Costco Citi Visa Not Updating Quicken again..

It's not so much that I don't want EWC+ (I actually do have several accounts set up with EWC+) as it is more a matter of what I prefer and why.

I prefer DC whenever it is available and the FI does not charge a monthly fee for it. It is by far the fastest, most reliable and most secure of all of the online connection methods. It is also much more likely to provide a real time snapshot of transactions and account balances. DC is also a 2-way connection method which means that with some banks we can push bill pay (not to be confused with Quicken's Check Pay and Quick Pay services) and account transfer commands directly from our Quicken software to the bank. This method does not save any of your financial data and FI logins on Quicken's nor the aggregator's (Intuit) servers (unless you have Mobile/Web Sync enabled). So your data is as secure as your computer's connection is with the FI and your hard drive.

The Citi Cards FI supports DC at no cost to me so given the superior reliability, speed and security I will default to the DC connection with Citi Cards.

EWC+ is the next most secure online connection method and generally is a little faster than EWC but it is still slower than DC. EWC+ uses tokens (which is why we are taken to the FI website to authorize the FI to share data with Quicken) instead of login IDs and PWs. When we do OSU, the aggregator will connect with the FI on our behalf and will download and save the financial data on their servers from where it will be downloaded into our Quicken software. We know that the data on the Quicken servers is not simply deleted after download to our Quicken software but we do not know how long Intuit retains that data.

EWC+ is still relatively new and some FIs have become very good at downloading data into Quicken with it whereas others seem to encounter issues doing that with some having significantly more issues with it than others.

Also, with EWC+ some FIs do not permit downloading into Quicken of different accounts from the same FI that have different online set ups (for instance, a husband's accounts have one login while the wife's accounts have a different login). This is a very problematic issue for some people because it means that every time they want to download from accounts caught up in this situation they first need to download from one account and then deactivate it. Then they can reauthorize the other account and download from it. Rinse and repeat the process every time they want to run OSU.

If DC is not available, I generally prefer to set up my connections with EWC+ if it is available because of the security factor. Unless, that is, the FI does not have a reliable EWC+ download process.

EWC is the least secure of the online connection methods. With this method, our logins for our FIs are saved on the aggregator's servers. Then the aggregator will login to the FIs (usually at night) to get the financials downloaded and saved on their servers. It will stay there waiting for us to run OSU or Update Now when it will download into the Quicken software. Again, we do not know how long the aggregator retains that data on their servers. I call it the least secure method because with this method we have given our online accounts logins to a 3rd party where it is retained. I do believe that Intuit is a reputable company and does have some top notch security protocols in place but I am a bit uncomfortable that other businesses and organizations with top notch security protocol businesses have be hacked. So it makes me a little nervous that my logins information is sitting somewhere where I cannot be in total control of it. It is my understanding that it is largely for this reason that FIs are pushing to eliminate EWC and cut in EWC+ instead.

Questions?

For those wishing to download transactions from Citi during this EWC+ "pause", there are a couple of options:

1. WEB CONNECT: Log into your online account and manually download and import transactions in the QFX (also referred to as "Quicken" or "Web Connect") file format. Many are posting that this is working for them as a good workaround for this EWC+ issue for credit card and banking (checking, savings) accounts. I have not heard of anyone saying it works for investment accounts.
2. DIRECT CONNECT: This is available only for Citi branded credit cards and some Citi co-branded Retail Services and only when using the Citi Cards financial institution. But DC will not be set up unless one clicks on Advanced Options in Add Account and selects Direct Connect. To get to Advanced Options, do not click on the Citi Cards button in Add Account. Instead, type in "Citi Cards" in the search field.
   
   

When trying to get DC set up with Citi Cards, if you get an unauthorized error message it means you need to authorize Citi.com to share data with Quicken. To get this set up, log into your Citi.com account and go to the Data Management Hub where you can click on Add Access and follow the prompts. Once completed, you will have 10 minutes to return to Quicken and do Add Account with Advanced Options to completed the DC set up process.

Unfortunately, Citi Cards works with some co-branded cards, but not all. My Sears Mastercard does not work with Citi Cards, either, but it is still set up with the EWC connection and it is still working during OSU and Update Now. This all makes me think this is an EWC+ issue, not a DC nor EWC issue.

That being said: If your AA cards do not show up in the Citi.com online account, there is a link there you can use to try to link those cards to Citi.com. I was able to link my AT&T Universal card to Citi.com and it then worked fine with Citi Cards and DC. It can't hurt to try linking them if you have not tried doing that already. If Citi.com accepts the linking then you should be able to use the Citi Cards FI with DC to download into Quicken.

The posted Alert for this issue has just been updated. It says that the Citi Cards download connection (not other CITI connections, yet) has been fixed.:

I haven't checked this out myself so it would be great if others would confirm this and post the results back here.