Beware Quicken !!

[OldShooter]

I have 30 years of data in Quicken, but have been unable to transfer it to another program, maybe because of its size. Only MoneyDance was a candidate and the importation process produced hundreds if not thousands of errors. So I have been stuck.

In early November I tried to download my Schwab data as I do monthly. I was presented with a screen saying that the Schwab validation process had changed and all my account (6) had to be revalidated. I went through the process and, in the end discovered that Quicken had totally trashed my data file. The principal problem was that it had created a new set of Quicken accounts named similarly to the existing ones and had populated them with transactions. Long (really long) story short I have been trying to recover from this mess for about 4 months now. During that time I have received two or three emails from Quicken apologizing for the problem but offering no assistance except that I consult their user forums --- which I have done with varying degrees of success.

I am nearly recovered except that I discovered that Quicken will not download transactions beyond three months old. So I have two-month holes in my data that I will have to enter manually from downloaded Schwab transaction logs.

On Monday this week I called their tech support and got the usual know-nothing with a thick foreign accent. After wasting close to 1/2 hour of my time I told him I wanted the problem escalated. OK, he said he'd get me scheduled for a callback. After another 5 minutes of him fumbling with his terminal, he told me that they would call me back on Monday, Feb. 7. A week delay!??! Today (Thursday) I got a call from another first level guy with a thick accent telling me that they were very busy and would like to reschedule that call for later in the week. I was not polite. This is what happens when a company gets paid via subscription -- the money rolls in regardless of whether software development and bug fixes goes on or not and it rolls in regardless of the level of tech support.

So ... anyone considering using Quicken or who has been using Quicken for a short period I'd strongly suggest that you find another vendor before you get locked in like I am. Quicken management has obviously decided to harvest the brand and ride their aging horse into the ground. (From a quick look around the internet, it sounds like they are also harvesting the Mint brand that they purchased in 2009.)

 

[Sunset]

Might be time for you to start a new program, one that is free (if one exists). To run in parallel to Quicken if it ever gets fully recovered.

In a couple of years you could find the new program is all you need and can just mothball the Quicken one.

I've tried Quicken a long time ago, and just thought it was too much work to track all that stuff so I gave up.

From your warning I certainly won't consider trying it again, even though people seem to like using it.

 

[OldShooter]

... From your warning I certainly won't consider trying it again, even though people seem to like using it.

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

[braumeister]

I ran into a very similar problem when my old files got terribly corrupted. I decided to just start over.

Exported everything into a couple of spreadsheets (one for investments, one for banking, and started from scratch with Moneydance.

That was a little over ten years ago and it has worked very well for me. It's surprisingly easy to look up old transactions in the spreadsheets, using either sorting by column or a simple find. And Moneydance, through quite a lot of updates, has been very stable and reliable.

Perhaps a solution for you to consider.

 

[jldavid47]

You are not alone:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7906995/ongoing-schwab-issues#latest

I couldn't download for a few weeks in late November/early December. They finally released a patch that resolved the issue for me but I had to deactivate and reactivate the account before it would work.

However, there are still plenty of people for whom it still does not work. Schwab says they are sending the data in the proper format to Quicken. At some level I think Quicken blames Schwab, but my experience with Quicken since they went to the subscription model is that their programming sucks. The last decent version was 2017.

My problem is trying to use an alternative is the same as yours. I have over 25 years of data and trying to export that into a QIF file then reading it into an alternative (like MoneyDance) crashes and burns. I've had some success exporting on an account by account basis but that is tedious.

Frankly, the most useful feature in Quicken for me these days is the calendar which projects my account balances into the future (coupled with the "Bills & Income feature). I find that to be a good planning tool (YMMV).

I've seriously considered brushing up my programming skills and putting together a finance program that does only what I need. I'm not sure I want to do that much work, however. I've also considered designing a spreadsheet to handle things but I don't think that's flexible enough.

 

[Jerry1]

One of the things we did a couple years ago was take our big file of many years and retire it. Nothing special, we just made a new file going forward and called the old file a new name. Now, our current file reflects our situation better and we still have all our old data in case we want to refer to it. I was thinking we may do this every couple years and reading about your situation makes me think that’s a good idea.

Thankfully, our financial situation is getting less and less complicated as the years go on so I my switch to a spreadsheet before too long. Too bad because, for us, Quicken has worked very well throughout the last 20-30 years.

 

[Montecfo]

Somewhat inspired by Jerry1, I did the same thing at start of 2021 and it has been great. I just refer to my old quicken file as needed. Since I record plenty of detail it is very useful for determining when I bought that computer, car battery, new furniture, did that bathroom remodel.

What I do not record is financial transactions in detail. My broker does a really good job tracking those and I have ALL the statements and I can download from there as needed. If needed.

So all I use it for is annual tracking of finances, and daily/weekly/monthly recording expenses. So as long as the credit card download continues to work I am golden.

I am not a big fan of Quicken, but I am making the relationship work.

 

[LarryMelman]

I'm over 20 years in Quicken. I would be lost without it. I back up my file monthly. And save the year-end backup. Am I the only one who does that? You gotta back up your data, folks.

I also had a hiccup with Schwab but I got through it and did not have any real corruption, and no issues for a couple months now.

 

[timbervest]

I'm over 20 years in Quicken. I would be lost without it. I back up my file monthly. And save the year-end backup. Am I the only one who does that? You gotta back up your data, folks.

I also had a hiccup with Schwab but I got through it and did not have any real corruption, and no issues for a couple months now.

Similarly, I back up my Quicken file (25 years of data) monthly. I too has serious corruption problems with Schwab last quarter but worked through them and the current version works great. I have tried other programs (Money Dance, etc). but have found them lacking in the detail that I would like and the need for category conversion and other adjustments is just too much. I am satisfied with Quicken and it works for me (I can work around any minor annoyances) but YMMV.

 

[OldShooter]

My backups did me no good during the months that Schwab was shredding my file every time I tried to download. It seems to be working now, but if the same sort of thing happens again the backups will again be useless.

Qucken does some automatic backups. I also back up my whole machine to a RAID 1 NAS on my network scheduled every few days and every month or so a backup goes onto a 3tb drive that lives in my gun safe.

 

[grasshopper]

So all I use it for is annual tracking of finances, and daily/weekly/monthly recording expenses. So as long as the credit card download continues to work I am golden.

I am not a big fan of Quicken, but I am making the relationship work.

CapOne downloads are having the same problem as Schwab, having to reauthorize, again, and again, and again. The double account happen to me with Vanguard. Still sorting that one out. Quicken user since 1995.

 

[euro]

I finally had to pull the plug on Quicken after more than 25 years. But I too have had problems with trying to export the data into other software products.
Alas, now that I'm well into FIRE, I have been working hard to consolidate all my holdings and I have stopped dividend and cap gain reinvesting altogether. So things have gotten much simpler and I no longer have a pressing need for money management software. Also, brokerages now keep track of cost basis (required for some 10 years now), so that too reduces my need.
RIP Quicken

 

[jldavid47]

I'm over 20 years in Quicken. I would be lost without it. I back up my file monthly. And save the year-end backup. Am I the only one who does that?

Nope.

You gotta back up your data, folks.

Yup.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I’m also a 30+ year Quicken user. Long ago I made the decision to not try and keep decades of data in a single data file. My current file has 5 years of data in it. I save off a copy at every year end and set it up to make a backup copy every time I exit the application. Over the 30 years, I’ve had some data corruption, but I am of the opinion that “things happen” and I move on. Writing and maintaining Software is complex and with Quicken’s necessity to deal with so many 3rd party systems, makes it even more complex. I have yet to find an alternative that I like better. I’m happy to pay my yearly subscription.

 

[NW-Bound]

Quicken has had problems with our Schwab accounts also. Thank goodness, nearly all of my active investing activities are done on our Merrill Edge accounts.

I had problems with Merrill Edge a couple of years ago for forgotten reasons, and have been downloading transactions via a QFX file to import manually. This works well.

Unfortunately, Schwab took away the QFX file export capability. Why the heck did they do that?

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

i left last Quicken year for a couple of months and then resubscribed since they took away my ability to even download transactions from the institutions website.
They had the nerve to backdate my activation date to when my previous subscription had ran out even though I had no access to some features at that time.
I decided to start a brand new file this year and hopefully all the previous issues would go away so I went through every account and diligently entered the opening balance from the last statement as instructed. Quicken proceeded to change my opening balance on most of the accounts at the first download, this was a problem which was happening last year with my credit card account and many customer were complaining of the same problem when trying to reconcile accounts.
They also seem to want me to enter some Bank CDs as an investment with a number of shares which I've never done before and it seems like a bunch of extra work.
I'm definitely gone when this subscription expires, I should never have come back.
I do have backup files, wish I could figure out a way to save it as an excel spreadsheet to get it away from Quickens clutches forever.

 

[Lawrencewendall]

Double post

 

[Lawrencewendall]

I went with AceMoney at the time as it was the only alternative that I could find that could import Quicken data. Might not be the same but AceMoney was $40 for a LIFETIME license.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I left Quicken years ago. It refused to interface with my bank and with Schwab. I gave up.

Why do people keep 30 years of data, BTW? How do you use it?

 

[OldShooter]

... Quicken proceeded to change my opening balance on most of the accounts at the first download, this was a problem which was happening last year with my credit card account and many customer were complaining of the same problem when trying to reconcile accounts. ...

I ran into this when I did a download where they only brought in 90 days of download data, leaving a gap in transactions in most of September and October. What I figured out was that they plugged the account opening balance to make the ending balance tie out. So every single balance from opening through the end of September was wrong. The last couple of days I have been manually entering those missing transactions and correcting the plugged opening balances.

... Why do people keep 30 years of data, BTW? How do you use it?

Occasionally I'll go back and look at things like net worth history, investment performance, etc. Having it is nice not critical.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I don't use it much but occasionally I might want to check when I bought something.
Also when I clean old matured CD certificates in my safe, I can look in Quicken to be sure I moved the money elsewhere if I don't remember.
It's really just like a security blanket that I may never need but it's good to have.

 

[athena53]

You are not alone:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7906995/ongoing-schwab-issues#latest
<snip>

I've seriously considered brushing up my programming skills and putting together a finance program that does only what I need. I'm not sure I want to do that much work, however. I've also considered designing a spreadsheet to handle things but I don't think that's flexible enough.

I have an Excel spreadsheet where I key in transactions- Date, Month (calculated from Date), Vendor, Amount, Payment mode (checking account, Fidelity Visa, Costco Visa, Cash) and type. This also allows me to split an amount at the grocery store between Groceries and Alcohol, for example. I then have a Pivot Table by category by month. I had 785 transactions in 2021 so it takes some time but it's straightforward, good enough for tax record-keeping and has no subscription fees. I've been using it since 2015 so can also track changes year to year.

I really hate it when software vendors pretty much leave it to an unpaid user community to solve the bugs in the software but I'm grateful for them. I've found answers in those communities myself.

 

[RockyMtn]

had basically the same problems as the OP. Stems from Schwab switching from Direct Connect to Web Connect +. Had to deactivate and reactivate the Schwab accounts. One step update still hangs up and takes forever to download the Schwab accounts (those still on Direct Connect download in seconds). Just let it continue to run one step update and sooner or later the Schwab accounts will update with your transactions.

Very frustrating but with 30+ years of data I'm not looking to go somewhere else.

 

[SecondCor521]

The quality of the downloading transaction feature has declined noticeably for me over the past two or three years.

I did find at one point a Quicken help article that said that if you rebuild or error check your file, that can find and fix various file integrity issues which will make the downloads work better. I did that and it definitely improved things.

There used to be an option to archive transactions prior to a certain date. It looks like it's an option under "Backup" now. That way your transactions were available in the archive file, and your current file is now smaller and faster, but you don't have to set everything up again. I haven't done it yet because my file is still relatively snappy, but it is a good option.

 

[Katsmeow]

(From a quick look around the internet, it sounds like they are also harvesting the Mint brand that they purchased in 2009.)

Before I talk about Quicken (I have my own tale), I would point out that Mint is owned by Intuit. Intuit sold Quicken to a private entity several years ago. That entity announced last fall that it was selling Quicken to another private entity (don't know if that has gone through).

I keep trying to use Quicken and give up every time. I was unhappy at YNAB recently raising its subscription price (which I felt went against grandfathering from a few years ago). I had an existing Quicken subscription from when I tried it out in late 2019 so I decided to use that. I had huge problems getting things to work properly on investment accounts. Still, I continued to work with it. But it was never user friendly and would have random errors that took lots of time to fix.

And, I hated the UI. The web version was better but you can't do everything on the web version. It was finally just so aversive that I decided to check out alternatives. I spent weeks researching alternatives. Honestly, there was nothing that met my needs better than YNAB. Theoretically Quicken did more than YNAB but the user unfriendly was too much to tolerate. I'm still not happy with keeping YNAB but so far I have found no better alternativel