Wels Fargo Update - WARNING!

Wells Fargo sent out a letter dated April 1, which I received last week, notifying Quicken users that they had to

"make changes to your software setting before May 31, 2011"

in order to use Direct, Connect, Bill Pay, etc.

I started to make the changes today (Tuesday 3/29) exactly according to their detailed instructions, which are somewhat involved and offer many opportunities for errors. Immediately I ran into problems. Some accounts wouldn't update, and I got over 75 duplicate downloads for my transactions starting in December, 2010. So I called WF and found out that they made a mistake, and "what the letter didn't say was that YOU SHOULD NOT MAKE THESE CHANGES BEFORE APRIL 1, 2011." They were unable to sort out my mess, and basically told me "don't change anything until April 1, and don't try to download any transactions before then."

The only easy way out of the problem was to restore the backup file I had made before I started. But I still can't do any downloads because of the changes they made to my server connections.

So I spoke to a supervisor and demanded a $50 credit to my checking account for the hour or more that I had wasted due to their incompetence, and my inability to download for the rest of the week. They complied. This is my attitude towards banks - they ding us for every mistake we make (bounced checks, late payments, etc.) so I ding them for their mistakes.

Lessons:

DON'T DO THE UPDATE BEFORE APRIL 1,2011

YOU MUST BACK UP YOUR FILE BEFORE UPDATING.

YOU MUST BACK UP YOUR FILE BEFORE UPDATING.

IF YOU HAVE WASTED TIME AND HAVE PROBLEMS DUE TO THEIR MISTAKE, DEMAND A CREDIT.

Cheers,

Lance

Hmmm... that's odd as I bank with Wells Fargo and I have not received any such letter from them.

I'm a Wachovia refugee. We were instructed to make sure to use Wells Fargo Bank as the bank name for connecting via Quicken.

Are the people getting the letter ones who have been using some other bank name? Are the instructions basically to turn off direct connect and then turn it back on using Wells Fargo Bank as the bank name?

I ask because one of the posts seemed to imply that this might be the case?

When the merger of their computing systems started, I seem to remember that the name was automatically changed to zWellsFargo, or something similar (with a "z" at the beginning). Now, the instructions were to change it back to "Wells Fargo Bank".

Perhaps those who are not receiving this either live in an area where Wachovia does not do business, or they were a Wachovia customer. Or, they are staging the change to cut people over as they move their servers over from one FI name to the other.

A general question to those who haven't received a notice.... do you have a "z" prefix in the FI name?

I have not received the notice and I still connect using the FI of zwachovia. I have a zWachovia account which I started when Wachovia took over United Counties Trust Company over a decade ago. A Wells Fargo rep was in the local office about 3 weeks ago and he told me my account would not transfer to Wells Fargo because my accounts were too "complicated" (I have no idea what that means except I have a bunch including checking, savings and HELOC and all accounts have both automatic debits and credits.) Th rep said mine would transfer sometime after May 6 and by mid October at the latest.

Has your Wachovia account moved to Wells Fargo? That is, have they converted your branch? Because if they have, be careful. The conversion letter I got said that there was a limited time for moving my Quicken to Wells Fargo. If I waited too long, I would loose the grandfathered service charges - no charge at all for direct connect with bill pay. Make sure you don't fall into that trap.

Well that probably explains it for me. I was a Wachovia customer before they merged with Wells Fargo. Then after the change from Wachovia to Wells Fargo took place in my area, I then switched from MS Money to Quicken.

Yes, the local branch did move to Wells Fargo in February. That's when I talked to the Wells Fargo guy about the transfer of my accounts. Good point on grandfather of no charge for Quicken direct connect with bill pay. I'll keep my eye out.

My local branch in California switched to Wells Fargo well over a year ago but my accounts, other than credit card, are still Wachovia and it all works fine for now. No letter about switching, but my situation may be unusual because it was opened in Florida where Wachovias have not switched.

I just received a letter yesterday from WF stating that my HELOC (but not my other accounts) will move first week of May. Automatic transfers from Wachovia checking to Wells Fargo HELOC will have to be re-done after I get my first HELOC statement from WF sometime in late May.