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Web Connect calls CD a Money Market Account

First of let me say that I understand that certificates of deposit should be treated as investments. At least that's what it says in Quicken help and that's what I've done for years.

Now I'm having trouble linking an "Investment" account to my local credit union in Q2005P. The Web Connect download would not link to the investment account and when I selected "Create new Account" it created a "BANK" account named "Money Market at Federal Credit Union." I also tried manually activating the investment account I had created, but it says "Transaction Download not Available." I suspect this is because there are no stock or mutual fund shares identified in the account.

I guess I could leave the CD as a Bank account, but my other CD deposits are in Quicken as Investment accounts. On the other hand, it would be nice to download monthly interest payments and not have to enter them manually. I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom of keeping certificates of deposit in investment accounts. Creating fake stock shares to identify the CD accounts is kind of silly too. Is there a down side to treating CD accounts as bank accounts?

Reply to
Don in San Antonio
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"Don in San Antonio" wrote

I don't believe that there is any conceptual restriction on the type account you use for your CD's. I think what matters most is what your purpose for the account is, and, as you have noted, what downloading requirements there are.

Your Quicken account must match the account type being downloaded, which is controlled by your financial institution. Investment account transactions are consdiderably different from - and more complicated than - non-investment account transactions. Financial institutions that do not have real-world investment accounts, are not likely to go to the extra trouble to create investment account transactions for downloading.

I had the same experience you're having; I switched my Quicken investment CD accounts to Quicken savings accounts (one per CD) and never looked back.

With the newer versions of Quicken (including Q2005), I believe you can sort of have your cake and eat it too. Newer Quicken versions allow you to group some account types differently than their default groups, while retaining their basic Quicken account characteristics. So I believe you should be able to create your CD's as savings accounts in Quicken, then in the Account List, group them with your Investment Accounts (assuming you think of them as investments, rather than just savings) ... and still download to them. Such accounts - cash flow accounts grouped as investment accounts - can be included in, at least some, Quicken investment reports, such as Asset Allocation.

Reply to
John Pollard

I'm heading that way myself. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

| With the newer versions of Quicken (including Q2005), I believe | you can sort of have your cake and eat it too. Newer Quicken | versions allow you to group some account types differently than | their default groups, while retaining their basic Quicken | account characteristics. So I believe you should be able to | create your CD's as savings accounts in Quicken, then in the | Account List, group them with your Investment Accounts (assuming | you think of them as investments, rather than just savings) ... | and still download to them. Such accounts - cash flow accounts | grouped as investment accounts - can be included in, at least | some, Quicken investment reports, such as Asset Allocation.

Yes, you can group a Bank account with your investment accounts but I don't see any advantage since the price stays at $1.00. While a CD is an investment, there's not much risk involved and you pretty much know how it will perform.

Reply to
Don in San Antonio

"Don in San Antonio" wrote

The advantage is that, if you consider your CD's as "investments", you can have Quicken include them in your Asset Allocation ... if you group their cash flow account in the Quicken Investment account "group". (They will also appear in other "Investment" reports, which do not include non-investment accounts.)

Reply to
John Pollard

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