PNC bank upgrade affecting Quicken downloads?

@charlieo.Hemlock and @Boatnmaniac

I am still having the problem as well. As noted earlier, I talked with my assigned "resolution specialist" on 12/26. I just called today in hopes of getting a status update. I ended up talking for some time with a different specialist who is working directly with Intuit/Direct Connect, and to whom my ticket has now been reassigned.

To make a longer story short, Intuit has (obviously) not yet found all of the instances where the changes in PNC's system related to the web site update "broke" their DC code. I shared some observations I have made and we tried another test, which together gave her some new information she thought might help and would pass on to Intuit after concluding our call.

I have her direct number, so will follow up again if I do not hear back (or otherwise learn the problem is resolved) in the next 7-10 days.

I don't understand users saying what seems to be that PNC support is fixing their individual accounts. I don't really want an explanation. he problems are not fixed. I worked in IT my entire career and never experienced a problem lasting this long. Just sayin'.

I'm using PNC BillPay as well. Once you enter a payee, it stays, so it's a "finite" task. Also more of my payments go through my credit card (2% unlimited cash back) so I really have very few payees from my PNC accounts. At this point things are smooth enough that I'll stay where I am even when (if?) DC is fixed. Are you circumstances very different?

Hello @charlieo.Hemlock . I found a workaround that allowed me to successfully reactivate my Direct Connect accounts. I have just shared this with my PNC "resolution specialist", who believes what I found will help the IT techs identify and address the cause of our errors. She is also going to share the workaround with other PNC reps so they can ask other Quicken users with the same problem to try it.

In my case, the OLA-293-A and reactivation error appear to be related to the fact that in addition to my PNC Bank - Direct Connect accounts, I have another PNC account that downloads transactions via EWC+ through a different financial institution, namely PNC Card Services Online. So if you also have any PNC accounts not accessed through PNC Bank - Direct Connect, you may want to try this workaround and see if it works for you. If you do try, you should of course make a backup before starting, and perhaps another one before each step in which you will be changing or updating data.

1. Open your Account List in Quicken and for each PNC account that does not list PNC Bank - Direct Connect as the institution, note the institution used (e.g., PNC Bank - Web Connect) and connection method (e.g., EWC+) as this info will be needed later.
2. Deactivate every PNC account in the list - regardless of institution name or connection method. To do so (as you probably know all too well), first open the Account Details window (click Edit), then (a) go to the Online Services tab and Deactivate; then (b) go to the General tab and clear any data remaining in the Account Number, Routing Number and Customer ID fields in the upper right corner.
3. Close Quicken, wait about 30 seconds, then relaunch it. (This may not be necessary, but is what I did so strongly suggest you do the same.)
4. Attempt to reactivate your Direct Connect (DC) accounts exactly as explained by @Boatnmaniac earlier in this thread, to wit: Tools > Add Account > PNC Bank - Direct Connect > Advanced Options (a link at the lower right of the PNC Bank - Direct Connect view in Add Account) > select Direct Connect > enter your DC UserID and PW (as were provided to you by PNC) > when prompted make sure to LINK each downloaded account to the accounts that are already in Quicken and choose DON'T ADD for any non-DC accounts that may be listed.
5. If the reactivation is successful then proceed with the remaining steps, but if it ends with an error (as it has in the past), you will want to stop, revert to your backup, and continue working with your PNC rep.
6. For each DC account linked in the preceding step, check for duplicate transactions downloaded when linked. If any are found, accept and then delete them, then make sure the Quicken and PNC online balance amounts are in agreement as of the latest accepted transaction remaining.
7. Perform an Update Now for each DC account to see if any additional duplicates are downloaded. If so, accept, delete and reconcile again.
8. Once all Direct Connect accounts have been reconciled, close Quicken once again and wait about 30 seconds to relaunch.
9. Now, reactivate your other, non-DC PNC accounts. IF EWC+, the process will be Tools > Add Account > PNC Bank - Web Connect (or whatever other institution you noted in Step 1) > Advanced Options (a link at the lower right of the PNC Bank - Web Connect (or other institution) view in Add Account) > select Express Web Connect > grant authorization via PNC web site credentials as prompted > LINK each downloaded account to the applicable account already in Quicken and choose DON'T ADD for any others.
10. As was done above for each Direct Connect account, check each non-DC account for any duplicate transactions and accept/delete/reconcile as needed; then, do an Update Now to see if any additional duplicates are downloaded and handle them the same way.

This may take a bit of time if you have many PNC accounts but should be worth the effort it if it gets things working again. Note also that I have not yet tested Bill Pay on my applicable DC account, but after reactivation the Online Center shows my previously paid bills with the correct amounts and delivery dates, so I have no reason to believe it will not work correctly.

If you try this, please post how you made out!

@Michael D'Amore , while the instructions for deactivating/reactivating PNC DC accounts indicate you need to deactivate all PNC accounts, they do not specifically say - or even imply - that applies to non-DC accounts as well. For that reason, and because my credit card account EWC+ account is set up and updates separately under a different "financial institution" (PNC Online Card Services vs. PNC - Direct Connect), it had not occurred to me to deactivate that account as well. But that is what worked for me.

I suspect that when PNC updated their website the data Quicken receives when "looking for your accounts at PNC" during activation was changed in a way which, depending on the mix of accounts a user has, breaks the software's ability to determine what data goes with what account.

I have also been using PNC Bill Pay while waiting for the DC activation/download fix, but prefer using Quicken for various reasons, one being that I prefer to "push" virtually all my payments. I ultimately also elected to temporarily switch my DC accounts to EWC+ (via PNC Bank - Web Connect) to download transactions. That worked, but when I later went to download my CC account transactions (also EWC+, but with PNC Online Card Services), I experienced a CC-506 error, indicating the account may have been closed or its nickname changed - neither of which was true. Having never had any download problems with this account before, I assumed this had been caused by enabling EWC+ for my former DC accounts and if so, some type of cross-account problem with the data received was occurring. This is what led me to try deactivating the CC account in addition to my DC accounts and then reactivating all of them.