Trying to access old transaction statements from Chase
I am converting to MD and as such I am attempting to gain the files for statements for credit cards from Chase. They do offer a download for Quicken or Microsoft Money, but attempting to download using those formats was unsuccessful. Does anyone have experience pulling transaction details off of Chase's website for transactions older than three months? Help is greatly appreciated.
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1 Posted by Scott Meehan on Jun 25, 2013 @ 02:38 AM
Hi,
What was unsuccessful about trying to download the Quicken and MS Money formats? Are you able to specify a date range for your transactions when downloading them?
Scott Meehan
Moneydance Support
2 Posted by -Kevin N. on Jun 25, 2013 @ 02:33 PM
Hi messingjoe,
As you've most likely discovered, Chase only provides 90 days worth of data in any useful format that can be imported into Moneydance.
You stated in your OP that you are converting to MD. Can the desired data be extracted from the prior PFM software that you were using?
If not, a possible option may be to use the data provided by Chase in the monthly PDF statements.
There is a way to make use of this data, but it will require some work using a simple text editor, Excel (or other spreadsheet with 'Text to Columns' capability) and the CSV Importer extension.
It's a pretty involved process and the imported data will have neither Split txn data nor Categories. This is due to the PDF statements not providing such data.
If this is acceptable to you and you don't mind getting your hands dirty, then let me know and I'll try to walk you through the process.
-Kevin N.
3 Posted by messingjoe on Jun 27, 2013 @ 06:09 PM
Hi Kevin,
You are correct that any QIF or even CSV format that Chase offers for their credit card accounts only provide transactional data for the past 90 days.
This is a fresh start on managing these accounts, not a conversion to MD, so I am left with the PDF statements. Manually entering these transactions would literally take hours and hours.
I am willing to work to figure out how to get these PDF statements to convert, it would be a lot easier hopefully than manual entry. Please provide direction if you are able.
Sincerely,
Joe
4 Posted by messingjoe on Jun 27, 2013 @ 09:38 PM
It worked! The main issue I had was getting it into .txt format on my mac, but once I figured that part out, it all processed quite nicely. I have to complete the lists for about 25 statements, but that's a heck of a lot easier than manually entering the txn's.
Thanks very much Kevin, your help was invaluable.
Joe
5 Posted by -Kevin N. on Jun 27, 2013 @ 09:48 PM
Hi Joe,
Excellent! You're welcome, I'm glad to hear that it worked.
-Kevin N.
6 Posted by messingjoe on Jun 27, 2013 @ 09:54 PM
One issue I'm having is that the File reader format on the import file extension is not recognizing my "CHASE PDF" and is defaulting to BBVA Compass Bank.
Thoughts?
7 Posted by -Kevin N. on Jun 27, 2013 @ 09:59 PM
Hi Joe,
When I first open the CSV Importer BBVA... is the default option. After navigating to the Notepad file the option automatically changes to Chase PDF.
Is that not what you are experiencing?
If not is the Chase PDF reader available from the 'File Reader For' drop-down list on the main CSV Importer window?
-Kevin N.
8 Posted by messingjoe on Jun 27, 2013 @ 10:05 PM
I seem to be having trouble with the format. I used text edit which is supposed to be the Notepad equivalent.
Somehow it worked before... not sure now what the reason for that it.
When I save it textedit defaults to a .txt format. Is there a way I can get it to recognize that format or should I try to get the txn's into a .csv format?
9 Posted by -Kevin N. on Jun 27, 2013 @ 10:12 PM
Hi Joe,
I used .txt format. If you look at the Joe_Processed.jpg it shows the file name that I used.
Are you receiving an error msg? Something to the effect that the file format is not recognized?
If so, look very carefully at the contents of the text file for any errors in the Date format. Look for any missing commas.
The CSV Importer can be very unforgiving when it comes to the Date format or missing commas.
-Kevin N.
10 Posted by messingjoe on Jun 27, 2013 @ 10:23 PM
yes, format not recognized. On the bottom it says please select a valid file.
double checked the data twice, no missing commas. Tried installing csv importer againa and working the file reader format. No luck.
11 Posted by -Kevin N. on Jun 27, 2013 @ 10:30 PM
Hi Joe,
Can you post the file and let me try it on my end? These are public forums so make sure that there is no sensitive info in the file and I understand if you don't want to do that.
In the meantime let me try the Text File Importer. You won't get the confirmation sidebar stuff with it but at least it should work for you.
-Kevin N.
12 Posted by messingjoe on Jun 27, 2013 @ 10:32 PM
Here's what I've been trying to work with, the file that's not being recognized.
13 Posted by messingjoe on Jun 28, 2013 @ 12:06 AM
So, just like you, I got the other file to import with 73 transactions. I have now created the file with the remainder of the transactions, double checked them several times, and I just cannot get it to recognize the format again. I attached the new file. I can't figure out why it is accepting it sometimes and not at others... any ideas?
14 Posted by -Kevin N. on Jun 28, 2013 @ 12:39 AM
Hi Joe,
I found a problem with the 20122.txt file.
Look at the 3 following txns:
10/14/12 Cub Foods,
11/20/12 PHO Viet,
12/22/12 SQ *Walk on Water,
Each one has an extra comma in them. I removed the extra comma from each txn and the file imported 534 records.
HTH -Kevin N.
15 Posted by messingjoe on Jun 28, 2013 @ 01:48 AM
I got it to import but it said "101 duplicates skipped" and of the 534, only 433 were actually imported. Maybe I can set it to keep duplicates?
16 Posted by -Kevin N. on Jun 28, 2013 @ 02:53 AM
Hi Joe,
If I may make a suggestion, try importing one or two months at a time so that it is a little more manageable. You can check the balances against the statements to make sure that there is nothing running amok.
Don't forget to edit out those commas when importing those three txns that I pointed out.
It's getting late here in GA, I'm hitting the rack for the evening.
Post back tomorrow and we'll see if we can get it straightened out.
-Kevin N.
17 Posted by -Kevin N. on Jun 29, 2013 @ 12:17 AM
Hi Joe,
I had a little time to play around with this some more.
I noticed another problem with the 20122.txt file. There are duplicate txns between the date range of 02/28/12 and 03/24/12. You may have Copied & Pasted the data for that time period twice into the file.
If you are unable to get the CSV Importer to work for you, let me know. I know of a way to use the Text File Importer.
There will be no 'blue dot' / Confirmation bar stuff but it should work for you.
You'll need to open the text file in a spreadsheet and add a simple formula.
-Kevin N.
18 Posted by messingjoe on Jun 30, 2013 @ 12:44 AM
Kevin,
I got all of the transactions put in. It took a little getting used to, but it saved me a ton of work. I can't thank you enough for your help. Your time and input is greatly appreciated.
Take care and have a great weekend.
Joe
19 Posted by -Kevin N. on Jun 30, 2013 @ 01:59 AM
Hi Joe,
OK thanks. That's great. I'm glad to hear that you were able to resolve the matter.
-Kevin N.
Ben Spencer closed this discussion on Jun 30, 2013 @ 02:38 AM.
-Kevin N. re-opened this discussion on Jun 30, 2013 @ 02:31 PM
20 Posted by -Kevin N. on Jun 30, 2013 @ 02:31 PM
Hi Joe,
In the interest of security I've deleted any posts that contain our account txns.
You may want to do the same.
-Kevin N.
21 Posted by Ken on Sep 07, 2013 @ 05:02 PM
I just installed the "text file importer extension" to use with the csv files from Chase. I made a "custom file reader" that describes Chase's format, which I can select when I open the import dialog box, but as soon as I select the Chase csv file, my reader selection is taken away and replaced by a gray "Format not recognized." It then refuses to read the file.
How do you get the "text file importer extension" read a file?
22 Posted by Scott Meehan on Sep 07, 2013 @ 05:33 PM
Hi Ken,
Chase should offer file downloads in the OFX or QFX file format, which is much more robust and easy to work with, so I would recommend using that file type instead of CSV. If they don't have OFX/QFX, I'd recommend using QIF over CSV. If you're only able to download via CSV, can you attach the CSV you're trying to import and we can try to figure out why it's not importing and how to import it properly? CSV files aren't standardized for financial data, so each financial institution's different format has to be specifically configured to be able to import it.
Scott Meehan
Moneydance Support
23 Posted by Hi Scott, on Sep 07, 2013 @ 07:39 PM
I prepared a subset of the csv file to send you, and just to be sure, tested it. It worked!! After trial and error elimination of lines in the file, I found that a field that Chase uses for transaction ID is blank for "fee" transactions. The csv file at that point has ,, (two commas).
Replacing ,, with , , (comma space comma) did not help.
Replacing ,, with ,0000, (comma four zeros comma) made the file read correctly!
Thanks for you offer to help. it led to a solution!
24 Posted by Scott Meehan on Sep 07, 2013 @ 08:32 PM
Hi Ken,
I'm glad to hear that you got it working! Please let us know if we can be of further assistance!
Scott Meehan
Moneydance Support
Scott Meehan closed this discussion on Sep 07, 2013 @ 08:32 PM.
Ken Rohr re-opened this discussion on Sep 10, 2013 @ 03:36 AM
25 Posted by Ken Rohr on Sep 10, 2013 @ 03:36 AM
Hi Scott,
Two follow-up items:
1. Please remove the sample file I uploaded to this question.
2. Please register a bug report regarding the csv importer. It is common for software writing a csv file to place nothing in the export file when a field value is empty. The result is two commas in a row, just like what Chase does. This is a bug to reject a file because it has an empty field value.
Thanks,
Ken
26 Posted by -Kevin N. on Sep 10, 2013 @ 12:45 PM
Hi Ken,
Regarding the bug, I can not reproduce the behavior that you are describing.
Setting columns such as ( ,, ) or ( , , ) to 'Ignore' skips that data as expected.
Two problems that I did see in your Transactions_subset.csv file were:
1) The Payment txn dated 09/04/2013 for -2,368.14 uses a comma as a thousands separator which will act as a delimiter registering the txn as -2 instead of -2368.14.
2) The Sale txn dated 09/01/2013 for 9.00 is a duplicate txn. (note the Transaction Numbers are the same)
The Text File Importer will not detect duplicate txns and will import them.
The CSV Importer does detect duplicate txns and will reject the duplicate provided that 'Online' is selected as the 'Import Transaction As' format.
HTH -Kevin N.
Tests were conducted using Text File Importer v.10 and CSV Importer Beta 15.7.15
27 Posted by Ryan on Oct 08, 2013 @ 08:24 PM
Hey Kevin,
I just saw this thread and wanted to ask if you could provide the instructions that you gave to messingjoe to help extract the transaction data in the .pdf statements into a .csv format? Thanks in advance!
28 Posted by Ken Rohr on Oct 08, 2013 @ 08:48 PM
Hi Ryan,
I was not trying to extract data from a pdf file, which would be fantastic if you have any ideas on that. The bank I use offers pdf files for well over a year, and qif files for just 3 months! So there are times when I really need to go back.
I was trying to get data from csv files, and believe that I got a format error message when there was two commas in a data record (i.e. a blank field value).
Ken
29 Posted by -Kevin N. on Oct 08, 2013 @ 11:29 PM
Hi Ryan,
What we did with the Chase PDF statements was to simply highlight and Copy the txns from the PDF statement and Paste them into a simple text editor. We then converted the text to comma-delimited text.
If you're working in a Windows environment, Notepad works fine for this.
Once the txns are in Notepad (or your text editor of choice) use the program's 'Replace' function to find any commas and replace them with nothing.
For example, if there was a txn for 1,500.00, the 'Replace' function would remove the thousands separator comma so that the result would be 1500.00. 'Replace' would also remove any wayward commas that may have been used in the Descriptions.
Now that there are no unwanted commas in the file, you need to manually add in the appropriate commas.
What I found easiest was to go right down the Date column clicking directly at the end of the date and entering a comma.
The next step is to add a comma to the end of the Description.
Again, go down the text, click at the end of the Description and enter a comma.
Once you're done, Save the file as a text file.
Chase's statements use a MM/DD date format for txns. Moneydance will automatically enter 2013 for those txns.
Txns for prior years will need to have their Dates formatted with the appropriate Year prior to importing them. You can do this manually while entering the Date comma.
For example, Copy '/2012,' (without the hash-marks) and then Paste it at the end of each Date. CTRL-v will come in handy.
It all sounds like a lot of work but it's really just a lot of repetition. Once the text is formatted as comma-delimited text, the hard part is over.
Finally, use the CSV Importer to import the text file.
If you need help with setting up the CSV Importer, let me know and I'll provide some pointers.
HTH -Kevin N.
30 Posted by Ryan on Oct 11, 2013 @ 09:51 PM
Hey Kevin,
I'm confused. I'm trying to extract the data from the .pdf and get it into Excel...is this the process??
Thanks,
Ryan