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This is the first of Google's product cancellations that will affect me personally. My wife and I have been using Google Wallet cards for budgeting - we transfe
by grahamburger 11y ago
This is the first of Google's product cancellations that will affect me personally. My wife and I have been using Google Wallet cards for budgeting - we transfer our spending money to the cards each week to help track our spending. Honestly there's no reason Google Wallet was superior for this - I expect Simple will solve our problems better anyway. Should have seen this coming when they split it off of Android Pay.
- noobiemcfoob 11y ago+1 for Simple!
- wyldfire 11y agoTell me more: what's this service about?
- tekromancr 11y agoIt's a bank that only lives on the internet. I am actually surprisingly happy with them as my only bank.
- spyspy 11y agoHaving been a customer of Charles Schwab for several years at this point, I've never seen the appeal of Simple. I get better interest rates, fantastic customer service, unlimited ATM rebates and a host of brokerage services, all for free.
- CobrastanJorji 11y agoFellow Schwab customer here. Unlimited ATM rebates has been great. I was surprised at bow nice it felt to whip out my Schwab card next to the scary little free-standing ATM machine at the cash-only shop with some ridiculous $4.00 ATM fee. Felt like a cheat code.
- spyspy 11y agoTry it at a casino. You'll feel like you're robbing the place.
- kevin_thibedeau 11y ago> Felt like a cheat code. Until the day you use an ATM with a skimmer. Private machines are a dangerous cesspool.
- rkho 11y agoSchwab is fantastic. Their service is top-notch and I'm really glad I'm no longer with Chase. I once accidentally rated an online chat interaction lowly, and received a follow up call by a concerned manager less than a day later.
- tacostakohashi 11y agoLots of love happening for Schwab here - but it's more or less the same with Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, etc - ATM rebates for any ATM, no fees, free checking / checkbooks, etc. A cheat code is a nice way of describing how refreshing this is in comparison with the standard bank business model of offering some fairly limited basic checking account as a loss leader, then constantly trying to upsell you on every other kind of product / account imaginable, trying the overdraft protection scam on you, ATM fees, checkbook fees, etc, etc. It's a wonder they can stay in business.
- gtaylor 11y ago> I get better interest rates, fantastic customer service, unlimited ATM rebates and a host of brokerage services, all for free. All great points. The customer service in particular is just outstanding. If there was the opposite experience of calling into Comcast support, it'd be calling into Charles Schwab. They know their stuff and are willing and able to patiently explain things well beyond a script. The yearly free financial consult is awesome, too. Only annoyance is that some of the procedures require printing out a PDF, filling it in, and physically mailing it or faxing it back. Hopefully that'll be less common in the future.
- connorshea 11y agoThat's interesting, I got an email from them a few months after signing up to be contacted at a Career Fair and they left the {{CLIENT NAME}} placeholder in the email. So I figured they were incompetent :P
- flavor8 11y agoThe only issue with Schwab is their ridiculous password policy (8 chars). Turning on 2FA on your account is a must with them (they'll happily send you a little hardware token generating dongle if you ask.)
- arawde 11y agoIt's a bank startup which doesn't have physical locations. They're partnered with Bancorp, so your account is backed by FDIC, and they have a large number of ATMs. You can read more here https://www.simple.com/ https://www.simple.com/
- jessriedel 11y ago> It's a bank startup which doesn't have physical locations There's got to be more to it than that, right? There are lots of internet-only banks. I use Ally. http://www.gobankingrates.com/banking/10-online-banks-2015/ http://www.gobankingrates.com/banking/10-online-banks-2015/
- spyspy 11y agoAlly's interest rates are tempting, but the fact that it's just GMAC with some new makeup is very off putting.
- awinder 11y agoSimple is "just Bancorp" which you could probably say equal things about.
- tjohns 11y agoAs I understand it, Bancorp is just contracted by Simple to hold the funds and interface with the banking system. All of the policies, support and user-facing parts are handled by Simple itself. Ally, on the other hand, literally is GMAC.
- trevorg75 11y agoActually it's the other way around. Simple is the public facing interface that is beholden to all of the policies and inconveniences of Bancorp. Don't get me wrong I love the service but full disclosure it's Bancorp with makeup. Now I have had instances where they where Bancorp was closed for a holiday and my direct deposit didn't get processed and I had bills that were going to hit that I needed access to my funds and they were very helpful and happy to do a temporary credit to my account to make sure that I got what I needed.
- xeromal 11y agoYou can see that people are pretty split about Simple being a good idea. I can tell you that the one thing they offer me over any other online bank is their budgeting tools. I'll specify a certain amount like 500 or 1000 dollars to be set aside by any date. It will move over small amounts daily without you noticing. In reality, the money is all in the same account but mentally I do way better with this scheme. I've built an emergency, a car repair fund, saved for AC for my home, and more without seeing a huge loss in my daily balance. It helped me learn to budget and save and that's the value they provide. If you already are an amazing budgeter, no need to sign up.
- sync 11y ago-1 for Simple. Not refunding ATM fees is ridiculous for a bank that has no physical ATMs. Also, things like this: "Your Simple Visa® Card will not function on August 6th from 2:00 - 9:00 am EST"
- suprfsat 11y agoYeah that should be EDT.
- BHSPitMonkey 11y agoThese ATMs have no fees, it looks like: https://www.simple.com/atms https://www.simple.com/atms
- trevorg75 11y agoThey have ATMs everywhere. And newsflash traditional banks cards do the same thing, they are just less transparent about it.
- jrockway 11y agoMy bank pays me back for all ATM fees, even ones in other countries. (I use Schwab, mostly because my "equity awards" were there and I don't need a physical bank.)
- urda 11y agoHaven't had to pay a ATM fee at my "traditional bank" in years. Even when customers do not get refunds on fees, banks are usually very clear about it.
- untog 11y agoI bank with Ally, who refund my ATM fees no matter where I go. I don't see why I would switch to Simple.
- newjersey 11y agoCaution: there is a $10 limit on ATM fee reimbursements iirc. Relevant discussion on Reddit pf https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/3ck2rr/ally_bank_checking_account_changing_unlimited_atm/ https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/3ck2rr/all...
- dewiz 11y agoIs there something like Simple for non-US residents, living in US?
- sacul 11y agoIt took some getting used to, but I've really liked using Simple. I can now very easily always answer the following question: "how much money can I spend right now?"
- sdegutis 11y agoThe only Google products that are guaranteed to stick around for the long term are Search and Gmail, and that's been pretty clear to see for the past decade. There's no good reason to get invested in any of their services with how often they pop up and how soon after they're shut down.
- mrkrwtsn 11y agoAnd Android, all of the ad stack, analytics (it gives google a lot of data), chrome, maps, docs, drive (in some form), calendar, app engine, hangouts (part of gmail). There are tons of products that are both successful, and are tied to core things google wants to be good at.
- sliverstorm 11y agoThe only product really guaranteed to stick around is Search. Things closely wedded to Search (GMail, Android, Maps) are fairly safe bets.
- jakeogh 11y agoPersonally, I'll be happy when they close Google Groups.
- JumpCrisscross 11y agoIt's a UI layer on top of an old-fashioned bank. It offers worse rates, perks, benefits and service than Ally, Schwab or Fidelity. Good if you want something pretty on the side, I suppose.
- tjohns 11y agoI disagree about the service being bad. I've had nothing but positive experiences with Simple's support team. Also, they offer a JSON feed of my transactions, which isn't something any of my other banks provide.
- saiko-chriskun 11y agoHow do you access these json feeds?
- tjohns 11y agoLogin to account, push "Export", select "JSON". It would be nice if they had OAuth support or a formally documented API, but it's still a good start.
- latj 11y agoThe app is nicer and the barrier to start very low. I started using it when I got rid of Ally. Youre right there are no perks to Google Wallet Card but the perks from Ally and other banks are not very useful for the use described above. Basically, they are putting a tiny amount of money aside and spending it all in the next 30 days. I havent used the app but Simple sounds pretty good since you can set multiple "goals" (I think they should call them buckets or envelopes or something).
- trevorg75 11y agoSimple is great but it's a bit confusing when looking at your balances. If you are just using the mobile app it's fine because it hides your stashes but the web app spills the beans when it tells you how much money you really have.
- lftl 11y agoNo joint accounts with Simple, so it's cumbersome to share a card.
- sacul 11y agoTrue. My wife and I each have a separate Simple account, and we've never had separate checking accounts before. That would have been a problem except for the fact that Simple provides instant transfers to other simple accounts. So my wife manages roughly half of our budget and I manage the other half, and if we ever need to move money across accounts, we can do it instantly.
- homero 11y agoServe looks much better
- soylentcola 11y agoSame here. It's more an annoyance and a function of my laziness but inconvenient nonetheless. I rarely need to get cash out of a machine but when I do, I transfer some cash to my Wallet Card and hit the ATM. Thankfully all I really need to do is spend a lunch hour heading over to my credit union to get a plastic card but the Wallet Card was much more convenient and allowed me to grab the funds from various accounts. I have a Simple account as well but stopped using it when I needed a new card and couldn't prove I'd moved since they wanted a few (printed) bills with my new address but unfortunately none of these are in my name so I couldn't fulfill their request. Maybe it's time to revisit that situation and try to work something out again.