Only the primary owner of a joint account can download transactions?

nerdindenial · January 2023

I've used Quicken for Windows for almost 25 years, but recently noticed that only the primary owner of joint accounts can download transactions. Using my credentials where I am not the primary account owner results in either a silent failure or a claim that transactions are downloaded - but they never appear in the register. This problem/restriction hit Schwab last year, then Keypoint Credit Union, and now Navy Federal Credit Union. So when various family members have joint accounts with me, I have to separately use their credentials for a one-step update from those accounts - which seems to have fixed the problem for now. I am using 4 sets of credentials for a single one step update.
-Is this by design or a bug?
-Has anyone else seen this?
Thanks!

splasher · January 2023

I see that as a financial institution (FI) restriction. They decide if the non-primary owner can see/download/do any thing with the data. The aggregator (Intuit) logs in using credentials that you have furnished and the FI makes available what their rules allow, Quicken/aggregator has nothing to do with that decision.

It sounds like you are commingling information that shouldn't be. You should only have information in a Quicken data file that would support a single income tax return. If your #3&4 sets of credentials are for your children, you should have them in a separate data file so that if you get audited and try to use your Quicken data in defense of that audit, the children's information would muddy up the water.

nerdindenial · January 2023

@Splasher you make some good points, although I file taxes jointly with my spouse and the kids don't have much activity yet.
Part of the reason I published this is that I see other users having download problems that might be explained by this situation.
It also took me a long time to figure out, since the same procedures had previously worked for many years.
Quicken and the FIs should work out a method of detecting this situation and suggesting useful - not misleading - remediations.

splasher · January 2023

If you separate the kid's records from yours now, in the future you can hand them their own file to maintain on their own.
It could be that the new Express Web Connect+ download connection method that so many FIs are transitioning to just won't allow it.
Personally, I don't use EWC/EWC+ connections since I prefer to not have my information stored on an aggregator's server, so I do manual .QDF file downloads from my non-Direct Connect FIs, so I do not have first hand knowledge of all those nuances.
So, your post is good information for those with accounts in your situation.

Tom Young · January 2023

My wife and I have separate Schwab User IDs and Passwords. When I set up all our Schwab Accounts in Quicken - this was decades ago - I simply set up the Accounts in the same fashion, i.e., her Accounts were associated with her User ID and Password and my Accounts, as well as our joint Accounts, were associate with my User ID and Password. Accordingly, I haven't noticed any difference in how downloads from Schwab behave.

I would think the change you describe is the result of a Schwab decision somewhere along the way, probably associated with their decision to drop Direct Connect in favor of EWC+. EWC+'s claim to "more secure" rests on the fact that a "token" is generated when you set up EWC+ and it's this token, not the User ID and Password, that's sent from the aggregator to the FI. So it makes sense that each Account with a unique User ID and Password would be set up with its own token and that the primary (first listed) owner's User ID and Password would be used for joint accounts.

Chris_QPW · January 2023

nerdindenial said:

Part of the reason I published this is that I see other users having download problems that might be explained by this situation.
It also took me a long time to figure out, since the same procedures had previously worked for many years.
Quicken and the FIs should work out a method of detecting this situation and suggesting useful - not misleading - remediations.

I agree, even though I don't have much confidence it that actually happening.

What really gets me about this is where it fails. You would think that if there is a problem with the "account" either the logging in (Express Web Connect) or the "reauthorization" (Express Web Connect +) would just fail. The fact, that it goes past this point when the financial institution doesn't allow it, is just wrong.

BTW when I did the conversion from Direct Connect to Express Web Connect + they did specify that non-primary account holders wouldn't work. It was in some kind of message. I'm not sure if was actually during the process or on this site as an announcement.

Only the primary owner of a joint account can download transactions?

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