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Simple Bank Is Closing

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Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#581

Post by raspberrychucks »

bombcar wrote: post #323
dougmany wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They had a way to set money aside for goals. The money would be in your account but it would not show up in the available balance. So you could say, I want to buy this expensive thing, put in the amount you want to save towards it per month and the available balance would hide the money for you until you spent it.

That’s f’ing brilliant. Everyone is pretty good at stopping when out of money but if you can see it right there in a savings account the temptation to transfer can be strong.

This. 100%. The best I could do before switching to Simple was putting about half my paycheck in a savings account in another bank that I had no other accounts with and using that to pay my rent and maybe a few other bills. I was still always overdrawing my checking account at my main bank. I would occasionally have to go to the other bank, withdraw cash and drive over to the main bank to deposit it. Luckily, that bank didn't have any branches near where I worked, so I either had to wait 3 days for an online transfer or do my "shame banking" as my SO called it on my work from home day or Saturday morning. Simple's "Safe-to-Spend" is really a game changer for people like me.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#582

Post by justrudd »

imtringued wrote: post #537
justrudd wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Financially this makes sense. But for me, I’m sitting in a house that’s paid off. If I lose my job (or have to quit for medical reasons) and I can’t get a new job, I’ve got shelter. I can live Indefinitely where I am right now just paying utilities and property tax. Granted there is the reality of things just break on houses and require $$$. Maybe it isn’t the best strategy. But there’s a nice feeling to know that I’…

If you have the discipline to pay off a house you can easily create a stock portfolio. The only important advice is to stop staring at the charts for too long. If you are an investor you derive zero value from it. Your decision to sell should not be driven by the market. It should be driven by personal goals.

Totally agree. I was replying more about why I chose to pay off my house vs. sitting in a mortgage for X more years so that I can put more money into the market.

During the time I was paying off my house, I did put money into the market. I just prioritized money going towards the house. Now that the house is paid off, all that prior mortgage payment money is going into the market.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#583

Post by replwoacause »

cweagans wrote: post #84

I don't know how many Simple employees are in this thread. I'm very sad to hear this news, and I'm sure you were too. Just want you to know that you all made a really meaningful difference in the lives of at least my wife and I. Before I switched to Simple, I had a really hard time budgeting for things/planning for expenses, and was frequently toeing the line of overdrawing my account. I was essentially financially i…

Chiming in as a happy Simple user too. Always thought their customer service was top notch.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#584

Post by brobinson »

cko wrote: post #457
brobinson wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, I use IB so I'm sub-1% now. IB also lets you simply withdraw more cash than you have in your account so you can use it for whatever.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#585

Post by replwoacause »

tadfisher wrote: post #26
otachack wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked in native apps for 3.5 years. Your apps are amazing and set a great example to how we should make a native experience. I hope your talents are put to use in other projects in the future!

Speaking of which, if anyone needs someone with 10 years of native Android experience, DMs are open (check my bio).

Yes, great job on the apps although I must ask, why did the Android app never get a transaction search feature like the iOS and web apps have?

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#586

Post by prossercj »

I was an early customer of Simple, and transitioned to Capital One after the sale to BBVA. The killer for me was that Simple would no longer send out checks through the mail, which was how I had become accustomed to paying my rent.

They also pushed for customers to not use personal checks for anything (at one time they didn't even offer them), which I now find kind of foolish. So after they ended the check-by-mail service, there was no way for me to get a check to my landlord. And it was just kind of a big middle finger to someone who had been a loyal customer.

I guess in the days after the Great Recession we were all hoping for some kind of financial revolution that never came. Simple closing today seems to certify that those hopes are gone.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#587

Post by tylermenezes »

edoceo wrote: post #431
tylermenezes wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the response. (And for anyone else watching, he also DMd me on Twitter which was nice.) I didn't realize Mercury was a startup which makes the oversights more understa I did not see the perks, thanks for clarifying that. They are not linked on the dashboard and homepage cannot been loaded when logged in. And to clarify we don't use Quickbooks. QBO/QBX is a specific file format which most accounting systems…

Your accounting software doesn't support CSV templates? I had a similar issue with a different bank and in the reconcile feature you can pick the template (eg QBO, CSV, etc) and under CSV are the templates I made (along with stock templates for $BigBank). So I only made the template once with a little drag/drop page and was done. All subsequent imports are "one click" easy

NetSuite requires CSVs to be in a predefined format. No mapping options at all. [1]

(You might think "just don't use NetSuite" but most large companies are using NetSuite. Small-business accounting systems do not work well past a certain scale of transactions/purchasers/vendors/etc.)

[1] https://www.proteloinc.com/blog/import-online-bank-data-and-...

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#588

Post by joshstrange »

kfriede wrote: post #413
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 was forced to ditch Simple after their ridiculous application policies wouldn't allow my spouse to create an account for us to have a joint account. Since doing so, I've signed up for YouNeedABudget (YNAB) [1], and couldn't be happier. Simple was a great service and I'm sad it is calling quits, but I've outgrown it. [1] https://www.youneedabudget.com/

+1,000,000 for YNAB. It finally taught me that I don’t need to search for a bank with all the money management features I want, I just use YNAB to manage my money and I hardly care what bank account it sits in, it’s all “spent” in YNAB.

I’m a long time (2012) Simple customer and I went with them originally due to their new take on banking and the promise of an API (which they backtracked on). The envelope-type system they built with goals/expenses was nice but looks like a toy compared to YNAB. Now I can pick a new bank that doesn’t need to have any clever savings tools and just use it to hold my money.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#589

Post by joshstrange »

Simple has been on a downwards trajectory for a while now. Not handling wire transfers was infuriating when buying a house and refinancing and the recent removing of bill pay/check sending was egregious. You want to know how they tried to spin that? They sent out an email saying “we now support paper checks!” And then at the bottom said something like “and bill pay is going away kthxbye”.

YNAB “manages” all my money now so thankfully switching isn’t terrible. I just have to switch my direct deposit, my utilities, and my CC’s and I’m done.

I’m sad to see Simple die but it’s had one foot in the grave for a while.

Re: Simple Bank Is Closing

#590

Post by InitialLastName »

pfranz wrote: post #461
duhi88 wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried it. Auto-import never worked reliably. I asked their customer support for help, and they said I should just do it manually. They seemed like a close alternative, but if I'm doing all this work manually, I might as well use a spread sheet for free.

Importing greatly depends how well your bank/credit card plays ball. Most banks don't have any incentive to participate and newer security features like 2fa have made it harder/impossible. I do have one bank that grants application tokens for read-only access. The setup UX wasn't awesome, but I wish that was standard. Unfortunately, I doubt YNAB can just ask people to move banks. Honestly, that, a web interface, and…

They can't ask people to move banks, but TBH I stopped using my credit cards from a certain provider because YNAB wouldn't sync (which drove me to look into other cards and ultimately get a better one that, by chance, would sync).
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