Ally Bank with 2FA and then CC-508 ? (edit)
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Of course, this will eventually be resolved. My guess (only a guess) is that it will be resolved over the weekend, though it could occur over night depending on the complexity of the fix. This is not the first time something like this has happened with Quicken, Ally, other financial institutions or aggregators.
The issue is system integration testing or change control processes. All providers update their system software all the time. It occurs quite frequently. And these systems are quite complex. Operating system software, security software, etc., all in addition to the consumer facing interface. If a change is implemented properly, no one realizes a change has been made and it is business as usual. However, if any change, even the smallest change, is not made with the strictest testing and discipline, it could throw a monkey wrench into the works, which is what has happened here.
It is hard enough to test changes, and fix problems when they are not implemented properly, when everything is internal. This problem, however, involves multiple entities and how all these entities interact with each other is the issue. Quicken makes a change, it can "break." Ally makes a change, it can break. An aggregator makes a change, it can break. Microsoft or Oracle make a change, it can break. Someone did not do his/her job properly and we are in this predicament.
Now speculation. My guess it is an Ally change caused the break. None of my other accounts in Quicken that likely go through the same download process with Quicken are experiencing a problem. When I try to download, I get a 2FA window that has my cell phone link (good), I get a 6-digit code (good), the process moves forward (good), then it says Ally needs further input in a popup, which does not exist in Quicken or Ally. More speculation. Nowadays, many banks have "trust this device/browser" security features that help users bypass the 2FA nuisance. This is usually in a new popup or page after 2FA. That is the only popup I have ever received after 2FA. Clear your browser cache and you'll get the popup again. Quicken cannot handle that popup, so it is likely that they have provided partners with their (or its service provider's), IP addresses or other identifying info so that the trust popup is bypassed. Ally could have changed its software, (or cleared its cache for all we know) and not accounted for this and here we are. The point is if the testing by Ally was done properly, this problem would not have occurred. Again, I confess that this is unadulterated speculation on my part. But without any info from anyone in a position to know, it is as good as anything. It could be Quicken not communicating new IP addresses to banks and Ally's old solution does not work. Etc., etc., etc. If someone speculates another cause, I would say, "Sure. Why not?"
As I said, I have seen these change control problems with Quicken and its partners before. Nothing new this time. It will take a while to debug but it will be fixed probably before next week. And it will work perfectly, until.... the next time someone makes an untested change.4 -
It's not helpful to blame a change on Ally's side. Quicken is the one selling us a service. Their business model depends on their ability to manage these changes effectively. Quicken is failing to do their job here.2
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Bravo, jyeganeh!0
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I removed my online downloads from Ally thinking it was a problem. Now I get the endless loop of enter a code and "ally bank has a popup" message when trying to set it back up for online downloads. So it's not just me I see.0
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Well, I am not trying to blame or excuse anyone. As I have said, I am clueless about what the exact problem is. I am only speculating and can be completely wrong. Given all my other accounts are working with Quicken, I am guessing Ally has made the change that caused our problem. Blame suggests that I feel angry. Quite the contrary; I am trying to stay quite calm. I feel like I am stuck at an airport during a snowstorm and am resigned to my fate. I will get home but it may take a few days.
The way IT relationships work is that Quicken does not accommodate its systems to meet the IT demands of literally thousands of banks. Rather, it sets methods and formats that its partners must comply with to become a partner in the first place so that they can provide a service to their mutual customers. Now Quicken can and does make changes from time to time. When they do, they communicate those to their partners with a time that they will be implemented. And then, the partners must ensure that their systems continue to work in the new environment. They probably even having testing windows for partners to ensure their systems continue to work. If they didn't communicate changes, hundreds or thousands of partners would be having trouble right now. That is not the case here. That is why I believe Ally made an untested change, or Quicken made a change that Ally has not managed properly. Either way, Ally will have to fix it. Will Quicken help Ally? Absolutely. They are partners with the same upset customers. They will work on it, figure out the problem, implement the fix and move on.
Alternatively, Ally may decide (I don't think this would happen) to ditch Quicken. Many banks have. They have no obligation to deal with Quicken. It would upset their customers but that would be on Ally. I have had credit cards that have discontinued Quicken downloads in the past, and I have dumped the credit cards.
I personally understand people's frustration or anger. For me, I only use Quicken as a record-keeping tool, so I can wait a week to download transactions. No big deal. Others, however, use Quicken quite differently to do bill pay and other things. That would be quite frustrating. But me, I am just a flyer sitting out a snowstorm at the airport. Not happy, but what can I do? I'll chill at the airport pub, get a drink or two, and a good meal, and wait until I get an announcement that the storm is over.4 -
@jyeganeh Well said. I agree with all. And if I had the patience or the typing skills might have posted similar. Thank you!
@BradClarke you are just wrong. In 95% of the cases I post with some component of anger, I might agree. But not now. In my opinion and others, Quicken could not have anticipated this one. The lack of paid bills in the reminders screen 3 or 4 updates back they should have caught before ever releasing to the public. They own that one. They do not necessarlily own this one.
The only possibleexception to that is if it is 2FA misimplemented on Quicken's side, I have been bitching about that for months as first noticed with AT&T mobility. That Is possible. But less likely than Ally made a change the afternoon of 2/22 before their maintenance update and that broke it. And broke if for Plaid as well which is another clue where the issue lies.
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I think you've correctly identified both the problem and the solution. This seems like a problem that could be solved by either Ally or Quicken, but it's probably more easily solved by Ally in the way you describe.
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Somebody in the thread mentioned it's...
Quicken < - > Intuit < - > Ally
...and for what it's worth Intuit TurboTax is not able to connect to Ally at the present time either.0 -
Likely to pick up interest earned for the current taxes.
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Yes, but you give Turbo Tax permission to access your accounts to grab those statements from various interest paying institutions. They actually do a good job with it. So @JC18 mentioned, Turbo Tax also is not talking to Ally. Another good clue its them. The evidence keeps building :)
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> @Bob. said:
> Yes, but you give Turbo Tax permission to access your accounts to grab those statements from various interest paying institutions. They actually do a good job with it. So @JC18 mentioned, Turbo Tax also is not talking to Ally. Another good clue its them. The evidence keeps building
Yes, I have used that feature many times. However, it somehow doesn't make sense that transactions will break tax information import.-1 -
Not sure what you mean by “transactions”?? Its the connecting to Ally and authenticating regardless of what information you are trying to harvest.
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> @Bob. said:
> Not sure what you mean by “transactions”?? Its the connecting to Ally and authenticating regardless of what information you are trying to harvest.
When I imported data from my financial institution into TT, it asked for the document number on my form. No authentication was required.-1 -
Are you sure you did nothing to grant them permission? Maybe the year before? i know I had to for several banks to get the 1099-INT forms.
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For those of us that have been using Quicken since the time you installed it from a 3.5" floppy drive, we remember the days before online services like Express Web Connect. If memory serves, the only way to your transaction data into Quicken in the early days was to download a file from your bank's site and import it into Quicken. In emotionally trying times like these, you can get your data from Ally into Quicken in a couple steps doing it the old-fashioned way.
1. Go to the transactions page for your account and click download
2. Select the Quicken file format
3. Select Custom in the date range field
4. Select a From date that's the day after your last successful update
5. Select today's date in the To field
6. Click download
7. When the file has finished downloading, open it and it will launch Quicken. Your transactions from the past week will be there and it will look as if you'd updated it via Web Connect.
Hint: If you don't know the date of your last successful update, download the file as .csv. When you open the file, it won't launch Quicken, but you'll see the same information that's in the Quicken format file. This will tell you whether you have the right date range, or not.4 -
I am also experiencing the exact same issue with Ally. Been occurring for at least 2 weeks using Quicken for Mac subscription.-1
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I feel like the blame is fully on Ally here. Their mobile app isn't working for me, nor is a certain breath-freshening Quicken alternative.1
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I'm having the problem as well. Please fix it!
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Still a problem for me too! Submitted problem via Quicken-Help-Report a Problem. I can always download a Quicken transaction file from Ally using custom date range if I can't wait for a fix from Quicken.-1
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And me….
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Same problem here. I report my download errors daily. Not sure I have had a day without at least one download error in years.-1
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Yes. In a response to my message yesterday about our Quicken download problems, Ally responded that they are having a problem with "aggregators." So I am not at all surprised to see others reporting download problems with other Ally partners. Again, the reported evidence strongly suggests that Ally made a change without proper testing. Unfortunate.0
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Yes, still unable to get Chase to link/talk to Ally as well, so I'm 99.999% certain this is Ally's problem and not Quicken's. Ally doesn't have the brightest IT folks (IMO). I remember when they released the iOS app with TouchID integration. I wouldn't let you login for several months (not even manually). Took them I wanna say 4-5 months to issue an update to finally fix it.
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I sent a note to Ally and suggest others do the same to hopefully encourage them to fix the issue.-1
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From what I've seen, there is nothing that tracks cash, credit card, and investments. Microsoft Money was just as good until MS dropped it.
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This discussion has been closed.