What is Direct Connect?
Direct Connect is a connection method in Quicken. It enables users to download transactions, update account balances, pay bills, and transfer money between accounts.
How do Direct Connect Bill Pay (Bank Bill Pay) and Transfers work?
When you make a bill payment using Direct Connect, also known as Bank Bill Pay, you are creating bill payment instructions within Quicken, and then communicating those instructions to the financial institution to pay the bill. The financial institution’s bill pay service schedules the payments for processing based on the requested payment delivery date and method of payment (electronic or check) and debits funds accordingly.
In addition to supporting the creation and communication of payment instructions to the financial institution, Quicken also creates a payment reminder so you have a record of the pending payment and the payment’s impact to projected account balances. After the payment is complete, the payment transaction is downloaded to Quicken via Direct Connect and is matched to the payment reminder.
Direct Connect also supports transfers between your accounts at the same financial institution, for example, from your savings to your checking account.
Disconnecting Direct Connect Services
In some cases, financial institutions may discontinue their Direct Connect service for Quicken. Because Bank Bill Pay and Transfer services require Direct Connect, if Direct Connect is deactivated, or replaced by a different connection method, you will no longer be able to create any new bill payment or transfer instructions from within Quicken for that account and financial institution.
In this case, you may need to take action in Quicken to handle the Direct Connect service discontinuation.
What happens to existing payments?
While disconnecting Direct Connect will not allow you to create new Bank Bill Pay payments or transfers from within Quicken, any pre-existing bills and transfers (for instance, in-flight, future-dated, or recurring payments) are already set up at your financial institution and will continue to be processed as expected.
How do I cancel or modify a payment or transfer that I created in Quicken?
To cancel or modify a payment or transfer, you will need to use the financial institution’s website or mobile app.
Note: if you change a payment originally created within Quicken versus on the financial institution’s website or mobile app, you’ll need to delete and manually recreate the reminder in Quicken, as the reminder will no longer be automatically created.
I have automated recurring bill payments (repeating online payments) – what happens to them?
Just like scheduled transactions, any automated recurring bill payments will be processed by the financial institution. You don’t need to do anything unless you wish to cancel or modify your recurring payment.
To make any changes, or to cancel your recurring payment, you will need to use the financial institution’s website or mobile app. If any changes are made to the recurring schedule or payment amount, the existing reminders in Quicken should be deleted and replaced with a manual bill reminder.
How can I create a new payment or transfer?
To create a new payment or transfer after Direct Connect has been disconnected, you will need to use your financial institution’s website or mobile app and create new payments or transfers through the financial institution.
In Quicken, you can create a manual bill reminder to have visibility into the upcoming payment and its impact on account balances.
