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Simple Bank Is Closing

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Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#11
post #9

Can someone explain what Simple was so I might understand the significance of their closure?

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.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#14
post #9

Can someone explain what Simple was so I might understand the significance of their closure?

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.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#15
post #9

Can someone explain what Simple was so I might understand the significance of their closure?

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.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#16
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.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#17

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.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#18
post #16

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 defensi…

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).

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#19
post #3

ouch...the one bank with a really nice user facing app...hoping to hear more details

I've been working on the app for almost 8 years. This means a lot to me. Thank you.

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!

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#20
post #4

Is there something that’s reasonably close to Simple as a replacement?

Ally Bank is nice. It doesn't have the same panache as a silicon valley startup app, but it is 100% online and a good experience generally.
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