Bank of America

Jim Osprey · October 2022

I use Bank of America (BOA) Electronic banking to pay my bills.
Previously when I entered a bill with them when I "Updated Quicken" the bill would be downloaded to Quicken. Later when paid I simply clicked the transaction and it matched up with that previous downloaded transaction. (I believe this was "Direct Connect")
Now when bills are entered in BOA (Using Express Web Connect Plus) for payment the transaction to be paid is not updated to Quicken. However, when the bills are paid they downloaded to Quicken but there is no transaction to match.
This is a very bad situation as I can easily find my BOA account overdrawn! I should nopt have to enter the scheduled bills manually this why I got Quicken over 30 years ago!
Please respond to my request.

"Jim Osprey"

Boatnmaniac · October 2022

I don't think anyone (including me) who uses DC Bill Pay with their bank likes what is happening. One of the great advantages of Direct Connect (DC) that is very appealing is that it is a 2-way communication between the bank and Quicken which allows for setting up Bank Bill Pay commands in Quicken, sending to the bank during OSU, linking the scheduled payments at the bank to the transaction in Quicken and allowing the bank to update the status of the scheduled transaction during future OSUs.

Unfortunately, Express Web Connect+ (EWC+) and Express Web Connect (EWC) are only 1-way communications. So, none of this can be done. EWC+/EWC only allow for actual transactions and online balance to be downloaded. Scheduled transactions are not yet actual transactions so they do not get downloaded.

For those of us who want to see scheduled Bill Pays and Transfers shown in the Account Register it means we need to manually enter them into the register when those transactions are scheduled (or at some point prior to when the cleared transactions at the bank are downloaded).

For repeating bill/transfer/income transactions setting up Reminders can simplify that process, especially if they are/can be set up to be automatically entered into the register. Reminders that are not automatically entered will need to be manually entered.

BofA made the decision to eliminate DC and replace it with EWC+. I've heard this was done in part for financial reasons (banks need to pay Intuit for DC and incur incremental costs because of it for tech support and capital, all of which can be avoided or greatly reduced for EWC+). They also wanted to reduce their security risk by preventing 3rd party softwares from accessing data inside their systems and DC accesses data inside their systems. But the banks control what Quicken receives during EWC+/EWC so from their perspective it is a lower risk for them. There's probably a lot of other reasons, too.

BofA actually started this process several years ago when they began prohibiting new BofA customers from setting up their accounts in Quicken with DC. They grandfathered in existing customers but now it seems that they are discontinuing that, too.

EWC+ is Intuit's/Quicken's response to a new data transfer process called FDX. A consortium of large financial institutions developed FDX to provide an industry standardized method of data transfer and where they can better control what data is downloaded. BofA is a consortium member and is now telling Quicken (and I'm assuming other 3rd party financial softwares) to either comply with it or to tell their customers they can no longer download any financial data from them.

BofA is not alone in replacing DC (and EWC). It started last fall with Schwab and was followed by PayPal and Chase. Others will be following suit but I don't know who or when.

Will BofA go back to offering DC? Not at all likely.

Will EWC+ ever be able to offer the DC features that we will no longer have? Who knows but I wouldn't hold my breath for it.

Some users whose DC Bank Bill Pay has been eliminated have gone so far to as to switch to banks that still offer DC Bank Bill Pay. That buys at least some time but the likelihood is that at some time most if not all banks will eliminate DC service for EWC+.

Boatnmaniac · October 2022

Jim Osprey said:

Thank for a very detailed and complete answer.
However it was not the answer I was hoping for.
Thanks
Jim

I wish I could have given you a better answer that you would have liked. I use DC Bank Bill Pay, too, with a different bank and that bank is also a member of the FDX consortium. So I know it's just a matter of time before they will also be dropping DC for EWC+. Believe me, that is not something I am looking forward to.

What I have done to prepare for it:

Set up Auto Pay with most of my billers so they automatically debit my checking or credit card account each month.
As soon as the bill statements are available I will obtain them and make sure to update the amount to be paid and the due date (if applicable) in the applicable Bill Reminder.
Once the Reminder was updated, I immediate enter it so it is visible in the appropriate payment account register. When the payment transaction later gets downloaded it will usually match with the Reminder that was entered earlier.
This has greatly reduced the amount of bills that needs to be paid via Bill Pay...now just 2-3 per month (sometimes 4).
When my bank discontinues DC Bank Bill Pay I will l log into my online account at the bank's website to schedule those few Bill Pays and they should match up with the Reminders later when they download.

It's certainly not ideal but it works and once everything is set up it is not too unbearably cumbersome.

Boatnmaniac · October 2022