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

BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

simple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 295 posts

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#151

Post by al3x »

middayc wrote: post #125

looks good, but I'm not sure if necessary very-good-modern-design == simple ? not trying to be down on you, just asking about it now because when I make stuff for others I don't have this corellation and to me the simplest thing is many times command-line.

Hi, cofounder of Simple here.

This is a good point.

We think there's a difference between "simple" and "stark" or "minimalist". Our goal is to create an experience that's inviting, explorable, and clear. That doesn't necessarily mean doing away with all visual ornamentation.

Sure, plain text is "simple", but iconography, texture, and other design elements can contribute to that ideal as well. Thanks for your thoughts!

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#152

Post by bdonlan »

jarek wrote: post #96
al3x wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, cofounder of Simple here. It's extremely unlikely that we'd ever partner with an institution like BofA. We chose bank partners who are comfortable with our vision, and that includes not charging outrageous fees and engaging in other customer-hostile practices. The big banks have shown time and again that they're not in business to act in the best interest of their customers, and that makes them poor partners for…

Stating this in terms this harsh makes me extremely curious as to who your bank partners are.

They mentioned them on their previous site's blog (http://www.simple.com/blog/Simple/partners-funding/) - The Bancorp Bank and CBW bank.

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#153

Post by xradionut »

Unfortunately they need to make their web site cross-browser functional. Doesn't function well in IE8.

I still have no idea why I would need their service. My current financial institutions provide awesome service without cryptic bs. Consumer banking and small business banking is simple to the moderately educated.

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#154

Post by ynniv »

AznHisoka wrote: post #132
ynniv wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that you are wrong that this is a concern. HN is not a financial forum, and you are asking for technical details that are irrelevant to the discussion. Simple's statement is that your money is in a third party bank, and Simple promises to be a prudent intermediary.

To defend the parent, I'm also concerned :)

Maybe you could provide more detail? Simple appears to be very transparent in what service they provide and where they make their money. I said that HN is not a financial forum not because we aren't curious, but because we aren't informed. It's rather like customers fervently demanding to know which web framework you built your photo sharing website on, because "there was that thing that went bad that time before and like lots of people lost some data". Would it comfort this customer to know that you are using django? Or rails? It's foolish to provide any answer, because at such a high level there are no wrong answers. It's important to be concerned about your money, but let's be reasonable in the technical questions that we demand answers to. As Simple handles money, they are already heavily regulated and bonded, and if anyone doesn't get their money back, it won't be depositors.

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#155

Post by al3x »

phi1618 wrote: post #115

Interesting concept, but I'm skeptical how successful it can be. Banks are trying to get more money out of customers, in large part, to compensate for the costs of cyber-theft. Banks would rather reimburse your stolen money and recapture it through xyz fee, than lose your confidence. Simple does nothing to solve the bigger issue of our insecure networks. From what I've seen, they're no different from any other compan…

Hi, cofounder of Simple here.

Do you have data on banks increasing fees to combat the expense of "cyber-theft"? That's a new one to me. Banks have mostly been raising fees because new legislation in the US has cut into their interchange revenue. Plus, the cost of building and maintaining physical branches remains high, and foot traffic to those branches is decreasing.

I'm not sure what you mean by "physical collateral", but we do take steps above and beyond what many banks offer to make our systems and our customers more secure. We're offering multi-factor authentication, and we participate in rigorous internal and third-party security audits.

In some ways, our partner-based model improves our security stance. Our systems never touch sensitive data like customer debit card numbers.

I appreciate your concerns about security. Please understand that it's a top priority for us.

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#156

Post by antoncohen »

What if I need to bank in-person? I know it seems odd these days, one example is if you need a lot of cash. I hit my maximum daily ATM withdrawal limit last week, it was extremely annoying. I happen to have accounts at two banks, so I used my other account to get around it. I used to exclusively use online banking (E*TRADE Bank). Not being able to go to a bank in-person, for things like cash or money orders, become a real problem. I switched to normal retail banking.

How would I handle these issues with Simple?

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#157

Post by ynniv »

scott_s wrote: post #149
ynniv wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that you are wrong that this is a concern. HN is not a financial forum, and you are asking for technical details that are irrelevant to the discussion. Simple's statement is that your money is in a third party bank, and Simple promises to be a prudent intermediary.

Huh? Since when have technical details of any kind not been relevant to a discussion on HN?

Relevant, always. But demanded? We don't always demand to know important details regarding open source NoSQL databases, and that's our area of expertise. Just suggesting that outrage isn't appropriate in this situation.

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#158

Post by Game_Ender »

maaku wrote: post #102
qeorge wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it: Banking is a commodity product. Other than access to ATMs, customer service, and online banking there's not much difference between banks (other than rates & fees, of course). Same goes for the customers, honestly. If the bank doesn't extend you credit anyway, its a "your money is green" situation. Yet the marketplace is still inefficient, and they think they can make money by making it efficient.…

There are strict rules that govern how banks operate. As bad as that relationship may have gotten recently, there are some basic legally enforced assurances that I can take for granted in how banks will respond to requests about my money. If Simple is a middleman to this transaction, I no longer have those legal protections. That doesn't sound very great to me.

Do you have some concrete examples?

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#159

Post by kr1shna »

Joeri wrote: post #129
kr1shna wrote: post #55

How soon can we something like this in Europe?

The banking market in europe is not as unified. Simple would have to approach europe country by country. For example, retail banking in italy is nearly ten times as expensive as in the netherlands. There's a study by the EU on this topic: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/rights/docs/study_bank_fees_en...

It is a horrible mess here, which is a great service like Mint.com can't be provided either.

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#160

Post by Game_Ender »

sector wrote: post #99
al3x wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, cofounder of Simple here. You call us if you have a problem or question. We'll let you know what bank your funds reside at, but you should never need to contact them. We have our own in-house customer relations staff.

Okay, so let's take a real situation that happened to me: an ATM debited my account $600, but only dispensed $300. In that situation, I call you, and what happens from there? Thank you for taking the time to answer some of our questions on what is surely a busy day.

According to a video on their site they don't add additional fees for out of network ATMs only forward the fee that ATM charges.
Post reply on HN