Some banks do and some banks don't?

Installed Quicken 2005. Setting up banks online I notice that Quicken will let you enter ID and PIN for one step updates for some banks and some make you use web connect. Who's at fault here? I have my checking and savings at Washington Mutual and two credit card accounts at CapitolOne and MBNA visa and guess what, Quicken won't let me enter ID and PIN at any of these institutions. I must manually use web connect. Or am I missing something? T-Man

Reply to
T-Man
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You are not missing a thing. Your FI's have chosen to not pay Intuit the higher fees that are associated with Direct Connect. Be thankful that they do provide Web Connect, my FI has been promising this since the first of the year.

Reply to
Disciple

It is not Quicken that is controlling the process, it is your financial institutions. If the fi only offers web-connect downloads, then Quicken can do nothing about that. Speak to your fi's.

Reply to
John Pollard

Your post is marginally uncharitable. Higher fees to Intuit? Do you have proof that Intuit charge more for Direct Connect than it charges for Web Connect?

I can imagine that there is a lot more work the FI may have to do to develop and/or implement a direct connect system compared to web connect where all one need to so is essentially provide a list of transactions.

There may be higher fees involved in the actual testing and certification of a direct connect implementation, but the higher fees may be in line with the higher costs of the infrastructure.

Reply to
Mike

I based my comments on a series of emails with the head of my FI's web banking division. Also IIRC - somewhere buried on the Intuit web site is a section dedicated to FI's that pertains to Direct and Web Connect, and I seem to remember hints to the fact that Web Connect fees are lower.

Just looking at the differences between the two:

Direct Connect - is established within Quicken and the data is downloaded directly into Quicken and hopefully the correct account. Web Connect - requires you to establish an open internet connection to your FI's download page and initiate the download from there. Where you can then select whether to *open* the downloaded data directly in to Quicken and again hopefully the correct account, or *save* it to a file. If you save it you then have to ... (you probably know all of this so I will stop)

The Intuit FI pages I referenced earlier details the process a FI has to go through to implement either type of connection, file/data format and integrity, and more. I don't remember the exact amount but the last email I had with my afore mentioned web banking person there was mention of a startup fee charged, but it was an amount that I though was exorbitant when taken in conjunction with the user fees charged monthly.

All of this has been hashed out many times here and on the Quicken forum. Given all of the cost savings of electronic banking I would think it would behoove Intuit to charge more reasonable fees so more/smaller FI's would be encouraged to offer this service. But that is just my .02¢.

Reply to
Disciple

With Direct Connect I guess you could say Intuit is providing the service. That being the functionality of Quicken connecting to your FI directly and downloading your data. However with Web Connect *you* must establish the connection to your FI's web site and initiate the download. Here you have two options, either open the download or save it to disk and the import it later. Regardless of your choice *before* your data is imported Quicken contacts Intuit to see if your FI is *on/in their list of FI's*, if not the import does not happen. (I have a feeling that Direct Connect contacts Intuit to verify your FI is on/in the list.) So who is really providing the service, Intuit or your FI?

If I understood my FI's web banking person the fee charged by Intuit is not based on the number of people using either method, but rather on the total number of customers that FI has. Let's use some round numbers and say my FI has 10,000 customers with say 1/3 of them doing online banking and downloads (334 Customers), and the Web Connect fee is $5.00. So 334 X $5 $1,670.00. But if it is true and Intuit charges the FI on the entire customer base then 10,000 X $5 = $50,000, from a small FI or even Credit Union stand point that fee is verging on extortion. When you factor in the setup cost of the servers, and the programming and testing of the software that is born by the FI before going live with either method. Thus the logic behind my comment. Of course I have no way of knowing what the actual fees are, and as stated have gleaned most of this from talking to my FI's web banking person in charge. Also this person did not offer to state what the fees are, and I would guess there is some type of non-disclosure contract between the FI and Intuit about this.

Would I deny Intuit, or any other company for that matter, a slice of the cost savings. You bet when it involves the latter scenario, that strikes me a out and out greed.

Reply to
Disciple

Disciple wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@enews4.newsguy.com:

The amount a company charges for a service has nothing to do with the cost of producing that service. They charge what they charge because their customers are willing to pay it.

Charging customers for services that actually saves the vendor money is common. Some telephone companies still charge for TouchTone even though it costs them more to support "dial". Some banks charge for ATMs even though it lets them reduce the number of tellers.

Intuit makes the FIs pay for Direct Connect because the FIs are willing to pay them. The FIs are willing to pay because if they don't offer Direct Connect their customers will find an FI that does.

Reply to
Porter Smith

Porter Smith's comments are spoken like a professional "pricing person" - a professional business person. As such, you never confuse cost with price. As a successful funeral director once said - "you cannot increase the death rate by lowering the price of caskets." The competitive environment keeps things in balance. Jim M.

Reply to
Jim M.

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