I’m really sad about this. It feels like when Google Inbox shut down. Like yeah, some other services will have similar features, but not as well-done. That’s gotten a lot of praise already, but what really made Simple special for me was the language and design they use, it was so so good. I’m so thankful that it existed, it really helped me learn to manage my money.
I've worked in native apps for 3.5 years. Your apps are amazing and set a great example to how we should make a native experience. I hope your talents are put to use in other projects in the future!
Second this. I've used the Android app for ages and it's always been a pleasure to use. As an Android dev myself I can really appreciate the performance and polish.
I'm sorry you have to see your work go like this. Best of luck to you!
I was a Simple customer for years, and have tried many banks, including banks in multiple countries. Simple was hands down the best banking app I've ever used. You should be proud.
Switched to Simple a few years ago and what you did really helped me get things under control. Many others here have expressed it, but you changed my life.
I absolutely love "Safe to Spend". Best, most transparent feature I've ever been offered by any bank.
Great job on Simple. I am so, so sorry to see you go.
I'm also dying to know who you think your best competitor in UX is, because they're who I want to transfer my money to. I wouldn't have dreamed of asking if y'all were staying open.
They've been my main bank for a number of years, and I second this.
The APR on their savings account is generally either the best or among the best available, and the small handful of times I've had to call their customer support, they've been a pleasure.
I'm in the US Monzo beta. The app is super solid, has envelope budgeting features, can automatically divvy up your paycheck like Expenses. Hoping they open up invites before Simple shuts.
I used and was happy with Simple from the very beginning, right up to the point they removed the check sending facility.
It wasn’t the removal of the facility itself that caused me to leave.
It was the utterly disingenuous statement from the CEO explaining the removal.
They got a lot of pushback on this, and ultimately the CEO wrote a defensive followup which was slightly more honest, but confirmed his original disingenuity.
If Simple had sold itself as a normal bank this would have been business as usual. Not good but not unexpected.
However their original sales pitch was all about how they were going to be more honest.
It’s worth noting that this happened soon after they were acquired by BBVA and had a new CEO.
You can't exclude the exit and say "oh, they changed the narrative". Because the exit is the whole point of embarking on making the business in the first place.
At least in other areas -- like say, solar energy or battery charging, the startup would have be left us with something had a tangible mark on society. Here, I don't see any of that. No lasting impact. No changed narrative.
‘You can't exclude the exit and say "oh, they changed the narrative". Because the exit is the whole point of embarking on making the business in the first place.’
I agree that this is essentially a failure.
However, for many years they provided exactly the service they said they were going to provide.
As for ‘the exit is the point’. Maybe for those who controlled the stock, but definitely not for everyone involved.
And even for the founders, do you think this was the exit they planned on? I very much doubt that.
The end result is a bad one, but I don’t think you’ve made a case for being cynical in some broader sense.
A online bank with IMO great savings and money management features. They also had a fairly competitive high-yield interest rate on their savings accounts.
It is a banking app with features for budgeting and had a 'slick app'. Their killer features were 'goals' and 'safe-to-spend' where you could auto move money to buckets, and your balance in the app would not show the allocated funds.
Acquired by BBVA a few years back, and clearly not 'worth it' to them.
Simple was an online bank. They had no physical branches and charged very low fees. Personally, I think they're one of the best banks around, and I'm very disappointed to hear that they're shutting down.
Imagine if a bunch of Apple employees decided to open an online bank. It felt like that: intuitive bank app, no fees for most services, checking accounts, a nicely designed debit card (VISA), US-based customer service reps, no brick-and-mortar branches. They lived up to their name in their app and service. Hopefully, the Simple employees move over to BBVA.
[I only used their checking and savings features. I never used eBills, paper checks, etc, which some people weren't happy about. Certain companies also could not transfer money from the Simple checking account, like Robin Hood. However, I still kept the account open because for my limited needs (debit card and savings), the app was great and so was service.]
A modern app that looked and worked great, a customer service team you could call and you'd recognize their name because you worked with them before, low fees, and a killer envelope saving feature.
This is disappointing news. Their app is pretty nice and they made shared banking with my wife easy. I also have a backup Chase account. I just fired up their mobile app for the first time in awhile. It's a slow and cluttered mess. Hopefully a spiritual successor to Simple will emerge.
Coming from Chase and Simple, I've found Ally's mobile app and website both to be delightfully functional. None of the obnoxious advertising that plagues so many of Chase's user interfaces.
I don’t know a lot about bank economics, but it’s not clear to me how they would have made much money. Interest rates are basically 0%, and they didn’t charge much in the way of fees.
I bank with Charles Schwab, which is very low cost in terms of fees, but I’m sure they make money by using my money in all sorts of trading shenanigans. (I feel somewhat guilty for contributing to the financialization of everything, but…no ATM fees, anywhere!)
I think it was murder by acquisition. BBVA USA was recently bought out by PNC bank and there probably wasn’t room for Simple in the new company. For the most part simple provided a superb ui on top of BBVA bank accounts. I’m sad to see them go.
I've been a Simple customer since launch, and have used it as my primary bank since ING Direct was turned into Capital One.
It's mildly depressing to be reminded once again that the dream of startup founders these days isn't to build something, but to sell something... specifically to a bigger company. Which will inevitably delete the thing, once it serves its use. Which is to provide presence in some kind of defensive strategy.
I'm not sure what to use as my primary financial institution now. I have an account with my local credit union, but their app is mediocre. Simple's high quality app was the main reason I used Simple. I really just want an institution + app representation of such, that provides a 21st century experience.
Former C1 employee: I would give Capital One another shot. Their tech and apps are best in class and and built in-house. They also contribute to the open source community (or did).
I second this. I was an ING Direct customer who was rolled into a C1 360 account and it's honestly been great. It's just a consistently hassle-free experience. TBH, I mostly use a combination of Fidelity + Merrill Edge these days due to my particular cashflow management setup, but I keep my C1 360 account open for use every now and then. It's night and day between C1 360 and Chase, BofA, etc.
I beg to differ. Notifications for transactions stopped working. As I always do when things like this happen, I went to twitter and tweeted at them. They claim it works, yet replies on twitter beg to differ. They support people point me to a document that shows UI elements which have been removed.
Still broken. Still no word from them.
And there's the issue about financial software. A couple of years ago they stopped supporting what Moneydance uses. Basically, Cap One only supports Quicken. I would rather cut off my nose than use Quicken. I moved all my accounts to other banks after Moneydance stopped working. Problem is, my SO still has accounts there and the notification issue is a real problem, as she was not notified of fraudulent transactions due to their new bug.
That's seems like a customer support issue and not software related but it's definitely frustrating. I use YNAB and their integration with C1 has been great so maybe push on Moneydance as to why that integration is no longer an option.
The website has a page changing the notification settings. It used to be there. It's not anymore. Their own documentation says it should be there. I've looked in the not very many places it could be. It's no where to be found.
I have been really frustrated with C1 not integrating with youneedabudget and Plaid-backed tools for quite a while now and intend to close my C1 credit account as a result. i know it's "as simple" as logging in to C1 and finding the transaction download tool but golly what a waste of effort.
I get an email for every debit transaction on my account. I've had to update my inbox filters a couple time because they change the email they send it from, but it's been pretty reliable ever since I set it up maybe three or four years ago.
I've been really pleased with Capital One overall. The only thing that I wish could be resolved is that it can't be synced with You Need a Budget automatically.
If that syncing is done through Plaid (or maybe even if not), it might be fixed now. I use a similar product, Lunch Money, and syncing didn't work for a long time but within the past month it became possible.
It was indeed plaid, Capital One was doing some kind of BS blocking that was preventing any app that uses Plaid from being able to sync data from there.
How do I close old savings accounts in Capital One 360?
I used to have my savings split between several buckets, and now I just keep it all in one savings account, but I have four savings accounts with $0 in them because near as I can tell you aren't allowed to close them.
You have to call them. It's the only way to close an old savings account in Capital One 360. It was relatively painless when I had to close my 4 buckets.
Capital One customer here! This is interesting to hear. Capital One's website is easily one of, if not the most annoying bank website I've engaged with in memory, inclusive of behemoths like BofA, regional banks, and a local credit union.
I want to be okay with Capital One, but the day I tried signing up for an account (a few years back), their entire application for applying (their application application) had a meltdown and their app crashed, etc, etc.
And then I thought, hmm, glad this happened before I had opened an account.
I was worried when ING Direct was bought by Capital One, but they never introduced any bullshit fees and seriously improved the app and website. So I've remained happy with them.
Can you speak a bit more about this? I actually have a Fidelity cash account open but I have no idea how to access it. I’m open to it though if I’m just missing something.
I use the Fidelity iOS app and fidelity.com, and also have a checkbook and ATM debit card for it. They reimburse all ATM fees, checks are free, and it’s trivial to move money between it and your brokerage, investment, and retirement accounts. They don’t support Zelle, so if you need that P2P instant payment functionally, you’re better off with Ally (I keep a high yield savings account at Discover Bank as a Zelle slush account).
I'm a happy Schwab customer. Their app isn't what you would call simple, but you can do almost all your investing and banking there (I say almost because I own some physical assets) and they refund ATM withdrawal fees.
I'm also moving to Schwab mostly because my previous and current employer have stocks linked to that platform. TBH seems good enough for my use case (long term investing, mostly ETF)
You’re lucky! Schwab is fantastic, and I use it for all my personal banking and brokerage, but most employer 401ks have been through fidelity and others.
Most importantly, they do this (as well as priority mailing replacement cards) globally. I have yet to find another bank besides possibly Fidelity's checking account (?) that does this with no stated limit. It's invaluable for those who travel abroad to have access to local currencies with no hassles and a refund of all fees.
I managed to get my Schwab debit card eaten by ATMs twice in one trip once, and Schwab was able to quickly Fedex replacement cards to addresses I provided in Thailand and Hong Kong. It stopped my trip from turning into a big headache - I was really impressed.
This is the huge advantage of Schwab over other options I've explored, especially if you are a US citizen but work abroad as a digital nomad. I like CapitalOne, too, but they could not FedEx a replacement card to me when my card got eaten because of what they claimed was a security issue. Schwab could! Also, Schwab's customer service is top notch.
I think if you want favorable margin rates I'd still use Schwab for banking and M1 finance or IB for the stocks. M1 lets you use borrowed funds for whatever, at like 2% interest.
No, actually that is pretty rare. Getting unlimited domestic and international ATM fees reimbursed is not the norm.
> specially after you are over an amount in account
But that's just the point you're missing. Schwab does it at $0, not $1,000,000.
> Usually also have the worse investing options
Eh? Are we talking about the same company here? Schwab has an enormous array of investing options, given that their main business is that of a brokerage.
> HSBC
Also eh? When did HSBC become remotely competitive in the brokerage space? (And isn't HSBC winding down their US operations?)
I'd suggest Bank of America if you have more than $100k in stocks or index funds that you can move to Merrill. That qualifies you for free ATM refunds, and gives you access to unlimited 2.6% cash back on all credit card purchases.
I cannot blame the founders. They worked hard and risked a lot and were successful so they want to cash out.
Here's a radical idea. Maybe if countries care so much about keeping markets competitive, they could buy out late-stage startups to allow them to keep operating independently.
Government could buy it out and sell shares back to the public, sort of like an IPO, but with some conditions attached, so that it ensures the company remains independent for a specified number of years post IPO.
Maybe that model doesn't work, but I wish there was some government oversight preventing huge companies from buying out small competitors just to shut them down entirely. Like Apple did with Dark Sky, Microsoft did with Wunderlist, and Twitter did with Vine. It's really unfortunate that we can't have much small tech.
Android app was pulled. API service stopped accepting new applicants. API is scheduled to shut down. (iOS app continues to be updated, but API/functionality maybe rolled into iOS in a future version.)
What tricks should I, as a founder of a company, maximize the valuation of my startup at government acqusition time, which revolving-door ex-regulator consultant should I hire to make sure my i's are dotted and t's crossed on all of my applications (and how expensive are they), who in the bureaucracy should I make friends with to ensure the smoothest possible acquisition.
That would reduce the expected net present value of startups to investors, making it harder for them to get investment money in the first place and probably reducing the number of successful startups, acquired or otherwise. It's not obvious that this would be a net improvement.
Or you could reduce the barriers required for companies to go public/IPO.
What has changed over the last 20 years in the US is how much more expensive / difficult it has been for a company to go public. A lot of that is a result in 'consumer protections' that came into place after the .com bust and the financial crisis, but as with every short sighted government regulation, it has unintended consequences.
In our case, Simple was at the end of its runway and desperately needed a buyer after our primary angel backed out. BBVA was there at literally the last second (as in, we may not have been able to make the next payroll). So yeah, it wasn't really about the founders wanting to cash out; they desperately wanted to keep the idea going.
That was floated as an option, but it would complicate/delay BBVA's merger with PNC. Their entire whitelabel tech stack (Open Platform) is being shut down.
I understand liking modern-feeling apps, but am more than happy to put up with the slightly old-feeling credit union app because they are just such a better institution - no bullshit fees, actually happy employees, far better rates on credit cards/loans... There's just no comparison.
I do have a commercial bank account, too, but that's just for access to quicker interchange with other commercial banks, when that's handy.
My worry with most credit unions is that most of the ones commonly recommended have requirements for who can be a member, or are geographically tied. I'm unlikely to live in the same city for as long as I'd want to keep a bank account, and I'm not military or otherwise. Do you have a good recommendation for a CU that's more generally an option?
-1 to alliant. Had pretty bad experience signing up, they opened the account then closed them, had multiple errors in their website, support wasn't helpful at all.
That was a couple years ago, maybe i should try again
FYI: "Credit unions generally follow the principle of "once a member, always a member", which allows a member with a current credit union membership to remain a member even if they would otherwise no longer qualify to be such, such as leaving the company with whom they initially gained membership or moving outside the credit union's defined geographic area."
This is certainly true for the credit union I am a member of.
Moreover, credit unions seem to have good relationships with each other. I've never actually even seen a branch of the credit union I've been using for ten years in real life. But, if I need a notarization or to deposit a cheque, I can easily visit a branch of any credit union and they are usually happy to do it for me.
I've been hit with fines for my mistakes (transferring money out of the wrong account) but I've never paid them since they are always willing to remove them via a simple text chat. (I find text chats much easier than phone calls, too.)
The majority of credit unions share a vendor that handles a lot of their logistics for them. That's one of the reasons why they're so accommodating about certain inter-credit-union transactions. It's a value added service of a shared vendor, who just pushes some numbers around in a database.
Can add more anecdata. Joined a regional credit union, moved across the country.
I can use the ATMs of the regional credit union in the new area for free if I need an ATM, and my original credit union has been more than happy to facilitate everything else I need via phone and email. And the "phone" agents are literally just the same staff I'd be talking to at the branch I opened the account at, not some call centre, so there's no real need to go in to actually get customer service.
On top of that, the accounts are completely free. I pay $0/mo for a handful of accounts (one for general monthly bills, one linked to my debit card, another for savings, etc) with unlimited transactions/transfers/etc.
The _only_ thing I'm missing is the ability to deposit cash. Which has yet to be any sort of issue for me.
That's good to know. Obviously, with Simple, I was fine with not having a local branch, but I'd worry that signing up at a local CU and then moving, they'd just expect that I could come in to the local branch for things. I've had issues around that with my family even with larger banks, where they just assume that I can show up at a local branch to sign papers or such, and it's a big pain to get them to mail things, let alone let me transact online.
It's one thing to be online-only, it's another thing to have online, but expect everyone to live near a military base, or in a particular city.
Yeah, I've only got experience with one Credit Union so I could just have a particularly good one or something, but I imagine given that they _don't_ have branches everywhere probably requires them to invest a little more heavily in figuring out how to do things without people being there in person.
My wife's still with one of the "big banks" and more than a few times has been required to go in for basic signatures and stuff (not even for new services, just like "we updated this thing you need to come sign it"). Last time I did something major with my Credit Union was to get a loan from them, and it was shooting them an email, they called me up and we hashed out the details, then they sent me over an approval and a docusign link and I signed it and the money showed up in my account.
I wouldn't necessarily say that I can "transact online" as such (like, it's not like there's a "loan" flow on their website) but they're certainly capable of figuring out how to get things done without me being there in person. I can only imagine with so many staff going remote and people being more hesitant to go places this past year they've only gotten better at it.
Only downside over the years has been that there's never been (and never will be) any sort of integration with any of the budgeting/etc services like Mint. No company is really gonna invest the effort to pick up the 100,000 members my CU has.
I joined a CU in Utah in 2009 and have lived in California for a number of years. I've been able to get 2 car loans through them, a personal loan, and a credit card after being a non-resident of Utah. They've treated me well. The only thing I think people may have trouble with is home loans. I think those are pretty geographically tied.
I joined Navy Federal through a friend and am a member for life. Credit union employees are friendly people and put the humanity back into banking compared to Big Bank call center script readers in my experience.
I joined the NASA Federal Credit Union. I joined the National Space Society, which cost about $20 and then I was able to join the FCU. Then I cancelled my NSS membership. Not a bad signup cost, plus space is cool so I didn't mind paying $20 to the NSS. I think the NSS also sent me a couple magazines, so it wasn't just like a donation.
Maybe I've just had bad luck but it seems like the credit unions I've tried are coasting on a reputation that is no longer deserved. Every one I have tried has behaved pretty much the same as any bank, except with worse apps, worse online banking, and worse ATM and branch availability. I can believe that there are great credit unions in the world, but I can tell you first hand that you can't just pick any random credit union and feel assured that they will be better than a major bank. Some of them are just as bad.
Well, there are some nuances you're skating over here.
Remember that GMAC Bank (the direct banking company) and GMAC ResCap (the mortgage/real-estate company) were two different entities owned by the industrial loan company GMAC. GMAC Bank was spun off as Ally Bank. Ally Bank (until 2014) was not even in the mortgage business.
I can tell you that as an actual customer of (the now former) GMAC Bank, I didn't feel like I got short changed in any way. They had good interest rates, and I'm glad they survived through hook, crook, and some TARP money (which was ultimately paid back with interest).
Just my perspective, it doesn't affect me in any way who you bank with.
I started out on ING Direct as well, but I stuck with it through the Capital One transition. Overall I'm still happy with the checking/savings account features, no maintenance fees etc. The mobile app/website is pretty good. However the "desktop" website is annoying as it's just a scaled up version of the mobile one, but it still gets the jobs done. Unfortunately they've removed the ability to easily add multiple savings accounts for budgeting, or at least I can't find a way to do it. Luckily I still have the ones I created back in the ING days.
You can open multiple high performance savings account by going to the normal account application online. It has you login partway through the process and then adds it to your account
I started out on ING Direct and also liked the savings account feature. I created several saving accounts for when some website wants ACH routing information but I don't trust very much: I can put just enough in that account to cover the transaction I want covered.
I didn't realize that they god rid of the ability to add new ones. I guess I'll have to make do with the eight I have lol.
It still works, it just isn't as seamless as before. Now you have to go through the "open account" flow, and half-way through you'll get an option to login and join an existing account, after that it is a couple of clicks.
If you're a veteran or the child of a veteran, highly recommend USAA. Tech is fairly good (they had online deposit years before anyone else I was aware of) and the service is unbeatable.
Any US citizen can get a USAA checking account, and it's quite usable with a decent Android app and the ability to easily transfer money around from different banks. Some of their other services, like car loans, are only available to members of the military, though.
Unfortunately they stopped letting non-veterans get USAA checking accounts several years ago. I only found this out when I recommended it on HN last year.
My roommate is a USAA account holder. They are a bank that is willing to tell PayPal to pound sand when necessary, and they gain a ton of respect for that.
Unfortunately though, they have some kind of inane limitation on debit cards that don't let you have more than a certain number of pending transactions. And given that you generally won't know and never can control when a place that runs your card actually captures, it's led to some nasty surprises.
I also used ING Direct, and switched to Simple when it turned into Capital One. About three years ago, I switched from simple.com to ally.com, and it's been pretty great.
The GreenDot competitor to Simple, GoBank, launched around the same time as "the first digital / app based bank." It was corporate from the outset, but their partnership with WalMart seemed to reorient it into an internet based check cashing shop complete with cringeworthy "sweepstakes" offers for connecting your direct deposit. The product went downhill abruptly around that time, I still keep it around as an extra debit account so I get some ongoing visibility to the spiral. I have to call a special support number printed on my card, newer customers called the one on the website. The oft-promised chip supporting GoBank card still has not arrived for me, today, in 2020, despite their support promising me literally years ago it would be available in a month. It doesn't work with Apple Pay.
The app, which when they launched was one of the first decent bank apps, simply has disabled its most compelling features. You used to be able to peek your balance without signing in, the slider is still there but it doesn't do anything. Fortunately most other mainstream banks have great apps these days.
The app still lacks FaceID support. You can use FaceID only through the Apple autofill keyring.
And as I just Googled them to make this post, I see there will never be a chip card at all because GoBank doesn't offer a debit card anymore. Apparently GreenDot is powering payments at Uber and Apple Pay P2P now though, so good for them.
For what it's worth, Chase really stepped their design game up for mobile and responsive web. The weekly money insights report is a great summary of my overall banking activity. Check it out in the app store.
I believe they are also based on BBVA or something similar but they applied for a charter license[1] which I think would allow them to run without any underlying bank.
This is what it says at the bottom of their website:
> 5 The cash balance in SoFi Money cash management accounts is swept to one or more program banks where it earns a variable rate of interest and is eligible for FDIC insurance. FDIC Insurance does not immediately apply. Coverage begins when funds arrive at a program bank. There are currently six banks available to accept these deposits, making customers eligible for up to $1,500,000 of FDIC insurance (six banks, $250,000 per bank). If the number of available banks changes, or you elect not to use, and/or have existing assets at, one or more of the available banks, the actual amount could be lower. For more information on FDIC insurance coverage, please visit www.FDIC.gov. Customers are responsible for monitoring their total assets at each of the Program Banks to determine the extent of available FDIC insurance coverage in accordance with FDIC rules. The deposits in SoFi Money or at Program Banks are not covered by SIPC.
Moved my budgeting from Simple to YNAB a few years ago, but still sad to see Simple go. I was a big Simple proponent for a long time (even wrote some hacky automatic goal transfer software[0] before they introduced Expenses). Hopefully the employees can carry the great UX spirit of Simple to their next endeavors.
I use YNAB only for granular budgeting, not for big-picture or forecasting (for that I use personalcapital[0]).
At first I was skeptical of YNAB -- the idea of giving every dollar a job and tracking transactions down to the penny seemed hellish -- but I've since become a convert. I like having all bank account and card transactions in one place and having the budgeting decoupled from the institutions. The goal-setting features are great. And keeping a careful budget of all inflow and outflow has been pretty easy and makes it nice to set up lots of small budgeting buckets. After an initial setup, it feels like a machine that keeps my finances in order without too much intervention.
If you get into YNAB, also check out the toolkit[1], which gives some additional budget analysis and planning tools.
I've been using it for the past year. It's clean, snappy, easy to use, and has VERY powerful categorization for anyone with a programmers mindset.
I used mint but it was too much work to keep the categories up. I looked at YNAB but it seemed too overbearing. Lunchmoney has been a really refreshing tool for me.
It's also a solo developer's project, they make regular updates, and it's a clean business model of a simple monthly fee.
Even crazier, they seem to have un-sent the email? I got a notification that I had an email from Simple, but didn't check it immediately, and now it's completely gone from my email account. I've never seen that happen before.
Knew it was only a matter of time, and told their support on multiple occasions they had so much potential but there were simply to many fundamental issues they weren't addressing to get mass market appeal and be sustainable. I was one of the first customers, (early beta), and was absolutely thrilled to try it out back in 2011. It had a lot of shortcomings, but was hopefully it would iterate quickly, and was a beautiful modern interface compared to the horrible experience at the big banks (Which are still awful in comparison but a million times better now). There were so initial deal breaker issues, notably no support for written checks, no option to deposit checks in person (only mail), and very low mobile upload limits, slow transfers (no next day transfers for a fee like others offered), no joint checking, no business accounts, and countless other issues. The lack of checks and joint checking were major issues that while I dealt with, were things that prevented any non beta/technical friends and family from ever considering it. I'm someone who certainly very rarely writes checks so I was an ideal customer, alas when I did need to write checks... it was because I had to. Maybe you need to write a check for a service provided on the spot, buying a house at closing, among other scenarios. And for the the average person there are countless more use cases. Simple's approach was to avoid fees, and if they allow checks (other than mailed certified checks) then people could overdraft and thus need ability to charge fees, and the safe to use amount would be off. While I get that, if I over draft, I'm fine paying for it, and I understand if I write a check the safe to use would be less. Instead of dealing with those issues they just ignored them. There were times when needing to transfer money next day, and was not an option. Once again, when that need arrises it's because it's needed and thus completely fine paying for it accordingly. Support was amazing back in 2011 and 2012, but as they grew support become much worse since that level of support is hard to scale. Once again I was an ideal user in most ways, ad I HATED having to go to branches, and would much rather mobile deposit all checks and rarely ever used cash, but because of the very low deposit limits had to often mail in checks instead which was no good. If you don't have branches you have to have high mobile limits. Luckily other banks did offer such high limits. I spent so many years providing long emails with all the issues in detail as I wanted to see it grow and improve, and while over the years some of the issues were resolved, other deal breakers remained and then they got new ownership and still no big changes, so new it was only a matter of time until it would shut down.
I've been with Simple since it was invite-only, and used them actively since. Really disappointed. Probably going to switch to Cash App? It currently functions as a secondary fun-money account.
I've been looking at it, it seems they have a "Pocket" feature that lets you transfer funds into separate "pockets" but you can't automate your savings, the only option being "Auto-Save - turn on and off the ability to automatically save 3% of every paycheck."
The other option I'm seeing is SoFi Money, they have "Vaults" but I can't figure out if you can move money there automatically
Not a direct replacement but I used YNAB years ago when it was still a desktop app with one time purchase to own. It's still available with most of the functionalities (probably more) but as a website.
The app allows you to set up multiple budget accounts.
YNAB is too granular for me (having to categorize transactions, etc), I don't need money management help, I like the convenience of setting a goal and having money be automatically transferred in there.
I just started researching alternatives last night. Nerdwallet is a good resource. Ally bank seems like the closest online bank in terms of customer support/services. They lack the advanced budgeting tools though, it seems.
Simple has been on the decline for a long time, I remember before their acquisition, their support was great and slowly it declined. I think for a long time Simple has just been a nice UI and slowly fading away. This is the last lap for them.
I don't know how many Simple employees are in this thread. I'm very sad to hear this news, and I'm sure you were too. Just want you to know that you all made a really meaningful difference in the lives of at least my wife and I. Before I switched to Simple, I had a really hard time budgeting for things/planning for expenses, and was frequently toeing the line of overdrawing my account. I was essentially financially illiterate.
Simple made it incredibly easy for me to get my shit together and start being proactive with my money, so there was really no excuse to not do so. Now, my wife and I are well on our way to an early payoff on our mortgage (~18 years early), paying off our vehicle loans early (~2 years early), having a pretty good safety net in the bank, and being otherwise debt free.
So if you haven't heard it above the sadness of losing Simple: thank you. Seriously, thank you. You really did something great and you should all be proud of what you've accomplished.
I'd like to add to this. I used simple for a couple years back when it was first released, and it helped immensely in getting out of debt and on the right track. I've since moved on to other banks (at the time there were no joint accounts or savings, and I needed both), but I had friends reach out to me today in a panic because I'd recommend they use it over the years.
It was an excellent tool that absolutely improved my life and the lives of others I know personally.
They had a way to set money aside for goals. The money would be in your account but it would not show up in the available balance. So you could say, I want to buy this expensive thing, put in the amount you want to save towards it per month and the available balance would hide the money for you until you spent it.
That’s f’ing brilliant. Everyone is pretty good at stopping when out of money but if you can see it right there in a savings account the temptation to transfer can be strong.
This. 100%. The best I could do before switching to Simple was putting about half my paycheck in a savings account in another bank that I had no other accounts with and using that to pay my rent and maybe a few other bills. I was still always overdrawing my checking account at my main bank. I would occasionally have to go to the other bank, withdraw cash and drive over to the main bank to deposit it. Luckily, that bank didn't have any branches near where I worked, so I either had to wait 3 days for an online transfer or do my "shame banking" as my SO called it on my work from home day or Saturday morning. Simple's "Safe-to-Spend" is really a game changer for people like me.
Depending on your mortgage interest rate, have you considered continuing the 18 years and investing your extra cash in index funds? Market returns ~10% over 20 years, so if your mortgage is 6% or less it's in your best 'interest' to continue.
Yeah, even though that 10% is net tax 8.5% (vs. the full 6%) it seems like one could refinance it down in future. Still, I don't think most payment terms are flexible enough to make them an indefinite loan (go interest-only).
Depending upon their tax situation, the loan rate may be effectively a little lower due to the tax deduction too, though. And, tbh, 6% is a really high mortgage now. Rates below 3% are common.
Assume an inflation adjusted average return of 3% on your investment and a 20% long-term capital gains you end up with 2.4% return versus 0 to 1% for prepaying a mortgage.
You can. Only deduct (married) if you pay more than 10-15k of interest a year? Or am I missing something (itemized deductions is now at 20k limit or so).
Edit: and since you need to pay taxes on dividends in bank accounts, you would need something like 3.5-4% interest to match the gains from prepaying the mortgage at 2.75%?
This is good advice. A 30 year mortgage is like 2.8% right now, after taxes maybe 1.8%. The stock market over any 18 year time period (after taxes) will return higher than 1.8%. Adding to that, liquidity - having money in the bank provides flexibility, having equity in the house is nearly inflexible.
Assuming you itemize. For married couples, the standard exemption is $24k. Very few people well end up actually needing to itemize to deduct more than the standard exemption.
As an Australian that's dealt with the US bank/tax systems:
* Mortgages in the US traditionally are 30 year fixed rate.
* Mortgages are deductible from federal income tax up to a certain value
* People in the US have trouble understanding things that Australians are used to, like: variable rate mortgages, fixed/variable rate mortgages, redraw accounts, lines of credit mortgages, which all Aussie lenders offer.
On the other hand, as an Aussie I was confused by:
* People still writing cheques (checks). Like, really? On paper and stuff? Haven't written a cheque in Australia since 2000 and the only time I see it is the "CHQ" button on an EFTPOS.
* Contactless credit cards are only just a thing and people don't have PINs, they still stick their card in, or swipe (?!?) and sign.
* There's no such thing as EFTPOS which goes direct to your account, there are Visa/MC debit cards that work in the field like credit cards, but you can overdraw and get fees charged.
* Discounts for cash are still a thing because the CC charge isn't available. People get things like cash back on their spend, but then pay more for the card in the first place.
* Everyone worries about their credit score that changes in magical ways depending on different weird spending rules that have incentives for taking on debt but only in certain patterns that they won't tell you.
Financially this makes sense. But for me, I’m sitting in a house that’s paid off. If I lose my job (or have to quit for medical reasons) and I can’t get a new job, I’ve got shelter. I can live Indefinitely where I am right now just paying utilities and property tax. Granted there is the reality of things just break on houses and require $$$.
Maybe it isn’t the best strategy. But there’s a nice feeling to know that I’ll have my house even if something bad happens.
And by bad I mean less than societal collapse. All bets are off in that situation.
If you have the discipline to pay off a house you can easily create a stock portfolio. The only important advice is to stop staring at the charts for too long. If you are an investor you derive zero value from it. Your decision to sell should not be driven by the market. It should be driven by personal goals.
Totally agree. I was replying more about why I chose to pay off my house vs. sitting in a mortgage for X more years so that I can put more money into the market.
During the time I was paying off my house, I did put money into the market. I just prioritized money going towards the house. Now that the house is paid off, all that prior mortgage payment money is going into the market.
The market does not return 10% of 20 years, you may be referring to some period of U.S. returns, and many experts do not expect it to return so well over the next 20 years.
I've used Simple since they became available on Android. At the time I had an account with Wells Fargo, but it was just a nightmare. I was working minimum wage, more or less paycheck to paycheck. I had been burned several times by those predatory overdraft fees, and they had started to introduce minimum balance fees.
Switching to Simple was a breath of fresh air. I didn't have to worry about any of those fees anymore. I could look at their tiny list of possible fees and know what to expect rather than having to deal with the nightmare of poor information that I had before. They saved me so much money, and helped me get out of the paycheck-to-paycheck spiral.
Like you the budgeting feature have been incredibly powerful for me too. Being able to hide away money without risking an overdraft or declined payment was a game changer.
Now I find myself in a very unfortunate position where I'm not even in the states so I'm not sure how I'm going to manage a switch to somebody else.
I loved Simple for a long time -- I was one of the "beta" customers -- but I switched away from them over a year ago. I'd already been annoyed with them over something seemingly trivial; I go by my middle name and last name, not first and last, and want my credit/debit card to match that, reading "Middle Last". Everyone else allows me to do this and Simple did allow that... until we all had to migrate our accounts from Simple's original "banking partner" to BBVA. At that point they changed my name and refused to change it back after multiple go-rounds (which ended with a rep telling me "sure, we can do this, just fill this out," filling said thing out, and being told "we can't do that").
As with some other mentions here, though, it was killing the ability to have Simple send checks to payees that did it for me. I'd been waiting for years to have Simple be able to accept ebills (e.g., receive a bill from a creditor that specifies an amount to pay and paying that, rather than just paying a fixed amount every period), and they never did; instead they regressed.
But here's the thing: while I'd left Bank of America because Simple's app and design was so much better, I'd never closed my BoA account for the simple (ha!) reason that they could accept ebills and pay them out of my Simple account. This always left me with the niggling feeling that while Simple was better at technology and customer service, BoA was better at... well... banking. And when I checked out BoA after getting fed up with Simple, well, their app was still ugly and had bad UX design, but the functionality had mostly caught up with Simple. It even has goals built into it, if I want them. (I don't, and never cared about Simple's equivalent, so I can't compare the functionality.)
And while there are "bank things" I only do once in a blue moon -- deposit at an ATM, get a cashier's check -- it turns out it's nice to have a bank that, well, does those things. I know there are other banks (and credit unions) that do them, too, and I'm not suggesting BoA is particularly good (or bad) in this regard.
Simple was a promising idea, but I think they made a serious mistake by letting themselves be bought out by BBVA. And while I'd love to see someone else try again, I'm going to be a lot more reticent to move to a new bank just because it gives me a terrific mobile app experience next time around. Simple was a great technology company, but at the end of the day, I just don't think they were that great a bank.
There's a "Goals" section in my BoA app for my checking account which appears to let you set savings goals and target amounts. (I'll underline my "haven't tried it" disclaimer above, though! While I didn't use Simple's functionality for this, I recall it as being pretty well-designed, and design hasn't really been one of BoA's strengths...)
I'm in the exact same boat about my name. I have literally gotten up and left a physical bank when they refused to issue my debit card under "Middle Last" instead of "First Last". There's usually some BS about "the law requires that...", which prompts me to stop them mid-sentence and show them my AmEx and Visa that are titled "Middle Last".
No. Your setup may require me to go by an alias, but that's a quirk of your own shortsightedness and not a regulation.
I've had similar experiences with other institutions. The explanation boiled down to KYC policies and some relationship to newer DHS Real ID regulations.
So, what used to be allowed, is no longer. This might be true everywhere.
While I thought that might be the case, I got a credit card after this with my middle and last name. AFAIK, as long as the bank has both your true legal name on file and your preferred name on file, the card can be issued in your preferred name.
for whatever reason different names on credit cards slip through the regulatory cracks but the name linked to a bank account will not. the AML/KYC process is more regulated. frankly i think you are being a bit unreasonable given it's not like you actually changed your first name.
Same here. When the mail-a-check feature went away I switched back to the credit union. I still had that open because I couldn't set up a feature with simple.
Ya same here. The name issues, the killing of the ability to auto mail paper checks (bills), and seemingly over time extremely strict policies on everything from deposits, to addresses, Simple has already been going down hill for awhile.
Personally I have gone out of my way to submit polite and concise feedback, as I really wanted them to win. I used to be so happy here as a customer but inch by inch it had just become overwhelmingly unpleasant.
So over the last year I have slowly moved most of my banking to a competitor, and which as a whole is bigger and does have as smooth of a UX, but has been flawless with actual banking features. The support has made me feel like they actually want my business rather than being a nuisance to them.
It was good while it was good simple, I imagine running a bank is not easy, best of luck to everyone that was a part of it in their next venture.
They made a $117 million exit when they sold to BBVA so maybe that was the time to jump ship cause they were no longer a start up and had to play by their new big bank owner's rules.
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[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 344 ms ] threadI'm sorry you have to see your work go like this. Best of luck to you!
Great job on Simple. I am so, so sorry to see you go.
I'm also dying to know who you think your best competitor in UX is, because they're who I want to transfer my money to. I wouldn't have dreamed of asking if y'all were staying open.
Having such a great user experience took some of the edge off. Grateful it was there for me.
The APR on their savings account is generally either the best or among the best available, and the small handful of times I've had to call their customer support, they've been a pleasure.
It wasn’t the removal of the facility itself that caused me to leave.
It was the utterly disingenuous statement from the CEO explaining the removal.
They got a lot of pushback on this, and ultimately the CEO wrote a defensive followup which was slightly more honest, but confirmed his original disingenuity.
If Simple had sold itself as a normal bank this would have been business as usual. Not good but not unexpected.
However their original sales pitch was all about how they were going to be more honest.
It’s worth noting that this happened soon after they were acquired by BBVA and had a new CEO.
I very much appreciated the straight talk at every level from their corporate communications to their support agents.
I don’t think it’s fair to be cynical about them in a more general sense.
It’s just a classic problem with the model of acquisitions, and a misaligned new CEO.
At least in other areas -- like say, solar energy or battery charging, the startup would have be left us with something had a tangible mark on society. Here, I don't see any of that. No lasting impact. No changed narrative.
I agree that this is essentially a failure.
However, for many years they provided exactly the service they said they were going to provide.
As for ‘the exit is the point’. Maybe for those who controlled the stock, but definitely not for everyone involved.
And even for the founders, do you think this was the exit they planned on? I very much doubt that.
The end result is a bad one, but I don’t think you’ve made a case for being cynical in some broader sense.
Acquired by BBVA a few years back, and clearly not 'worth it' to them.
[I only used their checking and savings features. I never used eBills, paper checks, etc, which some people weren't happy about. Certain companies also could not transfer money from the Simple checking account, like Robin Hood. However, I still kept the account open because for my limited needs (debit card and savings), the app was great and so was service.]
I bank with Charles Schwab, which is very low cost in terms of fees, but I’m sure they make money by using my money in all sorts of trading shenanigans. (I feel somewhat guilty for contributing to the financialization of everything, but…no ATM fees, anywhere!)
It's mildly depressing to be reminded once again that the dream of startup founders these days isn't to build something, but to sell something... specifically to a bigger company. Which will inevitably delete the thing, once it serves its use. Which is to provide presence in some kind of defensive strategy.
I'm not sure what to use as my primary financial institution now. I have an account with my local credit union, but their app is mediocre. Simple's high quality app was the main reason I used Simple. I really just want an institution + app representation of such, that provides a 21st century experience.
Then again, we're all sitting here reading on the minimal UI of Hacker News, so...
I find the Chase credit card interface to be pretty reasonable, but then again, I'm not logging into it every day.
Still broken. Still no word from them.
And there's the issue about financial software. A couple of years ago they stopped supporting what Moneydance uses. Basically, Cap One only supports Quicken. I would rather cut off my nose than use Quicken. I moved all my accounts to other banks after Moneydance stopped working. Problem is, my SO still has accounts there and the notification issue is a real problem, as she was not notified of fraudulent transactions due to their new bug.
https://support.youneedabudget.com/t/p8h6814/a-real-capitalo...
I get an email for every debit transaction on my account. I've had to update my inbox filters a couple time because they change the email they send it from, but it's been pretty reliable ever since I set it up maybe three or four years ago.
How do I close old savings accounts in Capital One 360?
I used to have my savings split between several buckets, and now I just keep it all in one savings account, but I have four savings accounts with $0 in them because near as I can tell you aren't allowed to close them.
And then I thought, hmm, glad this happened before I had opened an account.
Most importantly, they do this (as well as priority mailing replacement cards) globally. I have yet to find another bank besides possibly Fidelity's checking account (?) that does this with no stated limit. It's invaluable for those who travel abroad to have access to local currencies with no hassles and a refund of all fees.
Plus the foreign ATM fee refunds and no foreign transaction fees. It's amazing.
The banks that do that, usually also have the worse investing options (e.g. Schwab, HSBC...)
No, actually that is pretty rare. Getting unlimited domestic and international ATM fees reimbursed is not the norm.
> specially after you are over an amount in account
But that's just the point you're missing. Schwab does it at $0, not $1,000,000.
> Usually also have the worse investing options
Eh? Are we talking about the same company here? Schwab has an enormous array of investing options, given that their main business is that of a brokerage.
> HSBC
Also eh? When did HSBC become remotely competitive in the brokerage space? (And isn't HSBC winding down their US operations?)
I’ve since moved everything to Fidelity and it’s probably the best option.
Their software could be better, but it’s good enough and the other options are worse.
https://frugalprofessor.com/best-credit-card-rewards-strateg...
However maybe you have a model in mind that doesn’t result in control ending up in the hands of the government.
If so, I’m curious!
What has changed over the last 20 years in the US is how much more expensive / difficult it has been for a company to go public. A lot of that is a result in 'consumer protections' that came into place after the .com bust and the financial crisis, but as with every short sighted government regulation, it has unintended consequences.
I do have a commercial bank account, too, but that's just for access to quicker interchange with other commercial banks, when that's handy.
That was a couple years ago, maybe i should try again
This is certainly true for the credit union I am a member of.
I've been hit with fines for my mistakes (transferring money out of the wrong account) but I've never paid them since they are always willing to remove them via a simple text chat. (I find text chats much easier than phone calls, too.)
I can use the ATMs of the regional credit union in the new area for free if I need an ATM, and my original credit union has been more than happy to facilitate everything else I need via phone and email. And the "phone" agents are literally just the same staff I'd be talking to at the branch I opened the account at, not some call centre, so there's no real need to go in to actually get customer service.
On top of that, the accounts are completely free. I pay $0/mo for a handful of accounts (one for general monthly bills, one linked to my debit card, another for savings, etc) with unlimited transactions/transfers/etc.
The _only_ thing I'm missing is the ability to deposit cash. Which has yet to be any sort of issue for me.
It's one thing to be online-only, it's another thing to have online, but expect everyone to live near a military base, or in a particular city.
I suppose I'll just bring it up when I apply!
My wife's still with one of the "big banks" and more than a few times has been required to go in for basic signatures and stuff (not even for new services, just like "we updated this thing you need to come sign it"). Last time I did something major with my Credit Union was to get a loan from them, and it was shooting them an email, they called me up and we hashed out the details, then they sent me over an approval and a docusign link and I signed it and the money showed up in my account.
I wouldn't necessarily say that I can "transact online" as such (like, it's not like there's a "loan" flow on their website) but they're certainly capable of figuring out how to get things done without me being there in person. I can only imagine with so many staff going remote and people being more hesitant to go places this past year they've only gotten better at it.
Only downside over the years has been that there's never been (and never will be) any sort of integration with any of the budgeting/etc services like Mint. No company is really gonna invest the effort to pick up the 100,000 members my CU has.
https://ally.com/
Remember that GMAC Bank (the direct banking company) and GMAC ResCap (the mortgage/real-estate company) were two different entities owned by the industrial loan company GMAC. GMAC Bank was spun off as Ally Bank. Ally Bank (until 2014) was not even in the mortgage business.
I can tell you that as an actual customer of (the now former) GMAC Bank, I didn't feel like I got short changed in any way. They had good interest rates, and I'm glad they survived through hook, crook, and some TARP money (which was ultimately paid back with interest).
Just my perspective, it doesn't affect me in any way who you bank with.
I didn't realize that they god rid of the ability to add new ones. I guess I'll have to make do with the eight I have lol.
Unfortunately though, they have some kind of inane limitation on debit cards that don't let you have more than a certain number of pending transactions. And given that you generally won't know and never can control when a place that runs your card actually captures, it's led to some nasty surprises.
The app, which when they launched was one of the first decent bank apps, simply has disabled its most compelling features. You used to be able to peek your balance without signing in, the slider is still there but it doesn't do anything. Fortunately most other mainstream banks have great apps these days.
The app still lacks FaceID support. You can use FaceID only through the Apple autofill keyring.
And as I just Googled them to make this post, I see there will never be a chip card at all because GoBank doesn't offer a debit card anymore. Apparently GreenDot is powering payments at Uber and Apple Pay P2P now though, so good for them.
Any commercial software based service like this needs to be a contract with consumer society.
Felt like the first time a banking app was modern, and even my BoA and Discover apps are woefully behind Simple to this day.
I doubt BBVA will provide a good replacement sadly.
This is what it says at the bottom of their website:
> 5 The cash balance in SoFi Money cash management accounts is swept to one or more program banks where it earns a variable rate of interest and is eligible for FDIC insurance. FDIC Insurance does not immediately apply. Coverage begins when funds arrive at a program bank. There are currently six banks available to accept these deposits, making customers eligible for up to $1,500,000 of FDIC insurance (six banks, $250,000 per bank). If the number of available banks changes, or you elect not to use, and/or have existing assets at, one or more of the available banks, the actual amount could be lower. For more information on FDIC insurance coverage, please visit www.FDIC.gov. Customers are responsible for monitoring their total assets at each of the Program Banks to determine the extent of available FDIC insurance coverage in accordance with FDIC rules. The deposits in SoFi Money or at Program Banks are not covered by SIPC.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sofi-bank-charter/fintech...
https://www.sofi.com/money/security-and-protection/
https://twitter.com/sofi/status/1110706933692981248
[0] https://github.com/bi1yeu/simple-autogoals
At first I was skeptical of YNAB -- the idea of giving every dollar a job and tracking transactions down to the penny seemed hellish -- but I've since become a convert. I like having all bank account and card transactions in one place and having the budgeting decoupled from the institutions. The goal-setting features are great. And keeping a careful budget of all inflow and outflow has been pretty easy and makes it nice to set up lots of small budgeting buckets. After an initial setup, it feels like a machine that keeps my finances in order without too much intervention.
If you get into YNAB, also check out the toolkit[1], which gives some additional budget analysis and planning tools.
[0] https://pcap.rocks/matt1688 (includes my referral code)
[1] https://www.toolkitforynab.com/
I've been using it for the past year. It's clean, snappy, easy to use, and has VERY powerful categorization for anyone with a programmers mindset.
I used mint but it was too much work to keep the categories up. I looked at YNAB but it seemed too overbearing. Lunchmoney has been a really refreshing tool for me.
It's also a solo developer's project, they make regular updates, and it's a clean business model of a simple monthly fee.
If you use someone's referral link you get an extra free month after their trial. Here's mine: https://lunchmoney.app/?refer=kvy5xf49
Messaging was almost exactly the same as Simple's email.
1. https://www.onefinance.com/
The other option I'm seeing is SoFi Money, they have "Vaults" but I can't figure out if you can move money there automatically
The app allows you to set up multiple budget accounts.
Edit: link https://www.youneedabudget.com/
You can view a backup of the original thread below (will take a few seconds to load).
https://www.removeddit.com/r/SimpleBanking/comments/ksize0/s...
Edit: Here is another article with the same information:
https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/01/07/simple-bank-is-shut...
https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2021/01/simple-por...
Simple made it incredibly easy for me to get my shit together and start being proactive with my money, so there was really no excuse to not do so. Now, my wife and I are well on our way to an early payoff on our mortgage (~18 years early), paying off our vehicle loans early (~2 years early), having a pretty good safety net in the bank, and being otherwise debt free.
So if you haven't heard it above the sadness of losing Simple: thank you. Seriously, thank you. You really did something great and you should all be proud of what you've accomplished.
It was an excellent tool that absolutely improved my life and the lives of others I know personally.
Well done.
Edit: and since you need to pay taxes on dividends in bank accounts, you would need something like 3.5-4% interest to match the gains from prepaying the mortgage at 2.75%?
But ignore the interest deduction. Even if you got a 4% return and paid long term capital gains you’d be ahead.
* Mortgages in the US traditionally are 30 year fixed rate.
* Mortgages are deductible from federal income tax up to a certain value
* People in the US have trouble understanding things that Australians are used to, like: variable rate mortgages, fixed/variable rate mortgages, redraw accounts, lines of credit mortgages, which all Aussie lenders offer.
On the other hand, as an Aussie I was confused by:
* People still writing cheques (checks). Like, really? On paper and stuff? Haven't written a cheque in Australia since 2000 and the only time I see it is the "CHQ" button on an EFTPOS.
* Contactless credit cards are only just a thing and people don't have PINs, they still stick their card in, or swipe (?!?) and sign.
* There's no such thing as EFTPOS which goes direct to your account, there are Visa/MC debit cards that work in the field like credit cards, but you can overdraw and get fees charged.
* Discounts for cash are still a thing because the CC charge isn't available. People get things like cash back on their spend, but then pay more for the card in the first place.
* Everyone worries about their credit score that changes in magical ways depending on different weird spending rules that have incentives for taking on debt but only in certain patterns that they won't tell you.
Maybe it isn’t the best strategy. But there’s a nice feeling to know that I’ll have my house even if something bad happens.
And by bad I mean less than societal collapse. All bets are off in that situation.
During the time I was paying off my house, I did put money into the market. I just prioritized money going towards the house. Now that the house is paid off, all that prior mortgage payment money is going into the market.
Switching to Simple was a breath of fresh air. I didn't have to worry about any of those fees anymore. I could look at their tiny list of possible fees and know what to expect rather than having to deal with the nightmare of poor information that I had before. They saved me so much money, and helped me get out of the paycheck-to-paycheck spiral.
Like you the budgeting feature have been incredibly powerful for me too. Being able to hide away money without risking an overdraft or declined payment was a game changer.
Now I find myself in a very unfortunate position where I'm not even in the states so I'm not sure how I'm going to manage a switch to somebody else.
As with some other mentions here, though, it was killing the ability to have Simple send checks to payees that did it for me. I'd been waiting for years to have Simple be able to accept ebills (e.g., receive a bill from a creditor that specifies an amount to pay and paying that, rather than just paying a fixed amount every period), and they never did; instead they regressed.
But here's the thing: while I'd left Bank of America because Simple's app and design was so much better, I'd never closed my BoA account for the simple (ha!) reason that they could accept ebills and pay them out of my Simple account. This always left me with the niggling feeling that while Simple was better at technology and customer service, BoA was better at... well... banking. And when I checked out BoA after getting fed up with Simple, well, their app was still ugly and had bad UX design, but the functionality had mostly caught up with Simple. It even has goals built into it, if I want them. (I don't, and never cared about Simple's equivalent, so I can't compare the functionality.)
And while there are "bank things" I only do once in a blue moon -- deposit at an ATM, get a cashier's check -- it turns out it's nice to have a bank that, well, does those things. I know there are other banks (and credit unions) that do them, too, and I'm not suggesting BoA is particularly good (or bad) in this regard.
Simple was a promising idea, but I think they made a serious mistake by letting themselves be bought out by BBVA. And while I'd love to see someone else try again, I'm going to be a lot more reticent to move to a new bank just because it gives me a terrific mobile app experience next time around. Simple was a great technology company, but at the end of the day, I just don't think they were that great a bank.
https://www.bankofamerica.com/online-banking/mobile-and-onli...
No. Your setup may require me to go by an alias, but that's a quirk of your own shortsightedness and not a regulation.
I've had similar experiences with other institutions. The explanation boiled down to KYC policies and some relationship to newer DHS Real ID regulations.
So, what used to be allowed, is no longer. This might be true everywhere.
Personally I have gone out of my way to submit polite and concise feedback, as I really wanted them to win. I used to be so happy here as a customer but inch by inch it had just become overwhelmingly unpleasant.
So over the last year I have slowly moved most of my banking to a competitor, and which as a whole is bigger and does have as smooth of a UX, but has been flawless with actual banking features. The support has made me feel like they actually want my business rather than being a nuisance to them.
It was good while it was good simple, I imagine running a bank is not easy, best of luck to everyone that was a part of it in their next venture.