Bank Transaction download charges

In the beginning of your post, you refer to seeking "free transaction download service", in the end you conclude the banks "don't want you to use Quicken for issuing checks". These are two different animals; you can get one without the other.

And B of A does offer free web-connect downloads to every customer, and free direct downloads to customers with "Advantage" accounts (requires minimum balances of various amounts in various accounts ... depending on what accounts you have). Since I do not need online billpay, I have not checked with B of A as to whether they support it via Quicken or not.

Be glad it's just $3.95 / month. Bank of America told me it was $9.95 / month for direct connect. I use their web connect for free and use their bill paying service for free as well. As for the $9.95, they can kiss my ass.

"Minimum"? They start at $5000 and run all the way up to $15,000 daily balances. Like I said before, they can kiss my ass.

I think banks fully well appreciate the effects of one interface to handle multiple banks. It means that they lose to some extent "control" over their customer and become an interchangeable commodity. No effort involved in switching means it becomes harder to retain customers. You don't appreciate the bank anymore for what it does. On the other hand, their free billpay locks you into their site, you have all your accounts set up, etc, so it make moving to a different bank that much harder.

If you think nickel and diming somebody is the way to make them loyal customers you probably ought to rethink your position. BOA has the use of my money as I carry a reasonably high balance in my checking account. This hasn't made me want to open new accounts with them. I put my money market funds in a credit union that provides me with free direct downloads. My credit card business likewise....

When I'm looking for new service I tend to go to those who have been good to me in the past.

I did *not* mention charges. I mentioned the ubiquity of the Quicken interface vis-a-vis customer retention. You may notice that I said the Quicken interface has a potentially negative impact on the bank's relationship with its customers. Hence trying to discourage the use of such an interface by levying a fee could be one explanation for the fee.

You bring up an interesting point here. I'm surprised that Quicken or the banks have not done something about this already. Creating an area in the register for a logo icon sent from the bank would be one way to differenciate the different banks that are living together within quicken. And Intuit could make this a benefit of using direct connect to entice the banks to enable the feature.

Another idea would be a bank branded versi> I did *not* mention charges. I mentioned the ubiquity of the Quicken

I think with this type of negotiation you have to come in with the info. Like she said, she would bubble the info up the ladder if you brought the info that you could get the service for free elsewhere locally.

What you have to do is go in with the info on the free directconnect and be prepared to close your accounts on the spot if your fees are not waived. I might even go in with a new accout at the other bank already opened with a small stipend there just to make the transfer that much easier.

Hmmm, Quicken already does this.

And Quicken almost does this. My splash screen always shows a B of A logo within the Quicken logo. I don't think the other details you suggest are in play, but I certainly suspect that B of A paid to get their logo on my splash screen.

Warning -Quickent 2005 only works with a small list of participating financial providers. . Quicken 2005 does NOT have a way to import either QIF or OFX file formats for checking accounts, which my 2 small credit union supports and my broker support. As a ten year user of Quicken, this release is a huge disappoingment. I think Intuit will find a lot of people switching to other software to keep their banks. I know use my credit unions free bill paying. Check out Moneydance or GNUcash to see other software that works with internet standard OFX file format, not the special QFX version that Quicken uses.