US Banks That Offer Transaction History?

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US Banks That Offer Transaction History?

Posted by timothy on Sunday September 26, 2010 @10:04AM from the cron-job-perhaps? dept.

wirelessdreamer writes "I use a bank in the US that will only allow me to download transaction history in CSV for the previous three months. I have a hard time remembering to pull my transaction history down every three months, and would gladly jump ship to another bank if there is one that lets me download, say three years' worth of transaction history as one of the standard services. Then I can import my data into MySQL and run some reports on it, which is all I'm looking for." What banks out there do the best job at providing users with simple, downloadable data?

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Bank of America by Eleed · 2010-09-26 10:07 · Score: 3, Informative

offers what seems to be unlimited download of transaction history. I pulled 2 years worth a few months ago.
1. Re:Bank of America by dziban303 · 2010-09-26 12:06 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  I think submitter should discover something called a "calendar" and write "download bank data" every three months.
  He could even use an electronic, automated, free calendar like the one Google offers, and have reminders sent to his email/phone.
2. Re:Bank of America by Albanach · 2010-09-26 16:11 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Having had multiple accounts with them for over five years, I don't recall being charged a fee once.
  Either you heard wrong, or are doing something wrong.
3. Re:Bank of America by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-26 22:54 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  I have to agree with you. While I don't think Bank of America is the best bank by any means, the claims about their fees are greatly exagerated. I've had an account with them for 5 years, and haven't had any unreasonable fees. There's been a few days where I'm there for an hour or two taking up one of their rep's time. This isn't due to their incompetence, I just have a lot of banking that needs done every once in a while. I've never been charged a teller fee or anything like that. The only thing I consistently get a fee for is wire transfers, which actually eats up a lot of employee time to process and is totally reasonable. The people complaining about fees are probably just irresponsible and overdraft a lot.
DCU by susehat · 2010-09-26 10:09 · Score: 4, Informative

Digital Federal Credit Union seems to let one pull for as long as they have been a member. And they have multiple formats!
1. Re:DCU by bastion_xx · 2010-09-26 12:14 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Good thing about a credit union that services techies (the old DEC crowd). It's funny to see HP kit in the offices, I'd still love to see VT300-VT400's from days past. Now DFCU, 'splain to me again why you closed down the Alpharetta branch??!!! Personally, I use mint.com to manage historical transactions.
2. Re:DCU by AaronW · 2010-09-26 15:57 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  I use Keypoint Credit Union and have no problem viewing transactions going back years. (Formerly AEA - American Electronics Association credit union).
  
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  This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
Try your Credit Union by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-26 10:09 · Score: 1, Informative

My credit union LFCU lets you pull down up to 16 months of statements....
ING Direct by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-26 10:11 · Score: 2, Informative

I just tested it, and their download form let me put in my own start/ending ranges (tried three year's worth) and it worked. It's also just a great bank in general.
Use an online service by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-26 10:12 · Score: 1, Informative

Move to a service such as Yodlee or mint
Wells Fargo by Ethanol-fueled · 2010-09-26 10:13 · Score: 2, Informative

If you are stupid enough to bank with Wells Fargo, they offer up to 18 months of history in 2 Quicken formats, 3 Microsoft Money formats, and CSV.

My credit union offers indefinite date range in those 3 formats as well.
1. Re:Wells Fargo by Binary+Boy · 2010-09-26 11:21 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Care to expand on that? I've been with Wells Fargo for 14 years and, having also had accounts (along with my wife) at several other national banks, and a credit union, it's the one I've been consistently happiest with. Just curious what makes Wells Fargo the idiot's choice.
2. Re:Wells Fargo by Myopic · 2010-09-26 13:44 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  The notion of ATM fees angers me. Banks built and instituted these machines in order to save themselves money because now they don't have to pay a human to hand out cash. For us to pay, in order for them to save money, as asinine.
  That is why I bank with USAA, which refunds all ATM fees for any ATM I use, no matter what. As a bonus, they also refund all debit card fees, which is gravy because the stores pay that fee, not me.
Credit Union by DogDude · 2010-09-26 10:13 · Score: 3, Informative

There's no reason for *anybody* except for the absolute wealthiest to use banks. Use a credit union. Most credit unions provide much better service (including more than 3 months' transaction history).

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I don't respond to AC's.
1. Re:Credit Union by siddesu · 2010-09-26 10:20 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Yes, you just need to make sure your credit union is federally insured against a default. Reading the FAQ on federal insurance of credit unions, it would seem not all of them are.
  http://www.ncua.gov/Resources/ShareInsurance/NCUAInsuranceFundFAQs.htm
2. Re:Credit Union by Stiletto · 2010-09-26 11:08 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Bank industry FUD. Lots of credit unions offer free ATM services to members of other credit unions. So during the time it takes to join a different credit union after you move, you can almost always find local ATMs that will accept transactions.
3. Re:Credit Union by kidgenius · 2010-09-26 12:36 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  It's called shared branching. Pretty much every credit union lets you use ATMs of other credit unions across the country. If you look on an ATM and it has the co-op logo, you're good http://www.co-opfs.org/public/locators/atmlocator/index.cfm
Another service by Georules · 2010-09-26 10:13 · Score: 4, Informative

Mint.com is pretty great for connecting to whatever bank you have and it'll download your reports and also automatic categorization. I have almost 2 years of data in it, and they let you download it all CSV. It also has me in the habit of checking all of my accounts once a week, by just logging onto one website. Nice way to be on top of anything that might be fraudulent.
1. Re:Another service by gonz · 2010-09-26 14:11 · Score: 3, Informative
  Mint.com is pretty great for connecting to whatever bank you have and it'll download your reports and also automatic categorization. I have almost 2 years of data in it, and they let you download it all CSV. It also has me in the habit of checking all of my accounts once a week, by just logging onto one website. Nice way to be on top of anything that might be fraudulent.
  What about the privacy issues of a public web site that tracks a household's entire financial profile? Intuit's claim:
  "We make money only when you do - We give you personalized ideas on how to save money by presenting the greatest savings from among thousands of financial products. If you decide to make a change that saves you some cash, we sometimes earn a small fee from the bank or company you switch to. You save a lot; we make a little."
  And in the Privacy and Security Policy: "Simply put, we do not and will not sell or rent your personal information to anyone, for any reason, at any time."
  But they DO seem to sell your information, as long as the data format can be construed as "anonymous" (before being combined with whatever other datasets the buyer might have):
  "Intuit may make anonymous or aggregate personal information and disclose such data only in a non-personally identifiable manner to:
  
  Advertisers and other third parties for their marketing and promotional purposes, such as the number of users who applied for a credit card or how many users clicked on a particular Intuit Offer;
  Organizations approved by Intuit that conduct research into consumer spending; [...]
  I'd be willing to bet they make a lot from these sales. "You save a lot; we make a little" indeed. Even if Intuit's current intentions are 100% honorable, let's not overlook the ubiquitous "we can change what you agreed to without your consent" clause in the Terms Of Service:
  "Intuit may modify this Agreement from time to time. Any and all changes to this Agreement will be posted on the Mint.com site. In addition, the Agreement will always indicate the date it was last revised. You are deemed to accept and agree to be bound by any changes to the Agreement when you use the Service after those changes are posted."
  This practice is where all the privacy trouble started with FaceBook. I have no idea how it's legally enforceable, but somehow it is, and in fact it's standard boilerplate for TOS contracts everywhere. :-)
mint.com by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-26 10:16 · Score: 1, Informative

See subject
Security means inconvenience. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-26 10:24 · Score: 1, Informative

Security is the reason why you can't have an automated script downloading your data like that. My bank has three layers of security on their website: multi-band authentication via password, personal knowledge question and verification by displaying the personalized image and keyphrase I chose.
US Bank by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-26 10:29 · Score: 1, Informative

Keeps 90 days of history and offers a quicken format dump.
Re:You might have to pay to get the records by TheSpoom · 2010-09-26 10:30 · Score: 2, Informative

My Canadian bank offers 3 months worth of records on line as well.
If you want a Canadian bank that offers full history records for free, PC Financial will serve your needs (and almost never charge you a service fee, to boot!)

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- E. Debs
Have Mint.com do the work for you by g-doo · 2010-09-26 10:33 · Score: 2, Informative

You could also import your transaction history into Mint.com. Once you have it linked to your bank's account, Mint will automatically grab the latest transactions any time you log in.
Bank of America by FadedTimes · 2010-09-26 10:46 · Score: 3, Informative

Bank of America has 1 year of transactions available online. You can download in various formats.
WEB Connect for Quicken 2007 and above, Statement Download for Money 2007 and above, Managing Your Money - QIF file (2 digit)
, Quicken and Microsoft Money - QIF file (4 digit), Microsoft Excel Format, Printable Text Format.
In addition, some local banks may also offer up to 1 year worth of items online and various download formats. Just call them and ask for a demo or specifically ask about amount of months and what formats are available.
Re:USAA by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-26 10:47 · Score: 1, Informative

I'll concur on USAA. USAA is an outgrowth of what used to be a set of support services for active and retired military personal and their families. They have turned into a full fledged financial & banking services company and most of their services are now available to the average non-military joe. It's branchless banking at its best.
Really excellent service, and if you need to talk with someone you can get them on the phone without having to wait more than 60 seconds... and you are talking to an American who speaks understandable english :-). USAA does very little, if any, outsourcing.
All the various account types are tied together into the web interface and very nicely integrated. Credit card, savings, checking, brokerage, bill pay, etc. They don't glitz up the interface... it works smoothly and it works well.
I personally put as many of my purchases as possible on my credit card, which I pay off every month, and get a paper record. That gives me a nearly full record for my spending.
-Me-
Bank of America's 'my portfolio' or Mint.com by MarcQuadra · 2010-09-26 11:07 · Score: 2, Informative

I use both Bank of America's online 'my portfolio' and Mint.com to track my long-term finances. Both allow you to connect to different accounts, there are built-in reports, budgeting, cool charts and graphs, and 'net worth' features.
I think BoA's service doesn't seem to reach back in time as far as Mint.

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"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
Make your life a LOT simpler...use QuickBooks by CAOgdin · 2010-09-26 11:42 · Score: 2, Informative

Quickbooks now allows you to download transactions, semi-automatically (you have to go through them and edit them, in some cases, so you know what was the transaction was for. Then, export the data from Quickbooks for further analysis. Ever since Quickbooks added the "download transactions" functionality, my bank accounts are NEVER out of balance in my records, monthly reconciliation typically takes me 3-5 minutes/month/account, and (because I use "Memo" fields extensively), I can always search for a particular transaction.
American Express & PayPal by slashkitty · 2010-09-26 11:45 · Score: 2, Informative

I'm not sure about banks, but I like the way that AMEX and paypal do it. Amex offers an end of year update, in csv or excel formats, along with a paper format. So, that's once a year, with a nice reminder. Paypal lets you run a report for an entire year, in csv form, and also allows filters for different types of transactions.
Yes, this is how banks should do it... It would be a nice feature for one that would offer it.

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-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
1. Re:American Express & PayPal by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-26 11:52 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  Too bad paypal is not a bank, and any money you keep in there is theirs, until they deem that it's yours. They can, and have, taken people's money and told them "eh... not our problem, really wasnt your money". They're also not FDIC insured. If they folded for whatever reason, you dont get a cent.
Wells Fargo by Art3x · 2010-09-26 16:39 · Score: 3, Informative

Wells Fargo lets you download up to 1.5 years as a CSV (also Quicken and Microsoft Money formats, for what they're worth).
It lets you download PDFs of statements for the past 7 years.
PDF statements + a bit of Emacs by blais · 2010-09-26 16:53 · Score: 1, Informative

When I first wrote Beancount (http://furius.ca/beancount) I wanted to reconstruct up to 7 years of history for some of my accounts. I ended up using PDF statements where I could get them, and entering some of the missing statements manually. If you have PDFs, cut-n-pasting into Emacs and massaging the entries to fit Ledger/Beancount's input syntax manually is possible (though a bit time-consuming). I created macros to help the task, it wasn't crazy.
If you use a double-entry accounting system like this, it'll save you so much hassle that you won't have to remember to reconcile: you'll just *want* to reconcile more often than you actually need to. It's really cool to know where the pennies are going.
Re:You might have to pay to get the records by flappinbooger · 2010-09-27 01:09 · Score: 4, Informative

One of them gave me a stack of post-dated checks on which I highlighted the date to avoid confusion and even went so far as to confirm the teller knew they were post-dated

I would love to hear your thoughts on how this could have been prevented from our end.
Not giving post dated checks to the bank?

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Flappinbooger isn't my real name