Wow, I had just about given up hope on anyone responding to my plight! So you
DID understand what I was trying to convey? I can't get past the front lines
"because of security reasons", which I can understand, to a point. I said
"hell, here's my phone number. Have someone in senior support call me so we can
talk about it." Nope. All they do is (assumedly) write down what I'm trying to
tell them and supposedly pass it on behind closed doors.

If all the signs were flipped as in your case, that's one thing. But this ONLY
applies to credits, AND....... only from their "recent transactions" page. Past
statement downloads are correct from another page.

The last I've been told, is that the balance at the bottom of the downloads is
correct, (and it is) so therefore the problem must lie in MY software. My
software doesn't even know I've downloaded an OFX file. Opening the file with a
text editor reveals the error. I correct it and only then, does Microsoft Money
accept the file.

Here's what their ombudsman sent:
"Our IT area did some more investigation and tried to replicate the
problem using an unbilled payment transaction to see if they could come
up with the same problem but they cannot seem to replicate the problem.
The result of our testing is attached, for your review."

I'd like to send you that attachment (doc) to see. You won't believe it. The
problem HAS been replicated, even to the errors being circled! And they say
they couldn't find anything wrong.

I even emailed Intuit Canada with this problem, but they haven't had the decency
to reply in the last 2 weeks. After all, they are one of the architects of the
OFX concept in the first place, along with Microsoft and somebody else.

Thanks again for your reply. If we can set up a way to send you the .doc file
they sent me, then you can see first hand exactly what's going on.




- quote -

Hey budman... I don't have a solution for you, but I did have a similar
absurd experience with Citibank of trying to prove to them that their
downloaded files were not formatted correctly. For about 6 months after
they took over the ExxonMobil gas card from GE Money Bank (in early 2007),
they had all the signs flipped on every transaction in their downloads.
About 4 calls and as many e-mails to their customer service people went
nowhere; they kept wanting me to reinstall my software, or upgrade to the
latest version, or something like that. They wouldn't even acknowledge the
possibility that they could be wrong. As it happened, I also use a Citibank
Mastercard, and I was able to show them how the transactions for a purchase
at the Exxon station on the Citi Mastercard downloaded with the opposite
signs of purchases at the same gas station on the Citi ExxonMobil card. I
also showed them how all the signs were flipped in their files vs. the old
files that I still had on my hard drive from the same credit card when it
was run by GE Money. But Citi insisted that the download format was correct
and that I must be doing something wrong on my end. So I resigned myself to
them never fixing it, and actually wrote a little macro that could
automatically change all the signs in the file in just a couple of
keystrokes. Then, about 2 months after I had given up on the whole thing, I
downloaded a month's worth of transactions, and Eureka! the signs were
changed. I never received any acknowledgement from Citi to indicate whether
my complaints had anything to do with it, but I'm convinced that every
complaint helps. So my only message is: keep up the good fight!

<budman[at]frozenorth.ca> wrote in message
newsuv6g4d4vtrh6p9hvi8ub805clm1vibole[at]4ax.com...
- quote -

At the very least, perhaps someone can direct me to a newsgroup or forum that
might specialize in OFX issues.

Because I can't seem to get information elsewhere, and since I DO use Microsoft
Money, I thought I'd present my, or rather my financial institution's problem
here.

After starting to receive an error message a few months ago that Microsoft Money
couldn't open my downloaded MasterCard OFX file, I found that the OFX file was
not compiled properly.

Raw statement downloads from my bank's MasterCard "recent transactions" page
have the transaction types <TRNTYPE> shown as DEBIT, even when the amount should
be a credit. However, when downloading a past statement in its entirety, the
<TRNTYPE> are appropriately identified.

After months of emailing and phone conversations with their "support" they have
washed their hands of this matter, and dismiss it as a software problem on my
end. I have told them that I simply download the file and save it to my
desktop, open it with WordPad and it's obvious where the problem is obvious. I
haven't even opened Microsoft Money at this point.

All I have to do is locate any <TRNAMT> that is positive, go up to the <TRNTYPEand replace DEBIT with the word CREDIT, save the change(s) and import the file
into Microsoft Money, no problem. The only problem, is that I must do this
every time I download my recent transactions, because any credits, be they
payments to the account or merchandise returns must be edited in this manner.

Since I regularly download OFX files from other financial institutions
successfully, it would appear to me that there is something somewhere on that
"Recent Transactions" page that is identifying credit amounts as DEBIT. I
should also mention that this problem has cropped up in the last few months
only. I never had problems prior.

OFX requires that all <TRNAMT> values be signed from the perspective of the
user. This would mean, for example, that a <TRNTYPE> DEBIT would have a negative
<TRNAMT> .

<TRNTYPE> CREDIT
<DTPOSTED> 19980315
<DTUSER> 19980315
<TRNAMT> 200.00
<FITID> 980315001
<SIC> 000000
<NAME> DEPOSIT
<MEMO> My Bank
</STMTTRN<STMTTRN<TRNTYPE> CREDIT
<DTPOSTED> 19980310
<DTUSER> 19980310
<TRNAMT> 150.00
<FITID> 980310001
<SIC> 000000
<NAME> TRANSFER
<MEMO> My Bank
</STMTTRN<STMTTRN<TRNTYPE> DEBIT
<DTPOSTED> 19980309
<DTUSER> 19980309
<TRNAMT> -100.00
<FITID> 980309001
<SIC> 000000
<NAME> ATM
<MEMO> My Bank

As you can see above, this 'typical' OFX statement in part, shows 2 credits then
one debit.

If you were to change the top two <TRNTYPE> from CREDIT to DEBIT, that is what I
am faced with. The transaction amounts always remain positive for these
transactions, even though the transaction TYPE is DEBIT.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Because of security reasons, I
can't get past first base when calling support people.

Thanks