Thinking of switching from Money to Quicken

It does not, AFAIK, work with a QIF file. The reason I'm not sure on whether it works or not, is that ever since Intuit made the rename feature available, downloading in QIF format into Checking accounts was not supported.

Quicken has two fields, I'm not sure to which one you are referring. The Payee field is limited to 32 characters. Many Quicken users complain about the useless info they get from debit card transactions.. The Memo field has a larger limit. I speak under correction when I say it is 64 characters, but I believe the rename feature only operates on the first 32 characters. Again, I'm really not very sure of this, it may be free association, so perhaps JP or someone else will jump in and correct me if I'm wrong.

Quicken has a conversion utility that you can download. I don't know how successfule Quicken completes the conversion. I'd suggest you get Quicken and try it out - there is a 60-days no questions asked money-back warranty on Quicken.

Just bear in mind that with Quicken 2006, you cannot import QIF files into checking, credit card or investment accounts. Some work around that by importing cash flow transactions into a Cash account and then cut/paste them into the relevant checking/credit card account. No legal workaround, to my knowledge, exists for investment accounts.

Eeeuuuwww. That's bad news, because that's exactly what I want to do, and am doing now with Money. My bank makes history downloads available in only two formats, QIF and CSV, and the latter I presume is primarily or only for spreadsheets.

That's the one I'm referring to, in Money. I don't know what Quicken looks like but I'm assuming it's similar.

Money has that field too, but anything there has to be entered manually; again, I'm assuming it's the same in Quicken.

It's only the checking account I'm concerned with. From what you say, I take it Quicken used to allow importing QIF files into checking accounts. Maybe I'm missing something, but that seems to me a very odd feature to drop since that's the *only* thing I ever do with QIF files.

It looks, then, as though I might as well stay with Money.

Thanks very much for the info and help. I really appreciate it.

Jack

Actually, renaming does appear to work with imported QIF file transactions.

This is true for QFX downloads, but it does not appear that Quicken imposes the same limit on imported QIF file transactions ... though it's possible that the fi will send only 32 characters. I just imported a QIF file transaction with 50 characters in the payee name (and got all 50 characters). I also imported a payee with garbage in the first 32 characters, and useful info following that, and had Quicken successfully rename the payee using renaming rules for data beyond the 32nd character.

No, if the fi downloades memo field data, Quicken will import it.

See above.

You can import to those restricted account types, if you are willing to do a little extra work. I have posted the technique here before ... sometime within the last 3 months, I believe.

I don't know how many characters my bank sends. I did find out that Money, including the latest version, does not show more than 32. But in any case, the newer version(s) of Quicken won't import into a checking account, right?

I sort of doubt my bank does that. I'd want the info in the Payee field, anyway.

Thanks, but the idea of "a little extra work" is off-putting. ;-)

I can't imagine why Quicken makes checking a restricted type in this way. Oh well.

Maybe (though how likely is the question) I can get my bank to send the data rearranged or modified somewhat. If they would just put the payee's name, or a significant part of it, first and the rest of the stuff later, it would still show in the Payee field as an online payment but be much easier to read.

Thanks again,

Jack

My bank provides qif downloads for free.

However, when you move to 2006, you have to use the web connect feature and this costs $10/month per account.

I can't help but suspect that Intuit and the banks got together on this.

Louise

I have one bank that offers web-connect for free and requires either a fee or minimum balance for direct downloads. I have another bank that offers web-connect and direct downloads for no charge. In fact, there are no charges for any downloads I do (9 or 10 fi's) and I get direct downloads from every fi that offers them (about half).

If you call an arm's length transaction, getting together. Banks (and virtually all companies) make mutually beneficial arrangements with other companies all the time. There's no underhanded conspiracy going on here.

Oh, please..... This is nothing more than an attempt by Intuit to do two things. First of all it allows Intuit to free up resources that were required to support QIF imports. That saves them money. Also, they can improve profits by charging financial institutions for using the newer methods.

Your bank is one that decided to attempt to recoup some of those expenses. There are plenty out there that do not charge for it. You need to exercise your right to choose....