Quicken not entering BofA Bill payments

Jenni

When I updated BofA through Quicken it would also download my BofA Bill pay scheduled payments. Since the last update it's not entering any of my scheduled payments.

Quicken Jared

Jenni said:

When I updated BofA through Quicken it would also download my BofA Bill pay scheduled payments. Since the last update it's not entering any of my scheduled payments.

Hello @Jenni, 

I am sorry to hear about this problem with missing scheduled payments. Thank you for looking to the Quicken Community for assistance. 

First, have you already been prompted to switch the connection method of your accounts, as described in the Support Article linked here? If so, have you already done so? Note that you can check your connection method by Tools > Account List and then clicking on the Edit button in the row associated with the affected accounts. Next, go to the Online Services tab in the new window that appears afterward. The information we are looking for should be found under the Online Setup callout box.

I look forward to hearing back from you about this. 

Thank you,

Quicken Jared 

scsweet

I had the same issue. For me it was directly related to the switch from Direct Connect to EWC+ (I was able to confirm, using a backup file still configured to use DC, that upcoming payments synchronized with my Quicken BofA account in the backup file). If I understand the issue correctly, with EWC+ scheduled payments don't download immediately after being entered (see https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7918600/bank-of-america-ewc-connection) this is due to the fact that the bidirectional Bill Pay integration that direct connect supports doesn't exist in EWC+.

It sounds like this is a BofA decision for which, unless EWC+ can be configured to download pending bill pay transactions, a fix for this issue is out of Quicken's control.

Quicken Anja

Hello @Jenni & @scsweet,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community, though I apologize for any confusion.

With the new EWC+ connection method, scheduled bill pay transactions will no longer download as they did before as this was a Direct Connect feature. The new connection method only downloads posted transactions.

We apologize for any inconvenience! Thank you.

scsweet

Anja, thank you for the information. Are you able to provide an end date for Direct Connect support by Bank of America? There is conflicting information in this forum (existing users grandfathered and two different end dates including 10/12/22). It still worked as of last night and the Bank of America Mobile Banking Support directed me to Quicken Support when I asked them for information. Thanks for any clarification you can provide.

scsweet

Nevermind... It appears that BofA has disabled Direct Connect as of today. My backup direct connect file version gives the following error: "Your financial institution has rejected your request. Additional information from Bank of America-All Other States: Connectivity for this financial institution has been disabled. Please contact your Financial Institution customer support center for additional information.[OL-301-B]." One step update still implies you can skip this... Lots of issues elsewhere in this forum. Poorly handled on both Quicken and Bank of America's part, especially as there is significant loss of functionality.

Rocket J Squirrel

scsweet said:

It appears that BofA has disabled Direct Connect as of today.

It's still working for me. I wonder how long it will last.

Greg_the_Geek

Mine stopped worked yesterday evening. 

Rocket J Squirrel

Rocket J Squirrel said:

It's still working for me. I wonder how long it will last.

I need wonder no longer. Mine also stopped working late last night.

Chris_QPW

It is interesting that it stops working at different.times for different people.  My guess would be that there are multiple servers and it is the luck of the draw of which one you get (maybe based on location) and when they got around to shutting down that server.

BarryGraham

Quicken Anja said:

Hello @Jenni & @scsweet,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community, though I apologize for any confusion.

With the new EWC+ connection method, scheduled bill pay transactions will no longer download as they did before as this was a Direct Connect feature. The new connection method only downloads posted transactions.

We apologize for any inconvenience! Thank you.

You say that as if it's trivial. This is a huge issue for many people including me.

Greg_the_Geek

@BarryGraham, have you complained to BofA?

scsweet

Bank of America won't even acknowledge that they have any ownership of this issue. Their technical support people insisted that my questions go to Quicken support, even when I tried to escalate.

Greg_the_Geek

Did you ask them why they switched to EWC+? I would suggest calling BofA corporate (704 386 5681) and complaining. Ask for the Office of the President.

scsweet

The person I spoke with had no interest in helping me. When I asked to be connected to a supervisor he said he would do so but informed me that the supervisor told him that he would provide the same answer. When I asked about a corporate customer support number I was not given any additional information.

Chris_QPW

BarryGraham said:

Quicken Anja said:

Hello @Jenni & @scsweet,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community, though I apologize for any confusion.

With the new EWC+ connection method, scheduled bill pay transactions will no longer download as they did before as this was a Direct Connect feature. The new connection method only downloads posted transactions.

We apologize for any inconvenience! Thank you.

You say that as if it's trivial. This is a huge issue for many people including me.

I don't see anything in @Quicken Anja's comment that suggests that she considers the matter trivial, but there isn't anything she/they can do about it.

I don't know what you are looking for, especially from the moderators, which in general are just relaying information.

Ps56k2

BarryGraham said: You say that as if it's trivial. This is a huge issue for many people including me.

Let us all repeat - THIS WAS A CHANGE THAT WAS INSTITUTED BY EACH BANK....
NOT initiated by Quicken..... Quicken can only support what the bank offers....

BarryGraham

It's a partnership between Quicken and the Bank.  Both are stakeholders.

BarryGraham

Chris_QPW said:

BarryGraham said:

Quicken Anja said:

Hello @Jenni & @scsweet,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community, though I apologize for any confusion.

With the new EWC+ connection method, scheduled bill pay transactions will no longer download as they did before as this was a Direct Connect feature. The new connection method only downloads posted transactions.

We apologize for any inconvenience! Thank you.

You say that as if it's trivial. This is a huge issue for many people including me.

I don't see anything in @Quicken Anja's comment that suggests that she considers the matter trivial, but there isn't anything she/they can do about it.

I don't know what you are looking for, especially from the moderators, which in general are just relaying information.

As you know from other communities that we participate in, moderators with "Quicken" in front of their name have the ability to pass on our concerns. That having been said, I have already done that to someone that can help, and I will also be writing to the Bank.

Ps56k2

BarryGraham said: It's a partnership between Quicken and the Bank.  Both are stakeholders.

sort of the same "partnership" between you and Bank of America with the same influence as a stakeholder

BarryGraham

The access to the data is through Quicken. Whenever you buy a product, you don't need to worry about who makes the individual components, your contract is with the manufacturer or dealer.  Bugging BofA may help but that ought not to be necessary.

Ps56k2

BarryGraham said: Whenever you buy a product, you don't need to worry about who makes the individual components, your contract is with the manufacturer or dealer.

but... the end product no longer exists - so you can bug the "dealer" all you want

mshiggins

Ps56k2 said:

BarryGraham said: It's a partnership between Quicken and the Bank.  Both are stakeholders.

sort of the same "partnership" between you and Bank of America with the same influence as a stakeholder

Quicken Inc had to change connection types. How Quicken Inc chose to do the messaging to customers, creation of support documentation, and training support personnel and moderators is entirely on Quicken Inc.  Quicken Inc did not do any of those things well. 

Chris_QPW

mshiggins said:

Ps56k2 said:

BarryGraham said: It's a partnership between Quicken and the Bank.  Both are stakeholders.

sort of the same "partnership" between you and Bank of America with the same influence as a stakeholder

Quicken Inc had to change connection types. How Quicken Inc chose to do the messaging to customers, creation of support documentation, and training support personnel and moderators is entirely on Quicken Inc.  Quicken Inc did not do any of those things well. 

Frankly I think all the push back for the loss of bill pay came as a surprise to Quicken Inc.
It certainly surprised me how many people were using it, especially the part where they were only using it to sync bills back to Quicken (using the financial institution's website for the actually submitting the bill payments).  But even so, once they realized this was such a big issue, they should have created a document that could be referenced with all the needed information in it.  This one came close, but missed the point of syncing bills back, and has yet to be updated even though a moderator has flagged it to the content creators at least a week ago.
Managing Bank Bill Pay and Transfers after Direct Connect Discontinuation

And a consistent response should have been implemented for all these people posting about this problem.  I'm still seeing posts from people that haven't got the message.

Frankly I give Quicken Inc a D- on informing their customers about changes.

There assumption seems to be that "We implement things, so they are 'Intuitive' and as such don't have to explain what changed or any procedures that might be associated with that change."

This changeover is a prime example.  The email sent couldn't have been any more generic and useless.
All they said is "change is coming", "change is here".

They assume that everyone would just naturally hit the prompt to reauthorize even though some people don't use One Step Update.  And they assume that the reauthorization is going to go perfect, and there isn't any need for testing/documenting what might go wrong.

They implement things like the pending transactions and never state how one would turn them off.  They remove the Update Transactions button in the Downloaded Transactions tab and change it to an icon.
I could go on and on.

Quicken Inc can't stop such changeovers dictated by the financial institutions, but they certainly can do a better job at informing their customers about how to changeover and what services that impacts.

BarryGraham

Greg_the_Geek said:

@BarryGraham, have you complained to BofA?

Yes