Bank of America AmEx (legacy MBNA) duplicate x'action downloads on statement close

QB 2008 H&B.

I'm seeing something puzzling with my BofA AmEx credit card transactions.

Typically, I enter transactions into my register, then reconcile them against what One Step Update picks up.

It works like a champ with every other account I've got.

However, when my BofA AmEx statement closes, the transactions show up again, en masse. This doesn't happen w/ any other accounts, some of which are also at BofA.

I don't use the card that much, so I haven't really dug into what's happening until now. But it's been doing it for a long time.

BofA just tried to tell me it's because I enter the x'actions into the register ahead of One Step Update instead of just categorizing what One Step Update downloads, which sounds absolutely ridiculous to me. They told me to call Quicken Support (I know better than to do that).

Any ideas?

Reply to
Bartt Shelton
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BofA is correct. Just download and categorize from the site.

Reply to
JOhn

I have been doing exactly what Bart says for sixteen years. I have never had a problem with any bank or charge account doing it that way.

----------------------------------------------- Gary .

Reply to
Gary B. Berns

I also have a BofA AmEx dowloading via Express Web Connect. Transactions are only downloaded when the statement closes. If I've already manually entered a transaction, I just match what EWC downloads every month. If there are transactions I haven't manually entered, I accept the new downloaded transactions.

I go through the same procedure with my FIA Schwab Visa Signature and Fidelity AmEx.

Reply to
Bob Wang

What BofA says is nonsense as long as you match the downloaded transaction with the one you entered, which it sounds like you do.

If they are sending duplicate transactions, when the second one arrives it will look like a "New" transaction whether or not you originally entered it manually.

I have BofA credit card that downloads with Direct Connect and once in a while see duplicated transactions; I haven't noticed that it happens on statement close, but could be. When I looked at what the bank was sending in the OFX log (Help / Product and Customer Support / OFX Log) I could see that they were sending the same transactions again with slightly different FITID values. That's an OFX no-no and causes Quicken to think it's a different transaction.

It sure sounds like that's happening to you.

Reply to
itk

I have direct connect on my last remaining BofA card (they forgot to remove it when I transferred my accounts to another FI). I get the transaction when it post to their system and I also get it when the statement closes. The second transaction will not match which means it must have a different transaction id being sent to me

Oilcan

-----Orig>QB 2008 H&B.

What BofA says is nonsense as long as you match the downloaded transaction with the one you entered, which it sounds like you do.

If they are sending duplicate transactions, when the second one arrives it will look like a "New" transaction whether or not you originally entered it manually.

I have BofA credit card that downloads with Direct Connect and once in a while see duplicated transactions; I haven't noticed that it happens on statement close, but could be. When I looked at what the bank was sending in the OFX log (Help / Product and Customer Support / OFX Log) I could see that they were sending the same transactions again with slightly different FITID values. That's an OFX no-no and causes Quicken to think it's a different transaction.

It sure sounds like that's happening to you.

Reply to
Oilcan

If the second transaction had the same Financial Institution Transaction ID as the first, you should never see it at all: Quicken compares FITID's and doesn't display downloaded transactions whose FITID has already been Accepted into your Quicken data.

You can verify for yourself by either saving the OFXlogs from both downloads and comparing the FITID's of the two transactions; or by using the QELLOG facility to display your current FITID's and check the FITID in the OFXlog from the second download to see if you already have it.

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Reply to
John Pollard

You can view the OFXlog in Quicken:

Help > Product and Customer Support > OFXlog

But often it is easier to use an editor, or word processor (like Word); especially if your financial institution doesn't format the OFX nicely. To do that, "Save" the OFXlog while in Quicken ... that will create a Windows .txt file of the log, which you can then work with in an editor or word processor.

I haven't worked with the QELLOG to any meaningful degree, just generated a couple and took a quick look.

My understanding is that there should not be two exactly equal FITID's for the same account with the same fi, in your Quicken data ... not even one in your account register and the other in the "Accept transactions ...." window. An FITID that is already in your data should prevent any transaction from the same fi for the same account, with that FITID, from ever getting as far as the "Accept transactions ...." window. It may be in the downloaded data (OFXlog), but it shouldn't appear in Quicken.

I don't know what the distinction between "new" and "processed" in QELLOG represents in Quicken. If the FITID's (or accounts, or fi's) were different, I might think one transaction had already been "Accepted" ("processed"), and the other was in the "Accept transactions ..." window as a "New" transaction. But I'd just be guessing. Do you have an account where you have accepted some of the downloaded transactions, but there are still others which you have not yet "processed"?

If you note the data in each QELLOG transaction, I would think you could locate the two transactions in your Quicken data ... and see what relationship they have to each other.

If you were willing to post the data from the two transactions with the same FITID, in the Quicken Live Community (you could probably scrub any truly sensitive information first), the post might get Intuit's attention. You could provide the background of your original post in this discussion, explain you ran QELLOG and say you didn't think there should be two transactions in your Quicken data from the same account at the same financial institution with the same FITID, and ask what the meaning of "new" and "processed" is. Intuit might answer, and you and quite a few other people could get some useful info. Or not.

Reply to
John Pollard

I'd be inclined to Accept the existing transactions, and look at things again after the dups show up.

I don't know anyone who likes the Live Community user interface. It is definitely not friendly to "dialog" ... but one works around the problem.

The user who initiates a "reply" decides whether they think they have an "answer" or just want to make a "comment". The user who asked the question can mark an answer as having "solved" the problem, just been "helpful", or do nothing. Other users, may decide to award a point to an answer that they like.

Reply to
John Pollard

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