Connecting to First Interstate Bank problem

chobe2's Avatar

chobe2

08 Mar, 2010 09:57 PM

There was a discussion last December regarding connecting to First Interstate Bank in Billings, MT which seems to have been resolved. My Bank is First Interstate Bank in Helena, MT and I haven't been able to connect. I get this message:

There was an error communicating with your financial institution. The details of this error are below.

Bank Name: First Interstate Bank

I did connect to Chase very easily with no problems at all. Can anybody help?
OS X 10.5.8, Moneydance 2010r2 (735)

  1. 1 Posted by Jessica Little on 08 Mar, 2010 10:19 PM

    Jessica Little's Avatar

    Hi Diane,

    You should update to the most recent version of Moneydance (build 743). You can download the update here. This update has resolved a few key issues regarding OFX connections, including specifically to your bank.

    Please let me know if your issue persists after you've upgraded. We've been working on this problem for some time now, and I think it's almost fixed, but confirmation would be fantastic. Sorry for the trouble, and thanks for your interest in Moneydance!

    Jessica Little
    Moneydance Support

  2. 2 Posted by Diane on 08 Mar, 2010 10:37 PM

    Diane's Avatar

    Thank you Jessica for the very fast response! Unfortunately, I updated and then tried twice but got the same error. Any ideas?

  3. 3 Posted by chobe2 on 09 Mar, 2010 05:30 PM

    chobe2's Avatar

    Since yesterday's discussion, I tried setting up a few of my other banks and every single one failed - Bank of America, Zion, ING, US Bank, Discover. I don't know why the first one I tried, Chase, was so easy - almost too easy! Jessica, I hope you can help me solve this.

  4. 4 Posted by Angie Rauscher on 09 Mar, 2010 06:09 PM

    Angie Rauscher's Avatar

    Diane,

    Most financial institutions will require you to enable your accounts for application-based online banking. I'm afraid it is usually more productive to lie and tell your bank that you are using Quicken. Moneydance uses exactly the same OFX server connection protocol as Quicken but your bank representative many not know this and mistakenly believe that they do not support Moneydance. Calling up your bank and stating precisely the following should get you started. "Please enable direct connect on my account such that I can connect to your servers directly with Quicken. Also give me the login credentials I need to connect Quicken to this service."

    Application-based online banking often requires a different login/PIN than the ones that are used for ATM or web-based banking. When you enable your account for access from Moneydance or Quicken, your financial institution should let you know what customer ID/login and PIN to use.

    I think Chase may have been so easy to set up because they (unlike most other banks) often use the same user name and password for online banking and OFX direct connections.

    Unfortunately, ING Direct does not support direct OFX connections, which Moneydance (and other financial software) requires in order to talk directly to a bank. The best way to get your transactions into Moneydance is to use a web browser to download them from your bank's web site. You can download into QFX, OFX or OFC files (aka Quicken or MS Money files), any of which will import cleanly into Moneydance.

    If your bank begins to support direct OFX connections in the future, we will be happy to work with them.

    Please let me know if I can be of further assistance, and thank you for your interest in Moneydance.

    Angie Rauscher
    Moneydance Support

  5. 5 Posted by chobe2 on 09 Mar, 2010 10:52 PM

    chobe2's Avatar

    Thank you Angie for your reply. I have contacted First Interstate Bank
    and they do not require different login info from their web based
    online access which I use all the time. They said that I should be
    able to access my account through Quicken with the same ID, password
    and security questions. I noticed that Moneydance is not asking for
    anything but ID and password and then gives me this error:

    There was an error communicating with your financial institution. The
    details of this error are below. Bank Name: First Interstate Bank

    Is it possible that Moneydance's bank info is wrong. There was a
    discussion last December with someone from Billings, MT trying to
    connect - do you know if they were ever able? The bank agent I was
    speaking to was from the Billings branch.

    Diane

  6. 6 Posted by chobe2 on 13 Mar, 2010 10:10 AM

    chobe2's Avatar

    Is anything happening with my problem connecting to First Interstate? I haven't gotten a reply to my last post so I don't know if anyone is working on this or I'm just out of luck. By reading other posts I have just realized that there is more information in the error window than I was seeing. The complete error message is:

    There was an error communicating with your financial institution. The details of this error are below.
    Bank Name: First Interstate Bank
    The error code reported by the server was: 2000
    Intuit Quicken 2009 is not supported by First Interstate Bank

    First Interstate thinks I am trying to connect with Quicken 2009. Is this helpful? If I cannot connect to my banks I don't see how I can use this software. By the way, I am using MD 243.
    Diane
    Diane

  7. 7 Posted by chobe2 on 16 Mar, 2010 01:38 PM

    chobe2's Avatar

    I guess I'll give up on Moneydance since I can't seem to get a reply from support. Oh well...I was really hopeful that this was the software to help me convert from Quicken. I'm still using Quicken 2004 for Mac and am having a hard time finding anything that can replace it. I'll keep looking though...

  8. 8 Posted by Jessica Little on 16 Mar, 2010 02:31 PM

    Jessica Little's Avatar

    Hi Diane,

    I'm very sorry for my delayed response. I thought I had responded to you, actually, but apparently the response didn't post for whatever reason.

    If you're still willing to give us a shot, I believe we've fixed the problem. You'll need to reset your connection to First Interstate using the following steps:

    1) Select your bank account in Moneydance
    2) Select the Online->Setup Online Banking button/menu
    3) Click the "Disable" button. If you don't see a disable button, continue to step 5.
    4) Select the Online->Setup Online Banking button/menu (again)
    5) Click the "New Connection" button and select your bank and hit OK
    6) Continue with the setup process, entering your username/password
    7) Repeat steps 1-6 for any additional accounts

    Make sure you pick new connection, even though your bank is still one of the connection choices after you disable it. Choosing your bank from the list of available banks will force Moneydance to download the updated information, which should then allow you to connect.

    Again, I'm sorry my response to you got lost in transit and it took me this long to notice. Please let me know if you continue to have connection problems after recreating your connection.

    Jessica Little
    Moneydance Support

  9. 9 Posted by Diane Bos on 16 Mar, 2010 09:05 PM

    Diane Bos's Avatar

    Thanks Jessica but it's still the same. This is the message:
    There was an error communicating with your financial institution. The
    details of this error are below.

    Bank Name: First Interstate Bank
    The error code reported by the server was: 2000
    Intuit Quicken 2009 is not supported by First Interstate Bank

    They still think I'm trying to connect with Quicken 2009. When I spoke
    to the bank they said Quicken 2007 was definitely compatible. Is there
    anyway to make that change? Or try a manual connection? Do you happen
    to know if the fellow from Butte was ever able to connect?

    Diane

  10. 10 Posted by Diane Bos on 16 Mar, 2010 11:05 PM

    Diane Bos's Avatar

    Jessica - I just successfully set up online banking with First
    Interstate through iBank but I prefer your software and would like to
    be able to set this up with MD. I got this confirmation email from
    First Interstate:
    -----------------------
    Dear DIANE,

    You have successfully registered your Intuit Quicken data file.

    Please contact our Internet Banking Department at 888-752-3332 if you
    have any further questions. To view the Terms and Conditions of the
    Service please click on the following link,http://www.firstinterstatebank.com/support/terms_conditions_directconnect.php
      or visit our website at FirstInterstate.com

    Regards,
    First Interstate Bank
    -----------------------
    I don't know if this helps but thought I'd forward it.

    Diane

  11. 11 Posted by Jessica Little on 17 Mar, 2010 06:31 PM

    Jessica Little's Avatar

    Hi Diane,

    We have had reports of Moneydance connecting to another bank using the same version of OFX that yours does, but not of anyone connecting to your bank specifically.

    If you would be willing, could you send me the contents of your error console? The extra information might be helpful in figuring out what's going on. Here's how to get the log in Moneydance 2010:

    1) In Moneydance, click on the Help menu and select the Console Window option. This will open the console messages window.
    2) While the Console Window is open, attempt to connect to your bank. Any error messages should be recorded to the Console.
    3) Select all of the text in the Console and use the "Copy to Clipboard" button at the bottom to copy the text.
    4) Paste the text from the message window into a text file (preferably saved with a .txt extension) and email that file to me at [email blocked].

    The debugging logs that this produces will contain your account information. I've made sure that this conversation is private, so the info won't be broadcast to the world, but just to be safe you should redact any account info in the debug logs. Just replace it with something like "ACCOUNT NUMBER HERE" and it should be fine.

    Jessica Little
    Moneydance Support

  12. 12 Posted by chobe2 on 22 Mar, 2010 01:46 PM

    chobe2's Avatar

    Any progress on this?

  13. 13 Posted by chobe2 on 22 Mar, 2010 02:14 PM

    chobe2's Avatar

    I was just reading the "Can't establish online banking with American Express" thread which has had a lot of activity. A few people, after trying repeatedly to connect, were all of a sudden miraculously able to. So I thought I'd give it another try since it's been a few days - but no luck. Why can I connect through iBank but not through Moneydance? I'm determined to get this resolved and make the switch from Quicken!

  14. 14 Posted by Jessica Little on 23 Mar, 2010 03:48 PM

    Jessica Little's Avatar

    Hi Diane,

    I just emailed you about this directly, but I'll copy the email here for anyone else who might come across this thread.


    Looking at your logs, it seems that you're still connecting using the
    old connection information which uses version 1.0.2 of OFX instead of
    version 1.0.3 (which your bank requires). I just tested the
    connection on my end, and it tried to use 1.0.3, so I think our
    database is up-to-date. Could you try disabling and reseting your
    connection again to try and get the most updated information? I don't
    remember if I ever sent you full instructions for how to do so, so
    here they are:

    1) Select your bank account in Moneydance
    2) Select the Online->Setup Online Banking button/menu
    3) Click the "Disable" button. If you don't see a disable button,
    continue to step 5.
    4) Select the Online->Setup Online Banking button/menu (again)
    5) Click the "New Connection" button and select your bank and hit OK
    6) Continue with the setup process, entering your username/password
    7) Repeat steps 1-6 for any additional accounts

    Make sure you pick new connection, even though your bank is still one
    of the connection choices after you disable it. Choosing your bank
    from the list of available banks will force Moneydance to download the
    updated information, which should then allow you to connect.

    If it still doesn't work, try creating a new dummy account in
    Moneydance and connecting to your bank through that account. If that
    works, you might be able to delete the dummy account and try again
    from your regular account with more success.

    Let me know if you still can't connect after trying the above steps.

    Jessica Little
    Moneydance Support

  15. Angie Rauscher closed this discussion on 24 Jul, 2011 07:42 PM.

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