PNC: Transitioning to EWC+ within the next 1-2 months

Boatnmaniac

Today I received an email stating that PNC will be transitioning to EWC+ within the next 30-60 days.

The blue shaded link in the email took me to a Support Article which states that at this time the transition affects EWC connections in QWin and Quicken Connect in QMac.

There was no mention of DC transitioning to EWC+ but my guess is that it will also transition at a later date. But at least initially it appears that DC Bank Bill Pay will remain intact.

Here is the link to that Support Article: https://www.quicken.com/support/why-am-i-receiving-message-about-my-pnc-bank-accounts .

Chris_QPW

I wouldn't count on Direct Connect not being transitioned at the same time. For some reason the financial institutions seem to almost forget they are supporting it.

Boatnmaniac

This is the 2nd bank where it was announced that EWC is changing but no reference was made to DC. The other bank is US Bank.

Both US Bank and PNC have one FI for EWC and another for DC so there is some differentiation.

Another thing is that I am working with Quicken on testing their EWC—>EWC+ transition for US Bank. The people I've talked with have only talked about EWC, not DC. For that reason (plus the US Bank transition notification) I think that DC will not transition until after the EWC transition is done.

The parallels in the PNC notification details and current connection setups lead me to believe the same….that DC will not occur until sometime after the EWC transition is done.

Well, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough what will happen.

Chris_QPW

Hopefully you are right.

Boatnmaniac

I had another Zoom call with the Quicken development team this morning. They confirmed that the plans for both USB and PNC are to migrate both EWC and DC to EWC+.

While they acknowledged that the EWC transitions will be occurring soon, they said they weren't sure when the DC connections will also transition. Either they don't know the schedules for DC or they simply weren't going to tell me that. My guess is it's the latter. After all, no business wants anything regarding strategic plans and schedules to be communicated by employees who are not authorized spokespeople.

Well, I do use DC Bank Bill Pay with PNC but over the last couple of years I've set up recurring bill payments on the billers' websites to pull payments from my credit cards or checking account. I only do 2-3 DC Bank Bill Pays from within Quicken each month now so I am pretty well positioned to not be largely impacted when PNC's DC goes away. Regarding 2 of those DC Bank Bill Pays I can set them up in my online account as recurring payments. The other one will need to be done online on an ad hoc basis which I can live with.

Chris_QPW

Yep, they it as clear as mud. 😉

BTW you got to love the fact that they are still using this canned phrase:

"… for a faster, more reliable connection."

Chase Direct Connect (any Direct Connect, like CitiCards/Salem Five Direct), time = 3 seconds, zero problems.

Chase Express Web Connect +, time 2 minutes, I have already had to reset it multiple times in the few months that it has existed.

I use the same system as far as bills go. For the most part, it is all automatic. I'm mostly just monitoring it.

Boatnmaniac

"…for a faster, more reliable connection."

Yes, I do SMH about that phrase. It certainly is slower and less reliable than DC….it's not even a remotely close comparison on both counts.

When compared to EWC (which would be a fairer comparison):

• It takes my EWC+ FIs on average about 25% longer to complete OSU/Update Now than what it takes for my EWC FIs.
• Regarding reliability: For me it seems that EWC+ is a bit more reliable than EWC. The initial setups with EWC+ have been problematic but after that the few times I have had to reauthorize have been relatively problem-free (I have to Reset Account or Deactivate/Reactivate more frequently with EWC) and I seem to get fewer error codes with EWC+ than I do with EWC.

So it makes me wonder who came up with this "…for a faster, more reliable connection" phrase. Was it an Engineer or was it a Marketing person? And just what are they comparing EWC+ to? If they are comparing it to EWC then it's a mixed bag but it is incredibly misleading to let people think that phrase is applicable to DC. It hurts Quicken's credibility to not clearly set realistic expectations when it comes to DC transitions to EWC+.

Chris_QPW

Marketing, definitely marketing came up with that phrase.

Ps56k2

just reading along -
having migrated to EWC+ from both our Schwab and Chase accounts,
plus having to revert back to our double entry manual payments using the Chase bill payment feature

Here are the PNC entries listed as avail to Quicken -

Boatnmaniac

It should be interesting to see which of these FIs will transition first or whether they try to do it all at once. Since I have such a vested interest in what happens with PNC I have offered to assist the Quicken development and program management teams in testing the PNC EWC+ transition. They haven't accepted my offer, yet, but they seem to appreciate the feedback and testing I've done wrt the US Bank EWC+ transition so maybe…..

Boatnmaniac

Well, it started today. I have my PNC accounts set up with EWC in 2 different TEST files and both were migrated to EWC+ today. At first it all looked like it was going well with no Opening Balance, duplicate transactions nor Online Balance/Register Balance issues and the EWC+ reauthorization process went off without a hitch.

But it was all downhill from there and in a big way:

1. All check numbers for the life of the account (going back to Oct 2021) were deleted.
2. The Payees for those transactions which used to have check numbers were deleted and replaced by "CHECK XXXX" (where XXXX=the check number….at least I'm assuming it is the correct check number….haven't been able to confirm that, yet).
3. The Memos for those transactions which used to have check numbers were deleted and replaced by "CHECK XXXX".
4. Other payees for ACH/EFT push transactions were removed and replaced with verbiage that made no sense to me.
5. ACH/EFT transactions that were bill payments pulled by the billers had check numbers assigned to them….that should not happen unless PNC is pushing the payment.
6. I had the accounts set up to show the column for the downloaded posting dates. That column was removed. (I was able to add the column back via the normal process for adding columns.)

Checking was more adversely affected but Savings was also affected.

I restored backup files for each TEST file and tried the reathorization process, again, and got the exact same results.

Regarding DC: My main data file with PNC is set up with DC and I was not prompted to reauthorize today. But one user said that his DC was migrated to EWC+. Why? There has been no notice received that DC would migrate to EWC+ at this time. At least US Bank gave users 1 week notice of when DC would be migrating to EWC+.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20361558#Comment_20361558

I have never experienced an EWC+ migration that has been so poorly executed. The very worst thing that could have happened (other than totally deleting the account) actually just happened when it corrupted a lot of reconciled transactions data. I have been a PNC customer only since Oct 2021 but if this same thing happens to other PNC customers, many who have been customers for much longer, they are going to be absolutely fuming.

I hope that when my DC accounts migrate it will go better but my confidence level is pretty low at this point.

Boatnmaniac

Regarding reports of DC having transitioned to EWC+: Not one person who has reported this has actually confirmed that they are now connected with EWC+. And my DC accounts have not yet transitioned to EWC+. It makes me wonder if perhaps DC has not yet started to transition.

One person who had reported that he had lost DC Bank Bill Pay (it was assumed that his DC connection had transitioned to EWC+) today confirmed that his issue was due to another issue, perhaps the same issue I had with PNC a couple of weeks ago where the DC connection had been locked at PNC. For both this person and earlier for me it took a PNC Tier 3 tech support person to get it unlocked and then the DC connection could be set up, again.

In prep for the DC transition: I am exporting to Excel the complete register reports. I will repeat this process every few days until the DC transition is completed. This will provide a record of every transaction in the register so I have something to work with should the issues reported yesterday with the EWC transition also occur with the DC transition.

davisrj31

I still seem to be on DC for my PNC Checking and Savings accounts, but every time I do an OSU I get a message that I need to reauthorize my PNC accounts. However, the reauthorization fails every time and I get a "Something is wrong with UI" error message from PNC. If I ignore the reauthorization, it properly downloads any transactions.

Boatnmaniac

@davisrj31 - My DC with PNC is still intact. I am not getting requested to reauthorize.

I noticed that R49.33 has now been released (Re: Windows R49.XX Release (US)). The release notes show it is a Hot Fix and perhaps the "Improvement" might help to resolve your issue? Just a guess but maybe worth a try.

If you wish to update to R49.33 you should be able to do it from within Quicken (Help > Check for Updates) or, as I usually recommend, manually download and install the Manual Patch Update (previously called the Mondo Patch) from Quicken for Windows: Manual Patch Update [Support Article]. If you do this, let me know if R49.33 fixed the issue for you.

Boatnmaniac

The FIDIR.txt file for PNC Bank - Direct Connect has been updated to include "Express-Web-Connect":

04501 04501 04501 PNC Bank - Direct Connect https://www.pnc.com/ 800-762-2035 https://www.onlinebanking.pnc.com/alservlet/SignonInitServlet?HttpLevel=128 ACTIVE BANKING,ACCOUNTINFO,PAYMENT&DIRECT BANKING,ACCOUNTINFO&EXP-WEB-CONNECT NOT_QBP NA

This was not present before….it showed only Direct Connect. In the FIDIR file "Express-Web-Connect" is used for both EWC and EWC+ so it is just another indication that DC will be transitioning to EWC+ fairly soon, as well.

davisrj31

I'm already updated to R49.33 and I still periodically get the reauthorization error message but can't successfully reauthorize and get the "Something is wrong with UI" error message from PNC.

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20364291#Comment_20364291

I don't understand why you are being prompted to reauthorize anything regarding DC. So far, PNC has only been transitioning EWC to EWC+. DC to EWC+ has not yet been pushed by PNC….at least not for me and not in anything else I'm seeing in the Community.

When your set up your DC connection with PNC, are you using the PNC Bank - Direct Connect setup link?

And when selecting PNC Bank - Direct Connect are then clicking on Advanced Options instead of on Next?

And then are you changing the selected connection from EWC to DC?

Oh, and make sure you are using your DC-unique login, not the login you use to log into your online PNC account.

I'm thinking the EWC connection method for PNC Bank - Direct Connect is not yet functional. If I am correct about this, and if you have not selected Direct Connect in Advanced Options, then Quicken might be directing you to that non-functional EWC setup which could produce an error like this.

Boatnmaniac

Today I received an email confirming that PNC's DC and Bank Bill Pay will be continuing. I would imagine they will still transition DC to EWC+ at some time but for now I'll take what I can get. But for now that was a pleasant surprise.