ofx direct connect

[Jacob Church]

I had already found this link
http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Setting_up_OFXDirectConnect_in_GnuCash_2 but
the section about  where to find connection info is blank. Maybe I should
edit it to mention the gnucash-user mailing list and
http://www.jongsma.org/gc/.

Thanks for the input guys!

On 10/27/06, David Reiser <dbreiser at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
> On Oct 27, 2006, at 5:37 PM, Jacob Church wrote:
>
> > Does anyone use direct connect for washington mutual, bank of
> > america, or
> > hsbc? If so, where did you get the information to connect to their
> > servers?
> >
> > Also, I was wondering if anyone could recommend banks in the US
> > that share
> > this information and/or let you connect for free.
> >
> None of the banks shares this information with customers. You can dig
> it out of some of the places mentioned in
> http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/
> FAQ#Q:_My_bank_offers_OFX_Direct_Connect.__How_do_I_use_that.3F
> but banks just plain aren't prepared to support anything but Quicken
> and MSMoney.
>
> At least some banks don't forbid using something else. I _just_
> opened an account at TD Banknorth. Their online agreement
> specifically states that I am allowed to access my data with personal
> financial management (prm) software. The only fully supported  pfms
> are Quicken and Money. TD Banknorth does have a server that's
> reachable directly from the data discussed on Jongsma's page. And I'm
> not forbidden from using GnuCash, so I will. I'm excited enough about
> this that I just might learn C++ to add to libofx for handling
> payments. The other good thing about TDB is that ATM access is free
> anywhere in the world (via a rebate at the end of the month).
>
> To the question at hand: Bank of America California, Bank of America
> Washington, and WaMu are all behind a Yodlee branding server, so you
> need a copy of Quicken or Money to connect once so you can read the
> ofx.log to find out what the data server's address is. I got my copy
> of Quicken Basic free last January for buying Turbo Tax.
>
> If you are outside CA or WA, BofA's data is:
>
>      <ProviderURL>https://ofx.bankofamerica.com/cgi-forte/fortecgi?
> servicename=ofx_2-3&amp;pagename=ofx</ProviderURL>
>      <Org>HAN</Org>
>      <FID>6812</FID>
>
> and hsbc's is:
>
>      <ProviderURL>https://pfm.ebank.us.hsbc.com/prod.ofx</ProviderURL>
>      <Org>ISC</Org>
>      <FID>9901</FID>
>
> Where the BofA url says '&amp;' I'm pretty sure you have to replace
> it with just '&' (no quotes)
>
> I'm pretty sure Wachovia has their own servers (not Yodlee/
> CheckFree), so they might be a candidate for you.
>
> It seems to me that a majority of the banks these days are offering
> free online banking. Chase and Citi do charge for access to checking
> accounts (paying bills), but they let you in free for downloading
> credit card data (different servers, obviously...)
>
> Many of the banks that do allow free access do require that you
> register ahead of time. If you get a bank that tells you that you
> will have to change your password the first time you log in, then
> you'll need Quicken or Money for that, too. After the password has
> been changed, you'll be able to use GnuCash.
>
> If you want to find out if a bank is paying Intuit (or whomever) the
> necessary fees for a direct connect server instead of just web
> connect, check out:
>
> http://web.intuit.com/fisearchbasic
>
> Dave
> --
> David Reiser
> dbreiser at earthlink.net
>
>