Downloading Credit Card TXNS for first time

I've said it before and I'll say it again===I've seen far too much grief in this newsgroup from people who download/ed transactions from financial institutions. It is just a nightmare waiting to happen. A constant source of frustration. I manually post ALL transactions, except for daily price updates, and have never had any problems.

Just as counterpoint, I've been downloading transactions from multiple institutions into Quicken for around 20 years with very few problems. Aside from the occasional duplicate transaction (easily deleted from the download register prior to accepting) and the occasionally wonky brokerage transaction, I can't say I recall having any major issues.

To the OP, I'd suggest marking all your prior transactions as reconciled, accept the new transactions, run a report on the unreconciled transactions, block delete from the report and clean up by unmarking any reconciled transactions that shouldn't be so marked. Should take all of 60 seconds.

yeah - getting the first batch of anything in a sync mode is always a challenge...

Like the other person, I have been downloading quotes, brokerage, and mutual fund data for decades. I have also added all our checking accts - some grandfathered free, some using the no-charge web connect. And for our credit cards - again using no-charge web connect to download, balance, and categorize the transactions.

I mainly use Quicken for the "investment tracking" aspect. But have recently focused on getting a handle on a "yearly budget" so I'll have a clue as to what we all spend during the year.

I could not do this without a full download of both checking AND credit cards, along with the auto or manual effort to "categorize" each transaction of check written.

Bite the bullet - fix everything up - and let the download rule the data file.

Robert, in the spirit of the Season, this is another one of those issues where "YMMV" obviously applies. However, your advice to the OP was very good--it should make their Holidays a lot better!

I guess that I must have "trust issues" about downloading transactions. They probably would work..."most" of the time. Or, maybe I have "control issues". Regardless, I obviously have "issues". Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All!

Or download into a new account. Then when balance matches delete the old.

"Sharx35" wrote in news:kb92dg$6sd$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

It's especially because I have control issues with the banks etc that I download transactions. However, my twist on things is that I (usually) enter the transactions as I get home with the receipts. Then when the banks give me their take on the transactions, I reconcile the downloaded transactions. Yes it takes a few minutes, but since I also enter transactions for future occasions, I'll have a running estimated balance in my registers for at least a month ahead. I don't really do budgets but if I did, that would show me when and where to cut it out. Not very many investment transactions, so that is less urgent, although I check what they are doing often. Too often according to my spouse (who has to listen to my exclamations).

Happy holidays to all! (holiday derives from holy day ...)

Zaidy036 wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-s eptember.org:

Indeed. Or mark each transaction as you accept it with a flag.

I could have sworn I just replied to a similar thread...why a duplicate one, although the title of somewhat different???

I made an error and posted it twice. Things happen.

Substantively, I bit the bullet and downloaded the TXNS. It took quite a while to sort through them all, but the next day when I downloaded again, just a few popped up. It was very easy on the second day. I think the bullet may have been worth it. Thanks guys.

Marvin

OK - no problem. It's just after reading and replying to one thread to see the other with someone else's same answer was 'interesting'. Yes, a one time setup does occur, but hopefully you'll find now things are easy.

Like another frequent poster here, Han, I enter all my transactions daily with my receipts from ATMs and CCs, and then Q can match them when I download. On occasion, I make a transcription error, so I find that using downloading is much more accurate than hand-typing and never using the online DL capability. Also, my categories sometimes are what I would want rather than what Q does or does not auto-categorize. But that's what makes Q powerful, you can tailor it to your own liking.

I enter all my transactions manually then download form my banls daily.

99.9% of the transactions match but occasionaly one doesn't. Most of thie are due to typos when I keywhacked the data, but ona few occasions I;ve found an error by the vendor (one time the pump jockey at my gas station submitted a charge for $632.50 instead of $63.25. Because I had the receipt and reported it the next day, the owner was happy to make it right. I don't know what he wouykd have done if I had waited for my monthkly statement.

I've also hade my credit card hijacked twice, but because I caught the bogus transactions within 24 hours, the damage and hassle were minimal,

Whoa!! - I (obviously) meant "and *always* using the online DL capability."

The online download capability to me is the most meaningful part of using Q. If one doesn't use that function if available, why buy Q in the first place and simply use a spreadsheet like the 'good ole days'. (This is, in fact, what I plan to have to go back to if Intuit ever forces me to maintain data 'in the cloud' instead of locally controlled on my PC.)