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

191–200 of 295 posts

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#191

Post by navyrain »

al3x wrote: post #30
buro9 wrote: post #16

I'm not sure I understand the proposition now. Who is the relationship with? As in... who has my money? I read it as them hiding that from you for simplicity... you get this one interface and customer service which is wonderful, but to achieve this they are the proxy to your bank? So... do they set up the bank accounts, or do you? Do you have the ability to go straight to your bank, or does Simple preclude that abili…

Hi, cofounder of Simple here. We work with partner banks who hold on to deposits. For all intents and purposes, you never have to think about who that partner bank is, but if you ever need to contact them directly, you'll know where your funds are. You might find our FAQ informative: https://www.simple.com/faq/ .

Love where you're going with this; however, the trust level is just not high enough for me to move my funds from a credit union (becu.org for me) to your partner bank. Now if you could partner with them, or a similar credit union, that would be amazing.

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#192

Post by maaku »

ynniv wrote: post #111
maaku wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"a lot like a prepaid card" doesn't answer the question. In what ways is it like a prepaid card? In what ways is it not? As the OP asked, where does the money actually go? It's a concern that you couldn't really answer the question.

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.

If I am to be giving my money to anyone for safekeeping, I better be damned sure I understand the financial and legal details. Are the FDIC-insured accounts in (Bank)Simple's name? What happens if they go under? Can the creditors of Simple use those deposits to recoup their investment?

Now do you see the problem?

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#193

Post by maaku »

Game_Ender wrote: post #158
maaku wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

What happens to the deposits if Simple (the company) goes under?

EDIT: Yes, I know they are FDIC-insured. But inside accounts setup by Simple. Are those accounts also in Simple's name, or jointly setup? What could potentially happen then during the lawful unwinding of the company?

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#194

Post by i2pi »

corin_ wrote: post #177
al3x wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will receive interest. In fact, we automatically move your money around behind the scenes so you earn as much interest as possible. I don't know when we'll start publishing our interest rates, but we have some additional info about interest rates on our FAQ: https://www.simple.com/faq/

Hi Alex - in a previous comment you said: > When you get your Simple card, it'll say "issued by {Bank Name}" on the back. How does that fit around moving money around behind the scenes? Will each customer's money be limited to a single bank, and moved around between account types? Will all Simple's customers be using one bank that you have partnered with? If not, could one Simple account actually have its funds store…

Great question. Josh, CEO of Simple, here.

The way it works is the card gets linked to an account on signup. This account is a non-interest bearing card account. When you deposit funds, we place those funds in other accounts. The other accounts are determined by what products we have available from our partner banks, and your historic usage patterns.

For example, if you start spending less, we'll move more of your money into an interest bearing account so that you can benefit from your financial restraint.

As you spend money, we (in real time) move funds to the card account from your other accounts to cover the cost of anything you buy using the card.

As our portfolio of financial products grow, we'll continually rebalance your money across these products to maximize your return.

This system automates what most people try to achieve, but banks make difficult to do: namely, earn as much interest on money you have and pay as little interest on money you borrow.

We do this because it is the right thing to do for our customers & quite easy for a computer to manage. Other banks don't do this because they earn significant revenue when people make mistakes in managing their money. We have none of those punitive fees, so our interests are aligned with our users.

(PS: I'm in London right now. What's up with English Bacon??)

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#195

Post by brendn »

botker wrote: post #150
tadfisher wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Colloquially, they're "B of A".

That's true in the Bay Area at least, but not necessarily everywhere. Back when I was their customer I recall visiting NYC, and asking several random strangers if they knew where I could find a "B of A", and none of them knew what I was talking about, until I clarified, "Bank of America".

I'm a New Yorker and I know what you mean by "B of A," as do many of the people I know. I think we're both dealing with small anecdotal data sets here, though.

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#196

Post by corin_ »

i2pi wrote: post #194
corin_ wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi Alex - in a previous comment you said: > When you get your Simple card, it'll say "issued by {Bank Name}" on the back. How does that fit around moving money around behind the scenes? Will each customer's money be limited to a single bank, and moved around between account types? Will all Simple's customers be using one bank that you have partnered with? If not, could one Simple account actually have its funds store…

Great question. Josh, CEO of Simple, here. The way it works is the card gets linked to an account on signup. This account is a non-interest bearing card account. When you deposit funds, we place those funds in other accounts. The other accounts are determined by what products we have available from our partner banks, and your historic usage patterns. For example, if you start spending less, we'll move more of your mo…

Let's say I'm a customer and I don't have a huge pile of savings - maybe I'm earning $2500/month and the total cash I own at any one time is between $7500 and $10,000.

My usage patterns might suggest that every month I spend around $2200, so you could leave that on the card and play around with say $7k. What happens if I then want to go out and, in a single transaction, spend more than $3k. Do you let me go technically "overdrawn" without charging me a fee and instantly move money in from elsewhere to replace it? Or do I have to inform Simple in advance of spending that much? Or do people without enough money to give plenty of buffer just not get their money moved around as much?

Thanks for your answers - and what's wrong with our bacon, it's amazing! How long are you over here for?

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#198

Post by AznHisoka »

ynniv wrote: post #154
AznHisoka wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 others have echoed, I just want to know how this really works. Part of the problem of "disruption" is that it creates confusion and breaks the usual pattern of doing things. Noone will sign up for your service if it's just 1 huge black box that is completely foreign and new to them. You will need to educate how it all works... I mean, I still don't know what you guys do, or are.. You're not really a bank, Ok.. that's a start.

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#199

Post by thwest »

al3x wrote: post #32
cynicalkane wrote: post #3

I thought BankSimple was a great brand, because it tells you what it is and fits well with the current zeitgeist. What is "BankSimple?" A way to bank that's simple. Sounds interesting! Everyone hates how complicated banking is, right? Let's go to the website to find out more. What is "Simple?" Who knows. A website that has something to do with banking--or so I'm told--with yet another web 2.0 one-word "brand", a real…

The "Bank" in "BankSimple" was problematic for us. We're technically not a bank. We also don't want to be associated with the way people have approached banking, particularly in the US. Sorry you're not crazy about the new name, but we're happy with it. It gives us a lot of room to grow.

Oh but I wish you were a bank or credit union. How my deposits are used is something we should be able to negotiate about.

Re: BankSimple invites first customers; rebrands itself as Simple

#200

Post by i2pi »

corin_ wrote: post #196
i2pi wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great question. Josh, CEO of Simple, here. The way it works is the card gets linked to an account on signup. This account is a non-interest bearing card account. When you deposit funds, we place those funds in other accounts. The other accounts are determined by what products we have available from our partner banks, and your historic usage patterns. For example, if you start spending less, we'll move more of your mo…

Let's say I'm a customer and I don't have a huge pile of savings - maybe I'm earning $2500/month and the total cash I own at any one time is between $7500 and $10,000. My usage patterns might suggest that every month I spend around $2200, so you could leave that on the card and play around with say $7k. What happens if I then want to go out and, in a single transaction, spend more than $3k. Do you let me go technical…

If you spend more money than what we have placed on the card account, but you have available funds at other accounts we manage, we'll automatically move over the money to cover the cost of your transaction. No fee. Real time.

We don't have the notion of 'overdraft'. Instead, we set up a special savings goal for each customer called an Emergency Fund. We automatically start saving a small amount each day towards the Emergency Fund. So, you might have $1,000 in your account and $500 in your Emergency Fund. If you then went to a store and spent $1,200, we would draw $1,000 from your Safe-to-Spend and an additional $200 from your Emergency Fund. Again, no overdraft fee. In fact, instead of paying a fee and then paying interest on the overdraft, you will be earning interest on any money in your Emergency Fund. A small tweak on how overdrafts typically work, but a huge bonus for customers.

I'm just here for the day. I came to town to speak at The Economist's banking conference. Flying back tomorrow to celebrate the launch with our team.

Post reply on HN