Wachovia - New Monthly Fee for Using Quicken?

While I don't bank with Wachovia, I suspect what they are saying is that if you use the "One Step Update" button from within Quicken or Quicken's scheduled download function to download or upload transactions (ie pay bills or transfer funds), you will be billed the fee.

On the other hand, if you log into Wachovia's web site and click on the download button on the web page, they will not charge you - even if that causes Quicken to automatically start up and import the transactions.

You might call them and ask if you do sufficient business with Wachovia to get them to waive the fee, or consider switching to a bank that does not charge this fee.

Rick Blaine wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I am a Wachovia customer and when I received that notice I called them. The previosu poster is correct. Fortunately my account is exempt. I don't remember all the rules, but it's a function of account balance. Since I have HELOC with a $100,000 credit line, I qualify.

I also dropped by my branch and told the manager that if they decide to stop offering me direct Quicken access for free, I will close my accounts. There are plenty of banks in my neighborhood.

Welcome to Wachovia! I moved an account to Wachovia because they offered this feature. When I tried to access it I was told since I was a "new" customer it was not available. I knew it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. I complained to Wachovia, and got nowhere. I know write checks and demand they mail me a monthly statement. When and if they go back to letting me do everything with Quicken's one step update I will stop writing checks and getting a printed statement. I really believe if enough people did that, and told Wachovia why things would change. There is also the choice to move your account. The problem for me is that there isn't a bank locally that has totally free access with Quicken.

I called wachovia - downloading from within quicken is free - regardless of account balance. Only if you use the bill pay feature within quicken is there a fee (certain checking accounts are exempt). You can log on their site and get bill pay for free.

Alan

I have several investment accounts and laugh when I see all the grief that many of you have with downloads. I simply enter the stuff manually. That way, very few mistakes. The odd mistake is caught when I reconcile the account. I NEVER pay ANY service charges for ANYTHING at my bank, and I receive monthly statements with check images--the few checks that I still write. 90% of current account transactions are electronic, done automatically. It's the 21st century and I will NOT pay anyone anything for downloads.

"sharx35" wrote in news:ZDPBh.88905$Fd.9489@edtnps90:

I enter every transaction I make to every account manually, and download every day. That way I know right away if (a) I made a mistake entering a transaction (b) the institution/payee made a mistake processing it or (c) there is a bogus transaction. I have experienced all of these conditions and it's a lot easier fixing a mistake that happened two days ago than one that happened 3 weeks ago.

Currently I have only one account, a 401(k), that doesn't support direct downloads. It's royal PITA as I get paid every other Tuesday but the transactions aren't processed in my account for several days. So I have to remember to logon to the institution's web site and go through several steps to see if our payroll manager finally got around to making the deposits, and didn't screw up (someting he does on a regular basis).

I used to do it that way, as I transitioned from manually entering the transactions. After months of doing it, I found very few errors. I decided that I was just wasting my time doing the manual entries. I now download everything, and examine each transaction as they are accepted. I've been doing it this way for the past few years, and had no problems.

Same here. This is the 21st century, not the 19th.

Yes, but a lot more chances for someone cadging from our accounts, what with ID theft and the like. Trust but verify !!

Jay .

Exactly right. I verify all transactions with bank and credit cards every day. Only error I ever had was from PayPal.

"Capt. Tuttle" wrote in message news:RBGBh.3126$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...

And the reason is......

Intuit charges the banks for these 'services'. See ALL the information at

Though it lists the 'questions' in a different order, you would do best by reading from the bottom up. Q: Why does Intuit charge financial institutions a fee to connect to Quicken? A: Intuit charges a fee to financial institutions to connect to Quicken via Open Financial Exchange (OFX) because Intuit products, like Quicken, are uniquely positioned to provide financial institutions with a better way to attract, retain and serve their customers by offering a more valuable service. This small fee enables Intuit to offset costs, offer connectivity to more financial institutions, and continue to develop better products and services using the faster, easier and more accurate OFX method. Q: Will my Financial Institution charge fees for OFX download? A: Financial Institutions determine what - if any - fees will be charged for download into Quicken via OFX. Contact your Financial Institution and ask them if they charge fees for download into Quicken. When you call, be sure to explain that you want to download into Quicken and would like to understand if there are any costs for doing so. Q: Why move from QIF to OFX download? Q: Will QIF Data Import be available for any accounts? Q: What is happening to QIF Import? A: Beginning with Quicken 2005 for Windows, QIF Import will no longer be available for most account types. Click here to see which accounts will be affected by this change.

Online bill-pay through Quicken or Money was at one time less common, and banks charged fees. I suspect Intuit wanted more of those fee dollars (since they were not making enough on the upgrades of their software. Let's face it, older versions work fine, the new 'features' are redundant or cosmetic, and there is little incentive to 'upgrade'). Intuit started an aggressive campaign of forced upgrades (the 'sunset' policy). It is not a far-fetched scenario that they most likely held a gun to the heads of banks. Banks countered by offering downloads in QIF format.

So, intuit DISABLED QIF format in all versions after 2004.

Banks have countered by offering their OWN bill-pay service via web.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but Intuit's sunset policy has nothing to do with QIF files, and QIF files have nothing to do with online billpay.

The sunsetting policy relates to downloads controlled by Quicken; the restrictions on QIF file imports were a separate, permanent operational change to Quicken.

Online billpay via Quicken requires the "upload" of billpay instructions to the billpayer. QIF files have no capability for billpay instructions ... and I've never heard of any financial institution that "received" QIF files from customers.

You must have a lot of time on your hands

Service charges are for suckers who are too lazy to learn how the banking system works.

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