Web Connect calls CD a Money Market Account

Posted by Don in San Antonio on December 9, 2006, 9:44 am

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First of let me say that I understand that certificates of deposit
should be treated as investments. At least that's what it says in
Quicken help and that's what I've done for years.

Now I'm having trouble linking an "Investment" account to my local
credit union in Q2005P. The Web Connect download would not link to the
investment account and when I selected "Create new Account" it created a
"BANK" account named "Money Market at Federal Credit Union." I also
tried manually activating the investment account I had created, but it
says "Transaction Download not Available." I suspect this is because
there are no stock or mutual fund shares identified in the account.

I guess I could leave the CD as a Bank account, but my other CD
deposits are in Quicken as Investment accounts. On the other hand, it
would be nice to download monthly interest payments and not have to
enter them manually. I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom of keeping
certificates of deposit in investment accounts. Creating fake stock
shares to identify the CD accounts is kind of silly too. Is there a
down side to treating CD accounts as bank accounts?

Posted by John Pollard on December 9, 2006, 11:47 am

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> First of let me say that I understand that certificates of

> deposit should be treated as investments. At least that's

> what it says in Quicken help and that's what I've done for

> years.

I don't believe that there is any conceptual restriction on the
type account you use for your CD's. I think what matters most
is what your purpose for the account is, and, as you have noted,
what downloading requirements there are.

> Now I'm having trouble linking an "Investment" account to my

> local credit union in Q2005P. The Web Connect download would

> not link to the investment account and when I selected "Create

> new Account" it created a "BANK" account named "Money Market

> at Federal Credit Union." I also tried manually activating

> the investment account I had created, but it says "Transaction

> Download not Available." I suspect this is because there are

> no stock or mutual fund shares identified in the account.

Your Quicken account must match the account type being
downloaded, which is controlled by your financial institution.
Investment account transactions are consdiderably different
from - and more complicated than - non-investment account
transactions. Financial institutions that do not have
real-world investment accounts, are not likely to go to the
extra trouble to create investment account transactions for
downloading.

> I guess I could leave the CD as a Bank account, but my other

> CD deposits are in Quicken as Investment accounts. On the

> other hand, it would be nice to download monthly interest

> payments and not have to enter them manually. I'm beginning

> to doubt the wisdom of keeping certificates of deposit in

> investment accounts. Creating fake stock shares to identify

> the CD accounts is kind of silly too. Is there a down side to

> treating CD accounts as bank accounts?

I had the same experience you're having; I switched my Quicken
investment CD accounts to Quicken savings accounts (one per CD)
and never looked back.

With the newer versions of Quicken (including Q2005), I believe
you can sort of have your cake and eat it too. Newer Quicken
versions allow you to group some account types differently than
their default groups, while retaining their basic Quicken
account characteristics. So I believe you should be able to
create your CD's as savings accounts in Quicken, then in the
Account List, group them with your Investment Accounts (assuming
you think of them as investments, rather than just savings) ...
and still download to them. Such accounts - cash flow accounts
grouped as investment accounts - can be included in, at least
some, Quicken investment reports, such as Asset Allocation.

Posted by Don in San Antonio on December 9, 2006, 12:14 pm

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| I had the same experience you're having; I switched my Quicken
| investment CD accounts to Quicken savings accounts (one per CD)
| and never looked back.

I'm heading that way myself. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

| With the newer versions of Quicken (including Q2005), I believe
| you can sort of have your cake and eat it too. Newer Quicken
| versions allow you to group some account types differently than
| their default groups, while retaining their basic Quicken
| account characteristics. So I believe you should be able to
| create your CD's as savings accounts in Quicken, then in the
| Account List, group them with your Investment Accounts (assuming
| you think of them as investments, rather than just savings) ...
| and still download to them. Such accounts - cash flow accounts
| grouped as investment accounts - can be included in, at least
| some, Quicken investment reports, such as Asset Allocation.

Yes, you can group a Bank account with your investment accounts but I
don't see any advantage since the price stays at $1.00. While a CD is
an investment, there's not much risk involved and you pretty much know
how it will perform.

Posted by John Pollard on December 9, 2006, 1:21 pm

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> | I had the same experience you're having; I switched my

> Quicken

> | investment CD accounts to Quicken savings accounts (one per

> CD)

> | and never looked back.

> I'm heading that way myself. Thanks for confirming my

> suspicions.

> | With the newer versions of Quicken (including Q2005), I

> believe

> | you can sort of have your cake and eat it too. Newer

> Quicken

> | versions allow you to group some account types differently

> than

> | their default groups, while retaining their basic Quicken

> | account characteristics. So I believe you should be able to

> | create your CD's as savings accounts in Quicken, then in the

> | Account List, group them with your Investment Accounts

> (assuming

> | you think of them as investments, rather than just savings)

> ...

> | and still download to them. Such accounts - cash flow

> accounts

> | grouped as investment accounts - can be included in, at

> least

> | some, Quicken investment reports, such as Asset Allocation.

> Yes, you can group a Bank account with your investment

> accounts but I

> don't see any advantage since the price stays at $1.00. While

> a CD is

> an investment, there's not much risk involved and you pretty

> much know

> how it will perform.

The advantage is that, if you consider your CD's as
"investments", you can have Quicken include them in your Asset
Allocation ... if you group their cash flow account in the
Quicken Investment account "group". (They will also appear in
other "Investment" reports, which do not include non-investment
accounts.)

--
John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
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