Quicken and Bank Of America

BrianBD

Just got email re: Bank of America & Quicken. 2 questions:

Does latest email mean that quicken will no longer be used to pay bills using my BOA checking account?

How to access Quicken Bill Manager from within Quicken Deluxe?

our.ebills

When BofA changed over to the EWC+ connection type it changed what it downloads into Quicken. As far as I can understand it, this is not a Quicken issue so much the a BofA method change (EWC+) which removed a functionality from the Quicken interface. The same thing happened a couple of years ago with Capital One Bank (the reason I closed my Capital One accounts after thirty plus years). You will still be able to perform bill pay functions on the BofA website, however; those pending bill pay transactions will no longer download into the Quicken software. They will download when the payment actually posts to your account. EWC+ is supposed to be a more secure connection and that's the reason given by BofA for the change. I only wish it hadn't taken the fifth person I contacted at Quicken support to provide me with this information. I'm currently looking around for a different bank to see if there is one out there where that function will still work. My only concern is whether or not I'm chasing my tail if this is the method being migrated to by most banks.

Charlie T.

I got conflicting emails. One for an improved BofA connection. Then, as of October BofA will no longer update Quicken. I don't know which is correct.

BrianBD

Quicken owes it's customers a more detailed explanation of the relationship between BOA checking accounts & Quicken's bill paying capabilities.

BrianBD

Quicken's Aug 30 email references "Bank Of America Bill Pay in Quicken". Is this separate & distinct from Quicken's "generic" method of paying bills via one's BOA checking account?

eyeh8

It sounds like Bill Pay is now something extra we will have to pay for. [Removed - Rant]

BrianBD

[Removed - No Soliciting]

eyeh8

[Removed - Violation of Community Guidelines]

eyeh8

[Removed - Violation of Community Guidines]

eyeh8

[Removed - Violation of Community Guidelines]

BrianBD

Looks like a major loss of functionality. Are other banks subject to these same restrictions?

Quicken Kathryn

Hi all,

Just a clarifying note, as there have been a lot of questions about connectivity changes and Bill Pay in this thread and in our other Care channels.  Your transactions will continue to download with the new EWC+ connection type, however, you will not be able to pay bills with Direct Connect Bill Pay.  

Please understand that these connectivity changes were not initiated by Quicken Inc., and that we do not benefit financially (nor are we harmed financially) by these changes.  Our continuing focus has been on providing reliable, secure connectivity and integrated Bill Pay capabilities to our users. 

For more information on these bill pay changes, please see the FAQ here.

beachmar

The latest email from Q about BOA says "to keep Quicken connected to your Bank of America account, you'll need to switch your connection method on or before October 10, 2022" ... change to what? change how? Why is Q sending incomprehensible emails all marked URGENT???? I call BOA and they don't know anything about it.....

BrianBD

Q is deliberately being difficult in explaining the mechanics of what is about to happen with BOA. Not sure why they could not reach an agreement with BOA to alter the Q software so we could continue as we have for many years. Obviously Q want to sell us their "bolt on" software package which they fail to explain how it will seamlessly integrate with their main product (if it will).

hos2277

For a week now trying to understand why Q shifting bill bay from BOA, we have been using the service for many years, adding even transferring between your accounts at BOA, the new change offering : shifting to Q bill bay instead and without any guarantee of support if any delays and who will cover late fees for example ?, BOA were offering help to solve any matter with the third party and they will cover the late fees if any, second this service is free at BOA for many transactions (not sure how many and may be unlimited), now Q says we have a limited number of transaction per month (we will be charged if we exceed depends on the Q version we have, this will be include all transfers between accounts (checking <=> saving) will be counted as part of limited allowed numbers each month, I did search behind the reason and only explanation I found that Q wants to add extra fees.
if the change been done to add more security then why not keeping the same service benefitting of the new added security and leave it for the client to choose.

BrianBD

If it merely was a revenue question for Q, then why not just raise the annual fee & leave everything else alone? Not sure if it's the banks pressuring Q, true technical incompatibility between BOA & Q, or unwillingness of Q to fix the problem.

Mark Torpey

Having the same issues with BofA EWC switch as with Chase. Existing Quicken Accounts do not show up to link.

Mark Torpey

Another question regarding the switch is whether monthly charges in my Bill & Income Reminder will be processed or will I have to go to the BofA site to do this. I have about 10 different accounts.

BrianBD

The "Important Notice" from Q says, "To keep Q connected to your Bank Of America account, you'll need to switch your communication method on or before October 10,2022". How does one make this switch?
What is the alternative communication method?

Chris_QPW

BrianBD said:

The "Important Notice" from Q says, "To keep Q connected to your Bank Of America account, you'll need to switch your communication method on or before October 10,2022". How does one make this switch?
What is the alternative communication method?

See this:
Why am I receiving a message about my Bank of America accounts? (quicken.com)

Mark Torpey said:

Another question regarding the switch is whether monthly charges in my Bill & Income Reminder will be processed or will I have to go to the BofA site to do this. I have about 10 different accounts.

Managing Bank Bill Pay and Transfers after Direct Connect Discontinuation (quicken.com)

our.ebills

When BofA changed over to the EWC+ connection type it changed what it downloads into Quicken. As far as I can understand it, this is not a Quicken issue so much the a BofA method change (EWC+) which removed a functionality from the Quicken interface. The same thing happened a couple of years ago with Capital One Bank (the reason I closed my Capital One accounts after thirty plus years). You will still be able to perform bill pay functions on the BofA website, however; those pending bill pay transactions will no longer download into the Quicken software. They will download when the payment actually posts to your account. EWC+ is supposed to be a more secure connection and that's the reason given by BofA for the change. I only wish it hadn't taken the fifth person I contacted at Quicken support to provide me with this information. I'm currently looking around for a different bank to see if there is one out there where that function will still work. My only concern is whether or not I'm chasing my tail if this is the method being migrated to by most banks.

BrianBD

Excellent explanation that should have been provided by Q to all Q users along with instructions on how to switch over to the new connection type.

Mark Torpey

It appears that many banks are taking this approach. I received the same message yesterday regarding my Discover accounts. I guess it's only a matter of time. 

Tacoteem

My question is the privacy. I can't find the same privacy statement that was shown within quicken when trying to access Bofa for the update as part of this third party agreement stuff. I would like to know if Quicken can access my financial data and know how much money I have, and see what I spend money on. And if so why do they need to know that?

mshiggins

@Tacoteem if you are downloading BofA transactions using EWC+, both Intuit and Quicken Inc have access to your BofA account balances and transactions. The balance and transaction data is collected and stored (aka aggregated) by Intuit and Quicken Inc so the data will be available for you to download via One Step Update. 

ConfusedasHeck

Quicken - Is this true? Post EWC+ pending bill pay transactions will no longer download into the Quicken software. They will download when the payment actually posts to your account? Please confirm. This is a horrible update and basically removes the need for me to use Quicken. The lack of this feature makes it much more difficult to plan budgets ahead of time.

hoffmandh

I think some folks in this thread are making the same comment as me, so please feel free to comment or correct my observation if needed. It appears to me that Bank of America is currently including Pending Transactions in the Online Balance in Quicken for users connected with EWC+. The Pending Transactions do not show in the Register when the accounts are updated. Therefore, as with my Chase credit card accounts, I have not been able to reconcile with B of A since the upgrade

ConfusedasHeck

My pending transactions are not showing up in online balance OR quicken register. So I am able to reconcile but now I’m going to have to manually enter transactions scheduled online via BofA website because those transactions will not show up in my quicken register until they have cleared. This is a huge inconvenience and major flaw that means after 17 years I’m going to have to find another service if quicken can’t fix this.

BrianBD

Yes. Now it's going to be a 2-step process. Q must be deaf or foolishly greedy.

miklk

Check the opening balance. 

When I changed to EWC+, it added an opening balance at top of register that was the amount of some pending transactions. 

mshiggins

ConfusedasHeck said:

My pending transactions are not showing up in online balance OR quicken register. So I am able to reconcile but now I’m going to have to manually enter transactions scheduled online via BofA website because those transactions will not show up in my quicken register until they have cleared. This is a huge inconvenience and major flaw that means after 17 years I’m going to have to find another service if quicken can’t fix this.

Pending transactions are not the same as bill payment instructions scheduled online via BofA website. For accounts connected via EWC or EWC+, you can optionally download/see pending transactions in Quicken.  For accounts connected via Direct Connect (DC), you can download/see bill payment instructions scheduled online via BofA website in Quicken. Two connection types with different downloading capabilities. 

ConfusedasHeck

> @mshiggins said:
> Pending transactions are not the same as bill payment instructions scheduled online via BofA website. For accounts connected via EWC or EWC+, you can optionally download/see pending transactions in Quicken.  For accounts connected via Direct Connect (DC), you can download/see bill payment instructions scheduled online via BofA website in Quicken. Two connection types with different downloading capabilities. 

How do I get back to direct connect? BofA (or Quicken) made me change connection methods to what i suspect is EWC or EWC+ a few weeks ago.