Merrill Lynch problem. Downloading checks - doesn't show payee

Question

A Merrill Lynch problem. Downloading checks written by another authorized source from the Merrill account to various charities. Won't download the payee, only the check number. Won't show as "checks written" only "withdrawal". Categorizes as " Investment". Can't type in the payee. Quicken only shows the check number. Reports can't list payees. This is new. Worked perfectly before.

Chris_QPW · Answer

My first reaction to this was the same as @UKR's that the bank doesn't have the payee so that you shouldn't expect it to download, but you mention a lot of other things that don't make any sense, like not being able to type in the payee.  No matter what you should be able to do that.

I don't really know what is going on here.  You might start with what kind of account this is, and a screenshot of the problem transaction.  You can drag and drop an image into the comment box to attach it to the comment.

UKR · Answer

The bank's records (any bank for that matter) for a paper check written by you (or another authorized source) do not contain the payee name if the check is deposited and processed as paper check. Only if the payee converts the paper check to a one-time electronic debit will you have a payee name on the transaction, but then you will lose the check number.For best results I recommend you manually record a transaction in your Quicken register for each paper check as it is written (and BEFORE you download transactions from the bank containing these check withdrawals). This will result in a correctly named payee and category and Quicken should be able to match the downloaded transaction to the already existing register transaction.