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Simple Bank Is Closing

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Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#331

Post by tadfisher »

blaines wrote: post #298

Thanks to the countless folks that built a customer focused bank. It's really sad to see Simple wind down, and it's been the best bank I've had the chance to use. Their service has been unmatched compared even to the best local banks in my area. I've been a customer for nearly a decade now - wow. Early on I exchanged emails with Josh and the team not just regarding banking matters, but reporting bugs, design issues,…

FYI, not a single one of those (awesome) people have been here for years. I'm technically employee #2 at this point.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#332

Post by tadfisher »

orange_tee wrote: post #43
uses wrote: 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…

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.

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.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#333

Post by fb42 »

frankus wrote: post #316
fb42 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the main difference between Simple and YNAB? I’m a YNAB user but have never used Simple. You say that you can’t see the extra value of mvelopes (and I assume YNAB) but if you don’t have Simple then why is YNAB not good enough?

I'm not familiar with how YNAB ingests transaction data, but I seem to remember when I looked at it last that at least some transactions have to be logged manually. If you used Simple pretty much exclusively you wouldn't have to manually enter any transactions, although you might occasionally have to categorize things. The obvious exception would be cash transactions, which I don't believe Simple ever tracked in any…

It’s all automatic. You do have to approve and categorize transactions though. But the import is automatic if you’re using a major bank.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#334

Post by brink »

jurassic wrote: post #291

Simple had some good ideas, but I eventually moved on to more "grown up" banking solutions. What caused me to leave was the inability to write paper checks, which I only needed once or twice a year but is a useful and reasonable-to-expect feature in a "checking" account. Going to a web form and requesting they mail a check on my behalf wasn't an adequate replacement for my needs... scenarios like money in a Christmas…

Funny how I see people complaining about a lack of checkbooks, and people complaining about a lack of mailing checks features in the same thread. Seems like no matter what you do, people will be there to complain about it.

But they started mailing out checkbooks about 2 years ago. I have one sitting in my desk.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#335

Post by cactus2093 »

BeetleB wrote: post #325
cactus2093 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don't get how it's different in practice than something like the budget feature in Mint? Basically it's pre-allocating the money instead of just watching what you spend and bucketing it as you go. But unless it's actually going to overdraft the account or decline your card somehow when a bucket is empty instead of taking it from the total amount, those are equivalent.

Does the Mint budget feature include rollover for money not spent?

I think so, but I leave it off to try and start from a clean slate and save a the leftover instead if possible. But you can also change the dates of charges, so you can move stuff to next month or the previous month if there was room left over which I find convenient for spreading out big purchases.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#336

Post by aidenn0 »

timgilbert wrote: post #317
jdpedrie wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#337

Post by 4d66ba06 »

drewpc wrote: post #224

I'm a Simple customer and incredibly upset by this decision. For those not familiar with their value add, Simple is essentially "envelope budgeting" built into a banking application. Sure, it's a bank and does bank things. What sets Simple apart is that I can allocate $n/month for an expense and it takes it out of my paycheck and puts it into that expense "envelope". When a charge comes in for that expense, it pulls…

Check out Qube Money, they seem early stage but functioning. Once you sign up you can request to be in their Facebook beta testers group which is active.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#339

Post by therealrootuser »

bigie35 wrote: post #18
uses wrote: 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).

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.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#340

Post by ska »

BeetleB wrote: post #326
ska wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure you want your bank to do this, because there is no easy aggregate view if you have multiple banks and/or other accounts to track. I have I think 6 currently with no way to merge (curse of bouncing between countries). Gnucash is as baroque as you say, but the only one of your options above that actually works and solves this problem (aggregate view) reasonably, of course that can't help you with things…

I haven't used GnuCash in many years, but when I did, it did not support envelope budgeting.

Not out of the box, but easy enough to set up whatever scheme you would like. You can set up virtual asset accounts, or you can constrain things with liability accounts, etc.
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