US Bank Update Problems

Ray Cosner

This morning 5/12/23 I ran a One Step Update (OSU) on Quicken Premier R49.29 with my bank (US Bank). This resulted in several problems, as described below. I then restored from a 5/10/23 backup, this went fine, and I repeated the OSU with one change, which was successful. Details follow.

My advice to avoid all this: if you are presented with a request to re-authorize your accounts at US Bank, select "remind me later" rather than approving the request. If you want to reauthorize anyway. make a fresh Q backup before allowing it.

Details of what happened:

Prior to all this, my accounts except one were all enabled for "PFM Direct Access" which I understand is being phased out. So, I was halfway expecting a change to my OSU access.

At the start of the first update attempt, after the update began I was asked to re-authorize my US Bank accounts for Quicken access. I clicked OK and was routed to a US Bank site and entered by my usual US Bank browser logins. The next screen asked me to re-authorize Q access to each banking account individually. I did that. I was then returned back to a familiar Q screen which listed each bank account and asked whether I wanted to link Q to that account (I approved those). In some of my older accounts, it did not offer an option to link but an option for some other action, or option to do nothing which is what I selected for those accounts.

I then ran OSU again. For some accounts, all looked OK. I also had several problems: (1) transactions on a credit card going back two weeks were instead downloaded to be added to a CD. I had downloads set for manual confirmation, not auto entry to register. (2) my savings account balance was nearly double the correct amount, the starting balance had been changed, (3) the balance in my two CDs was doubled by means of a duplicated transaction from when I set them up in March (4) they gifted me with a new savings account which had a balance very close to the true balance in my 40-year-old saving account (I rejected this gift). The accounts where I selected "do nothing" were not affected.

I called the US Bank help phone number, but their Q support is not staffed outside normal business hours, apparently on west coast time. I'll try again later.

I began correcting my accounts, but the damage was extensive. I also had a two-day-old backup. I decided instead to restore that backup, which worked fine. I then attempted again a OSU, but instead of allowing the requested re-authorization, I selected "remind me later". The OSU proceed in its normal familiar way, and I had no further problems. I assume "Remind me later" is not a long-term solution, but it works for now.

Boatnmaniac

@Ray Cosner, @Robert - Would one or both of you try doing the US Bank reauthorization process, again, taking extra time and care to make sure the correct accounts in Quicken are linked to the EWC+ downloads? Then post back here to let us know the results?

But before doing this please read the following:

I think this is not a US Bank issue. I've done a lot of testing the last few weeks on this US Bank transition to EWC+ with the Quicken team and it seems that Quicken is doing a poor job of matching the downloads during the reauthorization process to the correct accounts in Quicken. When given the option to Add, Ignore or Link the accounts I've found that one must be VERY careful to make sure that the Linking process was done correctly. What I've observed regarding this:

• Usually the process will correctly show "Link to existing" but not always. We need to make sure that any that are not showing "Link to existing" are manually selected to show that.
• Just as important, make sure that in the drop down the correct account is checked. I have observed that sometimes the incorrect account is checked, that sometimes an account with a different financial institution is checked and that sometimes no account is checked. So, it is very important to not assume anything when "Link" is shown. Always look in the drop-down to make sure the correct financial institution and account is linked.

This issue of mis-matching is not unique to US Bank. Over the last several months there have been a number of users posting about this issue after they have done Reset Account, Deactivate/Reactivate or have reauthorized to cut in EWC+, reporting that their accounts are out of balance, that transactions are getting downloaded into the wrong accounts or even being deposited into accounts at different financial institutions. This is why I think this instance is a Quicken issue more than it is a US Bank reauthorization issue.

It has also happened with me during my US Bank EWC+ tests and in each case I had proceeded too quickly and had wrongly assumed that simply because "Link" was selected that it was correctly being linked to the right account. Since identifying this issue and making absolutely sure that the reauthorization downloads are getting correctly linked (and, yes, there were quite a few mismatches), I have done perhaps a dozen EWC+ new setups and reauthorization setups for US Bank in 6 different data files. Every single one of them then set up correctly with no issues encountered.

You are absolutely correct: Make sure to have a backup file before making any Online Services setup changes. In fact, I recommend that the Backup Preference be set to automatically backup the data file every single time after each session and to set it up for at least 2 wks (or more) of backup files. Then one never needs to do a manual backup.