If you haven't yet tried to set up an initial data connection, first visit Linking Your Financial Accounts for step-by-step instructions.
If you've landed here after an unsuccessful attempt to connect or refresh a bank account, then read on...
Common Account Link Problems & Errors
We'll be the first to acknowledge that establishing and maintaining secure data connections between your Stessa account and various external banks, mortgages, credit cards, and property managers can be a bit finicky sometimes. Stessa uses a third-party called Yodlee to facilitate these secure connections to thousands of US-based banks, credit unions, and lenders. Every bank has its own security procedures, challenge questions, and transaction data protocols, which change constantly.
Blank Screen After Selecting Your Bank
If you're seeing a blank screen after selecting your bank, you'll likely need to enable third party cookies in your browser settings to resolve the issue. You may then need to close and restart your browser before giving the connection another try. Once your bank is connected, you can revert to your original cookies settings if you like.
For Chrome, navigate to Chrome > Preferences > Advanced > Content Settings > Cookies and then make sure "Block third-party cookies" is set to off.
For Safari, navigate to Safari > Preferences > Privacy and then make sure "Always allow" is selected under "Cookies and website data."
Successful Connection but No Accounts Found
If you see a success message alongside an indication that no accounts could be found in the allotted time, it's likely that your login credentials are correct but some form of additional information is missing. This is by far the most common bank linking error and it can most often be resolved by logging into your bank or credit union directly. Once logged in, make sure every single piece of personal information (email, mailing address, phone number, etc.) is correct and up to date. Also be sure to confirm that all security and challenge questions are complete and accurate.
Log out from your bank, return to Stessa, and use this secure link to try the connection again.
No Data Imported or Persistent "Fix It" Error
If your existing bank connection shows an error state even after going through the "Fix It" process, you can sometimes do a manual refresh of the account. Click the small gear icon at far right of the bank name and then select "Refresh Account."
Follow the prompts, enter security questions if asked, and then give the connection some time to refresh.
If your account still shows the same "Fix It" error after the refresh, please know that our third party data aggregators are working to resolve the outstanding issue. This may take days, weeks, or even longer depending on how they have decided to prioritize the specific banking institution and the complexity of the data connection problem.
Why Did My Bank Connection Break in the First Place?
At Stessa, we understand how important it is for rental property owners to have seamless financial tracking. Whether you're keeping tabs on rental income, tracking expenses for tax season, or ensuring your cash flow is in check, bank connections play a crucial role. However, if you’ve ever encountered an issue with your bank connection, you’re not alone. While we work tirelessly to ensure smooth connectivity, the reality is that bank connections—whether provided through Yodlee, MoneyKit, or other financial data aggregators—are inherently complex and sometimes unreliable.
The Challenge of Connecting Thousands of Banks
The U.S. banking system consists of 10,000+ financial institutions, each with its own security protocols, technology stack, and data formats. Unlike standardized systems such as credit card networks, there is no single universal protocol that all banks follow for third-party data access. This means that:
Banks update their security settings frequently, causing existing connections to break.
Banks change their user-interfaces, often without notice, causing scrapers relied on by the data aggregators to break.
Banks may require, and frequently update, multi-factor authentication (MFA) or additional verification steps that disrupt automated syncing.
Many smaller banks and credit unions lack robust API infrastructures, making their connections less stable and forcing the aggregators to rely on outdated scraping technology.
Third-party data providers must continually adapt to new formats, authentication changes, and evolving security requirements—an ongoing challenge.
Data aggregators are forced to prioritize scarce resources in favor of keeping up with changes made by larger banks that impact a larger number of customers. Smaller regional and local banks are often less of a priority for data aggregators to maintain.
For rental property owners, these disruptions can be especially frustrating when you rely on accurate transaction data for expense tracking, financial reporting, and tax preparation.
Why Smaller Banks Are More Likely to Experience Issues
If you bank with a major institution like Chase, Bank of America, or Wells Fargo, you’ll likely experience fewer connection problems because these banks invest heavily in digital banking infrastructure. We cannot stress this point about the reliability of larger banks enough. On the other hand, smaller regional banks and credit unions, some of which are favored by rental property owners due to their lending flexibility, tend to be less stable for automated transaction syncing because:
They may not fully support third-party integrations, or may not support them at all!
Their technical teams are smaller, meaning connection issues take longer to resolve.
They might change their security and login requirements more frequently, requiring users to reauthorize access more often.
Maintaining data access for the “long-tail” of the US banking system is often not economically feasible for data aggregators. Continued consolidation in the banking industry means that the ratio of total banking transactions sourced to a relatively small number of ever-bigger banks will likely continue to rise. This creates an incentive for data aggregators to prioritize uptime and reliability for the big players at the expense of many of the local and regional banks that some real estate investors prefer.
If you frequently experience disruptions, consider whether your bank’s infrastructure, size, and brand recognition is likely to be suitable for reliable automated transaction imports over the long run. Stessa does not directly maintain data connections with external banking, mortgage, or credit card institutions. Our model relies on third party aggregators to provide these secure connections. Ultimately, Stessa does not decide how these third party aggregators allocate scarce resources across their backlog of broken connections.
What We’re Doing to Help
We are constantly working with our banking data providers to monitor and flag connection issues. While we have some influence with our data aggregators, we have no control over their prioritization queue. Here’s what we do on our end:
Proactive Monitoring: We track connection stability and escalate issues when we detect significant outages that impact a number of our customers.
Direct Vendor Communication: We work closely with data providers like Yodlee and MoneyKit to advocate for more transparency and faster fixes.
User Alerts & Support: If we detect a major issue with a particular bank, we update our users with status alerts and troubleshooting guidance.
How You Can Help Ensure Reliable Transaction Syncing
At the end of the day, the reliability of your bank connection depends largely on the institution you choose. If seamless syncing is critical to you, selecting a well-supported bank is the obvious decision.
For rental property owners looking for a 100% reliable syncing experience, we recommend opening a Stessa Cash Management account. Since Stessa accounts are natively integrated with our platform, all transactions sync instantly and without interruption—ensuring your rental property finances are always accurate and up-to-date.
Alternatively, if you prefer to use an external bank account, we recommend opening an account with a major financial institution such as Chase, Bank of America, or Wells Fargo. These banks have well-established APIs, making their connections significantly more stable compared to smaller regional banks and credit unions. While not 100% reliable, choosing a large, tech-forward bank can provide a much more reliable syncing experience with fewer disruptions.
If you’re looking for specific bank recommendations, we have found that the following institutions generally seem to deliver stable and reliable data platforms for third-party connections:
USAA
Capital One
American Express
TD Bank
Chase
Wells Fargo
Bank of America
Fidelity
PNC
US Bank
Citi
Navy Federal CU
SoFi
Truist
Vystar CU
Huntington Bank
Delta Community CU
Robins Financial CU
First National Bank of Texas (First Convenience Bank)
State Employees Credit Union (NC)
Woodforest National Bank
Wisely
Chime
If you have additional questions about bank connections, feel free to browse other Help Center articles for more details about outages, troubleshooting, and importing transactions in general. We appreciate your patience as we work with our data aggregation partners to improve the reliability of financial data connections for all Stessa customers.