Bank of America migration removed my ability to use BoA Bank Bill Pay with QMac ?

rob

The new Bank of America authentication has removed my ability to use BoA bill pay. I can no longer pay anyone from my BoA checking accounts. What gives?

Ps56k2

Part of the new protocol that changed - initiated by Schwab, Chase, and now BoA -
the new protocol called EWC+ is only one-way for downloading,
and the protocol doesn't support any two-way uploading of Transfers, Bill Payments, etc -

jacobs

You can still use BoA's bill pay from their website; you just cannot initiate transactions from the Quicken end. (FYI, this decision to discontinue support of the Direct Connect two-way protocol was initiated by the financial institutions.)

Ps56k2

Part of the new protocol that changed - initiated by Schwab, Chase, and now BoA -
the new protocol called EWC+ is only one-way for downloading,
and the protocol doesn't support any two-way uploading of Transfers, Bill Payments, etc -

jacobs

You can still use BoA's bill pay from their website; you just cannot initiate transactions from the Quicken end. (FYI, this decision to discontinue support of the Direct Connect two-way protocol was initiated by the financial institutions.)

Ps56k2

rob said: The new Bank of America authentication has removed my ability to use BoA bill pay.

As mentioned by @jacobs - you can still use the BoA Bill Payment feature - BUT - you have to do it from the BoA website.

I have setup all my bills as Quicken manual Reminders... they were "online" - but now are just "reminders".
So.. it is now a 2-step process.... vs the previous 1-step process.
1 - Enter and record the Reminder transaction in Quicken for the bill being paid
2 - Go to the BoA online website - log into your account - and manually enter the BoA Bill Payment info
3 - Done..

rob

[Removed - Rant] Does anyone know of a bank that continues to support direct connect? I'm probably looking...

rob

It isn't a "rant" when it is the truth...

Alice_H

Just so I understand this....I did the direct connect change today, with a Quicken person on the phone to guide me. Now when I input a bill to be paid on the BofA bill pay site, and then I refresh Quicken the payment doesn't show up. Is that correct? If so, I'm really disappointed that I wasn't told that.

rob

> @Alice_H said:
> Just so I understand this....I did the direct connect change today, with a Quicken person on the phone to guide me. Now when I input a bill to be paid on the BofA bill pay site, and then I refresh Quicken the payment doesn't show up. Is that correct? If so, I'm really disappointed that I wasn't told that.

It has always been my experience that when a transaction is entered into the BoA web site, it doesn't show up in Quicken until after that night's bank processing. In my experience, this is true with all "pending" BoA transactions. FYI, even if you have direct connect working today, according the the person I spoke to at BoA, it is scheduled to be permanently removed on Oct. 10.

Alice_H

Thank you. This is for a future transaction to be paid in a couple of weeks. I thought they have always showed up with the next refresh of Quicken. Today it didn't. I'll try again tomorrow.

jacobs

rob said:

Does anyone know of a bank that continues to support direct connect? I'm probably looking...

Hopefully others will jump in here with some answers. I'd just note that you might be fighting a losing battle, as it appears Direct Connect is going to fade away over time; we're just not sure how long it will take. You might get into a whack-a-mole scenario of switching banks, only to have that bank discontinue Direct Connect, requiring you to switch again…

Chris_QPW

Here is a list of financial institutions Quicken Mac supports:
https://ofx-prod-filist.intuit.com/qm2400/data/fidir.txt

Entries with BANKING,ACCOUNTINFO&DIRECT have Direct Connect.
Entries with ACCOUNTINFO,BANKING,PAYMENT&DIRECT have Direct Connect and allow for bill payments through it.

bill@j

I believe that even though you initiate a bill pay transaction on the BOA website, it will not appear in the download to Quicken until the payment process date. i.e. when it is cashed. That seems to be my experience.

Chris_QPW

bill@jereb.net said:

I believe that even though you initiate a bill pay transaction on the BOA website, it will not appear in the download to Quicken until the payment process date. i.e. when it is cashed. That seems to be my experience.

That is correct when using Express Web Connect +.  It is a one way protocol (downloading transactions only) there isn't any syncing of bill payment information to Quicken like is available in Direct Connect.

rakeshg

> @Chris_QPW said:
> That is correct when using Express Web Connect +.  It is a one way protocol (downloading transactions only) there isn't any syncing of bill payment information to Quicken like is available in Direct Connect.

So will Direct Connect go away? I don't use Quicken for Bill Pay and I use BOA online bill pay. Previously, scheduled payments would show up in Quicken PRIOR to being paid. This does not happen with the new connection. I reverted back to Direct Connect for now, but if this goes away, will it mean that I would have to use the paid Quicken Bill Pay service ($10 or $18/month)?

Ps56k2

The bank’s own bill payment feature is still there - just not the interface to Quicken. 

So … double entry for all transactions- once in Quicken and once via the bank online website for the actual payments 

Chris_QPW

rakeshg said:

> @Chris_QPW said:
> That is correct when using Express Web Connect +.  It is a one way protocol (downloading transactions only) there isn't any syncing of bill payment information to Quicken like is available in Direct Connect.

So will Direct Connect go away? I don't use Quicken for Bill Pay and I use BOA online bill pay. Previously, scheduled payments would show up in Quicken PRIOR to being paid. This does not happen with the new connection. I reverted back to Direct Connect for now, but if this goes away, will it mean that I would have to use the paid Quicken Bill Pay service ($10 or $18/month)?

Yes, Direct Connect through Bank of America (but not all financial institutions) is going away.
And Express Web Connect + only allows for downloading transactions, not anything to do will the bill's status.  Of course you will get a downloaded transaction when the bill clears the bank.

I wouldn't recommend Quicken Bill Manager, it doesn't work in the same way that paying bills through Direct Connect or your financial institution's bill payment service works.  Here are some more details on how these systems work:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7916268/my-explanation-of-the-different-term-services-that-quicken-has-provides-and-provided-in-the-past

Note I personally set all my billers to be paid automatically from my credit card if possible, and if not possible directly from my checking account.  This might sound like the same way Quicken Bill Manager works, but there are difference.  They main one being that I'm a human that can handle reading the costs and such, and dealing with a website that might change.  Quicken Bill Manager on the other hand is a "script" logging in as you to every biller's website.  The other difference is that I setup to pay the bill on its due date and then I don't have to touch it again.  I don't "schedule" payments every month and such.
BTW paying the bills by the credit card means that I have plenty of time between when I see the bill (I get emails from my billers) to when it is actually paid, and then even past that there is another 20 to 30 days before the credit card bill is paid so I could contest the charge.  I have never had to do that in the 25+ years that I have been doing this, but it is there.  I also have the credit cards set to be paid automatically from my checking account.  All of this makes the "cash flow" extremely easy to handle.

As for predicting, you can use reminders.  If you like you can even connect those reminders to Online Bills (presentment), and that part is free.  I personally tried using it for years and found it not to be that useful mostly because it wasn't reliable.  And note it is the same third party service doing the same kind of things except that what the do at the bill's site is restricted to getting the statement balance and date and if possible download the statement.  Whereas of course the bill pay part of this service either tries to schedule a ACH transfer (QuickPay) or sends out a check (CheckPay).

DowntownHoward

Quicken has discontinued support for Bank Bill Pay with the Bank of America and other financial institutions. It is no longer possible to download scheduled bill pay transactions from the Bank of America or send payment instructions to the bank. I could live with this if I could download schedule bank bill payments but the new connection does not support this.

Quicken's bill payment service is a design catastrophe and is poorly implemented and is nearly useless. Quicken does not support future dated bill payment transactions, and it enters the full balance of credit card statements directly into your register as payment reminders, and then there is no way to directly convert these into a future dated planned payment ahead of time.

The only viable workaround appears to use my bank for bill payments and then manually enter the Bank Bill Payment transactions into Quicken's register. This is INSANE!

I've been a Quicken Customer for decades and this may end my relationship with this product.

Ps56k2

@DowntownHoward
actually .. it’s the banks that have chosen to migrate to a new download only protocol that no longer supports the uploading of bill payment transactions 
—-
Quicken has discontinued support for Bank Bill Pay with the Bank of America and other financial institutions

tinamc

I have used Bank of America's Bill Pay for years and all my future scheduled transactions always downloaded to Quicken. I do not upload payments scheduled via Quicken. Now, Quicken has decided to discontinue support for Bank Bill Pay so frustrating.

Ps56k2

@tinamc
see above 
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20300615/#Comment_20300615

tinamc

You all are mistaken when you say that payment scheduled through BofA Bill pay were never downloaded into Quicken until they posted. That is not true. I have been doing it this way for years and loved to be able to use my quicken register to see my future transactions set up via Bill Pay.

Chris_QPW

tinamc said:

You all are mistaken when you say that payment scheduled through BofA Bill pay were never downloaded into Quicken until they posted. That is not true. I have been doing it this way for years and loved to be able to use my quicken register to see my future transactions set up via Bill Pay.

That was with Direct Connect.  The same isn't true for Quicken Connect.

DONNY5

Same problem. I may be switching to something other than Quciken if they don't come up with a solution.

Austin@

DONNY5 said:

Same problem. I may be switching to something other than Quciken if they don't come up with a solution.

Good luck @DONNY5. I’d be surprised if you found something that offered exactly what you’re looking for, because these changes affect every personal finance software that connects to Bank of America, not just Quicken.