US Banks That Offer Transaction History?

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?

Comments

Bank of America

[Eleed]

offers what seems to be unlimited download of transaction history. I pulled 2 years worth a few months ago.

Re:Bank of America

[dziban303]

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.

Re:Bank of America

[Albanach]

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.

Re:Bank of America

[camperdave]

But yes, if the bank is insecure enough that you can have a script log in for you with no human actions, its insecure enough that its vulnerable to phishing attempts.

Um... not at all. Phishing is not an attempt to crack the bank's security. Phishing is an attempt to lure the user into divulging the credentials by imitating the bank. First of all, a script will have the bank's true URL hard coded into it, so it can never be distracted by fakes. Second, a script initiates the conversation whereas a phishing attack is initiated by the phisher, so the script will never even see a phishing attempt. Third, a script will verify that it has a secure connection each and every time, whereas a person won't.

All in all, using a script will be more secure than logging in manually.

DCU

[susehat]

Digital Federal Credit Union seems to let one pull for as long as they have been a member. And they have multiple formats!

You might have to pay to get the records

[failedlogic]

I think the rule of thumb is most banks offer a few months' worth of records. My Canadian bank offers 3 months worth of records on line as well. I don't know what the practice is with other banks. But mine offers further records if I go to the branch and pay for the records. You may find that you will also need to pay for transaction records. These records may or may not be available on-line and you may only be able to get them at a branch.

Now, if you have enough money in your account (you're of sufficient high net worth) they may be able to give you better service. Then again, you wouldn't be posting the question on /. you'd already have a banking officer doing it for you!

Re:You might have to pay to get the records

[causality]

Given that overdraft and other such fees are a substantial part of a bank's income, you'd think they would consider such accounts to be "high net worth" ... for the bank's own net worth that is, and provide them good service for things like transaction reports.

Oh wait ... if they provided transaction reports, many of these account holders would not be overdrawing. N/M

I don't like banks either (particularly because of the fractional reserve system) but I don't understand your viewpoint here. I'll provide background information to explain.

I keep my own transaction records. Banks are run by humans who can and do make mistakes despite the best of intentions; with no records of my own I'd have a really hard time disputing such a mistake. That's one reason. Another reason is that no one cares about managing my money as much as I do, nor would it be reasonable to expect otherwise. A third reason is that I don't like to needlessly be dependent on someone else to provide important information that can directly impact my life when it's something I can easily take care of myself.

Incidentally, I refuse to carry a debit card and instead I use credit cards as charge cards. They are a bad way to get a loan but they are a wonderful form of payment. The bottom line is that this greatly simplifies my checking account statements from my bank, making my record-keeping trivial.

Now to the main point. There is one and only one event that can possibly cause an overdraft: spending more money than you have placed in your account. How is that the fault of the bank? Why is it their job to make sure you are responsible and do not financially overextend yourself? Is it a problem for you that a fee is attached to an event that shouldn't happen in the first place?

I would not be shocked or amazed in the slightest, no not even a bit, to learn that the people who can't be bothered to keep their own records are the same people who create most overdrafts. They clearly think managing their money is someone else's job. That might leave them open to problems that more responsible adults would have foreseen and been able to prevent or at least mitigate. To me that is simple cause-and-effect and nothing more.

To reiterate, I don't like banks. It'd be petty to let that bias my reasoning, though in this case that isn't even a temptation. Do you know why? Because there's something I like even less than banks, and that's the decline of personal responsibility and the whole victim mentality that is rooted in it.

Re:You might have to pay to get the records

[flappinbooger]

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?

That's the wrong question

[A nonymous Coward]

The right question is, "What can I do to remember to download it every month?"

What if you find a bank that has a current policy of letting you download 5 years' of history, you forget for 4 years, and they change policy to three months?

Or what if you do nothing for four years, decide to switch banks for some other equally trivial reason, forget to download even then, and then a year later need it?

You need some idiotic little reminder, a cron job if nothing else, to do it once a month. That's the real solution.

Or maybe you need to decide the data isn't really very important after all, if you can't oblige yourself by downloading once a month and don't actually use it.

Re:That's the wrong question

[clarkkent09]

That information is about you but you have no right to have someone else store it for you indefinitely. Download it periodically and store it yourself if it's so important to you. By the way, as far as I know all banks will provide you with sufficient account history information for every normal purpose, such as when buying a house etc.

happy to provide history to the Feds

[Phantom Gremlin]

All US banks are very happy to offer many years worth of transaction history to any Federal agency that desires this information. Too bad they won't do the same for their putative "customers".

Credit Union

[DogDude]

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).

Re:Credit Union

[siddesu]

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

Re:Credit Union

[Stiletto]

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.

Another service

[Georules]

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.

Re:Another service

[gonz]

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. :-)

Re:Wells Fargo

[failedlogic]

"If you are stupid enough to bank with Wells Fargo"

LOL! Thanks made my day.

You clearly are willing to pay...

[notthepainter]

You are clearly willing to pay a little bit for this, since you don't mention any extra fees. So this sounds like a service opportunity to me.

For only $3.99/month I'll deliver your csv records to you. Just send me you account and password information. Might as well give me your social, mother's maiden name, and favorite color.

No problemo...

Bank of America

[FadedTimes]

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.

Uh, root cause?

[geekmux]

So, let me get this straight. You would consider changing banks, and going through all the pain associated with changing direct deposits, ordering new checks or a debit card, going online to change any websites you had your bills tied to your old account, all because you can't seem to manage to put a reminder in one of your 17 electronic devices to remind you to do something once every three months?

Seriously?

Re:Wells Fargo

[Myopic]

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.

Wells Fargo

[Art3x]

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.