Bank of America

MSStateDawg

I have a Bank of America credit card which is in Quicken and I update daily. It requires me to use two-factor authentication EVERY SINGLE TIME I update. I've tried disabling 2FA on the BoA website and it ceases to ask for the code on there but continues to do so in Quicken.

Does anyone know if this is driven by Quicken or by BoA? I suspect the latter and that BoA has policies in place that mandate 2FA for any third-party service.

Does anyone else have a BoA credit card account in Quicken? If so, what's your experience?

Quicken Jared

Hello @Cris Williams,             

I apologize that you are experiencing this trouble with two-factor authentication and updates. Thank you for taking the chance to speak with us about this here on the Quicken Community. 

What connection method are you using to link your accounts with Bank of America's online services? You can check this anytime by going to . 

I also recommend that you save a backup by going to File > Backup and Restore > Backup Quicken File in the top menu with Quicken open. Doing this frequently is paramount in protecting your data and can even be a path to resolving many issues. 

Next, try deactivating the account by navigating to Tools > Account List and selecting the account(s) associated with Bank of America. Once these have been selected, choose the Edit option. In the Account Details window, select Online Services, and then select Deactivate for each of the services you wish to disable. 

After you have done this for each account associated with Bank of America, you may then go to Tools > Add Account and link the accounts to online services once more. Be sure to only link to existing accounts when you are going through the process of connecting these accounts again. 

I hope this is helpful and I intend to work with you on this issue in the future here in this discussion, if necessary.

Thank you,

Quicken Jared 

MSStateDawg

Deactivated/reconnected. No joy.

Also, Quicken has invalid info in the Online Services tab of the Account Details dialog. The last bit is from the BoA website.

1LuckyDog

I just added a a Bank of America Checking account and have the exact same issue as Cris. Need to do two factor authentication each time, PLUS, it seems to interfere with my Wells Fargo downloads and create an error message.

Quicken Anja

Hello @Cris Williams & @1LuckyDog,

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community to tell us about your issue, though I apologize that you are experiencing this and that the previous steps provided have failed to resolve this for you as well as for not having received a follow-up response yet.

Next, I suggest you try to deactivate all accounts for this financial institution again, then force Quicken to "rediscover" all available accounts and see if this will help resolve it. Please, follow the instructions below in order to do so. However, I do recommend that you first save a backup file prior to performing these steps if you have not done so already.

1. Open the Account List in Quicken (Tools > Account List OR Ctrl + A)
2. If present, select the Show Hidden Accounts checkbox at the bottom of the Account List
3. Edit each account with this financial institution to Deactivate (or Remove From One Step Update) on the Online Services tab
4. Click on the General tab and remove any info displayed in the Financial Institution, and Account/Routing Number fields. Note: The account must be deactivated first before these fields can be edited.
5. When finished, close the Account List
6. Navigate to Tools > Add Account
7. Walkthrough this process as if you were going to add a new account, providing the login credentials and answering any security questions/processes presented until you reach the screen where Quicken displays the Accounts Discovered at the financial institution
8. Very carefully LINK each of the found accounts to the appropriate account you already have set up in Quicken.

Once that is done, see if the issue still continues to persist.

I hope this helps!

MSStateDawg

Quicken Anja said:

Hello @Cris Williams & @1LuckyDog,

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community to tell us about your issue, though I apologize that you are experiencing this and that the previous steps provided have failed to resolve this for you as well as for not having received a follow-up response yet.

Next, I suggest you try to deactivate all accounts for this financial institution again, then force Quicken to "rediscover" all available accounts and see if this will help resolve it. Please, follow the instructions below in order to do so. However, I do recommend that you first save a backup file prior to performing these steps if you have not done so already.

1. Open the Account List in Quicken (Tools > Account List OR Ctrl + A)
2. If present, select the Show Hidden Accounts checkbox at the bottom of the Account List
3. Edit each account with this financial institution to Deactivate (or Remove From One Step Update) on the Online Services tab
4. Click on the General tab and remove any info displayed in the Financial Institution, and Account/Routing Number fields. Note: The account must be deactivated first before these fields can be edited.
5. When finished, close the Account List
6. Navigate to Tools > Add Account
7. Walkthrough this process as if you were going to add a new account, providing the login credentials and answering any security questions/processes presented until you reach the screen where Quicken displays the Accounts Discovered at the financial institution
8. Very carefully LINK each of the found accounts to the appropriate account you already have set up in Quicken.

Once that is done, see if the issue still continues to persist.

I hope this helps!

Done. Did not help. Still requires 2FA every time I update the account in Quicken.

@1LuckyDog

Quicken Jared

@Cris Williams,      


I am sorry to hear that the issue is continuing. Thank you for keeping in contact with us and updating us on the situation.

It is possible that there are additional permissions required in order to fully enable third-party access to data on the bank's website. I recommend looking for any notifications or messages in your online profile there, or menu options that may be related to third-party applications. If this is proving difficult, contacting Bank of America and speaking with phone line support may be necessary. I also advise that you request to speak with a 'Tier 2' representative or an escalation team as these personnel may be more familiar with software applications like Quicken. 

I look forward to any response you may be able to provide.

Thank you,

Quicken Jared 

MSStateDawg

1LuckyDog said:

I just added a a Bank of America Checking account and have the exact same issue as Cris. Need to do two factor authentication each time, PLUS, it seems to interfere with my Wells Fargo downloads and create an error message.

It appears we are out of luck.

On the BoA website you pretty much have two-factor authentication enabled by default with no option to disable it. I consider this a good thing. But there is an option to have enhanced 2FA. With the enhanced option enabled you are ALWAYS prompted for a second factor token. Turning this off will cause the BoA website to require the token once IF you have Remember This Device turned on. It may ask for the token randomly on occasion.

However, I found a statement on the BoA website which indicates that their policy is that they will ALWAYS require a 2FA token when accessing your account from a third-party (e.g. Quicken). That said, we are left with a battle with BoA to change their policy which is most likely not gonna happen.

I've contacted BoA a couple of times and requested that this behavior be changed to allow a "Remember this device for third-party access" option. I think it's falling on deaf ears.

Wish I had better news. Sorry.

Quicken Jared

Cris Williams said:

1LuckyDog said:

I just added a a Bank of America Checking account and have the exact same issue as Cris. Need to do two factor authentication each time, PLUS, it seems to interfere with my Wells Fargo downloads and create an error message.

It appears we are out of luck.

On the BoA website you pretty much have two-factor authentication enabled by default with no option to disable it. I consider this a good thing. But there is an option to have enhanced 2FA. With the enhanced option enabled you are ALWAYS prompted for a second factor token. Turning this off will cause the BoA website to require the token once IF you have Remember This Device turned on. It may ask for the token randomly on occasion.

However, I found a statement on the BoA website which indicates that their policy is that they will ALWAYS require a 2FA token when accessing your account from a third-party (e.g. Quicken). That said, we are left with a battle with BoA to change their policy which is most likely not gonna happen.

I've contacted BoA a couple of times and requested that this behavior be changed to allow a "Remember this device for third-party access" option. I think it's falling on deaf ears.

Wish I had better news. Sorry.

@Cris Williams

Thank you for bringing us this update, and I apologize for any trouble this causes.

I will say that this is a very informative follow-up and I will be sure to consider what you've shared with us in the future when similar situations arise. Thanks again for letting us know about this; it is extremely helpful. I wish that I had other recommendations.

Best regards,

Quicken Jared 

MSStateDawg

Quicken Jared said:

Cris Williams said:

1LuckyDog said:

I just added a a Bank of America Checking account and have the exact same issue as Cris. Need to do two factor authentication each time, PLUS, it seems to interfere with my Wells Fargo downloads and create an error message.

It appears we are out of luck.

On the BoA website you pretty much have two-factor authentication enabled by default with no option to disable it. I consider this a good thing. But there is an option to have enhanced 2FA. With the enhanced option enabled you are ALWAYS prompted for a second factor token. Turning this off will cause the BoA website to require the token once IF you have Remember This Device turned on. It may ask for the token randomly on occasion.

However, I found a statement on the BoA website which indicates that their policy is that they will ALWAYS require a 2FA token when accessing your account from a third-party (e.g. Quicken). That said, we are left with a battle with BoA to change their policy which is most likely not gonna happen.

I've contacted BoA a couple of times and requested that this behavior be changed to allow a "Remember this device for third-party access" option. I think it's falling on deaf ears.

Wish I had better news. Sorry.

@Cris Williams

Thank you for bringing us this update, and I apologize for any trouble this causes.

I will say that this is a very informative follow-up and I will be sure to consider what you've shared with us in the future when similar situations arise. Thanks again for letting us know about this; it is extremely helpful. I wish that I had other recommendations.

Best regards,

Quicken Jared 

Thanks.

It would also be helpful if the Quicken folk act on its customers' behalf as an ally to lobby BoA for a change in behavior.