When will you fix the download for Target National Bank?

Question

It says it's linked, endless verifications, then nothing downloads.  This has been an ongoing issue.  I can't even bring the transactions in from the target website either as it doesn't recognize it as being legitimate.  While other financial institutions have some issues, this one never seems to resolve.  I think it's working, then it simply stops, with no error messages.  Come on guys, how difficult can it be to solve this issue.  You've known about it for months.

Chris_QPW · Answer

Come on guys, how difficult can it be to solve this issue. You've known about it for months.

It seems to me that people just don't understand what is involved for problems like this.

First off, almost 100% of the time the corrective action isn't coming from Quicken Inc.  Quicken Inc pays Intuit to deal with the financial institution to provide this service.

So, the next part of "why does it take so long"?  One reason is because Intuit supports thousands of financial institutions and at any given time some of them are broken, so this "get in line".  The second part of this ties in with the observation that some financial institutions seem to always have problems whereas others are problem free.

It is up to the financial institution to pick what connection method to use.

Web Connect → Download QFX file from their website, the financial institution only has to get that data file correct.

Express Web Connect → This is the most problematic connection method.  It relies on an "agreement" between Intuit and the financial institution on how to log into their website, get the information in some format, and translate that into what Quicken needs.  Changes to the website can break this in a number of ways.  I would bet that Target falls into this category.  I would also bet that they have a habit of changing things that break this without telling Intuit and are slow to work with Intuit to get it fixed when it is broken.

Direct Connect → A standardized protocol, and therefore a more robust, but more and more financial institutions are dropping it if they even supported it in the first place.

Express Web Connect + → A standardized protocol, not as nice as Direct Connect in my opinion because Direct Connect connects Quicken (the program) directly to the financial institution whereas Express Web Connect + goes through Quicken Inc's servers to Intuit servers and finally to the financial institution.

Bottom line is that there are going to be some financial institutions that are just a pain to download transactions from.  And as a user of Quicken one has to weigh the benefits of using that financial institution to getting trouble-free downloads in Quicken.

And as a side note.  Quicken isn't the only "program" that downloads transactions, so you might see from time to time where someone says "But XXX doesn't have a problem downloading from YYY".  This is a direct result of an industry that refuses to standardize on a known good protocol.  Different "programs" make different arrangements with the financial institutions on how to connect and get the transactions.  Some methods are better for some financial institutions, but I can say for sure, there is no "clear winner".  For instance, with Chase, I can have it get it get the balances of accounts from different financial institutions.  And even doing that there are some financial institutions I have used that always have problems.  When Mint was around, it was the same way, it different problems with different financial institutions.

This is got to be one of the major headaches for Quicken Inc trying to support this, and why you won't find a lot of competitors.

Quicken Kristina · Answer

Hello @nerdindenial,

Thank you for letting us know you're also seeing issues with this connection.  If you are having issues with missing transactions, the issue has already been reported (CTP-13118).

If you are having a different issue, please provide more information exactly what is happening, so we can help troubleshoot.

Thank you!

nerdindenial · Answer

Still broken for me since the Target Card was renamed to Circle Card.