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Simple Bank Is Closing

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Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#551

Post by dkarp »

baby wrote: post #275
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…

Two things: - Monzo and Revolut are better products - they discriminate against permanent residents who are not citizens (you can’t use their service) So from my point of view: heh

To elaborate, Monzo has this envelope feature by allowing you to create "pots" and then set "Pay from this pot" for any recurring payments. I have separate pots for rent/bills/car. It also has a "Salary sorter" that will split your salary into the pots when you get paid (you just have to approve it).

None of that is available in the USA yet, but something to look out for if there isn't currently a US alternative.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#552

Post by [deleted] »

_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.

[deleted]

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#553

Post by linsomniac »

gdsdfe wrote: post #271
remir wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple of days ago, I opened a YNAB account to test it out and had the same reasoning: why can't my bank do all of that envelope budgeting stuff?

there's no money for them in doing that, they want you to borrow money (via credit card or other) and pay them back hopefully with interest that's how they make money

I always thought the money was in the float for them. The more money they convince you not to spend and just hold onto in your account, the more float they have to make money off.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#554

Post by Something1234 »

linsomniac wrote: post #549

One of the big things I'm going to miss is: No overdraft fees. Simple is one of the only banks that doesn't do overdrafts. If you try to use your debit card and have no money, it fails. If you try to send a payment, or a autopay tries to withdraw, and you don't have the money, it fails. Looking at replacement options, I've kind of honed in on Alliant Credit Union and PNC. PNC was close in the running because of their…

Schwab has no overdraft fees if you have one of their brokerage accounts. All you incur all margin fees and those are really low like ($0.50 was the most I've been hit with).

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#555

Post by Jommi »

EpicEng wrote: post #329
Jommi wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're getting 0.3% APY, which is pretty useless. I would instead try some of the banks that promise you higher APY rn. There are some offering 2-3%

No one is offerring 2%-3% when the fed rate is at zero. You're about a year behind relity.

Really dissapointed in HN nowadays. Downvoted to hell and people telling me im wrong without doing any of their own research.

Maybe you could edit your comment now that multiple other commenters have shown that you're wrong? There are multiple companies offering 2-3% rn.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#556

Post by njarboe »

amaccuish wrote: post #512
njarboe wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't understand giving your banking credentials to a third party. Will your bank even cover fraudulent withdraws if you give your login info to Mint?

My Sparkasse app (Germany) lets me add other bank accounts and the credentials are stored only in the app. I think there's an EU directive forcing banks to have an open API, which makes it work. Much better than screenscraping. Is there any such trend in the US?

Giving someone read-only access makes more sense. Even better is like what you mention, a program you run, but open source.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#557

Post by hankthecat »

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #360
quesera wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> being told "we can't do that" 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.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#558

Post by AlwaysRock »

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…

I believe Ally does this same thing?

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#559

Post by Arubis »

I am a customer of Azlo, Simple, and BBVA.

Azlo has been consistently pretty good for my main business account; the only mixup I've had with them was entirely because BBVA is actually their underlying bank.

Simple was excellent while they were my primary account; I got married before they offered joint accounts, and so migrated away.

BBVA has been consistently awful to work with as a business bank. Unable to get online access working for a corporate account, I was stuck calling them every month to manually pay a line of credit or get dinged for a late payment. Their service reps are friendly, but unempowered to do much. All this for a side business--it hasn't been worth the effort. I really don't want to spend the time and effort migrating accounts _again_ but will do so if the conclusion of Azlo closing is to just drop us all into BBVA's system.

The best I can say for BBVA is that they're less bad to work with than BoA and Wells Fargo.

On the personal banking side, Schwab has treated me extremely well for years; I have no complaints. They feel like the Amex of bank accounts.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#560

Post by exabrial »

Simple was good, but they missed a couple of things... First, 2FA. FFS, I don't know who on Hacker News needs to hear this, but _I REALLY DONT want my identity or money secured by my cell number_. I'm incredibly tired of required SMS "2FA", and one of the major reasons I left Simple was their refusal to implement U2F or even TOTP. I'm really hoping there's regulation on this at the federal level soon because it's getting out of hand.

Second, their App never really caught up with the budgeting offerings of Mint. And finally, the Billpay integration never caught up with Ally Bank, which is what I ended up switching to. Ebills should be able to be delivered and paid straight from your bank account in 2020. Simple never unfortunately managed to get this integration.

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