Travel Technology - Quicken vs Bank of American Online Banking

We've been using Quicken since the early 90's with very few issues but every so often they force an upgrade...we're currently on Q2005 but all online services for that version will cease on April 30 unless we upgrade.
We've banked with BOA since 1988 and have heard good things about their online banking...
So now is a good time to switch if we're going to switch.
Any feedback one way or the other??

I use Bank of America online and have no problems with it whatsoever.

The only pain is accessing from another computer... you have to have a secondary picture check for access.

William

These things, ARE a bit differant right? I mean, quicken is a central all accounts, all transactions tracking system, and coordinate taxes, stock purchases, track everything one has of value, assets etc. Online banking, at least none of the ones I have used including BofA offer that level of transaction history, tracking, reporting, searching and consolidation of anytype and any place accounts?

I've never used Quicken for personal finances, but BofA does give you their branded version of Yodlee account aggregation, where you can track your assets and transaction history across accounts-- balances, purchases, trades, and so forth across an unlimited number of internal and external accounts as well as point and mileage balances in a variety of programs. It's a handy snapshot of expenses, income, and net worth. And I have access despite having the lowest, cheapest account they offer in my state (Express Checking, IIRC).

Intuit/Quicken does things to make you upgrade every few years if you want to continue to use certain features. I upgraded from QW 2005 to 2008 this year because the direct import into this years TT required a newer version. (You could still do the import via intermediate files, but it's not quite as good.) Unless it's a feature I need, I don't upgrade, and I certainly won't upgrade every year. The downside to the upgrade from 2005 is that you lose the ability to import the old qif file format for credit accounts, but the only account that doesn't use the new format that I have is Diners Club USA.

I agree with nmenaker. Quicken and online banking are separate functions. Quicken usually integrates them fairly well, if your bank supports it.

-David

What do the BOA OLB users do for writing checks to a payee not supported by BOA?
The asset/stock tracking feature of Quicken is not ultra-important to me as I have a financial planner who does the legwork for that facet of my financial life.

If the payee is not online, BofA will mail them a check. There's no extra charge for this, but you do have to allow time for delivery.

If the payee is not online, BofA will mail them a check. There's no extra charge for this, but you do have to allow time for delivery.

Exactly. Like Wells Fargo and Citibank too.

But honestly, I think that there is something here that is going uncovered. I think the OP uses quicken for bill pay, online check writing, etc.

The following setup works well for me. There are some checks and balances built in but not by my design.

Quicken serves as my "ledger" for checking, savings, and credit card accounts. This of course could easily be expended to investments, mortgages, etc.

I download only CC transactions from online to Quicken.

I manually balance my "bank" accounts (checking and savings) in Quicken against online balances and transactions a few times a month. Transactions are very light because spending is all on mileage earning CCs. Any bill payable by card is.

Thus, my online banking bill pay is limited mortgage/rent, life insurance, power, auto lease. I manually enter these transactions in Quicken.

I manually pay my CC's via EFT's from the CC's websites. I wan't to determine the day & cash amount that is debited from my "cash" account!

So I think that you should use both Quicken and BofA online.

Scho

So I think that you should use both Quicken and BofA online.

Scho

Or, even better, use quicken + paytrust and redirect all your bills to paytrust. (you only have to redirect the ones that they can't pick up electronically online.)

No more paper bills or paper checks. Checks are drawn on whichever account you want them drawn on, either electronically or by a paper check written on your account. For the paper checks, you retain the float.

-David

I use a number of things, but primarilly I use

Quicken to CONSOLIDATE everything and TRACK everything.
All my checking and savings accounts are integrated and RECEIVE data into Quicken, but I don't use QUICKEN for BILLPAY.

All my brokerage, IRA, SEP-IRA, 401K, and ROTH accounts are with a couple differant providors, but QUICKEN pulls in ALL the information and ALL TRANSACTIONS into the one place of QUICKEN, so an overview, review, analysis of the entire package (net worth) can be done in one place.

Of the Brokerage accounts, ALL transactions are brought in, with timing, proper lots, commissions, etc, this is across three brokerage accounts. I do ALL the TRADING AT the brokerage web-sites of course.

Nice this about THIS part of the integration is the LOTS/DATES/PRICES analysis that I can do in ONE PLACE. So, I can project timing of SALES, TAX IMPACT, WASH RULE exclusions across multiple accounts and stocks. This is NICE!

And finally ALL the transactions that come in are CLASSIFIED by categories like Payroll, Consulting, Tax, Business Expenses, Health Care, etc., etc. The key here is that when it comes time to do invoicing, taxes, P&L analysis, it is ALL THERE..

The ability to CLASSIFY, ROLL UP and REPORT against all these items, 1000's of purchases on an annual basis, across about 15 differant accounts, in one place with one UNIVERSAL NAMING and TRACKING convention is key.

I COULD use quicken for bill pay, but I don't really use CHECKS at all, and I do most bill pay with a credit card (miles baby!) and a couple of online bill pay from one checking account, which is free.

One other advantage of this form me is that it is all off-line accessible, and I can backup the entire thing in one place, and do point in time analysis.

I don't like the fact that QUICKEN requires an upgrade every 3-4 years. It isn't the expense, it usually is FREE but the time to upgrade-get used to a new interface sometimes-confirm all accounts are grabbing the same data-and sometimes the footprint of the application changes (not a fan YET of 2008) but it hasn't been that bad lately.

This is what I do. YMMV

what version of quicken and TT are you using though to do that? not just the base version right?

I use both B of A online banking and quicken. I had to upgrade from 2004 to 2007 last year.

B of A online banking only allows you to look at transactions for the last 90 or 180 days ( I can't remember which). By downloading to quicken, I have a permanent record/check record that you can search. In the absence of downloading the transactions to quicken, one would need to either keep a good check record or remember to download all of your transactions every few months. Quicken makes it easier to track. For years before I switched to quicken, I kept a check record in excel and reconciled every month or two. Now, Quicken keeps me automatically reconciled. I also use this to keep an easy to search record of credit card expenses.

I use BofA, Citi, CapOne, Chase and Fidelity online. They all work just fine. Citi has the best website of the 3 and provides the most info. BofA billpay setup is annoying and you must request and receive ebills before setting up automatic recurring monthly payments. I only use CapOne and Chase for credit cards, mainly just for account info.

I think you will find BofA to be quite adequate for your needs if you are simply looking for online account info and bill payment and transfers. Quicken has really lived on past its usefulness for many of us who simply want realtime account info and access plus bill payment (for those of you who don't know the history, it tooks banks some time to catch up, but they have now done so). I don't even bother to reconcile my accounts anymore as it doesn't serve any purpose, nor do I need to track personal spending into specific categories. AFAIK quicken doesn't provide copies of checks or receipts so it won't do you any good if you need proof of payment or to exchange merchandise, etc. Of course, if you are self-employed or have a business then obviously quicken may be useful. Ditto for people who daytrade securities, though I think turbotax will download data from many online brokers.

I(for those of you who don't know the history, it tooks banks some time to catch up, but they have now done so).

I guess that means that I "don't know the history" even though I've been using online banking, online credit card accounts and quicken for almost as long as they've been available.

Canceled checks, or images come from your bank or CU and are not part of what quicken ever offered. Their bill-pay service, if you chose to use it is tied to your bank account, and the bank provides any proof of payment you might need. I don't use their bill-pay service, instead I use paytrust to aggregate bills and pay the bills that I either don't set up regular payments for (as with a mortgage, etc) or pay online using the companies site, as with credit card payments, and pay with a credit card for the miles, as with cell phone service, auto insurance, cable tv/sat service, etc.

Online banking will never give you a full and complete picture of your entire net worth, like quicken can, nor will it do a bunch of other useful stuff that quicken does, like provide an instant snapshot of your net worth or tax situation for the year (or any period).

Online banking and quicken are complimentary technologies. If you don't need the quicken component, then either you aren't using it properly or your financial affairs are so simple that you don't ever need to reconcile a checkbook (including checks or payments that haven't reached your online banking account yet) or know how much you owe on all your credit accounts, mortgages, car loans and how much your assets are worth, or what your portfolio (including 401k, and assets with different brokers) looks like at any point in time. I'm sure you can do some of what quicken does online at other sites, but you won't be able to do all of it in one place or any of it as well as quicken does.

If you don't need that, that's fine for you, but I don't think you can fairly describe what online banking does as "catching up to quicken". It's not even close, my friend. But it's certainly an interesting alternate opinion.

-David

I tried quicken a long time ago, but I soon realized it was a big time waster. I don't need to know how much I spent on coffee last year (or travel) - it won't change my spending patterns. And there is no need to reconcile anything as I don't have shareholders. I keep all tax receipts in a file, and can itemize everything and be done with my annual returns in a couple of hours.

But if you find it useful, enjoy.