Even crazier, they seem to have un-sent the email? I got a notification that I had an email from Simple, but didn't check it immediately, and now it's completely gone from my email account. I've never seen that happen before.
Simple Bank Is Closing
31–40 of 615 posts
Re: Simple Bank Is Closing
#32Knew it was only a matter of time, and told their support on multiple occasions they had so much potential but there were simply to many fundamental issues they weren't addressing to get mass market appeal and be sustainable. I was one of the first customers, (early beta), and was absolutely thrilled to try it out back in 2011. It had a lot of shortcomings, but was hopefully it would iterate quickly, and was a beautiful modern interface compared to the horrible experience at the big banks (Which are still awful in comparison but a million times better now). There were so initial deal breaker issues, notably no support for written checks, no option to deposit checks in person (only mail), and very low mobile upload limits, slow transfers (no next day transfers for a fee like others offered), no joint checking, no business accounts, and countless other issues. The lack of checks and joint checking were major issues that while I dealt with, were things that prevented any non beta/technical friends and family from ever considering it. I'm someone who certainly very rarely writes checks so I was an ideal customer, alas when I did need to write checks... it was because I had to. Maybe you need to write a check for a service provided on the spot, buying a house at closing, among other scenarios. And for the the average person there are countless more use cases. Simple's approach was to avoid fees, and if they allow checks (other than mailed certified checks) then people could overdraft and thus need ability to charge fees, and the safe to use amount would be off. While I get that, if I over draft, I'm fine paying for it, and I understand if I write a check the safe to use would be less. Instead of dealing with those issues they just ignored them. There were times when needing to transfer money next day, and was not an option. Once again, when that need arrises it's because it's needed and thus completely fine paying for it accordingly. Support was amazing back in 2011 and 2012, but as they grew support become much worse since that level of support is hard to scale. Once again I was an ideal user in most ways, ad I HATED having to go to branches, and would much rather mobile deposit all checks and rarely ever used cash, but because of the very low deposit limits had to often mail in checks instead which was no good. If you don't have branches you have to have high mobile limits. Luckily other banks did offer such high limits. I spent so many years providing long emails with all the issues in detail as I wanted to see it grow and improve, and while over the years some of the issues were resolved, other deal breakers remained and then they got new ownership and still no big changes, so new it was only a matter of time until it would shut down.
Re: Simple Bank Is Closing
#33I've been with Simple since it was invite-only, and used them actively since. Really disappointed. Probably going to switch to Cash App? It currently functions as a secondary fun-money account.
Re: Simple Bank Is Closing
#34I've been a Simple customer since launch, and have used it as my primary bank since ING Direct was turned into Capital One. It's mildly depressing to be reminded once again that the dream of startup founders these days isn't to build something, but to sell something... specifically to a bigger company. Which will inevitably delete the thing, once it serves its use. Which is to provide presence in some kind of defensi…
I also used simple and saw the writing on the wall a few years ago.
I’ve since moved everything to Fidelity and it’s probably the best option.
Their software could be better, but it’s good enough and the other options are worse.
Re: Simple Bank Is Closing
#35Interestingly, my wife and I both have separate Simple accounts. I haven't gotten the email, but my wife has.
Re: Simple Bank Is Closing
#36Moved my budgeting from Simple to YNAB a few years ago, but still sad to see Simple go. I was a big Simple proponent for a long time (even wrote some hacky automatic goal transfer software[0] before they introduced Expenses). Hopefully the employees can carry the great UX spirit of Simple to their next endeavors. [0] https://github.com/bi1yeu/simple-autogoals
What's your experience with YNAB? I use Mint for balances and USAA's forecasting tool to see the future, but I'm not terribly happy with either.
Re: Simple Bank Is Closing
#37I hope they don't do the same with Azlo, because that would suck a lot.
Re: Simple Bank Is Closing
#38I've been a Simple customer since launch, and have used it as my primary bank since ING Direct was turned into Capital One. It's mildly depressing to be reminded once again that the dream of startup founders these days isn't to build something, but to sell something... specifically to a bigger company. Which will inevitably delete the thing, once it serves its use. Which is to provide presence in some kind of defensi…
I'd suggest Bank of America if you have more than $100k in stocks or index funds that you can move to Merrill. That qualifies you for free ATM refunds, and gives you access to unlimited 2.6% cash back on all credit card purchases.
https://frugalprofessor.com/best-credit-card-rewards-strateg...
Re: Simple Bank Is Closing
#39any speculation on why it failed? i was fairly optimistic on Simple a year or two ago and then they fell off the map
I don’t know a lot about bank economics, but it’s not clear to me how they would have made much money. Interest rates are basically 0%, and they didn’t charge much in the way of fees.
I bank with Charles Schwab, which is very low cost in terms of fees, but I’m sure they make money by using my money in all sorts of trading shenanigans. (I feel somewhat guilty for contributing to the financialization of everything, but…no ATM fees, anywhere!)
Re: Simple Bank Is Closing
#40I've been a Simple customer since launch, and have used it as my primary bank since ING Direct was turned into Capital One. It's mildly depressing to be reminded once again that the dream of startup founders these days isn't to build something, but to sell something... specifically to a bigger company. Which will inevitably delete the thing, once it serves its use. Which is to provide presence in some kind of defensi…
Former C1 employee: I would give Capital One another shot. Their tech and apps are best in class and and built in-house. They also contribute to the open source community (or did).
Their website for credit cards is my favorite of any I've tried. My least favorite by far was Chase when I had the Amazon-linked card.