Is Citi Card Direct Connect still an option?

leishirsute

When using OSU today, Quicken stated that Citi Card had to reauthorize access. There was no Advanced Option to select Direct connect. There was only a Citi Card login screen. Once logged into Citi Card, control was given back to Quicken to link the Citi Card account using Express Web Connect+. There was never an option to select Direct Connect.

Has Direct Connect been removed for Citi Card?

If not, how is it setup?

It's not that big a deal, but Direct Connect seemed to be a more reliable and quicker connection compared to the Web Connect's.

leishirsute

Nevermind. I was able to figure out how to Direct Connect with the help of prior posts.

However, the register no longer shows Online Balance and if I try to reconcile, Quicken states that transaction download was not run prior to reconciliation, which is not true.

Maybe it will resolve with tomorrow's download.

Update: I deactivated and reactivated this account for a 3rd time and now the online balance displays.

Quicken Jasmine

Hello @leishirsute,

Thanks for coming to let us know! Please let us know if the online balance issue is resolved!

leishirsute

Unfortunately, when comparing the Citi Card website to Quicken, I saw that Quicken is not downloading transactions since 8/27/2024 using Direct Connect. So I deactivated Direct Connect and connected via Express Web Connect+. Two transactions downloaded and the online balance in the account register updated correctly. So I deactivated and retried Direct Connect. There were no new transactions to download, however the register is now missing the online balance even though the Last download date/time stamp is correctly updated for the register.

OSU for Citi Card yields an incorrect online balance and balance date when using Direct Connect.

I may have to start using Express Web Connect+.

With the obscure procedure to setup Direct Connect for Citi Cards, transactions not downloading, and online balances not showing, it seems to me Citi Card is steering use away from Direct Connect.

Boatnmaniac

@leishirsute - Are you still having an issue with the Citi Cards setup not showing an Online Balance?

If so, it might be that you are not getting set up using Citi Cards with DC. There is an issue in Add Account when selecting either the Citi Cards logo or typing in Citi Cards in the search field, selecting it and then clicking on Next you will not be taken to the set up for DC. Instead you will be taken to the Citi.com website to authorize EWC+.

EWC+ with Citi Cards simply does not work well at all. Many times a connection cannot be established at all. And when a connection can be established one or more of the following frequently happens: Transactions do not download, the Online Balance is wrong, the Online Balance does not exist and/or it will not update at all via OSU or Update Now.

The Citi Cards set up in Add Account should be defaulting to DC but it is not doing that.

To get Citi Cards set up with DC, be sure to type in Citi Cards in the Add Account search field, select Citi Cards and then select Advanced Options instead of Next. Then you can select DC and the process will then take you to the screen where you can enter your login information for DC.

But there is an issue with DC, as well. Over the last 6 weeks about 1X per week OSU will return an OL-29X error code (I can't remember exactly which one). Doing Update Now will return the same error code. Doing Reset Account will deactivate the account(s). Then I need to follow the Add Account process mentioned in the previous paragraph and it always sets up a good DC connection, again….until about a week later when it breaks, again, and I need to rinse and repeat the process, again.

leishirsute

@Boatnmaniac I had the opposite experience and had to disable DC and reconnect with EWC+.

Reference:

• Re: Citibank credit card transactions missing - ongoing issue

• It really seems that Citi is attempting to steer away from using DC by making it obscure how to set up.

So far, EWC+ has been a solid connection although slower.

Boatnmaniac

@leishirsute - Interesting. I wonder why we are getting such different results. I've worked with other users over the last month who were having the same experience as I mentioned above and they all stated that once DC was set up again it was working very well for them, too.

To be clear: Your EWC+ connection uses the Citi Cards setup?

It really seems that Citi is attempting to steer away from using DC by making it obscure how to set up.

I've thought the same thing for the last 6 wks. Not just by making DC setup obscure but by so reliably causing me to get deactivated from DC on a nearly weekly basis. If that's what they want to accomplish they should just come out and say it so we can be done with it.

leishirsute

@Boatnmaniac "To be clear: Your EWC+ connection uses the Citi Cards setup?"

Yes, Citi Card setup now defaults to EWC+ which is what I used.

I switched between DC and EWC+ several times to see if DC would ever get corrected,but it never did. So I'm using EWC+ now. For me, it works without problems. It's just a much slower connection.

Just for curiosity, I switched back to DC and got this erroneous download with an online balance date of 4/5/2026:

Changing back to EWC+ gave correct online balance info for me:

The reason I think Citi is trying to steer away from DC is because they suggest switching from DC to EWC+, but do not offer a similar option screen to switch from EWC+ to DC:

UKR

Having had problems with "Citi Cards" DC myself, I finally landed on the "Citibank" FI Name. This connected using EWC+ and seems to be downloading OK.

Maybe "Citibank" is the way to go …