Speakeasy forum: Any online bank customers out there?

I was skeptical for quite a while and now don't know how I got along without it. I still keep a check register and manually reconcile it when the monthly statement arrives. Quicken and using on line banking simplify the process and help me to find errors. I am obsessed with being down to the single penny each month. Anyway, my current banks are Chase and Fifth Third. Chase took over Bank One which took over my original institution many years ago. Chase works quite well with Quicken. Fifth third is a little less mature at it but it does work. I download activity regularly. There are some downsides in that editing is needed in a few cases. When a check goes through an electronic funds transfer, the check number might no post in the designated column. As well, if you like to keep checks in proper sequence in your manual check register, you'll find that on line banking doesn't respect that. The checks post as they clear. You can sort them as you wish, however. I do pay my credit card on line as well and can keep track of activity quite closely. You will see pending charges before they are actually posted against your account. I've actually caught a couple of bogus charges and was able to call my credit card company immediately to have them challenged and removed. My bank no longer returns my checks. That part bothered my at first. I like to keep hard evidence in case of a tax audit for some expenses and contributions. The bank does make images of these checks (front and back) that I can view and print on line if I wish.

except for my car payment (they want 10.50 for online payment) so I pay that one through my bank (Citizens) and they issue a check. Used to use Bank of America and didn't have any problems with their online system. I use Quicken but I balance against the bank almost everyday but don't try to download the information. It looks like you can download into Quicken.

Diana

and have seen no reason buy the new version annually. Changes tend to be small and most of the new features are more bells and whistles than truly useful, IMO. Sometimes an upgrade has just been fixes for what they broke with the previous version. As well, and as you mentioned, they change the database structure occasionally and too many years will mean problems importing older data. I'm still using 2007 at this point and will skip 2008.
Downloading data from the bank does have some downsides. Once you start doing this, you learn to never manually enter any transactions but only edit missing information in that which they download to you. Otherwise you're going to get duplicate entries. You get very few payee names...just the check # and, on those electronic type transfers where you get the payee, your check # is not in the appropriate column. I only pay my credit card on line and haven't set up any automatic payment arrangements. I'd never allow even a utility company to debit my account automatically. More recently our church has set up an automatic "tithe" withdrawal system and is encouraging all to use it. That, I think, would be very stupid....can't imagine giving my pastor access to my bank account or I'd need to get a monkey, a squeeze box, a hat and a good corner to work on.

Just always download those too for future use, even if currently importing by some other means into your software.

I use Money 2004 keep my own register and just compare my figures with the bank.

I just started this month to receive my bills (phone, cable, power, credit card) through my bank (Scotiabank).

Canada Post electronically posts the bills to my account at Scotiabank, A replica of the bill is displayed when I access my bank account. A copy of all bills are stored for 7 years.


I now have NO reason to go to the mailbox.

She does everything online. If it's money she can't zap someplace, she sends it with their mail service. I don't exactly know everything she does, but it seems she's happy with it.

some demos there too if you look around.

http://www.chase.com/ccp/index.jsp?pg_name=ccpmapp/smallbusiness/online_banking/page/bb_pfm

As an alternative to FREE Chase Online Banking, you may directly connect to your Chase accounts using your Personal Financial Management (PFM) software such as Quicken, Microsoft Money, or Quickbooks. The fee for this PFM service is $9.95 each month. The following accounts qualify for a reduced rate of $6.95 per month: Premier Platinum Asset Management Account, Premier Platinum Checking, Premier Platinum Checking with Interest. There is no PFM service fee for Private Client Services and Private Banking customers.

Unfortunately a lot of the 'bills' (or generic recurring payments) that I have are for payees that do not accept EFT payments. That's one of my frustrations with my current bank. I have to enter the payee name and such for the bill pay feature but the bank cannot imagine why I would like to have that information appear in my check register when I download from Quicken.

On well.