Quicken and Bank Of America

ConfusedasHeck

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.

Rocket J Squirrel

ConfusedasHeck said:

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.

You can't. B of A is discontinuing DC as of 10/10/22. You are left with EWC+.

Greg_the_Geek

BofA made the change. Switch to another bank that supports Direct Connect but it seems most banks are moving to EWC+.

Hornet

This really sucks. Takes away the primary reason i use quicken.

Morris1941

Same problems as everyone else, plus when I try to use the Quicken interface to fix the download issues Quicken crashes. In the few occasions when I do manage to connect to BOA my balances go haywire. No one responds from Quicken and I am unable to get a contact number that works.

Sam-i-am

"This really sucks. Takes away the primary reason i use quicken."
I wholeheartedly agree.
Does anyone have a list of banks still supporting Direct Connect?

Chris_QPW

Sam-i-am said:

"This really sucks. Takes away the primary reason i use quicken."
I wholeheartedly agree.
Does anyone have a list of banks still supporting Direct Connect?

https://ofx-prod-filist.intuit.com/qw2800/data/fidir.txt

Look for entries with PAYMENT since not only want Direct Connect you want ones that support bill pay through Direct Connect.

pcusano

My observation is that Quicken will soon demise and follow Microsoft Money into the junkyard of personal financial software. It is very disappointing, particularly the way Quicken has tried to obfuscate the significance of the banking industries move to EWC type of interface. I have already updated my Quicken account to terminate my subscription at the end of my current renewal period.

Senthil

Thank you for this helpful information. Without pending billpay transactions, Quicken is not nearly as useful a product for my use. I really hope they resolve this ASAP.


> @"our.ebills" said:
> 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.<

Jim_Harman

If you have not already, I suggest that you make two changes to how you handle bill paying with Quicken and Bank of America now that Quicken's connection to BoA bill pay is no longer available.

1. Set up Reminders for bills that you receive on a regular schedule. When a bill arrives, adjust the amount if necessary and accept the Reminder. If you also set up income Reminders, Quicken can project your account balances up to 12 months in advance and alert you if the balance will be below an amount you can set. With reminders, you are also much less likely to forget a payment.

2. As much as possible, set up regular bills so that the biller pulls the money directly from your account or a credit card. Then you do not have to do anything to initiate the payments. If you are sick or travelling, the bills still get paid. If you want to maintain more control, for larger bills you can set up automatic "push" payments on the BoA website.

There will still be a few bills where you must go to the BoA app or website to initiate the payments. This is admittedly now a 2-step process, but you will find that the BoA online payees you set up in Quicken are already set up in the BoA bill pay system. 

Charlie@

Back in the 90's I was a beta tester for Intuit when Quicken began testing online communication with Bank of America. Over the next 25 or so years there have been many changes in the connectivity and methodology - but always for an improved experience. I have to say that this is the first time I am aware of that Quicken has reduced the functionality - be it Quicken's or BofA's fault.
Where are the specs for this EWC+ protocol? I wonder if the ability to pass instructions is absent from the protocol or if it is an option that is not being used?
Very disappointing, Quicken!

Chris_QPW

Charlie@ said:

Back in the 90's I was a beta tester for Intuit when Quicken began testing online communication with Bank of America. Over the next 25 or so years there have been many changes in the connectivity and methodology - but always for an improved experience. I have to say that this is the first time I am aware of that Quicken has reduced the functionality - be it Quicken's or BofA's fault.
Where are the specs for this EWC+ protocol? I wonder if the ability to pass instructions is absent from the protocol or if it is an option that is not being used?
Very disappointing, Quicken!

The FDX specs don't seem to be open to the public (FDX is the protocol being used between Intuit and the financial institution for Express Web Connect +).

To get free access to the information it looks like you have sign up as a "FDX Observer".
https://financialdataexchange.org/FDX/FDX/Membership/Join-FDX.aspx
https://financialdataexchange.org/FDX/Membership/Register.aspx

Chris_QPW

@Charlie@
BTW I have not signed up for this because of this statement:
"by registering and accepting the Intellectual Property Agreement. "

I'm betting that statement says that you can't disclose the information.
And for my purposes, if I can't disclose it, it is useless information to me.

And to your original question, I'm betting they purposely didn't put any kind of "two-way/bill pay" into their protocol (which they would claim is for security reasons).