challenge; this is reflected in the most recent Quicken Mac release last month, which was billed as the first of a series of changes to try to improve this weakness. This is what the Mac product manager said:

Quicken Marcus said:
Over the course of the next year we are moving to a new bank connectivity and transaction download technology.  v6.2 contains the first phase of this tech.  The goal is to improve connectivity with the banks and to support all of the different connection and authentication methods the banks are deploying over the course of the next few years as they improve security and connectivity with third-party partners. The benefit for Quicken customers will be improved reliability and transaction data quality but also, in some cases, we have to make these changes just so Quicken can continue to connect to the over 14K financial institutions we currently connect to. 

You can buy it or not, but I think it's a good sign that (a) they clearly acknowledge the achilles heel of Quicken and (b) have a process underway to hopefully make tangible improvements. Will it work? Only time will tell. 

Meanwhile, you may want to contact Quicken Support so a phone support representative can share your screen to see your connectivity failure and capture the logs to see if they help point to a solution.

SSilverman

@RickO I am having an ongoing issue with Direct Connect with my Citizens account since June 12 which still has not been resolved. Will you still recommend Salem Five after a month of use? I am strongly considering leaving Citizens. I have a Salem Five in my town in Massachusetts so it would be convenient. Thank you.