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Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

al3x.net

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Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#131

Post by hoggle »

sanswork wrote: post #125
al3x wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi Max, I understand where you're coming from. The simplest answer is: if you don't want to bank with us, then don't. We don't imagine that we'll replace every bank ever. There are plenty of traditional banks that may be going bust left and right, but hey, you're free to do business with them. A more complicated answer is that BankSimple will have the backing of established, traditional financial entities who are ful…

This is a horrible response that doesn't exactly help you build trust or market your new banking product. It starts with a disingenuous comment and it barely addresses the most basic of concerns(FDIC) and does so in a snarky and somewhat rude manner. I would think you would have learned how to handle criticism and concern for a product of yours a lot better than this working at Twitter.

I read it as trying to be honest which in my book is always a good basis for a potential paradigm shift.

Financial world desperately needs to be fixed anyhow - I am happy to hear about folks who accept that challenge.

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#132

Post by dkasper »

rythie wrote: post #101

It would be cool if bills appeared in an inbox on your online bank account so you could review and pay it in one click. Also, you would have the full details of what you bought in the history of your account. Also a graph and projection of your bank balance would be neat. Actually, an API for a bank would be really cool.

It would be cool if bills appeared in an inbox on your online bank account so you could review and pay it in one click

A lot of banks have some sort of bill pay feature. I have a feature that is exactly like this in my Schwab account including being able to view the bills to see what's on them and pay in one click.

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#133

Post by davidmurphy »

nreece wrote: post #128
al3x wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll get there. Running lean right now.

For the nature of business service you are going to offer, a reliable online presence is not an option - it's a requisite.

give em some time, guys.

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#134

Post by luckystrike »

sanswork wrote: post #125
al3x wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi Max, I understand where you're coming from. The simplest answer is: if you don't want to bank with us, then don't. We don't imagine that we'll replace every bank ever. There are plenty of traditional banks that may be going bust left and right, but hey, you're free to do business with them. A more complicated answer is that BankSimple will have the backing of established, traditional financial entities who are ful…

This is a horrible response that doesn't exactly help you build trust or market your new banking product. It starts with a disingenuous comment and it barely addresses the most basic of concerns(FDIC) and does so in a snarky and somewhat rude manner. I would think you would have learned how to handle criticism and concern for a product of yours a lot better than this working at Twitter.

IMO, the response was right on the money (no pun intended).

My first thought when I read maxklein's comment was that he is perhaps saying it half in jest. But in case he was serious, I don't think one can just deride a person/organization based on stereotypes. (Hey you programmer of some web application, what do you know about banking, where's your suit and your MBA, you'll do a shoddy job for sure ... etc)

Let's see what they come up with and critique/praise them on what they actually do, rather than carrying prejudices.

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#135

Post by billpaetzke »

WesleyJohnson wrote: post #130
billpaetzke wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ING Direct (ingdirect.com) is an amazing online-only bank that has virtually no fees. They've got amazing customer service. And they have the best bank web user interface I've ever dealt with. BankSimple will need to differentiate themselves from ING Direct somehow. edit: Why the downvotes? I use ING Direct as my main bank. I love it. BankSimple will need to differentiate themselves from ING Direct to win me over. ed…

When I first signed up, their savings accounts were yielding 3% interest, which seemed great considering no minimum balance and no withdrawal fees. With the dip in the economy, they're just barely hovering over 1% now. Even still, if you compare that with the two other banks I've dealt with (5/3 and Chase), they don't really have anything that comes close unless you have massive balances or you want to tie up your mo…

HSBC Direct is an online-only bank that offers slightly better rates than ING Direct. In fact, their rates are possibly the best (and ING the 2nd best).

The downside to HSBC, is that their web interface and operations of business are antiquated. While I have an online checking and savings account with them, I really only use the savings account. I just can't bring myself to deal with them because the user experience of ING Direct is so much better. For example, if you want to transfer money from checking to savings (or vice-versa), with ING it's instantaneous; but with HSBC you have to wait a business day! Ridiculous, I say.

HSBC is great if you're traveling/living in east Asia. I traveled through nine countries in Southeast Asia last year and never paid an ATM fee. Their ATMs are all over, and they're also partnered with many other Asian banks.

If you live in the USA (like me) I'd say keep your 6-to-12-month cash reserve in HSBC. And do your day-to-day banking and short-term savings with ING Direct.

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#137

Post by axod »

Lewisham wrote: post #91
axod wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "Banking does suck." FWIW, This may be true in the US, but certainly isn't a worldwide phenomenon. For example, UK banks pretty much work really well. Seeing US banking in comparison is like using a time machine to go back to the 1950s.

This has been my experience too. For my American friends: all "checking" in the UK is free. All ATM use for normal ATMs (those you find at banks, not the shady ones at the convenience store) are free, even if that bank isn't yours. This is obviously only a day-to-day thing, but I think most people have expressed feelings of ambivalence about banking in the comments here: it's somewhere to store money. In the general…

Also bank transfers, direct debits (Paying bills automatically) etc, online banking, are all free and work really pretty well. Typically a bank transfer will be in the recipients account within a few hours if it's to a different bank, or within less than that if it's the same bank.

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#138

Post by davidw »

al3x wrote: post #122
davidw wrote: post #4

We've had the bank discussion here before, and some of it seems to come down to the fact that banks are required to do a lot of regulatory stuff that is not 'simple'.

There are regulatory challenges, but the other two BankSimple guys (the real brains) have figured out a ton. I'm confident we can do some cool stuff.

Best of luck then, I don't think anyone's not rooting for you here.

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#139

Post by petercooper »

megablast wrote: post #116
petercooper wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mother-in-law thinks that shopping online is crazy because she thinks people can steal her credit card number from over the wires too easily and because you don't know if you're using a "real" shop.

She is correct. It is a real skill to be able to detect the dodgy websites from the real ones. There are lots of fake ebays out there as well. Sure, you and I can tell from the domain name, lack of SSL cert, spelling mistakes, or such, but so many people can not. Your mother in law sounds smart enough to realise that she can not tell the difference. A rare commodity these days.

Trusting guarantees is a day-to-day part of life. The majority of people have no idea how a bank works but they still use them! The same argument goes for e-commerce. People should trust their credit agreements and ability to judge situations.

If everyone were as "smart" as you say by refusing to interact with processes they don't understand, e-commerce would be dead in the water. It's not thriving thanks to the <1% of us who know how it works in detail :-)

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#140

Post by sanswork »

luckystrike wrote: post #134
sanswork wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a horrible response that doesn't exactly help you build trust or market your new banking product. It starts with a disingenuous comment and it barely addresses the most basic of concerns(FDIC) and does so in a snarky and somewhat rude manner. I would think you would have learned how to handle criticism and concern for a product of yours a lot better than this working at Twitter.

IMO, the response was right on the money (no pun intended). My first thought when I read maxklein's comment was that he is perhaps saying it half in jest. But in case he was serious, I don't think one can just deride a person/organization based on stereotypes. (Hey you programmer of some web application, what do you know about banking, where's your suit and your MBA, you'll do a shoddy job for sure ... etc) Let's see…

Being sarcastic or dismissive of concerns isn't the way to deal with that type of criticism which was my point. Not that maxkleins criticism was valid or well based that said however, saying "yeah look how the existing banks" have done doesn't tell us anything about how you plan to better that and doesn't really say much at all since for the most part and most of the time the traditional banks do really well.

He didn't actually give any information on what their plan entails that would remove doubts. They've said their money comes from two places loans and cuts from credit card fees. While what if they have a bad run with their loans/investments(like big banker banks) or not enough people use there credit cards? That makes them just as vulnerable as the existing banks so saying existing banks don't work doesn't tell us why you will.

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