Direct Connect (OFX) Downloads Discontinued

[tulak]

This has been covered in other threads here, but I thought it might be beneficial to start a new thread to track companies that are discontinuing downloads using OFX/Direct Connect.

I use the account downloads feature in Moneydance, which is the same as the download feature in Quicken.

It looks like Chase has joined Schwab in deprecating their OFX servers:

Quote:

Yesterday, I noticed that I was no longer getting downloaded transactions from Chase. Today, I found the following on Moneydance's (InfiniteKind) website: Unfortunately, Chase has discontinued their use of OFX Direct Connect, which is required to download your transactions automatically into Moneydance for free. It would appear Chase hasn't informed their customers of this change, as we've received many support requests from Chase customers in the last few days. We've since been advised that as of October 6th 2022, Chase no longer supports Direct Connect/OFX, including 3rd-party bill pay.

https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/k...inued-oct-2022

This is pain for me, since I have a number of Chase credit cards that I use regularly. I don't want to manually download/import statements for each of them.

Moneydance supports Moneydance+, which uses an aggregator to get downloaded transactions. It costs $2/month (to cover their costs) and I'm going to investigate this to see if I can at least use it for accounts I don't care about (credit cards/banks) and keep using OFX/Direct Connect for financial accounts that I don't want aggregated.

Here's a blog post about Moneydance+ for those that are interested: https://infinitekind.com/blog/moneyd...-subscriptions

I wonder how Quicken is handling this?

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Quicken is badly broken, I have 10 institutions that no longer automatically download so I let my subscription expire last month. I charge everything to 1 credit and 1 debit card and I get a text everytime a charge happens so I can either enter them at the end of each day from the texts in a couple of minutes or do them all at the end of the month. Bottom line it's quicker for me to just manually enter them and I don't use Chase but I did a quick search and it looks like similar problems to what I was having.

[Freedom56]

Discover card also removed the OFX download feature this past month. You can only download PDF, XLS, and CSV. I found an online CSV to OFX converter but it did not work that well. I'm going to keep searching for one. I still use MS Money to track our finances (it does not expire). I don't understand why they removed this feature. Worst case I will write my own converter.

[cathy63]

Quote:

I wonder how Quicken is handling this?

Quicken notified users about three months ago via email and in-app pop-ups that Chase was making changes and they would notify us when we had to reconnect our accounts that use online update. When the new Chase servers came online around the beginning of September, Quicken popped up a reminder window with instructions saying it was time to do the update. The switchover went very smoothly for me and all my downloads continue to work normally, with no duplicate or missing transactions.

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freedom56 Discover card also removed the OFX download feature this past month. You can only download PDF, XLS, and CSV. I found an online CSV to OFX converter but it did not work that well. I'm going to keep searching for one. I still use MS Money to track our finances (it does not expire). I don't understand why they removed this feature. Worst case I will write my own converter.

Discover debit and credit card was one of the few banks that was still working for me and I think my last download was around 22nd of September before my subscription expired. Now I know I did the right thing in cancelling because I would have blown a gasket if these had failed on me as well after I had paid the renewal fee.

[Freedom56]

This is the sight I used to convert the September transactions from discover:

https://csvconverter.biz/

You have to open an account (it's free). You can see the results before you convert but you have to change the column definition for credit card transactions to work correctly (i.e. debits vs credits). I'm looking for something better.

[FloridaWizard]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cathy63 Quicken notified users about three months ago via email and in-app pop-ups that Chase was making changes and they would notify us when we had to reconnect our accounts that use online update. When the new Chase servers came online around the beginning of September, Quicken popped up a reminder window with instructions saying it was time to do the update. The switchover went very smoothly for me and all my downloads continue to work normally, with no duplicate or missing transactions.

Just to add to this response, Quicken now uses a new protocol called Express Web Connect Plus, which is functionally identical to Direct Connect but takes longer.

I unfortunately made the switch before they fixed the existing accounts bug, so it took me a while to get everything back to normal. For those who waited, the change appears to have been seamless.

[RonBoyd]

I have an Amazon branded Chase Credit Card and Personal Capital had no issue updating this morning. What am I missing?

[tulak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RonBoyd I have an Amazon branded Chase Credit Card and Personal Capital had no issue updating this morning. What am I missing?

Personal Capital uses an aggregator. A quick search shows they use Yodlee.

Aggregators are the long-term direction for downloadable data. Using an aggregator involves sharing your info with another company, which have their own privacy policies, etc. This is why I prefer to use OFX, but OFX is old technology that is being deprecated.

[tulak]

Quicken Express Web Connect uses an aggregator. It’s not clear to me if this aggregator is owned by Quicken or a 3rd party.

Here’s a good overview of the connection types supported by Quicken: https://www.intuit.com/partners/fdp/...ctivity-types/

Overall, aggregators have better/more support from financial institutions. Financial institutions prefer aggregators since they don’t have to maintain their own OFX servers.

Moneydance uses Plaid for their aggregator, which they chose after reviewing their privacy policy. For me, it’s important to keep in mind that all aggregators aren’t equal.