No detail on debit card transactions from First Republic bank

[Luchie]

Hi all,

My bank account is at First Republic. The data that downloads from my bank account that was paid through my bank card shows up as 'withdrawal check card ..' and then a number. So for example: I pay an iPod iTouch and spend $324 at the Apple Store. It shows as Withdrawal Check card 11/15 and not as Apple. My spending info now becomes useless because most of my purchases are not categorized and put against a budget. Is this a known issue? Thanks for your help. Surely hopes we can solve this. Love your service.

[Damon]

We're going to do some more investigative work to improve the transaction renaming and categorization process. In order to do so, I need help from our community in making this better & invite people to contact us (https://wwws.mint.com/contact.event) with these issues. Please file under: Bug Transactions.

Here's what we need:
1. email address of your account
2. the date of the transaction.
3. the category/name that we assigned to the transaction.
4. what the original name of the transaction was (you can get this by hovering your mouse over the transaction).
5. If categorization, we will also need what the category *should* have been.
6. The name of the bank/url of bank (just for tracking purposes)

We will also be doing the same for no category transactions, such as when the transaction name is simply a series of numbers that came across from your bank.

[tcaleshu]

Hi all,

My bank account is at First Republic. The data that downloads from my bank account that was paid through my bank card shows up as 'withdrawal check card ..' and then a number. So for example: I pay an iPod iTouch and spend $324 at the Apple Store. It shows as Withdrawal Check card 11/15 and not as Apple. My spending info now becomes useless because most of my purchases are not categorized and put against a budget. Is this a known issue? Thanks for your help. Surely hopes we can solve this. Love your service.

This is still an issue with me and First Republic. Is there any reliable fix? Manually re-naming all my transactions isn't exactly ideal....

[bewest]

We're going to do some more investigative work to improve the transaction renaming and categorization process. In order to do so, I need help from our community in making this better & invite people to contact us (https://wwws.mint.com/contact.event) with these issues. Please file under: Bug Transactions.

Here's what we need:
1. email address of your account
2. the date of the transaction.
3. the category/name that we assigned to the transaction.
4. what the original name of the transaction was (you can get this by hovering your mouse over the transaction).
5. If categorization, we will also need what the category *should* have been.
6. The name of the bank/url of bank (just for tracking purposes)

We will also be doing the same for no category transactions, such as when the transaction name is simply a series of numbers that came across from your bank.
The problem is on the bank's side. First republic, for example, has 5 or so data export formats. All but CSV severely truncate the names. They also export throug a variety of pseudo-xml-ish financial formats, but the transaction names alway get truncated to either 32 or 40 characters.

For example:
a transaction that shows up within First Republic's website such as:
WITHDRAWAL - CHECK CARD 04/18 SAY CHEESE SAN FRANCISCOCA
is represented as:
WITHDRAWAL - CHECK CARD 04/18 SA
in most of the export formats. The only one that does not do this is CSV.

This causes items to be categorized as: "CASH & ATM" which essentially cuts the value that PFM applications, such as mint, are adding.

[sgmitch]

This has been an issue since 2007? Should I call the bank and complain? Is there any chance Mint could use the csv in this case since it's the only one that has any data?

[bewest]

The bank is truncating the transaction name before Mint gains access to the records. I've already contacted the bank about this twice. I recommend others do the same.

What's odd is that occasionally Mint is able to get it right. For example, about half the time Trader Joe's and Whole Foods is correctly categorized as grocery.