Simple ATM cards being declined • Hacker News Board

Re: Simple ATM cards being declined

#11

Post by AngryParsley » Tue, Jan 01, 2013, 2:09 AM UTC

It looks like this started around Jan 1 00:00:00 UTC 2013.

I wonder if it's related to the leap second bug discovered in July. Apparently, a some popular NTP servers incorrectly sent out leap seconds at midnight. Even if it's not that specific issue, I bet the root cause is a time-keeping bug.

Re: Simple ATM cards being declined

#12

Post by jellicle » Tue, Jan 01, 2013, 2:09 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #4

[deleted]

You may recall them from their previous, and much much much better name, BankSimple. There have been a number of stories.

Re: Simple ATM cards being declined

#13

Post by swalsh » Tue, Jan 01, 2013, 2:10 AM UTC

whalesalad wrote: post #2

Uhh. This is quite catastrophic actually. Not being able to access your funds at all really blows.

90% of the time I wouldn't notice, but on NYE theres a significantly higher chance i'm at an ATM looking for some cash.

Re: Simple ATM cards being declined

#14

Post by barredo » Tue, Jan 01, 2013, 2:11 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #4

[deleted]

Simple (altough not as much as other money-related startups like Stripe or Square -hum... what's with the "S"?-) has been on HN several times, most of them through Al3x/Alex Payne, their former CTO (http://al3x.net/2012/07/25/moving-on.html) and co-founder: http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=al3...

Re: Simple ATM cards being declined

#15

Post by gonehome » Tue, Jan 01, 2013, 2:13 AM UTC

I was hit with this, but like I'd imagine every other simple user just pulled out a credit card. I figured it was some issue with Subway's card reader on University, guess it wasn't.

Re: Simple ATM cards being declined

#16

Post by nullrouted » Tue, Jan 01, 2013, 2:21 AM UTC

barredo wrote: post #7

I'm just curious: who is their transaction partner?

http://www.thebancorp.com/about/ is their partner bank so I'm guessing the issue is there.

Re: Simple ATM cards being declined

#17

Post by ConstantineXVI » Tue, Jan 01, 2013, 2:25 AM UTC

hosay123 wrote: post #5

Ordinarily I might consider this worth a loss in reputation, but given the uniquely one-sided battle that is trying to cause any disruption in the banking industry, I'd be willing to cut these guys some slack. In this area the enemy has big guns

I wouldn't cut them any slack. I can't say my bank cards have ever gone down. Totally losing access to your customer's money doesn't help your reputation at all, "disruptor" or not.

EDIT: "The Bancorp Bank", the bank Simple farms out the actual banking to, has been around since 2000[0]. Simple _might_ have an excuse for screwing up like this if this was all their own system, but an established bank doesn't.

[0] http://www.thebancorp.com/about/

Re: Simple ATM cards being declined

#18

Post by josephagoss » Tue, Jan 01, 2013, 2:41 AM UTC

It looks like they are trying to do good, however Banking is not like Google or Amazon cloud. Whilst the odd downtime happens with these technology companies, people forgive and move on, but banking really is different.

If my bank went down losing access to my money, I would be naked, I don't always have cash and money is our oxygen is this society, a absolute essential. Hopefully the downtime for Simple will be short, but if they had 100 million people using them as their main bank and this happened, you could expect mass exodus the next day.

The only time I have lost access to my money was a few years ago when VISA or MASTERCARD went down (or both), with them you don't have a choice and everyone lost access to their money, but if ever just one bank went down it wouldn't turn out good at all.

Re: Simple ATM cards being declined

#19

Post by natrius » Tue, Jan 01, 2013, 2:41 AM UTC

jellicle wrote: post #12

[deleted] wrote: post #4

[deleted]

You may recall them from their previous, and much much much better name, BankSimple. There have been a number of stories.

Having the word "bank" in your name means you have to meet all the legal requirements to be a bank. Simple is not a bank.

Re: Simple ATM cards being declined

#20

Post by w1ntermute » Tue, Jan 01, 2013, 2:42 AM UTC

dmix wrote: post #3

whalesalad wrote: post #2

Uhh. This is quite catastrophic actually. Not being able to access your funds at all really blows.

Running a bank is like being a cop, the stakes are high for fucking up.

The difference being that banks are (relatively) open to free market forces, while the police is not.