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Important Bank of America clarification

dz709

Quicken sent around an email today announcing that Bank of America was going to discontinue its direct connect functionality in quicken. I just spoke to a BofA rep who said that existing Bank of America Quicken users would not be affected - they will be grandfathered in. The Cut off will only apply to New users.

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Rocket J Squirrel

If you contact B of A, volunteer to pay a fee for DC with Bill Pay.

denmarfl

But, I voiced my opinion and displaesure directly to BofA...you can send an email direct to Holly O'Neill; Retail Banking. I got a call back from someone else, I knew I would never hear from Ms O'Neill. But I voiced my displeasure witht the change. It is all about the numbers, few people call BofA it will have very little impact. Problem is I am told in another Post that Quicken users at BofA are a small number....and therefore would have little impact on them to go back to DC. But here's how I see it, you never know and, if you just complain, but, don't complain to the Source that brought abot this Change, BANK OF AMERICA....your complaining is useless.

Jon

If you think you're going to find another desktop program that lets you do Bank Bill Pay better than this, all I can say is "Good luck with that". The banks that are dropping Direct Connect support are dropping it for everyone, not just Quicken. Go look at the message forums or support articles for other competing programs, they're all dealing with the same issues at the same banks. There's no other program out there that is going to restore your ability to access BoA Bill Pay from the desktop. And as has been pointed out many times, there is no fix or work-around that Quicken can implement to get it back either. Complain directly to BoA; anything else is wasting your time.

(Complaining directly to BoA is probably a waste of your time as well; I'd be shocked if they turned DC back on. But they are the only ones who could do anything to change this.)

Tim12

> @bwentzel13 said:
> I've yet to send a payment through Quicken Bill Manager (QBM) since switching to EWC+ from DC so a question I have is, will QBM use my existing Online Payees or will I need to re-establish them? If the later, is there a reason to keep all the Online Payees I've accumulated over the years?

I was just told by a Quicken phone support agent in that Quicken Bill Manager does not allow you to pay bills through your financial institution. Last week a Quicken phone support agent told me it does, and I'm ready to pay bills again. But I just tried to use Quicken Bill Manager to pay my bills that are coming due in a few days, and none of my online payees show up in it. The agent in India told me there is no way to import my online payees from Bank of America's Bill Pay into my Quicken application.

So...if you don't like what Quicken phone support tells you, just call again and you'll get a different story.

My solution at this point is to pay my bills through my Bank of America online Bill Pay until I can find some alternative to Quicken. I've wasted enough time trying to figure this out. Quicken insists it is the banks that decided to stop Direct Connect working with Quicken. That may be true, but Quicken has done a terrible job of providing a fix or work-around. The phone agent just told me he has a hundred calls waiting. Good luck everybody.

Rocket J Squirrel

bwentzel13 said:

I may consider looking for another bank that supports DC although after looking at all the banks in the EWC+/FDX consortium, I'm not sure who that might be.

https://financialdataexchange.org/FDX/FDX/The-Consortium/Members.aspx

Yes, it would be more useful to have a list of banks that are not going to join FDX.

bwentzel13

So far, my experience since the conversion has been relatively painless and I'm thankful for this and I hope it continues. Still, BofA's decision to remove DC has removed some of the automation I grew to appreciate over the years and I'm not particularly happy about it. I may consider looking for another bank that supports DC although after looking at all the banks in the EWC+/FDX consortium, I'm not sure who that might be.

https://financialdataexchange.org/FDX/FDX/The-Consortium/Members.aspx

denmarfl

This is not about bragging if that is the correct word to use, its about How Come? I hate the fact BofA terminated DC, my Banking is now taking longer and I must enter Banking Info at 2 places, Quicken and BofA Website. So far, the BofA Website gets a low C mark for me. Whereas paying Bills is streamlined...you go to Payment center...your Payees are all there...and you can scroll down and pay as many bills as you want without changing screens, but, the Transfer between BofA Accts is SLOW many times and it FAILS to have a NOTE Line so you can document why if you want, the money was Transferred. But the slowiness of waiting each time you enter from, to, amt...the time delay is annoying.

But for the How Come..... I truly feel for those that have experienced issues with the conversion to EWC+. My experience was fairly smooth...my main checking acct has over 800 entries....I only saw 2 duplicate downloads and all I had to do was Delete each since they were already entered into the Register. So the question that comes to mind, why did some users experience issues with lots of duplicates and some with having to dig in to get Acct Balances in agreement with BofA? This even might be something Q should look into. We are all using the latest Software since we are all pretty much subscribers, our Q software creates the same type of data File. I am using a data file I created in 2001 or 2002, I do create a Year Ends data file where my NEW Year data File starts with the 1st day of the New year...I do so to keep my current years data smaller than if it were ongoing from 2002. Might that have some impact as to why my conversion went fairly easy? I did Reconcile my data File, ran validate, made a Backup of my Data file before I converted (that shows you how much I trusted this conversion). Don't get me wrong, I am not sitting back and accepting this change, BofA has no lock on me, I am considering making a switch to a Bank that is offering DC...even tho it means a lot of work to make a change....to me unlike others, to get DC back that change will be worth while. I hate the fact that I am saving BofA lots of Money by being their teller and backroom Processor...and now they have said thanks in a way that means I must do More work to Bank with them using EWC+...and I am still their Teller and Backroom Processor....PLUS, One Step Update connection...it is MUCH slower than DirectConnect.

rgintampa

thank you........ $28 missed payment. $79 interest fees. Sure, I could have prevented it by paying better attention but then any change is likely to have somebody like me f#$k it up

neilz

I meant that I had to manually enter them. However, after I realized that I need to select SEND in the bill reminder they went out normally. Even today, Oct 12, I paid two bills that went to BoA without having to do any additional actions.

Neil

> @bwentzel13 said:
> > @neilz said:
> > So ... since I did the recommended 'switch' and followed directions to move to the Bill Manager, I find that all the bills I normally pay via Quicken to BoA, still show the "Online Bill Pay" and that I still need to send them to the bank.
> >
> Thanks for relaying your experience. What did you mean by "that I still need to send them to the bank."?
>
>

bwentzel13

I'm just browsing my BofA history and my payments fall into the following categories:

- Handwritten checks - thankfully there are few of those and this change doesn't impact them.

- Credit card payments - My solution for this is to log into the CC company's site and have them execute an EFT once I reconcile the account. These transactions are downloaded to my registers once I do an update a day or two later. This amounts to a few extra steps but it's not a big deal.

- Payments that resulted in BofA sending checks on my behalf to companies like my lawn service. I assume I can continue to do this through Quicken Bill Manager and the third party would end up sending the check. I've not done this type of payment since the switch to EWC+.

- A loan payment. This is the one payment Quicken, through DC, set up a recurring payment with BofA and I'm not sure how this will work whenever I create a new loan sometime in the future. For now the payments seem to work as they have in the past and BofA is adding the payments to the register when I update the account through EWC+.

This is my perception of how it's working since I did the switch.

denmarfl

Before this BofA change to EWC+...I had the BofA Checking acct with Bill pay and, a truist Checking acct with Bill pay. Both Banks checking accts had FREE Bill...BofA is Now EWC+ but Truist is Still Quicken DirectConnect. So I could just apy my Bills now thru Quicken using DirectConnect with the truist Checking acct. But...here's my problem. In Quicken before the BofA change, the BILL PAY List was the SAME whether I clicked on BofA or Truist...with the exception....many Bill Pays in the truist List in Quicken had Longer lead times. I went to the Truist Online site and added my Bills....as an example a Chase CC that shows in the Quicken Bill Pay List for this Chase card shows it requires 5 days Lead time, at the Truist Website this same Bill shows 2 Days Lead time. I did run REFRESH for Truist but it did not chnage any of the Lead times. With BofA...lead times for Bill pay ain Quicken and BofA Online site mirrored one another...but that is not happening with Truist. So this issue causes me concern going forward to Use Quicken DirectConnect Bill pay with Truist. The other issue with Truist ...I did pay a Bill using Trusits with Q Direct Connect...after connecting sucessfully Quicken displayed the Payment sent...but going to the truist Online site...it displayed nothing about receiving the Payment request. The night before the Payment was to be Paid by Truist...it showed up as a Pending Debit in my Truist Checking acct. I sent this payment with a 3 day lead time...for 2 days I saw no evidence at the truist Website it was in processing...that concerns me. Truist is an Option but not a chnage I will make in the near future until I see what other banks offer DC, and how those Banks Interact/Mirror Q with thier Online sites. For now entering Transfer/Bill pays at BofA Site, and entering the transactions into Q register...for me...is More work and a Hassle. The Downloaded cleared Transaction via EWC+ just come down as ONLINE TRANSFER, nothing else...Bill pays, Just show you paid CHASE, etc

MaryEason

It's always disappointing to me that no one from Quicken customer service comments in these conversations; it would alleviate a lot of frustration from users.

MaryEason

Ah, maybe not... I just know the BofA bill pay setups came from Quicken - good luck to all!

denmarfl

Quicken Online Payees...from what I read, you will need to enroll in Q Bill pay...and, I believe setup your Payees in Q Bill pay. here's the issue with Quicken Bill Pay. Q is only giving users their Bill pay until next october...for free. Worse yet, Quicken Bill Pay is another company (not Quicken)...and...you will need to provide your ID and passwords for those Bills you want Q Bill pay...to Pay. How many want to give out their ID/Passwords...??? The Q Bill payer actually uses your ID/Password to Log into the Sites to Pay the Bills. lets say other are like me...at BofA I have checking accts and I have a Visa CC. Why would I ever want a Bill payer to have my BofA ID and password? The Q Bill payer has full access to all my accts...not to say the Bill payer would do anything except pay the Bill and log off...but it is not a chnace I want to Take. For my security comfort, I want no one to have my ID/Passwords. So for me, Q Bill pay is not an option, its not a service as it works today I would ever use...even if Free.

Gopher651

I don't think Quicken online bill payees are still linked to BoA. I may be wrong however.

MaryEason

Your existing Online Payees are already set up in BofA. I have not tried QBM yet as the initial setup is evidently not complete between Quicken and the institutions... If you are going to use BofA to pay your bills, do not delete your Quicken online payees or you will have to set them up again in BofA. From what I gathered in the poorly written communication email from Quicken, Quicken will NOT send the QBM bill pays to BofA to be paid but will send them via some other method. Not sure I've got the whole process down yet, but those are my thoughts.

bwentzel13

I've yet to send a payment through Quicken Bill Manager (QBM) since switching to EWC+ from DC so a question I have is, will QBM use my existing Online Payees or will I need to re-establish them? If the later, is there a reason to keep all the Online Payees I've accumulated over the years?

denmarfl

Definite MORE work now that DC is gone. If you want actuate Financial information to include catagories...you are now entering Transactions ..Bill pay and Transfers between accts at BofA...than you must enter that same information in Quicken because 1) Transfers at BofA Site do NOT have a entry to enter a Meno...and even if it did, the meno would NOT download, 2) Bill Pays...download includes name of Payee...but, if as I do you add add'l info when you entered the Bill pay in Quicken...I add Due date, and even sometimes if a spec purchase was made in that Payment, I add that...so, lots more entry work. Wait...Q has a Global report you can create that allows you as an example..to track all your credit card Purchases across all banks (if you have CC with more than 1 bank which I do)....you lose that capibility unless you enter add'l Catagory info in the EWC+ Download Register....so yes, lots more work...to give same results you got when BofA was running DC. I am open to chnage, but chnage should result in less work...Not More

MaryEason

I have converted all my BofA accounts in Quicken. All transactions from the bank still download, albeit without the correct memorized category. The biggest hassle is having to enter my bill pays on BofA's website and then enter them again in Quicken so that when they download, they'll match (and I have the future view of cash flow which is really what using Quicken is all about). Good luck finding another software that does all of what Quicken does for us old timers who actually used a check register to manage money back in the day. I have no clue how youngsters predict their cash flow and financial status using BofA's tools only.

bwentzel13

> @denmarfl said:
> I know of no other Financial software the Banks use a connection that Uploads and downloads Transactions. This decision to no longer use Quicken DirectConnect was a decision Made by the BANKS.......and I for one am disappointed with the BANKS

Agreed 100%. Quicken could have done a better job of communicating and helping users understand the implications of the change. I would have liked to understand the implications on my processes but I'm learning and adapting.

denmarfl

I know of no other Financial software the Banks use a connection that Uploads and downloads Transactions. This decision to no longer use Quicken DirectConnect was a decision Made by the BANKS.......and I for one am disappointed with the BANKS

Richard Oedel

As of 10/11/22 my direct connect is broken. Whether officially or not really doesnt matter. Looking for another software product other than Q.

denmarfl

I was merely attempting thru this Community to find out if anyone had better information than I had. I do thank you for your time in entering a response, and had no intentions of wasting anyone's time....

Jon

If it's still working for you then obviously they haven't turned it off yet. Why waste everyone's time asking a question you already know the answer to?

Neither Quicken nor BoA has said anything to indicate there's been a change of plans, so you can expect DC to stop working at some point. If the suspense is bothering you that much just switch over now & be done with it.

denmarfl

I called Quicken Support just now. My Question was, has BofA turned off DirectConnect as of 10/10/22. The phone agent said yes. I informed him I had just used Q and connected my BofA accts...that I have Not ReAuthorized to EWC+....and connected to BofA using my BofA accts still showing DirectConnect..and got COMPLETED. So I asked, did BofA Turn Off DirectConnect? The answer I got, you need to call BofA...here it goes...again. Too large companies pointing the figer at each oter...because a call BofA was, you'll need to call Quicken. So communications at Q and BofA to agents who answer calls about this chnage as usual have been...terrible. No one at the levels I spoke with had the Answer. It is so simple...did BofA Turn off DirectConnect or NOT?

MaryEason

Good to know... I converted today, all 8 of my BofA accounts, but before doing so I set up one year's worth of payments for those that I know will continue. Then I went to BofA's Bill Pay and made sure they all showed up there, and they did. I am still a bit baffled by the Quicken Bill Pay/Bill Manager conundrum so I assumed by September of 2023 either Quicken will have become enlightened and introduced a way to pay bills from within the software, or I will have figured it out myself, or I will have found a new software to use. I guess I should call Quicken Support as you did and try to get a better explanation of the Bill Manager. I consider myself a fairly astute Quicken user (over 20 years) and not an idiot in most cases, but this conversion transition was not clearly explained at all, causing more questions than answers (and internal angst, at least for me). Thanks for the encouraging explanation and the support phone number. I'm on it tomorrow!

Tim12

The widespread confusion on this forum confirms my impression that Quicken has done a terrible job of getting its customers through this change. It seems that the transition was used as an opportunity to sell product, rather than help long-time Quicken users to continue doing business with their banks.

The generic emails I got in August and September from Quicken warning of the change neglected to tell me that I already have Quicken Bill Manager as part of my Quicken Deluxe subscription. Only the phone support person pointed it out to me. It was only by having him guiding me through the steps to deactivate Bill Pay and activate Quicken Bill Manager that I was able to (tentatively) keep using Quicken for online bill paying. We'll see once I get through the microdeposit verification process in the next couple of days.

My advice for folks still in the dark is to call Quicken Support at (650) 250-1900. I had to look around for this number, too. Wait time on Tuesday afternoon was about a half hour. The support guy said they're getting a lot of calls about this. Ya think? Good luck to you all.

Rocket J Squirrel

@willybear The date I heard was 10/10.

willybear

I've been using Quicken since Quicken for DOS, and BoA online banking since 2004. The bill pay thing is kind of a big deal to me because, a) I pay almost all of my bills using BoA bill pay, b) I'm not going to pay for the privilege of having Quicken write a check for me, and I have steadfastly avoided giving anyone but my wife permission to draw on my bank accounts. I bit and switched, and the first thing I saw was that a scheduled recurring payment did not download. I switched back, and will continue with DC until it's really turned off. BoA website still says "discontinued for new users". As of 10/03 DC still works here. Per Quicken it was to be discontinued on 08/10. My personal opinion is that Quicken has been disingenuous about what's really happened. Now if I could just get rid of the nag every time I do my updates.

wpbpatfl

I made the change and my Quicken account is all messed up. I've got duplicate transactions that came in, and it is still happening. I don't know how to fix it.