Why does BofA credit card transaction download require a text/code prior to download?
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The original poster has recently gotten a new BofA credit card and is complaining because he is being asked to supply a MFA code each time he downloads that card to Quicken.
The op's problem has NOTHING to do with Quicken - and Quicken can do nothing to change it: it is a BofA requirement for all accounts that download using the "Express Web Connect" Connection Method. The user will just have to get used to it - for EVERY Express Web Connect download from BofA.
BofA does not require such a code for accounts that use the "Direct Connect" Connection Method. But BofA has stopped allowing users to choose the Direct Connect connection method (old BofA Direct Connect accounts, whose connection method was established before BofA changed their policy, are grandfathered in and can continue to download using Direct Connect).
The op later says that, "The One Step Update proceeds, and at the end of it Quicken indicates the card account was successfully updated with ZERO new transactions." Apparently this is another user who believes, incorrectly, that when Quicken says "account updated", that means there should have been transactions downloaded. "Account updated" does NOT mean there were any transactions to be downloaded; Quicken has no way to know whether there are any transactions actually available to download. Quicken "requests" a download from the financial institution and if no error messages were generated, Quicken reports "account updated" followed by the number of transactions Quicken received.
The op states, "Any 'pending' transaction on the card makes the date I entered into Quicken change to some future date. I want to have the actual date of the transaction show in Quicken, so I have to then change all those dates back to what I entered originally."
First: the "actual date of the transaction" is never - to my knowledge - downloaded by any financial institution, by any Connection Method. The date that is downloaded is the date the transaction "cleared" the financial institution (called the "Downloaded Posting Date" in Quicken). What's more, Quicken never - in my experience - replaces existing register "transaction" dates with downloaded "Posting" Dates. When the user manually enters a transaction giving that transaction a date (the Quicken "Transaction Date"), then later downloads that same transaction and Accepts that downloaded transaction as a Match to the manually entered register transaction ... the existing register Transaction Date is not modified.
Second: "pending" transactions should never be downloaded - if the transaction is one that has not yet cleared the bank. And if one considers "scheduled transactions" to be pending transactions, the only time they are downloaded is if: the account uses "Direct Connect" and the account is activated for Online Billpay. And even then, the only "pending" data that is downloaded is a "confirmation", not an actual transaction (an actual transaction will be downloaded when the schedule transaction has been sent to the payee and has been cleared by the billpayer). Scheduled transaction "confirmations" are not actual transactions; when they download, the do not get a "c" in the Cleared Status register column.
Third: Quicken plays NO role whatsoever in selecting, formatting, or sending downloaded transactions. In the case of Express Web Connect downloads, it is either the financial institution, or Intuit, who performs the aforementioned tasks. For testing purposes, I have a BofA credit card setup to download using Express Web Connect: I have NEVER gotten any pending transactions downloaded to that account. The op will have to take this issue up with Quicken Support, as they will know who is seleting/formatting/sending the Express Web Connect transactions for BofA; then the op will have to wait until the responsible party takes care of the problem.
[The user claims to be able to download some accounts from BofA without having to supply a code. If true, that suggests that those accounts are setup using Direct Connect and that they were setup that way long ago ... before BofA changed their policy.]
[The user claims BofA blames the problem on Quicken. While it's not possible to know just what the user was told, it is definitely not a Quicken problem. And there are people at BofA who know that. If the op wants other confirmation, he will have to get his concern escalated at BofA.]
[NOTE: I have seen at least one Quicken user claim (in a different discussion) that they are downloading to a credit card account from BofA using Express Web Connect and not being asked for a MFA code. That credit card is a third party card processed through BofA; which could explain why there is no MFA required ... the third party may have been permitted not to require MFA. I have not heard of anyone with a true BofA account not having to supply an MFA code for Express Web Connect downloads.]
[Last Community discussion post: May 9, 2021 @ 9:21 am]