Pedfed, DirectConnect problems?

"JohnSmith" wrote

I recently created a credit card account with Penfed. Initially, I was using WebConnect (gasp) to download transactions, then Quicken asked if I'd like to enable DirectConnect. Sure! Love to....

Well, for some reason, various transactions seem to be missed by DirectConnect. These transactions will download just fine with WebConnect, but DirectConnect ignores them. Transactions before and after work fine - some are just skipped?

Anyone else use DirectConnect with PenFed? Have similar problems?

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Are you sure you're using "Direct Connect", and not "Express Web Connect"?

What's the full name of "Penfed"?

John Pollard said

Your suspicion was correct. An "edit|OnlineServices" on this account reports "This account is connected via Express Web Connect". I was not aware of this method.

- sounds like it scrapes the info from the web page, as I might do if I was logging on directly? is the account holder. They offer download via QFX format, but the user has to check boxes next to each transaction (or simply download them all).

The QFX method works fine, but using EWB regularly misses transactions, in a seemingly random order.

Any ideas?

"JohnSmith" wrote John Pollard said

Your suspicion was correct. An "edit|OnlineServices" on this account reports "This account is connected via Express Web Connect". I was not aware of this method.

- sounds like it scrapes theinfo from the web page, as I might do if I was logging on directly? is the account holder. They offer download via QFX format, but the user has to check boxes next to each transaction (or simply download them all).

The QFX method works fine, but using EWB regularly misses transactions, in a seemingly random order.

Any ideas?

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You're correct: Express Web Connect is basically screen scraping using scripts created/maintained by Intuit. Trying to keep up with changes made by the financial institutions to their web sites is a significant weakness to this download method.

Transactions are only collected from a given financial institution for EWC once every 24 hours.

If the financial institution is doing their job (uniquely identifying each downloaded transaction), you won't have to worry about selecting specific transactions to download: Quicken will not present any transactions it knows were previously downloaded (Quicken saves the unique transaction identifiers).

I have over a hundred accounts downloading. I've noticed EWC missing transactions at:

1) My local credit union 2) Alliant Credit Union 3) ING

I guess I'll have to add PenFed to the watch list, but I don't have much activity there. PenFed offered $50 bonuses for spending $500 in November & December, so I guess that Visa will see some action finally.

Bob Wang said

Hey, I didn't get that offer! ;-D Nor, do I see it on their website? Maybe this is directed toward people with "low activity". This is now our exclusive (high activity) card, since Chase/Marathon and Citi/Shell dropped, or significantly reduced, their gas purchase kickback.

John Pollard said

Oh, well that might explain why some transactions are missed - at least within a 24 hour period.

OK, I think I'll opt to download the entire list when I access via QFX.

Thanks for your help John, your assistance on the newsgroup is greatly appreciated.

"Bob Wang" wrote

I have over a hundred accounts downloading. I've noticed EWC missing transactions at:

1) My local credit union 2) Alliant Credit Union 3) ING

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I think Intuit is experiencing an unusual number of problems with EWC right now. Perhaps it has to do with some changes relating to the release of Q2012.

ING has been mentioned in some discussions, as well as Chase, HSBC, and Wells Fargo - and possibly others I may have missed.

One person got the following from Quicken tech support:

"We apologize for the error. We have escalated your case to our Scripts team for resolution. During this resolution process, we ask that you do not attempt to resolve this issue yourself, as any changes you make in your file can nullify the scripting solution in progress.

Please do NOT attempt to:

Deactivate/Reactivate or Remove the problematic account(s);

Start a new Quicken file with the problematic account(s);

Create a new account in Quicken for this financial institution using the problematic account(s) information;

Restore an older backup.

When we have completed the scripting solution, you will be notified by email. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience."

Hi, John.

I never heard of "PenFed" until recently, but they have been running ads in the Austin American-Statesman newspaper for several months now. They have an ad on page A5 of today's Statesman.

So far as I can recall, they've never printed their full name. But their logo uses a stylized globe inside a pentagon. My guess is that their name is some variation of "Pentagon Federal". But that's ONLY my guess.

Aha! At their URL: PenFed.org/AboutUs it says: Pentagon Federal Credit Union serves over 1,046,588 members in the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, defense-related companies, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. We were federally chartered in 1935 and serve our members worldwide.

RC

-- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX (Retired. No longer licensed to practice public accounting.) snipped-for-privacy@grandecom.net Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010) (Using Quicken Deluxe 2011 R 8 and Windows Live Mail in Win7 x64)

"JohnSmith" wrote

I recently created a credit card account with Penfed. Initially, I was using WebConnect (gasp) to download transactions, then Quicken asked if I'd like to enable DirectConnect. Sure! Love to....

Well, for some reason, various transactions seem to be missed by DirectConnect. These transactions will download just fine with WebConnect, but DirectConnect ignores them. Transactions before and after work fine - some are just skipped?

Anyone else use DirectConnect with PenFed? Have similar problems?

----------------------------------------

Are you sure you're using "Direct Connect", and not "Express Web Connect"?

What's the full name of "Penfed"?

"R. C. White" wrote

Aha! At their URL: PenFed.org/AboutUs it says: Pentagon Federal Credit Union serves over 1,046,588 members in the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, defense-related companies, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. We were federally chartered in 1935 and serve our members worldwide.

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Thanks R.C.

I was looking for confirmation that it was "Pentagon Federal Credit Union" so I could verify what type downloads they offer.

The op saved me the effort by confirming that Express Web Connect was being used.