Just to follow up, I emailed Microsoft support and within 24 hours I had a
workable fix. The instructions are included below for anyone interested.

Thanks to everyone who responded.
--John

Export the original bank account and import the data into the MSN Bill Pay
account

===========

NOTE: To keep your data as safe as possible, please click File, and then
click Back Up to back up the Money file in use.

1. Click File, click Export, and then follow the instructions to export the
original Bank account to a loose QIF file.

2. Click File, click New, click New Account to create a new temporary
account and then delete the original account from the Account List.

3. Close all accounts except the temporary account and the MSN Bill Pay
account.

Note: To close the accounts, please perform the following steps:

a. Click Tools, click Settings, and click Account settings (global).

b. Click the "Close or Reopen accounts" button.

c. Select or clear the check box for the account you want to close or
reopen, and then click Done.

4. Click File, click Import, and click Recovered Accounts. Double click the
QIF file we have just exported and import the historical data to the MSN
Bill Pay account.

NOTE: You may be prompted to assign the transfers to another account. Please
assign them to the temporary account.

5. After the importation is complete, please delete the temporary account
and then reopen the other accounts.

Please note that some transfers might be marked as Xfers from deleted
accounts. This will not affect the account balance.

That is correct. The accounts do not show as duplicates when I click "Merge
Duplicate Accounts". When I try to manullay merge the accounts by exporting
from one and importing to the other, Money complains that the import file is
corrupt or invalid.


<johnbusc[at]hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1136205768.160040.72420[at]g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

Hi!

I had exactly this problem last year when trying to upgrade from Money
2004 to 2005 and also spent a couple of hours on the phone to Microsoft
support and was given a similar procedure.

The trouble is that I have more than 15 years of data and I was told
that not all the transfer information would be retained. It would have
to re-entered manually. In my view (and the support person agreed), that
meant there was no practical way for me to upgrade from 2004 to 2005, so
I returned 2005 for a refund.

I am trying to ascertain whether I am likely to have the same problem
trying to upgrade to 2006. I would be interested to know if there is a
chance the upgrade would just work this time or whether, having once run
into this problem, I will always have it and should not bother to try 2006.

regards,
Alan.

John,

I went through something much like this recently. I was trying to stop using
MSN Billpay and switch to my bank service. I found out that my bank also
used Checkfree but charged less for the service and had no limits on how
many transactions could be sent.

Much of my problem worked they same way you are seeing. This is what I did
to fix the problem after days of pulling out my hair. I suggest that you
look over these steps to decide if you want to do this or not.

1. Do a repair on the file.
2. Note the current ending balances of all accounts that you have. Every one
of them.
3. Backup the file. Then back it up again to another location.
4. Export your checking account only (account A).
5. Open a new checking account in Money and set it up for MSN Billpay
(account C). Name it something like "My new account". Connect to MSN and
download transactions, if any, that are there to make sure it works.
6. Import your old checking account (A) and point it to your new checking
account (C). There may be duplicate entries in the register. You can delete
the duplicate entries when you feel comfortable. Do an online update to be
sure that all is working correctly.
7. If you had any transfers to other accounts you will have duplicate
entries. Delete these carefully as they will affect your balance in account
C. This is why you noted all account balances before you started. The
duplicate entries are easily identified and deleted. Work on one transfer
account at a time. Go to "change register view" and select all transaction
details. Your duplicate entries will be noted as something like transfer to
or from deleted account. There may be entries for account A and B plus real
entries for account C. Check the balances carefully as you delete the
duplicates.
8. After you have updated one account, making a new backup, named something
like "after savings account fixed" so you know when it happened.
9. Move on to the next account that needs to be cleaned up, repeating steps
7 & 8 for each account. Back up after each account change so if you mess up
you can go back easily.
10. Do an online update again to be sure everything works.
11. Once all the accounts have been cleaned up and all is working OK rename
any accounts to be what you originally had them.
12. Do final backup and archive all your old backups so you can redo any
steps that may be needed.
13. If all else fails, restore your original backup and punt.

I worked with Microsoft a whole afternoon to get my problems fixed. We tried
all the fixes, backup, restores and everything she could think of even if I
had done them already. She also consulted a few times with others who added
more ideas. Finally we did the major fix and all was well.

This scenario sounds bad, but it didn't really take all that long nor was it
that hard. By doing one account at a time you can take a break if you want.
If you screw up an account just restore from your last backup and move on. I
know a couple of times I got cocky and deleted too much. That's why I
decided to backup after each account is fixed.

If your bank offers on line bill pay you can still use their service while
you fix this and then grab those transactions with MSN later.
I hope this helps.

Good luck.

Lou

"JW" <sorrynospam[at]nospamforme.com> wrote in message
news:O0SFryyDGHA.2088[at]TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
- quote -

JW,

After disabling online services for account "A" were you still unable
to "merge duplicate accounts" for "A" and "B"?

JB

JW wrote:
- quote -

Thanks for the suggestion. I disabled online services and tried to manually
merge the accounts. Unfortunately, I cannot import the QIF file exported
from the original account. I get a data corruption error. I repaired the
money file, but this didn't help (the repair log reports no problems).
Money can't seem to import the file it just exported .


<johnbusc[at]hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1136160894.481886.186470[at]o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

JW,

Is it possible for you to disable online services for account "A"? If
so, see if you can then merge the two accounts. Post back and let us
know! Thanks.

Regards,
JB

JW wrote:
- quote -

I upgraded from Money 2003 Deluxe to Money 2006 Deluxe. I used to make
epayments out of the register for an account "A". After the Upgrade, I had
a new account "B" which was now associated as my MSN Billpay account.
Account "A" is no longer assoicated with Billpay and I can't make epays from
the register. I can't merge duplicate accounts. These 2 account don't show
up in the list. I can't find a way to associate my existing account with
billpay. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

--John