STARTING OVER AFTER 35 YEARS

PERSUASION-STX

I started using Q in 1986. Used separate file for my wife starting in 2003. Have used a variety of Q WIN programs over the years (basic, premier, H&B, etc.) but now use premier subscription. 2021 decided to "simplify" my life and transitioned to one Q file for us. Recent series of issues have been frustrating and now I am starting over - new file. Would appreciate any subtle advice in the creation of the new file that would help me long term (or short). I use most (if not all) of Premier's feature set.

Greg_the_Geek

Don't sync to the Quicken cloud to use Quicken Mobile or Quicken on the Web. Keep mortgage accounts manual and not online. Try to use FI's that support Direct Connect or Web Connect. Stay away from EWC+/EWC.

PERSUASION-STX

Thanks Greg! I was wondering about the Mobile/Web feature when I created the new file. Never used it in the past - I do have trust issues! We are blessed and have not needed OPM's for quite some time. Have had issues with EWC in the past, so...

Do you have an opinion about Bill Manager? I have always used the Bills & Income feature to schedule/remind me for all bills (now more important due older age, hahaha), but never transitioned to Bill Manager.

Greg_the_Geek

I use Bill Manager but it can be flakey. Sometimes you have to manually refresh a bill to get the update. I've even had to unlink from the reminder, refresh and then relink it. I also don't use Zillow or Credit Score.

Chris_QPW

I wouldn't use Quicken Bill Manager to pay any bills, I like my credit score too much to use such an unreliable system.  I guess I would use it for attaching Online Bills to reminders (tried it in fact for years), but of the bills that I think I would find it most useful if it was accurate, can never be accurate or I don't work right.  My credit card payments aren't what is on the statements, because of returns.  My water bill was never retrieved, not to mention that it is paid once every two months and Quicken can't even get the reminder to work right for that period of time.  Other bills are paid automatically on my credit card, so I don't track them individually (they are just other transactions on the credit card that get categorized by the payee).

I avoid all "syncing" so that means I don't use Sync to Mobile/Web or Express Web Connect(which uses the same "sync" to transactions between the Quicken data file and the Quicken Cloud dataset).

I use Zillow, but that is "minor" since all it does it look up the value of house and give you the choice to update the account with that amount.  I don't use the Credit Score (I have had my credit history locked for decades.)

PERSUASION-STX

Thank you both for your input and advice. Sounds like we all have basically the same approach. I will continue to use the "old" method of manually setting up and using the bill reminder feature, then issuing payments (either via checking or a credit card). I have turned off the sync function (edit/preferences/mobile & web). Is this sufficient or do I need to do more for EWC? Some of my credit cards only use EWC and don't offer direct connect.

Chris_QPW

Even though I do what I need to completely avoid EWC, I do understand that not everyone can.  In my opinion it seems to be much less subject to problems that you will find in Sync to Mobile/Web, but there are areas of concern as far as I can see.

There is the "standard" it isn't reliable, but there are the ongoing problems with it changing opening balances and the online balances being wrong in some cases.

But for the most part the problems with EWC seem to be "manageable".  Nothing like Sync to Mobile/Web where it might corrupt your data file, and you might not detect it for a long time, and it rendering restoring from backup useless.

Sherlock

PERSUASION-STX said:

Thank you both for your input and advice. Sounds like we all have basically the same approach. I will continue to use the "old" method of manually setting up and using the bill reminder feature, then issuing payments (either via checking or a credit card). I have turned off the sync function (edit/preferences/mobile & web). Is this sufficient or do I need to do more for EWC? Some of my credit cards only use EWC and don't offer direct connect.

I would use Web Connect instead Express Web Connect if it is available.