Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Simple Bank Is Closing

oregonlive.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 615 posts

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#481

Post by bwbmr »

iends wrote: post #385
sizzle wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

would love if you shared how it changed your life, I'm always skeptical about these types of things that I end up abandoning after a short time. thanks!

Not parent, but my wife and I have been using YNAB for over 5 years, even before they moved to a web app. It’s changed our lives: - We never fight about money because we have already planned for the next month together. - We each get equal amount of no questions asked personal money that the other person cannot criticize how it’s spent. - When we first started using YNAB we realized we were living off credit card flo…

Do you each have a YNAB account, or share one?

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#482

Post by jsemrau »

_dark_matter_ wrote: post #419
cshift wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mint on the other hand is totally useless. That's hyperbole. Having a bird's eye view of every single account, transaction, investments, net worth, etc. is "totally useless"? No. I use Mint and it works quite well for keeping an eye on your financial life at a glance. I don't need some micro-managey software like YNAB (that I'd have to pay for monthly!) to continually increase my wealth and keep debt in check - her…

Do you have a family, or at least entagled budgeting with a significant other? Either one of those makes this workflow almost impossible.

>Invest 20% into

Seems rather difficult with family.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#483

Post by monsieurbanana »

eat_veggies wrote: post #357
monsieurbanana wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I miss monzo so much :( I moved out of the UK and sadly never found a real alternative. I had a simple workflow that made me happy: I had two budgets, one for fixed spenses such as rent and phone, another for everything else (food, taxi, entertainment, whatever). I'd divide my "everything else" budget by 30 and tell monzo to move everyday that amount into the credit card account. So basically... A daily budget. It wa…

I think Monzo is making moves to expand into the US. There's a waitlist (you might be bumped up if you were a UK customer?). I got one but didn't end up using it very often.

I'm in Singapore, probably faster to wait for an asian neo-bank to appear than for Monzo to get here

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#484

Post by shafyy »

goleary wrote: post #401
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…

Does Stripe treasury actually enable people to build independent banks? My understanding was that it was a way of enabling companies to offer bank like functionality to their existing users. For instance Uber could give drivers an "Uber" bank account. Not that you could build your own bank on top of it...but perhaps I'm mistaken.

No, you're right, you can't build your B2C "bank" on it. Other services exist for that (e.g. https://www.solarisbank.com)

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#485

Post by spotman »

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #86

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 fr…

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.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#486

Post by lotsofpulp »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #388
joppy wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be because I’m Australian or perhaps I’m just unfamiliar with mortgages - how does tax affect the effective loan rate?

Mortgage interest on your primary residence is tax deductible.

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.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#487

Post by blaines »

tadfisher wrote: post #331
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.

Absolutely, but these folks are the one's I'm applauding as it was their work that was the foundation for the next nearly ten years.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#488

Post by stingraycharles »

czechdeveloper wrote: post #474
kfriede wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was forced to ditch Simple after their ridiculous application policies wouldn't allow my spouse to create an account for us to have a joint account. Since doing so, I've signed up for YouNeedABudget (YNAB) [1], and couldn't be happier. Simple was a great service and I'm sad it is calling quits, but I've outgrown it. [1] https://www.youneedabudget.com/

They used to have pay-once app. Now you have to pay $12 a month and you are stuck in ecosystem that has your data and require payments forever. That is too steep, especially outside of USA. I'll kill my first unnecessary expense by not buying it.

I’m actually still using the pay-once app. There are hardly any functional changes between that app and the new web-based app.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#489

Post by gonehome »

cshift wrote: post #296
gonehome wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YNAB is excellent - its design forces people to budget properly. It also lets you track all expenses and let’s you keep lifestyle inflation in check. I’ve found it well worth it (and I’m pretty responsible financially). Mint on the other hand is totally useless.

> Mint on the other hand is totally useless. That's hyperbole. Having a bird's eye view of every single account, transaction, investments, net worth, etc. is "totally useless"? No. I use Mint and it works quite well for keeping an eye on your financial life at a glance. I don't need some micro-managey software like YNAB (that I'd have to pay for monthly!) to continually increase my wealth and keep debt in check - her…

> "Don't buy stupid nonsense."

That bit is doing a lot of work. Seeing 'bird's eye view' is useless because it has no real effect on behavior after the fact, the feedback loop is too long and disconnected. Also - Mint's software is itself bad and intermixed with the ads it's just hard to figure out what's going on.

How much do you spend on food? How much on groceries? A gift you forgot to plan?

YNAB let's you get a real intuitive understanding for all of this, you know explicitly where every dollar is going and you do it in real time per transaction.

It gives you a lot of power.

Do you need it? No. You've got the basics down with 401k max, monthly savings, Roth IRA, etc. That's awesome.

Could you benefit from it? Almost certainly yes. I'd bet if you used it seriously (even just the 30 day trial) you could trivially double the amount you're saving per month in liquid savings.

One reason I like it a lot is the exactness of it gives me complete confidence I could control my burn rate to any number necessary, good for FI.

It's marketed to people who need help getting out of debt, but it's also good for people with high savings rates and high income. It frees you to allocate large amounts of money to index funds, or stock market bets without worrying about how much you need in your account for auto-pay expenses.

Its yearly subscription cost is effectively negative.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#490

Post by mtzet »

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…

What additional benifit does moving money around provide?

From my perspective, there is not much difference between money moving around in the banking system vs moving around on your budget sheet, except the banking system might charge overdraft fees if the accounts are mismanaged.

Based on that reasoning I've taken the approach to only have as many bank accounts as I need to utilize their services, and to interact with them as little as nessecary.

Post reply on HN