Quicken mis-identifies account type when setting up online connection

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I am having the same problem that I have seen others report several times in this community. Specifically, I am trying to reestablish the online connection for one of my credit cards (AMEX) that was lost for some reason. After I connect to AMEX and authorize my account, Quicken asks if I want to add a new account or link to an existing account. The existing account that I want to link to does not show up in the list of accounts that Quicken offers. Instead, Quicken offers only checking and savings accounts to link to. (see screenshot)

As I said, I have seen this problem posted many times, but I have not seen a solution that works for me. Any ideas?

Answers

  • Frankx
    Frankx SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Hi @TonyP54,

    Based on your screenshot - it looks like the account that you have previously setup, - and that you are not trying to link up to this credit card - has been setup as a "checking" type account, rather than as a "credit card" type.

    Please open up that account in Quicken and then do a CTRL + Shift + E and let us know what you see next to "Account Type".

    Frankx

                            Quicken Home, Business & Rental Property - Windows 10-Home Version

                                             - - - - Quicken User since 1984 - - - 
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  • TonyP54
    TonyP54 Member
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    The account is set up as credit. I would emphasize that I have been downloading transactions to this account for many years prior to it stopping working a few weeks ago. I haven't changed anything on the account, other than to try to reactivate online downloads.

  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Please try this:
    Deactivate both of your AmEx credit card accounts.
    Create a backup of your data file (just in case something goes wrong with the next steps …)
    Stop Quicken, wait a few seconds and then restart Quicken
    Use Tools / Add Account to pretend to add these accounts.
    During the process you should find a link to an AmEx website to perform some setup / authorization procedure. When completed, switch back to Quicken and continue the process.
    When you get to the list of accounts found at the bank, for each account select "Link" and click the popup to link your existing account register to the correct account at the bank. Please be sure to correctly link the account registers or you won't like the results.

  • TonyP54
    TonyP54 Member
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    UKR - Thanks for the response. I tried this. The only thing new in what you suggested over what I had done previously was to deactivate our other AMEX account. (We have 2 separate AMEX credit card accounts.) When I went to reactivate them, the second account worked fine. It showed up as a credit card and I was able to link it to the proper account in Quicken. The first account still showed up as a checking account and therefore only allowed me to link to our existing checking and savings accounts. Problem is still not solved.☹️

  • TonyP54
    TonyP54 Member
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    Problem solved! When linking to the bank in the Quicken wizard, I selected "American Express Skymiles Card", instead of just the "American Express" option. This still linked to my American Express card account online to validate but when it returned to Quicken, it showed the account as "credit" instead of "checking" and gave me the option to link to my existing American Express account in Quicken.

  • ToonArmy
    ToonArmy Member
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    I figured out that my Credit Card Bank Name and the Credit Card Account Number had been populated in a Savings Account 'Financial Institution' and 'Account Number' fields when I looked at the Account (Edit/General) that Quicken was forcing me to link to. I corrected that and then tried to restablish the link. This time it defaulted to the Credit Card that I wanted - I have no idea how the Credit Card information was added to a Savings Account!

  • TonyP54
    TonyP54 Member
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    Wow, interesting. I checked my checking and savings accounts and also found that one of them had been populated with the credit card bank name and account number as well. That is definitely not something that I did. I had already solved my problem a different way, but I suspect this is the root cause of why I was having the problem in the first place. Thank you for sharing!

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