download check images

Ed C

my bank (PNC) only permits access to check images for 3 months. as a result when researching category expenditures from several years ago in Quicken I can only see a date, amount and check number. Unfortunately not the vendor name and I cannot get the check image without a protracted request process with the bank.

It would be helpful to automatically get a check image or at least the vendor name each day as I update my accounts.

jacobs

Because checks can be handwritten, banks cannot determine the correct name of the Payee, and therefore have no Payee to download to Quicken.

It seems you are not printing your checks from Quicken, but writing them manually. What many Quicken users do is enter a manual transaction at the time they write checks, so they capture the correct Payee name and optional memo or notes. Then, when the transaction download from your bank, it is matched with the manual transaction, retaining the Payee name and memo.

As for images, there is no standard for downloading of check images in the standards used by financial institutions. Some banks require extra steps to get the image(s), and many banks require you to download each image individually to cut down on the bandwidth of downloading scanned images. Some banks offer front only while others offer front plus back. I don't envision the banking industry creating and widely implementing a standard for downloading check images. And since the volume of checks continue to decline year after year — the number of checks in the US has declined by 85% over the past 3 decades, and continues to decline about 8% per year — this seems like an unlikely area for the financial industry to devote resources to.

In short, I don't think there's any way automatic downloading of all check images to Quicken is feasible, and I don't think it will happen.