American Express error code
Trying to download from American Express in two different computers and two accounts gave this error: java.io.IOException: HTTP Error:503 Service
I refreshed the connection, checked for an update and disabled the connection. Now I cannot re-establish it.
I am stuck,
Debbie
Showing page 5 out of 5. View the first page
Keyboard shortcuts
Generic
| ? | Show this help |
|---|---|
| ESC | Blurs the current field |
Comment Form
| r | Focus the comment reply box |
|---|---|
| ^ + ↩ | Submit the comment |
You can use Command ⌘ instead of Control ^ on Mac
121 Posted by s2c on 28 Aug, 2024 06:40 PM
I don't have an answer for you. The only acceptablle aggregator would be
one who does not store the data at all, but just connects to the
financial institution in real time. It's like for the CVV and track data
in credit card processing. No one in the transaction path is authorized
to store these values, it should be the same for the financial history
obtained from banks and credit card issuers on their way to the local MD
instance.
S-2C
dtd wrote on 8/28/24 11:37AM:
122 Posted by singerdf on 28 Aug, 2024 08:44 PM
How different is the Quickbooks format. From what I can tell there are no issues there.
Thank you for all of your insight.
123 Posted by dwg on 28 Aug, 2024 09:30 PM
People use aggregators because they want the convenience of automated downloads. If you demand aggregators work in a certain way then I expect there will be a lot less of them, if any. Some do data mining and sell the results, they operate the way they do also because of efficiencies.
If you demand they just be pass through services then that is fine, they will either decide to close the business or price it accordingly and people can decide if it is worth the cost, I would expect there will be far fewer choices.
The alternative is either manual download and importing or manual data entry and as far as the Moneydance side is concerned you have those choices.
124 Posted by dwg on 28 Aug, 2024 09:52 PM
I've never seen any specifications of the formats used by any Quicken products other than QIF, so I suspect they have never been made public.
125 Posted by mmd on 29 Aug, 2024 03:40 PM
This comment was split into a new private discussion: American Express - OFX service down
I am getting the 503 error code again since yesterday. Do I need to do something?
126 Posted by Jamie on 29 Aug, 2024 05:44 PM
This crept back up in the last 2 days as well for me. No changes, just started on 8/28 early AM. But worked 8/27.
127 Posted by vseaslcm on 29 Aug, 2024 06:40 PM
Another user -- just confirming that Amex downloads stopped working again on 8/28.
128 Posted by dtd on 29 Aug, 2024 08:50 PM
No new information on trying to restore OFX on this end for Amex. Still looking into it, but it looks a bit worse this time versus two weeks ago.
Why can't banks leave what works as working? (rhetorical question, I know)
129 Posted by Dana on 30 Aug, 2024 01:59 AM
I gave up.... I was already using Plaid for my credit Union and Bank of America, so I switched AmEx to it as well.
Support Staff 130 Posted by Maddy on 30 Aug, 2024 11:42 AM
@ All We are sorry to hear about the problem you have encountered.
Unfortunately Amex are experiencing technical issues with OFX connections at the moment, as per the screenshot attached.
While Amex are working to fix the issue, you have two other options:
1) Subscribe to Moneydance + to obtain automatic downloads (we offer a 30 day free trial)
2) Import your data manually, for the time being.
The steps for manually importing your data are outlined in this article from the Knowledge Base.
--
Maddy, Infinite Kind Support
131 Posted by s2c on 01 Sep, 2024 02:04 AM
Actually, I have a proposal for a solution that would permit automated
downloads without using Plaid even if the bank shuts down their OFX
portal. Let's talk offline when you have time...
S-2C
dtd wrote on 8/28/24 11:37AM:
132 Posted by dtd on 01 Sep, 2024 02:44 AM
need a contact point.
133 Posted by s2c on 01 Sep, 2024 03:39 PM
[email blocked]
dtd wrote:
134 Posted by dtd on 02 Sep, 2024 09:22 PM
Update: (not good news)
hleofxquotes, Stuart and I will no longer be working on a fix on the MD side for Amex OFX. 2-3 weeks ago, we saw that Amex was shutting down non-critical services that MD was trying to access, and the profile was changed so that MD didn't try to access them.
Last week, Amex shut down a critical service called the Listener, which broke both Moneydance OFX and hleofxquotes app.
IF Quicken is still using Direct Connect versus moving elsewhere (Quicken is also an aggregator like Plaid) then we'd need a copy of Quicken to diagnose how they are doing it without the OFX Listener. None of us have Quicken, nor do we know if Direct Connect still works with Quicken.
Checking other third party personal finance programs, many gave up on Amex last year, based on what's been published by them. MD gave up as well, and removed Amex, but I found an Amex profile that worked, and convinced MD to reinstate Amex OFX. Since then you know about the situation.
So, going with Maddy's (IK/MD support) message, we just plan to keep watching and see if it works again. I have little confidence that will happen.
I have both the OFX connection and the MD+ connection in place for my 4 Amex accounts, and will keep both connections for at least another month before giving up.
So, I now get my Amex downloads via MD+, and if I didn't have MD+, I could manually download (use Quicken as download type) - both as Maddy mentioned. (Thank goodness they still allow OFX manual downloads - Schwab and USAA dropped those as well, which made me finally subscribe to MD+)
So last update unless something changes this month. I do not expect it.
135 Posted by chobe2 on 03 Sep, 2024 12:15 PM
Is anybody using a credit card that does work with MD? I would be willing to switch credit cards rather than do manual downloads.
136 Posted by singerdf on 03 Sep, 2024 12:22 PM
Citi cards seem to be working. Getting to be fewer and fewer. I don’t mind MD+ except for the delay.
The big financial houses also seemed to have stopped downloading check transactions. Have not tried MD+ for that yet.
Ease of personal finance not so easy right now.
Cannot thank our community enough for always helping.
137 Posted by dick on 03 Sep, 2024 12:30 PM
Citi has a nice 2% cash back card.
138 Posted by netr@cer on 03 Sep, 2024 05:09 PM
+1 to switching cards, banks, brokers. The loss of consumer privacy is just infuriating. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to hleofxquotes, Stuart, dtd, and all the others for all your effort in trying to resolve the Amex issue. Sure wish it would have turned out different.
The only way this ever changes is if consumers cancel accounts and leave when policies take a downturn, but it understandably is not for everyone. When Chase did it, I reduced their card exclusively to places that didn't take Amex. Now that Amex did it, I've got a real issue as it's my only other card.
Without trying to incite yet another debate, I just can't give an aggregator access to my data. I've got no problem paying MD or another company for the service, but only if my data remains under the lock of my private key. MD does a good job in this regard, but the aggregators not so much. I spent the morning reading all of the privacy policies and TOS for Plaid, Stripe, Yodlee, and a couple others, and they are basically ALL the same, none of which I am willing to accept.
The only decent prospect (decent, not superb) is an aggregator called TINK, but it seems to be limited to Europe only (which explains the clarity and more consumer friendly privacy policy). There is an oddity though, the document references Social Security numbers, which is only a US thing. @Moneydance - it might be worth checking out, at least as an aggregator option for the EU folks. Tink have a transactions, investments, loan, module, and others. I did not look at pricing; no idea if it's financially prohibitive.
I have to say my best chuckle of the morning was this excerpt from the Plaid developer policy... Essentially if a developer (ie Moneydance) has access to information about a user and Plaid does not have that info already and wants it, the developer is obligated to negotiate with Plaid on terms to give Plaid the data.... Plaid has b@lls the size church bells, they actually call it "an ecosystem in which end users own their data."
Universal Data Access - Plaid promotes an Open Finance ecosystem in which end users own their data (e.g., financial data) and may grant access to such data to third parties. To the extent that you host any such end user data not already accessible by Plaid, upon Plaid’s reasonable request, the parties agree to cooperate in good faith to negotiate and initiate an arrangement for Plaid to access such end user data on behalf of end users.
Thanks once again to all those that tried to fix the problem.
I'm off to calling Amex and giving them a tiny piece of my mind, and then searching for decent credit cards that still support OFX.....
BTW, informative and non-judgmental read on being mindful of data aggregation risks (https://www.finra.org/investors/insights/be-mindful-data-aggregatio...).
139 Posted by Philip on 03 Sep, 2024 06:05 PM
maybe this will work???
https://global.americanexpress.com/activity/statement?end=2024-09-02#
140 Posted by Philip on 03 Sep, 2024 06:07 PM
Updates to Quickbooks & Quicken
Instructions for Intuit Customers
We recently made system updates to our connection to Intuit's Quickbooks and Quicken software. To resume .QFX and .QBO downloads, please complete a Quickbooks and/or Quicken account deactivation and reactivation process.
Please review the following instructions to complete the process, or contact Intuit Customer Support at Quicken.com/support or Quickbooks.com/support for help.
You can also use Quicken Direct Connect.
If you're a Small Business Card Member and have Quickbooks Online, you can enroll in Connect to Quickbooks. Your Business Card transactions will then be automatically synced with Quickbooks daily.
The following instructions also contain information about how to correct any duplicate transactional data when you set up a new account.
Quickbooks Instructions
Deactivate Bank Feeds for Account
Set Up Account for Bank Feeds
Quicken Instructions
Deactivate Online Banking Service for Quicken Acccount
Reactivate a Deactivated Account
141 Posted by dtd on 03 Sep, 2024 11:50 PM
That won't work for Moneydance. All it really does for Moneydance is to deactivate the account, and then you can't reactivate it since at the moment you can't get into the Amex OFX engine again.
It may work for Quicken, we'd need a copy to check it out, but right now none of the three of us have the time - my best guess is they deactivate the Quicken/Amex OFX connection then reconnect to the Quicken Aggregation area...
i.e.for Moneydance equivalent (if the previous paragraph is correct), you'd Disconnect Amex OFX and then activate Amex under MD+/Plaid.
142 Posted by mbrown305 on 04 Sep, 2024 12:06 AM
I tried the links on the AMEX page when I first started having problems and they just went to an error page. I've been through this before with Schwab, USAA and my local Credit Union. Schwab and USAA didn't even keep the ability to download a OFX or QIF format which really is maddening. For banking it's not as bad to import CSV files but just doesn't work well for investment accounts. At least AMEX and my Credit Union allow an OFX download but it is still frustrating to have to go there and get it. The only institutions I have left to direct download are Citi and Fidelity. I expect both of those will disappear soon as well. I agree with the person who posted about using an aggregator. I refuse to give one service access to all my financial downloads like that regardless of the payment required. I will download and update all manually if I have to before I do that. Nothing good can come of any service like Plaid having all my financial access information.
143 Posted by dtd on 04 Sep, 2024 12:16 AM
@mbrown305 - it is disheartening, once Amex is gone, my remaining OFX links are Citi Cards, Fidelity Investments, Suncoast Credit Union, and Vanguard.
And yes, for me Schwab and USAA are the worst since as you say you can't manually download an OFX file. Chase is a pain, but you CAN download a QFX file, but I have a lot of Chase credit cards.
144 Posted by dtd on 04 Sep, 2024 12:20 AM
@netr@cer - Certainly the aggregators are a big issue, but I blame the banks a lot for discontinuing OFX more and more, and in some cases preventing you from getting your data in OFX or QIF AT ALL. Seems the banks are trying to force you into (insecure) aggretators to get YOUR OWN DATA, and if you complain, I think they all colluded to pretty much have this mantra: "We're doing this to make the systems more secure..." - yeah, right.
145 Posted by Sean N on 06 Sep, 2024 03:14 PM
It's getting to the point that just creating a nice spreadsheet in Excel might work just as well. And I already "have" to pay MS every month for it anyway.
146 Posted by dwg on 06 Sep, 2024 09:20 PM
There is no need to use Excel plenty of other spreadsheet alternatives around.
147 Posted by netr@cer on 06 Sep, 2024 10:12 PM
Suggestion for the devs (maybe) - I think I've seen posts somewhere that MD investigated doing downloading themselves and it was determined to be too resource intensive (which I totally agree with).
But as silly as this sounds, has anyone ever considered a hybrid approach? I know people with small banks would get the short end, but it could create somewhat of a balance between practical developer effort and maintaining better privacy for a meaningful portion of people.
I say this in the context of a premium subscription (call it MD++) which might even result in a PER institution fee for the maintenance of ensuring continuing downloads ($0.99 each, 6 for $5, whatever); maybe even variable based on complexity.
As an example, requirement 1 could be that the institution must have a published API that is 'easy'. There is no way to expect MD to deal with screen scraping. Requirement 2 could be that the institution represents enough of a market share (apologies to 'tiny-bank-in-small-town-population-800') to potentially generate sufficient revenue for MD to at least not lose money and hopefully make a couple bucks. I mean if Amex publishes an API, I'd bet at least 50% of US based MD users would benefit. Chase would likely be a large percentage as well.
@dtd - 100% correct. The banks have thrown their security controls and developer efforts overboard. CISO's refer to this as "transferring risk". If something goes wrong, the company can absolve itself of accountability. The mechanism is a valid option for business, but they have completely mucked up the execution on this one by not ensuring in their contracts with Plaid that customer data needs to remain inaccessible.
I'm just saying prayers every night that TRowe doesn't jump on the bandwagon. I think I'll give up personal finance software all together and start managing paper statements !!!!
148 Posted by dtd on 06 Sep, 2024 10:21 PM
@netr@cer - Good message, and Sean/IK/MD were definitely on this about 2 years or so ago. As you way, their built in browser went by the wayside as too much work.
They joined the FDX counsel/group/club/whatever it's called, and decided to be an aggregator (but more private, as IK has always tried to be) and were rejected by Schwab specifically if I remember correctly, but in general because they had no U.S. presence. That sort of left them out in the cold as to integrating with banks (as other aggregators have done, but less privately of course - gotta make money on all that information)...
149 Posted by S-2C on 06 Sep, 2024 11:29 PM
150 Posted by dwg on 07 Sep, 2024 12:11 AM
Institutions already have APIs they can use - OFX and FDX, so they are already there and are fit for purpose. I do not see any institution really developing their own, it is hard to see any financial benefit for them to do so, and if there is not a buck in it ....
Web Connect has problems in that it was developed by Quicken and is thus proprietary, if it had of been developed by the industry as a low cost way of integrating semi automated downloads into the internet banking websites it could be more universal, but again this does not lead to greater income for the institutions, forget about customer service, that is something that only gets lip service. This web connect is what Moneydance was trying to mimic but totally on the Moneydance said, too much development work too much maintenance.
Aggregators are there because they see a number of business opportunities, customers can pay for the convenience of automatic downloads of data and many see an opportunity in analysis of the data and the sale of this intelligence. The institutions do not necessarily co-operate with the aggregators either.
Many institutions will only make access to data reasonable available if they are forced to do so. some countries have moved in that direction with Banking data but you still have to go through aggregators because the end user is not included, but the aggregators are not being obstructed in getting the data once given permission.
I think in the U.S. it will be either get used to aggregators of use manual downloads where you can - and you see some institutions not even providing those, doesn't that in itself say a lot about giving you access to your own data.
The downloads for the investment house that I use are totally useless for use in any financial software, I would need a program that parses each transaction and tries to make sense of what it is to get it into a format that could be loaded. What I get is basically a date, description and amount.