Issue connecting two logins with Vanguard (edited)
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The issue is definitely Simplifi — not Vanguard. I had been using [removed]l for many years, before switching to Simplifi last year, and [removed] still works just fine for the same set of accounts. I have to say that I am disappointed in how long it is taking to get a commitment to fixing the problem for Simplifi.
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It appears that Simplifi is storing creds in a cookie without disambiguating them.
Simplifi also has a bug in that the webapp can't handle the 2FA callback from Vanguard (or, more likely, any bank that uses the same auth stack as Vanguard).
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Hello @Jeff C,
Thanks for the updated logs! I have passed this information on to our product team. We will be sure to follow up here when we hear further steps or if a resolution has been found.
@cfannabia, Thanks for letting us know!
We have escalated this issue with our product team, so you can follow along with this thread for updates going forward regarding this issue!
-Coach Jon
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It's ridiculous that this large of an issue is happening. I understood Mint having issues like this because I didn't pay for it, but for a hundred dollars a year, I would expect the engineering team to do a better job and have tests that cover simple use cases like this.
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Same problem as the OP and many that have posted in this thread.
- Simplifi cannot handle two separate vanguard logins (i.e. one for each partner/spouse) to pull their separate account information.
- Before the connectivity issues last month, the accounts showed up as two separate Vanguard logins in the "Settings - Accounts" page, now they are lumped as one
- Due to this, Simplifi can only retrieve data for one login and the other is broken. If you reconnect the broken login (i.e. re-authenticate with Vanguard through the Simplifi pop-up) then it will fix the second login but break the connection on the first login.
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Hello @REO_Swedewagen,
Thanks for letting us know! We have escalated this issue with our product team, so you can follow along with this thread for updates going forward regarding this issue, while we work toward a resolution.
-Coach Jon
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The problem seems to be affecting some institutions but not all. We have two accounts with different logins at Chase and at Capital One as well, and both of those seem to working fine so far while Vanguard is failing.
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I believe I have found a work-around (not a solution) for this issue. The issue still needs to be addressed by Quicken Simplifi. I setup 1 Vanguard Personal Investor account/login within Simplifi by adding under the "Vanguard" institution from the selection list during the Add an Account process. For the second Vanguard Personal Investor account for my wife (different login credentials), from the Add an Account selection list I chose "Vanguard Small Business" as the institution and proceeded to add my wife's personal investor accounts under this institution, even though those are not "small business" accounts. Seems this process is tricking Simplifi into thinking there are 2 Vanguard institutions to allow it to add personal investor accounts with different logins.
If you already have accounts under your Vanguard setup within Simplifi that are not syncing, in order to retain the history of those accounts that are not syncing, you will need to:
1) make those non-syncing accounts "manual"
2) go through the process of adding them under the "Vanguard Small Business" step above using the login information associated with the non-syncing/manual accounts. During that setup, it should retrieve your personal investment accounts from Vanguard, and instead of setting those up as new, you will be given the option to link those to the "manual" accounts.
Hope this helps! Again, this is a work-around, and not a permanent solution (hopefully). Quicken Simplifi needs to correct the issue of not being able to add multiple accounts with different logins from the same financial institution.
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Works for me! Simple yet effective way to work around the issue until Quicken/Simplifi gives us a better solution.
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This workaround worked for me too. Obviously not ideal but at least now I can see both account balances.
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Thanks to @Dapper for finding the workaround. But I wonder why it takes a user spending all this time figuring it out, and not the Somplifi support team. Connectivity solutions take a very long time to sort out, and even when they get sorted out, they often break again. The Simplifi product is functionally good, but the platform it uses to connect to banks is really poor, and when you come right down to it, what good is the functionality if there’s no data?
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Same issue here.
This on top of the Morgan Stanley issues is a deal breaker.
I've canceled my auto-renew which is in May and I'll use the workaround above to get by for now. Hopefully Quicken takes this product and it's issues seriously and gets us a fix.
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I have exactly the same situation as jk71. Vanguard and Morgan Stanley are the two institutions where we have our investment accounts, and neither is working properly — although the problems are different for the two organizations. I don't see myself renewing my subscription unless these get addressed.
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I am experiencing the same issue with Vanguard. My wife and I have separate brokerage accounts and a common account visible from both our logins. Simplifi can not handle having both accounts turned on. This worked correctly on several other competing products. It's not that hard to union the feeds from two login/OAuth feeds and then de-duplicate them by account number. Get with the "house-hold" scale of account management please!
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I am also having the same exact issue with Vanguard where my wife and I each have our own separate Vanguard logins. We are using the desktop website. Whoever adds their Vanguard accounts second overwrites the credentials of the first. This manifests in the Simplifi UI as an error message complaining that the names of the accounts from the first person have changed and can no longer be found.
When I look in Settings → Accounts, I see that both my wife and my accounts are lumped together under a single Vanguard institution instead of each having our own separate Vanguard institutions.
Furthermore, I don't think this is a cookie issue as my wife and I are logged into Simplifi and adding our respective Vanguard accounts on separate computers.
I'm a backend developer who's done a lot of work with OAuth and third party API integrations. This is definitely a problem with Simplifi failing to disambiguate credentials on their end. This is an egregious error with how you're storing your OAuth tokens and I simply cannot understand how such a fundamental element of the OAuth flow (which underpins Simplifi's entire product) can be screwed up like this.
Simplifi is a paid service unlike predecessors such as Mint. I expect the quality of the product to be much higher. I am this close to jumping ship to any number of Simplifi's competitors. I have canceled my annual auto-renewal. I will consider re-enabling it once this issue is fixed.
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Also cancelling my auto-renew and will jump to a competitor if this isn't fixed. It's really bad. And I'm not sure the company is really taking this seriously.
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[removed - no soliciting]
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[removed - no soliciting]
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Thanks. Since you are a developer, any sense of how likely Quicken will fix this OAuth issue? Is it a major fix that will take time?
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I have zero visibility into their tech and their team so I can't say for sure. If this is an isolated screw up for Vanguard, but they have an existing framework for handling OAuth correctly across their other integrations, then it should be a relatively easy fix. Otherwise if their OAuth framework is fundamentally screwed up, then that would be a major fix.
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Ok thanks, that's helpful. Quicken support is saying it's a Vanguard problem and that Quicken has done all that they can, and that I should contact Vanguard for support.
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That's been the company line, but from my and the other commenters in this thread's observations, I'm 99% sure this is Simplifi's problem, not Vanguard's.
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ok thanks!
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Given the fact that I’m also having problems with TIAA and now TRowe Price, I’d say that Simplifi’s support is not up to the task. I’ve also had previous problems with Fidelity and Merrill Lynch. None of these are obscure banks, so you’ve got to wonder what is going on behind the scenes. It’s certainly puzzling how a big company like this can get away with so many connection issues. Or maybe they should make it clear to users that what they’re trying to do is not really possible.
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What is the nature of the problems with those other integrations? Is it the same as the Vanguard problem discussed in this thread where creating a new connection would overwrite a previous connection?
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No, it's not similar to the Vanguard problem, but it's an inability to connect to the banks. It's like they are offline. At random times you can make a connection and then a couple days later the connection breaks again. It's very messy, and sometimes the staff at Simplifi can be "researching" a solution for months. For me, it's just the uncertainty of logging in each day and holding your breath on what might be working that day. If you're just using Simplifi to track your expenses and bank accounts, you're probably ok, but add any investments into the mix and trying to track your overall net worth, it's really tenuous.
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I guess I'm trying to reinforce that the problems with connecting to institutions is much larger than the Vanguard problem, and that the notion of having a stable platform is probably a pipe dream, and not a quick fix.
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Well as someone who's had to personally deal with stuff like this, I'm a lot more sympathetic to the kinds of problems you described. Connections to third-party platforms are inherently unstable through no fault of Simplifi because:
- Third-party platforms can make unannounced changes completely outside of Simplifi's control that break Simplifi's integration with them.
- Third-party platforms can impose rate limits on their side that are arbitrary and/or poorly documented.
Those kinds of problems are understandable and forgivable. This particular problem with Vanguard is clearly due to Simplifi's mishandling of OAuth credentials on their side and is completely their fault.
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Hi,
We also encountered the same issue with 2 vanguard logins. The workaround did the trick!
Also wanted to share that, we have 2 logins each for BoA, Capitalone, Fidelity, but they don't have similar issue (vanguard issue is quite recent. It was fine until perhaps about a month ago). Hopefully the quicken team can solve the issue soon.1 -
Hello. I tried this work around but I can't get it to work. So when I try to set up a 2nd Vanguard Small business account, it is not allowing me to put in my wife's login and password. It immediately takes me to the Grant Intuit Access screen with my name. I can't seem to disconnect my name and start over with my wife's login. Any ideas how to get around this? Thanks.
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