Quicken 2005: If your FI is not on their list, you are out of luck?

Yes you are basically correct about the way web-connect downloads work ... what you report is already fairly well known. But, based on my personal experience and reading, I think your explanation is somewhat misleading.

To be a true QFX file, the file must contain an identifier that Intuit assigns to the financial institution, and to get that identifier, the financial institution must have already agreed to whatever terms Intuit requires to get that id. But it is also my understanding that in some cases, a financial institution has gotten the id, but has not completed whatever certification steps Intuit requires to actually be able to achieve a web-connect download. When/if the financial institution gets certified, they get on the list and you can download from them; until then, I think the fi is premature in claiming to offer QFX (web-connect) downloads.

Another possibility is that you downloaded an "OFX" file, which any financial institution can create any time they like, but which can not be imported into Quicken because OFX files have no Intuit supplied financial institution id (essentially the only thing that differentiates an OFX file from a QFX file).

Finally, you are not quite as limited in your ability to import QIF files as you imply. The fact is that QIF files can still be imported into cash, asset, and liability accounts (as well as credit-card accounts and a couple of business type accounts) in Q2005. And Q2005 is the first version of Quicken to offer the ability to select multiple transactions in a register and cut/copy/paste those transactions into another account ... even another Quicken file. If you put the two ideas together, you can download a QIF file for your bank account, import that QIF file into a (dummy) cash account, then select/cut/paste those transactions into your Quicken bank account.

Another approach would be to keep an older version of Quicken around (remembering that Intuit recommends against having two versions installed on the same machine, and that Q2005 will remove old versions when it installs); import your QIF file directly into an appropriate bank account in the older version, convert the old version file to Q2005 format, and cut/paste transactions from the converted file to your regular Q2005 file.

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Which puts the user in a Cache 22 situation: keep your previous version, unless your new version is 2005 since 2005 *will* uninstall any previous version found.

Which requires the user to have 2 computers, 1 for the pre 2005 version and

1 for the 2005 version.

John, I don't understand the cut/paste advise. If as you suggest one imports the QIF file into a pre 2005 version and then *converts* that file to the 2005 format and opens that file with 2005 they will have *all* of their transactions in that file without the need to cut/paste. Maybe I am missing/not seeing something.

Well, if you stop there, you'd be right. But after Q2005 is installed, you can install another version ... remembering again that Intuit suggests not doing it.

See above.

There is also another possiblity: setup your pc with dual boot capability, with both partitions being Windows partitions. Run Q2005 in one partition, the older version in the other partition.

The file for the pre-Q2005 version would be empty, containing only the account(s) you wish to download QIF file(s) for. I certainly was not suggesting that you try to keep a pre-Q2005 file and a Q2005 file both current. The pre-Q2005 file's only purpose is to receive imported QIF file bank account transactions ... then get converted to Q2005 format for the cut/paste operation. At that point, your pre-Q2005 file will be in a folder named QnnFiles where nn is the year of the older version. You could then just move that fileset back to where it was before the conversion ... you can decide on when to delete the transactions from that file that have already been cut/pasted into your regular Q2005 file; any time before you next import a QIF file.

It does sound more like a mix up to me. I don't understand why they would serve up QFX files knowing they would not work. Intuit has a comprehensive web site just for FI's. They would have had to understand the process.

I think you are. See above. It looks like the credit card QFX import worked. Did you retry the checking account after that?

I suppose Intuit has the right to license their proprietary format, and I doubt very seriously that this expense is a big ticket item in most Banks' operating budgets. In any case, my bank wants to make a name for itself though high quality on-line service and knows their customers want it. So they pony up.

Different strokes, I guess. I upgraded to Q05 and switched banks. :-) Most of my investments have been doing qfx for years.

I tried that but Q2004 would not run. However your reply made me pause and relate that problem with the trouble I had when I removed Q2005 and reinstalled Q2004. (It was the missing mfc70.dll (??) problem, for which I found the answer in the Quicken Forum.) I just may try re-installing 2005 again and then 2004.

That is always a possibility.

Thank you for expanding on this. Could one do the copy/paste operation from

2004 to 2005, and not have to convert the 2004 file? Just curious.

Jim, *my* FI is currently doing this. Along with QIF, OFX, and a couple of other file formats they offer the QFX format. My FI is probably struggling with justifying paying Intuit the required fees, which I think is for *all of the FI customers* and not just those that use Web Connect. But I could be wrong about the fee structure.

I can't remember where, either here or on the Quicken forum, someone posted where to alter a QFX file and the info for an FI that does support Web Connect. I did it once and it worked, but decided since I do have a connection with that FI that I would not do it again. It felt a little like theft.

I think what he is saying is that the CC and Checking Account are at different FI's, I have a similar situation. My CC FI offers Direct Connect, while my Checking FI has QFX file downloads but hasn't paid Intuit thus it

*will not* import.

As previously stated, I think the fee is levied on *all* of a FI's customers and not on those that use the QFX format. Which in my case, living in a rural area with a limited choice of FI's, probably makes it more difficult for them to justify the expense.

Here again, switching FI's is more of a viable option for those that live in metropolitan areas where the FI choices are more numerous. As I have said , I live in a very rural area (my choice) with 5 different FI's available. Out of the 5 there are only 2 that I consider non-regional FI's, one of which I will never use and the other only allows 1 free PoS ( Point of Sale - Debit card) transaction. My CC FI has Direct Connect as does my wife's IRA FI, so it comes down to what I want to give up to use Q2005. Which is a choice we all have to make.

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I am almost certain that you can't; but I have not actually tried it. I believe that if Quicken lets you do this at all, you could introduce corruption into your file, if the transaction formats are different between the two versions ("formats" here referring to the internal format, not what you might see on your screen).

I may give this a try anyway, after all that is why we backup isn't it? I will post back with the results when I get to test this.

Well I now have 2004 and 2005 running on the same system. Copy/Paste will not work between the 2 versions, in fact you can't have both open at the same time (2005 will not open). Intuit/Quicken must either use a different method, i.e. it does not use the Windows Clipboard) for Copy/Paste between accounts within a version or it clears the clipboard contents when the application closes.

Oh well, hopefully this bit of info will benefit someone.

Quicken *definitely* uses its own "clipboard" for copy/cut/paste; you can tell this easily because to copy from one file to another, you must keep Quicken running while you open the file you want to copy to. I should have remembered that when you first suggested trying copying from one version to another, because Quicken will not allow two instances of Quicken to run at the same time ... not even if they are the same version.

Or you can say, I got lucky. I like the fact Quicken 2005 no longer supports downloads of QIF files or OFX files from my small credit unions or broker. Note: Quicken calls these files QFX files. OFX files are a standard file format, but they Intuit only allows participating (IE Paying) finacial institutions to import to Quicken 2005.

This was the feature of Quicken that was most important to me. So even though I asked Intuit to return this feature to Quicken 2005 for 9 months, fortunately they did not . I have a relationship with 3 small credit unions and a broker, after

12 years of using Quicken, I finally had an important reason to find an alternative to Quicken. I found a finance package called Moneydance. It is great, it than can import both QIF files and OFX files and run on either MS windows or Linux.

This also allowed me to find a cheaper bill paying service than Quicken Bill pay at my credit union, so thanks for the mediocre to poor transition done to the new Quicken Bill Payer, with Quicken 2005.

Fortunately, my Quicken loan was placed with one of the largest Mortgage Company, GMAC , who does not support Quicken 2005 but does support Moneydance.

I now can cancel my Quicken credit card, can drop Quicken bill pay, no longer need Quicken.com, and can stop using Quicken 2005.

I may have been convinced to pay a small reasonable fee for any of the above, but was not given the option with Quicken 2005, but Intuit never gave me a chance, just a sneak release. So even if they change their policy I may never trust them again.