Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Simple Bank Is Closing

oregonlive.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

451–460 of 615 posts

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#451

Post by owenversteeg »

newbie789 wrote: post #447

I've been a Simple customer for awhile and it's kind of a bummer and kind of a hassle that this is happening. I became a customer many years ago while I was homeless and due to a string of incredibly bad luck and wildly poor decision making, I had been unable to open a checking account at any major bank. For whatever reason they gave me one. Not having to walk 3+ miles to pick up cash from a Wells Fargo spot and havi…

Not sure if you still have those marks on your record preventing you from opening a checking account, but basically all of the online banks do not check records to open an account (as of today.) So even with wrecked credit, a bad ChexSystems/EWS report etc, you can still get an account.

Perhaps this might also be useful for anyone reading this who is in a similar situation today.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#452

Post by owenversteeg »

asciimike wrote: post #396
formercoder wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who's offering 2-3%?

IIRC, Yotta Savings ( https://www.withyotta.com/ ) is in this range. HN did the math on Yotta a few months back: - founder's comments (claims ~3%): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23786893 - the math (~3.4%): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23781247 Note that it's likely to go down to get in line with other HYSAs over time (and it's fairly easy for them to change the winning probabilities to hit any interes…

The APY on Yotta has already decreased, it's currently around 1.6%.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#453

Post by owenversteeg »

mrspandex wrote: post #349
drewpc wrote: post #224

I'm a Simple customer and incredibly upset by this decision. For those not familiar with their value add, Simple is essentially "envelope budgeting" built into a banking application. Sure, it's a bank and does bank things. What sets Simple apart is that I can allocate $n/month for an expense and it takes it out of my paycheck and puts it into that expense "envelope". When a charge comes in for that expense, it pulls…

I recommend PNC's Virtual Wallet actually. It's not quite as nice as what you're describing here, but the main interface is a calendar which shows upcoming bill payments, scheduled ACH transfers, checks you've written, and your paycheck. It uses that to calculate a free balance before your next paycheck. It also has tools to schedule automatic transfers between accounts (checking/spend, reserve, and savings). Their l…

I've tried PNC, it is an absolute disaster in terms of website, app, fees, timeliness, etc. I have absolutely no idea why anyone would open an account with them.

What I had heard was that they had excellent customer support, but then they accidentally locked up my entire checking account for weeks and claimed they couldn't do anything, I just had to wait - until I literally contacted the CEO. I have, of course, since closed my account there.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#455

Post by cko »

alexhutcheson wrote: post #310
vinay427 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they refund ATM withdrawal fees Most importantly, they do this (as well as priority mailing replacement cards) globally. I have yet to find another bank besides possibly Fidelity's checking account (?) that does this with no stated limit. It's invaluable for those who travel abroad to have access to local currencies with no hassles and a refund of all fees.

I managed to get my Schwab debit card eaten by ATMs twice in one trip once, and Schwab was able to quickly Fedex replacement cards to addresses I provided in Thailand and Hong Kong. It stopped my trip from turning into a big headache - I was really impressed.

In my case I lost my ATM card in mid sized city in Romania and they UPS or FedExed it over really quickly.

Plus the foreign ATM fee refunds and no foreign transaction fees. It's amazing.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#456

Post by newbie789 »

owenversteeg wrote: post #451
newbie789 wrote: post #447

I've been a Simple customer for awhile and it's kind of a bummer and kind of a hassle that this is happening. I became a customer many years ago while I was homeless and due to a string of incredibly bad luck and wildly poor decision making, I had been unable to open a checking account at any major bank. For whatever reason they gave me one. Not having to walk 3+ miles to pick up cash from a Wells Fargo spot and havi…

Not sure if you still have those marks on your record preventing you from opening a checking account, but basically all of the online banks do not check records to open an account (as of today.) So even with wrecked credit, a bad ChexSystems/EWS report etc, you can still get an account. Perhaps this might also be useful for anyone reading this who is in a similar situation today.

I'll be moving to another bank and I'm no longer in a position where I have to worry about stuff that happened back then. It's just kinda sad losing the bank that I've used for basic checking from living under an overpass all the way through home ownership. :(

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#457

Post by cko »

brobinson wrote: post #168
cko wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a happy Schwab customer. Their app isn't what you would call simple, but you can do almost all your investing and banking there (I say almost because I own some physical assets) and they refund ATM withdrawal fees.

They even refund international ATM fees which is awesome. If you're an investor, their margin rates are usurious, though.

I think if you want favorable margin rates I'd still use Schwab for banking and M1 finance or IB for the stocks. M1 lets you use borrowed funds for whatever, at like 2% interest.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#458

Post by 0xEFF »

renewiltord wrote: post #359
_ea1k wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending upon their tax situation, the loan rate may be effectively a little lower due to the tax deduction too, though. And, tbh, 6% is a really high mortgage now. Rates below 3% are common.

Yeah, when I last checked for a mortgage (4 mos ago), I was offered 2.8%

You can get 2.5% today with good credit. Rates just dropped again yesterday to a new all time low.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#459

Post by renewiltord »

0xEFF wrote: post #458
renewiltord wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, when I last checked for a mortgage (4 mos ago), I was offered 2.8%

You can get 2.5% today with good credit. Rates just dropped again yesterday to a new all time low.

Mind-bending man. At this point, I should just intentionally pay PMI and sock the rest in the stock market.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#460

Post by nucleardog »

noirbot wrote: post #264
nucleardog wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can add more anecdata. Joined a regional credit union, moved across the country. I can use the ATMs of the regional credit union in the new area for free if I need an ATM, and my original credit union has been more than happy to facilitate everything else I need via phone and email. And the "phone" agents are literally just the same staff I'd be talking to at the branch I opened the account at, not some call centre,…

That's good to know. Obviously, with Simple, I was fine with not having a local branch, but I'd worry that signing up at a local CU and then moving, they'd just expect that I could come in to the local branch for things. I've had issues around that with my family even with larger banks, where they just assume that I can show up at a local branch to sign papers or such, and it's a big pain to get them to mail things,…

Yeah, I've only got experience with one Credit Union so I could just have a particularly good one or something, but I imagine given that they _don't_ have branches everywhere probably requires them to invest a little more heavily in figuring out how to do things without people being there in person.

My wife's still with one of the "big banks" and more than a few times has been required to go in for basic signatures and stuff (not even for new services, just like "we updated this thing you need to come sign it"). Last time I did something major with my Credit Union was to get a loan from them, and it was shooting them an email, they called me up and we hashed out the details, then they sent me over an approval and a docusign link and I signed it and the money showed up in my account.

I wouldn't necessarily say that I can "transact online" as such (like, it's not like there's a "loan" flow on their website) but they're certainly capable of figuring out how to get things done without me being there in person. I can only imagine with so many staff going remote and people being more hesitant to go places this past year they've only gotten better at it.

Only downside over the years has been that there's never been (and never will be) any sort of integration with any of the budgeting/etc services like Mint. No company is really gonna invest the effort to pick up the 100,000 members my CU has.

Post reply on HN