Bank of America....EWC+ Connection

Greg_the_Geek

Have you tried paying any other bills?

I would suggest contacting Customer Support.

http://www.quicken.com/contact-support

Duke33

EWC+ is a flop. After the update I no longer get my bill pay advance notices added to my account register. I would use the Phone App or B of A's website to enter my Bills for the month then connect via Quicken to B of A and it would down load my pending payments for the month...Now it no longer does that. This needs to get fixed. Now I have to key in the payments twice. Once in B of A and then in Quicken. This is a Set Back for Quicken and the user of B of A.

ldstephey

I too am very disappointed to see the end of Direct Connect. I put a payment yesterday to my electric company with a payment date two weeks hence and it did NOT come down today. So, the speculation that that download only occurs after the payment clears seems to be true. I used to setup the payment when the bill comes in, but the payment data was close to the due date (I kept the float). Now, that no longer seems to be an option.

I think banks were more amenable to remote electron banking (third party software) to keep folks from writing paper checks. That has been a headache and an expense for banks for years. Now that paper checks are mostly gone, the banks feel they don’t need to support the third-party portal.

The bill paying feature is going to be greatly missed. I hope someone finds a way to bring it back.

ysg26

Testing. I've written 2 posts this week about my experience with Chase and they don't show up

wenglish

It looks like an admin decided to split off Chase-related comments from this thread (which is about BofA). But they didn't get very far (just your post and one other reply). See https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7920249/chase-issues-with-duplicates

I too am guilty of mentioning Chase in this BofA thread, but my excuse is I was pointing out that the Chase transition was a bad sign of things to come with the BofA transition.

denmarfl

Nothing should be different with BofA until 10/12/22.  Even if you ..I think, enter a Payment thru Quicken for a Pay date after 10/12...it should be processed.  DirectConnect and all its features are actitive at BofA until 10/12/22...and I am waiting until 10/12/22 before I make the change and only because...I Must.  I have explored other large banks that offer DirectConnect and Bill pay.  I have entered a Bill pay using a Truist Checking acct that is Bank Bill Pay enabled...I sent a TEST Bill Pay to one of my credit cards for $1.00.  Their Bank Bill pay does not display at their Online Site until the Night before the Payment is ready to pay.  That concerned me because at BofA when you sent a Bill Pay request you saw it immediately at the BofA Website to be processed,So not seeing the Bill at truist site gave me concern.  When I sent it, in fact, I sent one and than cancelled it, the Quicken software ran like everything was fine. Today I now see the payment in the Checking acct as an entry...still don't see it as activity Until the Payee LISTS....its to be paid 9/26/22...so Maybe I will see it under Activity 9/27/22.  Just finally seeing it as a Transaction in the Checking acct activity is a Victory.  After calling Truist several times I finally got an agent who was wiling to look for the Why's...and was told Truist uses a 3rd party Payment Processor to pay their Bills so the Bill Pay I requested went to this 3rd party Bill payer...and...the Transaction if the Truist Checking acct actually displays as..TRUIST ONLINE BILL PAY...shows the Name of the Payee...Amt to be Paid..Transaction type as DEBIT...but does not show the date to be Paid.  To be clear, I did not have to provide my ID/Password for the Payee...I simply selected the Payee (it was already at the Truist Site, add my CC Acct #).  So Maybe this will be the bank I go to to continue using and paying my Bills using Quicken and DirectConnect.  I plan to keep my accts at BofA open...with the Minium Balances to waive all fees.......  I wonder if the Bill Pays at other DirectConnect banks work the same way as I have described it so far is working at Truist?  

jscullen@comcast.net

As both a long time customer of BofA and Quicken (~20 years) I'm super disappointed in this change. I used direct connect with manual bill pay at BofA so I could download future payments so I could forecast my spending and balances. This change has basically rendered Quicken quite useless.

So net-net, it seems that we can enter bills at BofA manually, then note them in Quicken manually - correct? Talk about a step back in automation and functionality! This was a super powerful feature of Quicken. I'd love to hear any work arounds if this community finds one.

Sounds like Quicken Bill Manager doesn't work great? The tech at Quicken support was pushing this when I chatted with them about this change as I thought the lack of future payment downloads was an error on my part. Anyone have success with Quicken's Bill Manager?

denmarfl

Quicken Bill pay requires you to give your ID and Password of those you want to pay...do you really want to give out that info; I don't. There are other Factors....some have written trying to reach someone when a Bill has not been paid is not easy.  

If you want Banks Bill Pay using Quicken...look for a Bank that still offers DirectConnect, there are many...I am changing to one even if it means in the future that Bank also terminates DC

Chris_QPW

ldstephey said:

I too am very disappointed to see the end of Direct Connect. I put a payment yesterday to my electric company with a payment date two weeks hence and it did NOT come down today. So, the speculation that that download only occurs after the payment clears seems to be true. I used to setup the payment when the bill comes in, but the payment data was close to the due date (I kept the float). Now, that no longer seems to be an option.

I think banks were more amenable to remote electron banking (third party software) to keep folks from writing paper checks. That has been a headache and an expense for banks for years. Now that paper checks are mostly gone, the banks feel they don’t need to support the third-party portal.

The bill paying feature is going to be greatly missed. I hope someone finds a way to bring it back.

It isn't speculation. One can look at the two protocols OFX (Direct Connect) and FDX (what Quicken Inc/Intuit are calling the + part of the Express Web Connect connection method) and see that OFX has commands to do the syncing of bills and FDX doesn't.  And frankly I don't think that was an oversite when they created FDX.  They purposely left it out.  For both what they would call security reasons and because frankly they don't want any outside party controlling any part of their systems.

And I think is something that evolved over time and you are right that in some ways they never wanted what OFX/Direct Connect brought.

The OFX protocol was created in a time where the financial institutions had very weak offerings for online access.  So they saw it and Quicken as a way to fill that gap and get more customers.  But two things doomed OFX from the start.  The first is that only about 4,000 financial institutions adopted it, out over 32,000 financial institutions in the US alone.  That means that "other solutions" had to be created.  If the US government had mandated it, then it most likely would have been a different story.  So, "Aggregators" like Intuit's Express Web Connect were created (and Intuit's isn't the only one, and they financial institutions are tried of dealing with different protocols, not to mention the worry that the customers usernames and passwords were on the aggregator's servers.  FDX doesn't use the username/password and is one protocol they can work with for all the aggregators that want to access the customer data.)

The second is that as time moved on the financial institutions spent large amounts of money on their own remote access systems and most of their users are using those.  Quicken users are definitely a very small minority for most financial institutions, and using a different protocol that has to be maintained.

jrhoyer

Jim_Harman said:

@jrhoyer said, "I got a prompt from Quicken to update my BoA connection type, which I did. Now, new bill pay transactions entered on the BoA web interface are not showing up in Quicken as they did previously."

That is as expected. The new EWC+ interface to BoA no longer supports Bank Bill Pay. You will need to enter the Bill Pay transactions in Quicken manually or via Reminders. Also if you have Online Payees set up in Quicken, where you enter the transaction in Quicken and the payment instructions are sent to BoA, going forward you will have to enter those transactions on the BoA website or smartphone app.

Many thanks for that explanation, Jim.  Shame... that was one of the more helpful features of Quicken/BoA integration. 

Liquid55

> @BrianShea said:
> I am ok with this. And it makes a tremendous amount of sense from a security aspect. I've been using Quicken from the beginning, before we even had anything close to online banking.
> I suggest adjusting our expectations of things staying the same when it comes to technology and security.
>
> While we all benefited from the ease of use, so did fraudsters and hackers.
>
> Let us not earn the title of "ok Boomer", and adjust to increased security protocols.
>
> I am just annoyed that the transition to EWC is buggy, and not connecting easily to established accounts in Quicken. I'll wait a couple weeks to see if there is a proper fix for this.

This is crazy. Security is the excuse they use to regain control over how you do your banking. There is nothing more secure about EWC+ - regardless of what they try to tell us.

Liquid55

> @"Quicken Kathryn" said:
> Hi all,
>
>
> There have been a lot of questions about connectivity changes and Bill Pay in this thread and in our other Care channels.  
> 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 changes, please see the FAQ here.

You will be harmed when people realize that the yearly subscription price for your product no longer makes sense.

denmarfl

Just wonder, has anyone ever heard, or even heard a rumor of DirectConnect Hacked...or acts of Fraud taking place?  Seems to me this is about some Banks not wishing to agree on a Protocol.....

Chris_QPW

denmarfl said:

Just wonder, has anyone ever heard, or even heard a rumor of DirectConnect Hacked...or acts of Fraud taking place?  Seems to me this is about some Banks not wishing to agree on a Protocol.....

I have never heard of any hacks on Direct Connect/OFX.

denmarfl

So writing EWC+ is a more secure, faster, better...connection...it is more of a "sell job"...to soften the impact of losing DirectConnect....  Quicken is doing it part to put a Smiley face on this Manatory Concersion...to do its best to satisfy Quicken DirectConnect Customers and...the banks that are dropping DirectConnect to EWC+....

I am using EWC+ with Chase...had no choice and I do not see a faster Connection...to me EWC+ is the same as EWC with the Varible Tokens it uses to Identify and make the connection (over using an ID/Password that remianed the same with EWC).  

I have testedanother Banks DirectConnect and Bill Pay...Banks bill pay is free using DC...its now a matter of moving Money to the New Bank.  For as long as I can i want to be able to do One Place banking....using Quicken and DirectConnect.  Maybe the Bank I am going to is planning to go with EWC+...but than...maybe Not.  Eric Dunn's recent letter to Quicken customers made it clear Other banks are planning to discontinue DC...and going with EWC+....

Its been written in this Post, Quicken DC users represents a very small number of bank customers so it appear the power of the Voice...Power of taking Banking business elsewhere has no meaningful impact.  

ksl

Add me to the list of LONG Time Quicken user and BofA customer. I was fine with using the BofA Bill Pay site to pay bills, the benefit was having them show up immediately in my register as future transactions and it allowed me to manage my future cash flows. Without this I consider Quicken as "broken" and not worth the price of admission. I've about had it with BofA as well.

Chris_QPW

denmarfl said:

I am using EWC+ with Chase...had no choice and I do not see a faster Connection...to me EWC+ is the same as EWC with the Varible Tokens it uses to Identify and make the connection (over using an ID/Password that remianed the same with EWC).    

Here is how I see the claim about it being faster.
There is two places where that might happen.

When comparing Direct Connect to either Express Web Connect or Express Web Connect +.
Because of some kind of restriction on Quicken's way of making the connection, it can only connect to one financial institution/user account at a time.  Whereas Express Web Connect/Express Web Connect + has had the ability to do these in parallel for quite some time.

So, if one had a lot of financial institutions/user accounts the overall time might be faster for Express Web Connect/Express Web Connect +.  On the other hand going through more servers might slow the individual transfers with Express Web Connect/Express Web + over Direct Connect "somewhat".

In comparison between Express Web Connect and and Express Web Connect +.
I think the only part here that "might" speed up would be if the login/how to get the transaction in the old Express Web Connect is terribly slow.  Note this would vary based on financial institution.  Since Express Web Connect had no standard for this connection between Intuit and the financial institution, it could be anywhere between the same speed and terrible.

Actually there is one other area where it can be faster and more reliable when comparing between Express Web Connect and Express Web Connect +.  Because Express Web Connect is "login in as the user" it is also constrained to what that financial institution's website requires for user logins through a web browser.  That means multiple factor authentication applies if required.  Not only does this slow everything down making it somewhat "interactive" it cause reliability problems.

Express Web Connect + is a trusted communication between Intuit and the financial institution, and as such isn't subject to multiple authentication.

markchiles

Today, (9/26) Quicken Premier forced me to "re-authorize" my Bank of America Checking and Credit Card accounts. My BOA accounts now show "Express Web Connect+". After the conversion to EWC+, I am getting double transaction downloads and I no longer have "SEND" as an option on my BOA Checking Account. I had set up Quicken Bill Manager a couple weeks ago and received micro-deposits to my BOA checking account to verify it as the payee account. Yet, Q Bill Manager will not let me QuickPay a BOA credit card from a BOA checking account. Bill Manager gives an error message, tells me to use the bank's website to make payment and then Q crashes. Great Job Quicken! I am now forced to go to BOA website to make ANY payment. As an alternative, I can also set up all my credit cards and utilities to AutoPay. Not sure what use Quicken is going to be in the future. I recently re-upped Quicken Premier for another year. It may be my last.

DotCom

[Removed - Rant] I've downloaded scheduled payment transaction from the BofA website into Quicken for close to 20 years. And now it no longer works with the new, improved connection? [Removed - Rant]

Jeff Hitz

Today I completed the "re-authorization" process with B of A, and my accounts also now show "Express Web Connect +". However, when I update, the update shows as complete, but nothing downloads. Is anyone else experiencing this, and if so is there a fix?

Jeff Hitz

btw, while I'm not happy with this change, I can live with it (provided downloads gets working) as I only pay about 3 bills a month directly (as opposed to autopay)

ksl

I too will not be renewing. I spoke with a BofA rep and they claimed this was driven by Quicken. I pushed back and stated my opinion it was likely driven by the Bank (in spite of what he said). I don't mind using the Bank's interface to pay bills, I'm fine with it, but I need to have those future transactions downloaded to Quicken or it's worthless to me.

denmarfl

This as I seem to understand is driven by the banks not wanting to come up with one Protocol for DirectConnect Connections.  Why would Quicken want to diminish the benefits of its product.  Now where I have issues with Quicken, could they have pushed backed harder at the Banks making this chnage to get them to agree on a Protocol that would allow DirectConnect to continue...be security safe...and continue to allow 2 way communication...for me to enter Bills and Transfers at the Website and use Quicken as a software to download those transactions into...is 2 Places, 2 times the work.  I have been shopping other Banks still using DirectConnect

jtemplin

Chris_QPW said:

My approach is that I go to all my billers' websites and setup automatic payments.

I WHOLEHEARTEDLY second this. I've managed my bill payments this way for at least 20 years, and there has never been an issue with them. I don't have to worry about a bill payment system screwing up, and we pay as many bills as we can on a credit card for the cash back.

That card was compromised only once during that time. I simply ran a report from that Quicken account that told me what recurring bills in the last 12 months were paid with that card. Then I logged into each biller's website and updated the card info. Takes maybe two hours at most (I have a dozen recurring bills paid this way).

I can't imagine that is more of a hassle than bank shopping/hopping while looking for banks that still offer Direct Connect and creating new accounts there and/or moving accounts. Wash, rinse, and repeat until no more DC banks are left. No thank you.

P.S. Our BoA transitions happened smoothly on two different data files on two different PCs (mine and my spouse's). The only very minor issue I had was two or three transactions which had downloaded under Direct Connect downloaded again after the EWC+ changeover, but that hasn't happened since.

Chris_QPW

@jtemplin I have only had to change my credit card at all our biller's website once in more than 30 years, but it wasn't due to it being compromise.  It was due to my wife leaving it somewhere.  

I decided to get a second card that I only use for online transactions, just in case.  And of course it that was the one an only time either of us has lost a credit card, and has been more than 10 years since that happened.  

And like you said it really wasn't that much of a hassle.  What was much more of a hassle was when I closed our USAA accounts. My utility bills don't allow credit cards and as such require the withdraw to come from our checking account.  And my water bill required actually filling out a form and mailing it in (not email) to switch it, which they lost.  After several calls I could get it turned off, but I still had to repeat sending the form by mail to get it turned on again, which finally happened after 2 billing cycles (which are every two months) from the start of this.

So, it was changing checking accounts/financial institutions that constituted the biggest hassle for us.  But it was more that it took a long time to get finished than anything that really was time consuming on our part.  It was much more of a hassle to change our phone number recently.

mototom

I'll add myself to the chorus of people who feel this new connection is garbage. I also used the BoA site to create and manage payments—but it's critical that those payments show up in my register when they get scheduled. The loss of downloading pending bill pay transactions is just a disaster.

I don't really care who initiated the change. It makes Quicken much less useful.

denmarfl

Everyone has an opinion, and that is How a democracy works.  My problem is, if people don't speak up and object, Banks and other service related Businesses will take away benefits...I am not saying Businesses don't have the right, to the Contrary, they do...but if they know there is a Customer base that will not do business with them when they take away services that add value, and certainly Quicken DirectConnect did\Does...maybe Businesses will reframe from taking services away...becuase Customers can get those services Elsewhere....

Chris_QPW

denmarfl said:

Everyone has an opinion, and that is How a democracy works.  My problem is, if people don't speak up and object, Banks and other service related Businesses will take away benefits...I am not saying Businesses don't have the right, to the Contrary, they do...but if they know there is a Customer base that will not do business with them when they take away services that add value, and certainly Quicken DirectConnect did\Does...maybe Businesses will reframe from taking services away...becuase Customers can get those services Elsewhere....

I agree, but I really wonder how many of the people here are actually complaining to the right people.

Quicken Inc has no control over this.  People should be complaining to the financial institutions, and not accepting the garbage statements that Quicken Inc or Intuit forced it on them.  And if one changes to another financial institution to get these services they should be telling them that is exactly why they changed over.

denmarfl

I did voice myself to the president of bank of America....Honey O'Neill.  Someone from her office called me back...of course.  The long and the short as much as I appreciated the call, which came about 2 hours after I sent the email, it was a professional conversation that you knew would not make a difference.  I discussed how we can create reports Globally in Quicken and at bofA we can create similar reports but, only BofA accts will be included.  I knew the decision was made and nothing I said would make a difference, but at least I voiced my displeasure with the bank a bank I have been a customer of for 30 years+, and, a Bank I have been acting as my own Teller, and back room Processing agent, saving the BofA money....   For the benefit of doing my Banking at one place, Quicken software, I do not mind changing to a Bank that is offering DC even though the new bank may chnage as well.  Any DirDep I have with BofA, I can use Zelle to send the money to the New bank....

fpap817

I updated to EWC+ on Sept 29 with BofA There were few issues. Mostly my fault. Transactions are loading as usual.

What is Quicken? 1) it downloads transactions 2) it categorizes transactions 3) it creates reports 4) it aggregates data from multiple sources and 5) ALLOWS BILL PAY from Quicken thru your bank account.

With EWC+ #5 goes away (unless you want to use Quick Checks) and you have to do your bill pay from the bank website. Yes, it is a hassle.
But the downloading / categorization, reporting and aggregation activity stays with Quicken.

No such a big deal.