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Online brokerage account glitch

I'm trying to work out a glitch in a brokerage account that keeps reporting a margin balance when there is none. According to Quicken help, the record appearing in the Online Center for any given brokerage is reported "exactly as it is downloaded from the participating financial institution." The brokerage wants me to delete the account and create a new one using the Online Account Services Setup. The account that's there now was created before I started to use the online direct update feature. The shares in that account were transferred in from another account as an "Xfr" transaction. If I simply delete the account and create a new one with the Online account wizard, I'll be breaking that link without a clear understanding of how to repair it. The first download of that new account will show the original deposit of the shares I transferred in but it won't be linked by Quicken to the account from which it came.

Q1) Do I simply follow the broker's instructions and create a new account? Q2) What do I do with the brokerage account that's got the glitch in it? Just delete it? (There's only this original transfer in of shares and one transfer out of dividends so far.)

Reply to
jaygreg
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"jaygreg" wrote

I am unaware of any "Xfr" transaction in Quicken that transfers shares between accounts. The investment transaction "Shares Transferred Between Accounts" does not create any link at all between the old and new account; it just does a single "Shares Removed" for each security in the old account, and one "Shares Added" for each lot of each security that is transferred in the new account. There is no meaningful link between any of those transactions.

Perhaps you are referring to the text that Quicken puts in the memo field of transactions it creates for transferring shares, which contains the abbreviation "Xfr". First: this is not a true link; and second: it is easily changed where needed. There would be no need to change the memo field in the new account; it would still correctly indicate the account from which the shares came. The only transactions whose memo text would be incorrect would be those in the old account ... and there would be only one transaction per security there, which should not be too great a burden to change ... if you found it absolutely necessary to change it.

If you have "moved" the "Shares Added" transactions from the old account to the new account, the downloaded transactions should "match" those transactions just as they should have matched them when you first downloaded to the old account after doing the original transfer.

You can do this in a copy of your Quicken data; if you are unhappy with the result, discard the copy.

Once the new account is correct, yes, delete the old one. (Until you do, that transfer will create a duplicate deposit in it's TO account, in addition to overstating your assets).

You could also test the theory that creating a new account will eliminate the false margin holdings by just creating a New Quicken file, setting up your brokerage account in it, and downloading to it. If your fi is not sending erroneous margin holding amounts, they should not appear in the Online Center for the New file ... if they do appear, then you can skip the exercise of moving your Quicken transactions to a new account and get back on the phone with your fi.

Reply to
John Pollard

Thanks John. You've cleared up a few things and gave me courage to try tackle this bugger. I think I'll create that new Quicken file as a test and see how the download looks. Thanks for your help.

Reply to
jaygreg

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