Simple Bank Is Closing • Hacker News Board

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#41

Post by e40 » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 6:58 PM UTC

bigie35 wrote: post #18

uses wrote: post #16

I'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).

I beg to differ. Notifications for transactions stopped working. As I always do when things like this happen, I went to twitter and tweeted at them. They claim it works, yet replies on twitter beg to differ. They support people point me to a document that shows UI elements which have been removed.

Still broken. Still no word from them.

And there's the issue about financial software. A couple of years ago they stopped supporting what Moneydance uses. Basically, Cap One only supports Quicken. I would rather cut off my nose than use Quicken. I moved all my accounts to other banks after Moneydance stopped working. Problem is, my SO still has accounts there and the notification issue is a real problem, as she was not notified of fraudulent transactions due to their new bug.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#42

Post by piva00 » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 6:59 PM UTC

swyx wrote: post #12

any speculation on why it failed? i was fairly optimistic on Simple a year or two ago and then they fell off the map

Maybe a murder by acquisition from BBVA?

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#43

Post by orange_tee » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 7:00 PM UTC

uses wrote: post #16

I'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 cannot blame the founders. They worked hard and risked a lot and were successful so they want to cash out. Here's a radical idea. Maybe if countries care so much about keeping markets competitive, they could buy out late-stage startups to allow them to keep operating independently.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#44

Post by deaddodo » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 7:00 PM UTC

udfalkso wrote: post #24

zepto wrote: post #7

I used and was happy with Simple from the very beginning, right up to the point they removed the check sending facility. It wasn’t the removal of the facility itself that caused me to leave. It was the utterly disingenuous statement from the CEO explaining the removal. They got a lot of pushback on this, and ultimately the CEO wrote a defensive followup which was slightly more honest, but confirmed his original disin…

What did you switch to after that?

I switched to Chime.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#45

Post by hammeiam » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 7:02 PM UTC

wronglebowski wrote: post #36

mbil wrote: post #28

Moved 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.

YNAB is excellent. They have auto-importing, auto-categorization, geotagging transactions with the mobile app, and cool community-led addons (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/toolkit-for-ynab/l...)

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#46

Post by olegious » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 7:03 PM UTC

Any alternatives that offer a similar Goals and Expenses feature?

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#47

Post by bigie35 » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 7:03 PM UTC

e40 wrote: post #41

bigie35 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

I beg to differ. Notifications for transactions stopped working. As I always do when things like this happen, I went to twitter and tweeted at them. They claim it works, yet replies on twitter beg to differ. They support people point me to a document that shows UI elements which have been removed. Still broken. Still no word from them. And there's the issue about financial software. A couple of years ago they stopped…

That's seems like a customer support issue and not software related but it's definitely frustrating. I use YNAB and their integration with C1 has been great so maybe push on Moneydance as to why that integration is no longer an option.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#48

Post by _jal » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 7:05 PM UTC

uses wrote: post #16

I'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 understand liking modern-feeling apps, but am more than happy to put up with the slightly old-feeling credit union app because they are just such a better institution - no bullshit fees, actually happy employees, far better rates on credit cards/loans... There's just no comparison.

I do have a commercial bank account, too, but that's just for access to quicker interchange with other commercial banks, when that's handy.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#49

Post by PascLeRasc » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 7:06 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #23

uses wrote: post #16

I'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…

Consider Fidelity’s cash management account. Great mobile UX, great financial product.

Can you speak a bit more about this? I actually have a Fidelity cash account open but I have no idea how to access it. I’m open to it though if I’m just missing something.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#50

Post by mikey_p » Thu, Jan 07, 2021, 7:06 PM UTC

bigie35 wrote: post #18

uses wrote: post #16

I'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).

I've been really pleased with Capital One overall. The only thing that I wish could be resolved is that it can't be synced with You Need a Budget automatically.