PNC bank connection yet again down

Luka731

for the 3rd time in as many months, none of my PNC accounts are able to be connected via Direct Connect or Express Web Connect+. This seems to be another Quicken issue because I am receiving email notifications from PNC about the connection requests, but the quicken process hangs forever and then i get a “connectivity issue” error message. When will Quicken officially solve this maddening connectivity problem for good??????

Luka731

@Quicken Alyssa @Quicken Anja @Quicken Bree @Quicken Chris please open yet another outage tracker post so that we all can see how Quicken will be addressing the latest PNC connectivity outage. You can probably just repost the May 2024 outage "status" page.

Quicken Kristina

Hello @Luka731,

To assist with this issue, please provide more information. Which PNC connections have you attempted to connect to? What is the exact error message or error code you are receiving? If possible, please attach a screenshot of the error you're seeing (with any personal information redacted). If needed, please refer to this Community FAQ for instructions on how to attach a screenshot. Alternatively, you can also drag and drop screenshots to your response if you are not given the option to add attachments.

I look forward to your response!

Luka731

I've attempted all PNC connection types - Express Web Connect, Express Web Connect +, and Direct Connect. Both express web connect attempts resulted in the amazing "we've hit an error….it's not your fault. Please try again in a day" error message.

After about a solid week of trying and failing again…I switched to Direct Connect for my PNC checking and savings account. GOOD NEWS! I was able to actually complete the setup screens. BAD NEWS! Nothing is actually downloading. I have multiple posted transactions in my PNC register as far back as 8/2/24 that are not importing to Quicken at all. BONUS! My PNC savings account now shows a random -12,000 balance in Quicken, which is absurd and incorrect.

PLEASE FIX THIS PERMANENTLY.

Luka731

@Quicken Kristina sorry…forgot to tag you. Please help.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

To troubleshoot this issue, first we need to narrow down if this is something file specific or a connection issue. To do that, please backup your Quicken file, then deactivate all accounts with PNC. Please go to Tools>Account List and click the box near the lower left to show hidden accounts (box is visible only if there are hidden accounts to show), then verify that all PNC accounts are disconnected. Once you've verified that they're all disconnected, please go to Tools>Add Account and follow the prompts. Instead of linking to the existing accounts, please try adding the accounts as new accounts. If they add and work properly as new accounts, that will indicate a file specific issue. If you encounter the same issue, even when adding as new, that will indicate a connection issue.

Please let me know how it goes!

Boatnmaniac

Also, please provide specific information regarding the following:

1. Exactly which Add Account financial institution setups you are trying set up downloads with: PNC Bank - Web Connect? PNC - Virtual Wallet? PNC Bank - Direct Connect? PNC Card Services Online? PNC Bank - Business Banking? PNC Investments - New? PNC Mortgage? PNC Mortgage Loan? OEr something else?
2. Exactly which types of accounts are you trying to get set up?

Having each account set up with the correct download connection is critical. Setting them up with the wrong connection will at best have reliability issue and at worst will fail to work.

Luka731

@Quicken Kristina thank you for the assistance. May I ask, what is the best connection method for PNC checking and savings accounts? I've read Direct Connect and had this connection in place with relatively no issues until the broad messaging that PNC accounts should be migrated to Express Web Connect+. That is what I have in place now, where the connection setup worked, but zero posted transactions are dowloading.

EWC+ seems to be working well with no issues for my two PNC credit cards, but I am having zero luck with all of my checking and savings accounts.

@Boatnmaniac I've tried to connect all of my PNC accounts through both the PNC Bank - Web Connect and PNC Bank - Direct Connect methods. I've also tried to individually connect my credit cards through the PNC Bank - Web Connect method, and then my checking and savings accounts through PNC Bank - Direct Connect. For the past 3 months, the PNC connectivity has been non-functional about 3x as much as it has been functional.

For all PNC users, it would be extremely helpful to have very clear and easy to follow guides on the best connection methods to use for each account type. I am definitely in a frustrating loop where my PNC connections will work for a few weeks, and then individually start to break down….which causes me to have to disconnect EVERYTHING and reconnect EVERYTHING (same as @Quicken Kristina recommends above….which I am now doing again….). It's a frustrating loop for sure.

Luka731

@Quicken Kristina I attempted your remedy below. When I add the checking and savings accounts as new accounts using PNC Bank - Direct Connect method, the transactions are downloading and I get the last 90 days of transactions. I need to have the ability to RE-LINK the existing accounts to the PNC connection, as I cannot lose the previous 3+ years of transaction history from these 6 accounts.

When I attempted to take the same steps and link the 6 accounts through PNC Bank - Direct Connect method, I successfully linked them but I am still not getting any new transaction imports.

I then deactivated all 6 accounts for the 6th time today, and tried to link them using PNC Bank - Web Connect method. I logged in using MS Edge browser to my PNC account, succesfully authorized all 6 accounts, and then returned to Quicken. The only account that was located was my already-linked credit card account.

So I am back to square zero. Why is the Direct Connect process broken and not allowing me to link these accounts? Thanks again for your help and patience. This is extremely frustrating but I appreciate your support.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

Based on what you describe, it sounds like this may be a file-specific issue, since they add and download properly when added as new accounts, but not when linked to the existing accounts.

The simplest solution may be to backup your Quicken file, go through the process to deactivate and add the accounts as new accounts, then copy/paste the history from the existing accounts into the newly created ones (once you verify everything is working in the newly added accounts). For information on moving transactions between accounts, please click this link.

I hope this helps!

Luka731

@Quicken Kristina what connection types should i be using for PNC checking and savings accounts? Direct connect, express connect or something different?

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

If you use your PNC account(s) to do bank bill pay through Quicken, then you would need to be connected via Direct Connect, since that functionality doesn't exist in Express Web Connect +.

If you don't use the bank bill pay function through Quicken, then it's a matter of personal preference. Some financial institutions charge a fee for Direct Connect. If PNC charges a fee, that may also factor in when deciding which connection you prefer.

I hope this helps!

Boatnmaniac

If you are not being allow to link a new setup download to an account you already have setup in Quicken it is most likely because that account is already set up for downloading. If you want to change the connection, you need to first deactivate the account in question.

Then when you set up the new download connection(s) for your account you will need to carefully Link the downloads with the correct accounts that are already set up in Quicken (if they are not already linked). If they still cannot be linked, then select Do Not Add, and let us know so we can help you resolve that issue.

Since you hare having issues with all of your PNC accounts, you should backup your data file and then deactivate all of them. Then set the accounts up for downloading using the most appropriate Add Account setup link(s) as shown below.:

PNC Bank - Web Connect is primarily for use with the Web Connect (WC) download process. This is where you log into your online PNC account and manually download & import transactions from there in a QFX (or "Quicken" or "Web Connect") file. I have heard of some PNC folks getting Express Web Connect+ (EWC+) downloads set up with this connection but it seems to me that many have difficulty establishing and maintaining a reliable download connection. I personally have never been successful in setting up an EWC+ connection method with this but it has worked quite well for me when using WC.

PNC - Virtual Wallet is the one used by many for consumer checking and savings accounts when they do not require nor want the Direct Connect (DC) Bank Bill Pay service. When selecting this connection setup link in Add Account or Set Up Now you will be taken to the PNC website where you will need to log in and authorize Quicken to download your accounts into Quicken. It works pretty reliably and trouble-free for me. (If you have difficulty getting the setup process for this financial institution to complete properly, try temporarily disabling all browser extensions until after the authorization process is completed.)

PNC Bank - Direct Connect is the fastest, most reliable and most secure of all the download methods that are used with One Step Update. It also supports DC Bank Bill Pay with PNC (not all banks support this) which is a free service whereby you can set up a bill payment, personal check payment or transfer between accounts in Quicken and then send it directly from Quicken to PNC so you do not need to log into your online account to send the payments or transfers.

With this connection method, if you have not already done so, you will need to call PNC Bank and tell them you wish to download into Quicken via Direct Connect. They will provide you with a unique UserID (either they will tell you to use your SSN or they will select a UserID for you and USPS mail it to you) and a unique PW (they will select one for you and USPS mail it to you). If you already have the unique UserID and PW then you are ready to set up your downloads with this connection setup.

PNC Card Services Online is the connection you need to set up for any PNC credit cards that you might want to download into Quicken. I believe this one sets up an EWC+ connection.

Dis this answer your questions?

Luka731

@Quicken Kristina thanks again for staying with me on this. I just rebuilt a brand new QDF file from scratch. I tried adding the PNC accounts as "new" and then moving ALL of the transactions manually (copy/paste, move transactions, etc) and it was a mess. I ended up with duplicate transactions, and it would have taken 24+ hours nonstop of me actively clicking the dialog boxes to confirm I want to move/delete reconciled transactions….even though I changed the global setting not to prompt for any confirmation on reconciled transactions for this exercise.

I now have a brand new QDF file with all of my accounts relinked, with a whopping 3 months worth of history. Not ideal, as my previous file had transaction history for 18 accounts going back to 2019.

Anywhoo….my final problem with the new file is that I am now unable to successfully sync my PNC Direct Connect accounts (i.e. my main checking and savings accounts) to the web. I am getting CC-501 error when I try both my active 4-digit PIN as well as my main PNC password.

If you can help me resolve this final glitch, I will be out of your way hopefully for a long time :/

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for the follow-up,

If you are getting the CC-501 error only when trying to sync to mobile/web, then I'd suggest that you backup your Quicken file, then follow the troubleshooting steps from this article on troubleshooting online banking issues with mobile/web:

Try removing the account from Mobile/Web sync then syncing it again

In the desktop program:

1. Go to the Mobile & Web tab.
2. Click the # Accounts synced successfully link in the Accounts card to edit your account settings.
   
3. Uncheck the account(s) that are not syncing correctly.
4. Click Update Accounts.
5. Close and re-open the Accounts for Mobile & Web window.
6. Re-check the accounts and click Update Accounts to sync again.

If the steps above do not resolve the issue

Deactivate the affected accounts in the desktop program:

1. Select the Tools menu and select Account List. 
2. In the Account List, select the account for which you want to deactivate online services, and then click Edit. 
3. In the Account Details window, click the Online Services tab.
4. Click Deactivate next to the service you want to disable.
5. Click Yes to the message asking if you want to disable this service. Note: If you do not receive this message, additional information is available below
   • Direct Connect users: If you are deactivating a Direct Connect account, you may see an additional prompt advising you to contact your bank to cancel the Direct Connect service. This is only recommended if you intend to deactivate an account permanently and need to contact the bank to stop any related fees.
6. Click OK to the confirmation message.  
7. (optional) If you do not intend to reactivate, contact your financial institution to cancel any fees they may charge for access to Quicken online services. Deactivating the account in Quicken will not normally stop the service fee.

If you have an investment account that is linked to a cash account, you need to deactivate the online services from the investment account which will automatically deactivate the linked cash account.

Then, reactivate the accounts

To Reactivate the account(s):

1. Open the Account List (Ctrl + A).
2. Click the Edit button on the account you want to reactivate.
3. Go to the Online Services tab and click the Set up Now button.
4. Type in the financial institution name and walk through the wizard.
5. Choose LINK on the screen displayed after Quicken finds the available accounts at the financial institution for your login credentials and carefully link to your existing Quicken account(s).

Please let me know how it goes!

Luka731

@Quicken Kristina thanks again. I took the first few steps (mobile & web tab, refresh, uncheck problematic PNC accounts, refresh, recheck problematic PNC accounts, refresh) but did not have success with the PNC sync - got the CC-501 error again.

I am VERY hesitant to go the next route - deactivating the PNC accounts and reactivating them - as this is what I just completed in a brand new QDF file. I have absolutely no idea why the PNC accounts are not functioning properly, but this lack of connectivity is blocking me from fully getting the functionality across the board. I am not getting the value I'm paying for at this point.

Why are there so many issues and instabilities with this Quicken connection to PNC, and what is being done about them on the Quicken development side? Are these instabilities impacting other financial institutions?

Luka731

@Quicken Kristina any thoughts? thanks again for your assistance.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

I can't really speculate on why you're encountering so many issues and instabilities with the connection between Quicken and PNC. There are several possible causes, and it's possible that it isn't the same cause each time you encounter an issue. Problems can be caused by changes/maintenance/throttling on the financial institution's end, issues on the aggregator's end, or file/program/network behavior locally.

I don't have a lot of insight into what gets done on the development side. In general, issues are reported and they investigate to determine the cause. Depending on the cause, sometimes our teams can fix it, and other times, it has to be reported to the aggregator or financial institution to get fixed. Customers can alert our teams that there is a problem by reaching out to Quicken Support directly or using the in program Report a Problem option (Help>Report a Problem). Please note that when you submit a problem report, you will not receive a direct response.

I hope this helps!