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This is pretty unfortunate. I loved using Simple for three or so years; it was my first independent bank account. It was a great app and beautiful design with i

by maxov 5y ago

This is pretty unfortunate. I loved using Simple for three or so years; it was my first independent bank account. It was a great app and beautiful design with innovative banking features, like budgeting and super easy high-interest savings accounts. As soon as I heard about the shutdown I closed my accounts and moved away from Simple, and it seems like it was the right decision. For anyone looking for an alternative, I'm using Wealthfront Cash now and I highly recommend it. They used to have super great interest rates but are now at about 0.10% APY, which is worse than others (I think you can get up to 0.50% APY right now at other places, with caveats). Although I keep minimal cash so it's not a huge difference. They do track the Fed interest rates pretty well, so I think many of the alternatives are just behind and will eventually have to lower their interest rates too. They have some nice features that Simple used to, like different categories and automatic savings/transfer to investment. The one sticking point is that they don't support cash deposits (perhaps it's possible through their partner Green Dot?), so I use a big bank checking account for that and nothing else.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
toast0 5y ago
> As soon as I heard about the shutdown I closed my accounts and moved away from Simple, and it seems like it was the right decision. Indeed, getting out before things fully wind down is going to go smoother for so many things; a good habit to get into. > I think you can get up to 0.50% APY right now at other places, with caveats. My primary credit union, Star One, has 0.5% on savings for the past year? or so, field of membership includes Santa Clara County, Alameda County, Merced County, Monterey County, San Benito County, San Joaquin County, San Mateo County, Santa Cruz County, and Stanislaus County; ask around for a referral code because there's a decent referral bonus; if you jump through hoops, you can get 0.5% on checking too. Penfed has 0.45% and no geo restrictions if you join a club (but I haven't done it). Capital One has 0.4%, but is Capital One. If you're getting 0.1% you're doing it wrong.
- kqr2 5y ago
  Just curious what is wrong with Capital One?
  - toast0 5y ago
    They feel skeezy, from years of marketing and targeting of their credit cards. I liked the ING Direct branding before CapOne bought them. No specific issues or experience though.
  - brewdad 5y ago
    Capital One screwed me over when I had a credit card with them about 25 years ago. It was less than $100 but I never forgot. The day they announced they were buying ING is the day I moved my money elsewhere. I'm sure they've lost far more by losing my business than the money they squeezed out of me years ago.
  - jurassic 5y ago
    I got screwed by Capital One when they refused to wire my funds to a different institution when I needed them to for a big stock option exercise. The rep on the phone told me their policy was to only do wire transfers for home closings. They wouldn't budge, which seemed shocking and completely unacceptable to me, so I initiated closing of the account that same day.
- dlgeek 5y ago
  Ally's also at 0.50%
- astura 5y ago
  T-Mobile MONEY (a division of Customers Bank) has 1% APY, no limits, no strings attached. You can also get 4% APY on the first $3,000 if you have a TMobile account and wanna jump through some hoops.
  - toast0 5y ago
    This looks quite interesting, thanks. I had heard of the 4% on $3,000, but not the 1% no limits (although one should certainly consider the FDIC limits). No joint accounts is a bit of a headache, but twice the interest might be worth it.
joshstrange 5y ago
I switched to One Finance since their website/app seemed clean (similar to Simple). It has tools for creating multiple "Pockets" that you can spend from. You can even setup virtual cards that spend from a specific pocket. I probably won't use any of those features since I use YNAB for managing my money now. I also use HMBradley for savings since they have 3% APY. One Finance also has a 3% "Auto Save" pocket which can do debit card round-ups and up to 10% of your direct deposit. I might use for easy access to move savings into my "Spend" pocket but you can't move money directly into that account, it has to come from direct deposit and only up to 10%. HMB let me dump my emergency fund in and start earning 3% APY which is nice.
- sathackr 5y ago
  I gave One Finance a try but found their rules and inflexibility incompatible. They don't have a 'joint account' option but claim you can share a pocket with someone else and it works the same. Except when you have an instrument that you need to deposit/credit and it's made out to two people. They won't credit it to the 'shared' pocket because technically that pocket is owned by you, not both. Tried to work with them for a solution but all they could offer was that I could deposit/receive it at another bank and then transfer it. When I closed the account they warned me that once closed I could never come back(they don't allow you to become a customer again in the future if you close your relationship with them). Another odd rule. And no auto transfers and no ability to deposit a paper check(at the time) The benefit wasn't worth the hassle and I moved on.
  - joshstrange 5y ago
    Yeah, I can see how that would be a deal breaker. I don't need a joint account and just want a pretty website/app to hold my money so for me it fit the bill. I appreciate how the One Finance team is active on their subreddit and seem to be pretty good at communicating the roadmap with the community. But I totally get that it didn't work for you.
  - anomaloustho 5y ago
    Curious to hear which bank you’re using now. Especially since I haven’t found a great Simple-like bank that supports joint accounts.
MrMan 5y ago
JPMorganChase has a great app, and its a great bank
klassicd 5y ago
Have you heard or tried DEFI yet? Ethereum has grown so much the past two years, along with competitors like Terra, Fantom, Polygon, etc... You can easily earn 10-30% on stablecoins using dApps like curve.fi, yearn.fi, bancor.finance, aave.com, etc... It's a revolution of the financial industry and a new global decentralized settlement layer. Stop letting TradFi banks rip you off, experiment with DEFI and you will never want to hold money in a legacy bank again. It's grown from 0-85B in just 2 years.
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 5y ago
  Are any of those FDIC insured? Many people are reticent to put money in the hands of people that are not accountable to or insured by the full faith and power of the U.S. government.
- gruez 5y ago
  A FDIC insured savings account has a vastly different risk profile than difi tokens. Not to mention, the interest is paid in tokens, so if it goes south so do your returns.
- maxov 5y ago
  Yeah, I have heard of it, and thanks for mentioning it to those who may not have. Like others have said, these have very few of the same guarantees people might be looking for in institutional accounts, especially that it's not FDIC insured or other legal obligations. They are also subject to risks like bugs in smart contracts or even larger ones like in the settlement/blockchain layer. And how disputes may be settled in these systems legally has not been tested and is still under question. They are also not a good fit for standard checking account features that e.g. Wealthfront Cash has. Sadly, the amount of users actually using cryptocurrency for real-world transactions is still really small. [1] I think all this stuff around yield farming, liquidity pooling, etc. is super cool, but I think the standard advice applies: "don't put in more than you are willing to lose". Given all the unknown factors and risks I would not use it for my emergency fund or savings, and right now I would think about it more like a rather risky, potentially high-return investment. Even if these products are marketed as "protected accounts", they all say that loss of principal is possible. [1]: See https://medium.com/swlh/how-many-people-actually-use-bitcoin-in-2020-b5ffa317de9b https://medium.com/swlh/how-many-people-actually-use-bitcoin.... The 2018 Chainalysis report estimated 13.5 million Bitcoin users with 2.3 million using it to make regular payments. Who knows how many of these payments correspond to "real-world" goods and services, but I'd guess it's not much. Compare this to Paypal with 300 million active users.

by maxov 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

toast0 5y ago

> As soon as I heard about the shutdown I closed my accounts and moved away from Simple, and it seems like it was the right decision. Indeed, getting out before things fully wind down is going to go smoother for so many things; a good habit to get into. > I think you can get up to 0.50% APY right now at other places, with caveats. My primary credit union, Star One, has 0.5% on savings for the past year? or so, field of membership includes Santa Clara County, Alameda County, Merced County, Monterey County, San Benito County, San Joaquin County, San Mateo County, Santa Cruz County, and Stanislaus County; ask around for a referral code because there's a decent referral bonus; if you jump through hoops, you can get 0.5% on checking too. Penfed has 0.45% and no geo restrictions if you join a club (but I haven't done it). Capital One has 0.4%, but is Capital One. If you're getting 0.1% you're doing it wrong.

kqr2 5y ago
Just curious what is wrong with Capital One?
- toast0 5y ago
  They feel skeezy, from years of marketing and targeting of their credit cards. I liked the ING Direct branding before CapOne bought them. No specific issues or experience though.
- brewdad 5y ago
  Capital One screwed me over when I had a credit card with them about 25 years ago. It was less than $100 but I never forgot. The day they announced they were buying ING is the day I moved my money elsewhere. I'm sure they've lost far more by losing my business than the money they squeezed out of me years ago.
- jurassic 5y ago
  I got screwed by Capital One when they refused to wire my funds to a different institution when I needed them to for a big stock option exercise. The rep on the phone told me their policy was to only do wire transfers for home closings. They wouldn't budge, which seemed shocking and completely unacceptable to me, so I initiated closing of the account that same day.
dlgeek 5y ago
Ally's also at 0.50%
astura 5y ago
T-Mobile MONEY (a division of Customers Bank) has 1% APY, no limits, no strings attached. You can also get 4% APY on the first $3,000 if you have a TMobile account and wanna jump through some hoops.
- toast0 5y ago
  This looks quite interesting, thanks. I had heard of the 4% on $3,000, but not the 1% no limits (although one should certainly consider the FDIC limits). No joint accounts is a bit of a headache, but twice the interest might be worth it.

joshstrange 5y ago

I switched to One Finance since their website/app seemed clean (similar to Simple). It has tools for creating multiple "Pockets" that you can spend from. You can even setup virtual cards that spend from a specific pocket. I probably won't use any of those features since I use YNAB for managing my money now. I also use HMBradley for savings since they have 3% APY. One Finance also has a 3% "Auto Save" pocket which can do debit card round-ups and up to 10% of your direct deposit. I might use for easy access to move savings into my "Spend" pocket but you can't move money directly into that account, it has to come from direct deposit and only up to 10%. HMB let me dump my emergency fund in and start earning 3% APY which is nice.

sathackr 5y ago
I gave One Finance a try but found their rules and inflexibility incompatible. They don't have a 'joint account' option but claim you can share a pocket with someone else and it works the same. Except when you have an instrument that you need to deposit/credit and it's made out to two people. They won't credit it to the 'shared' pocket because technically that pocket is owned by you, not both. Tried to work with them for a solution but all they could offer was that I could deposit/receive it at another bank and then transfer it. When I closed the account they warned me that once closed I could never come back(they don't allow you to become a customer again in the future if you close your relationship with them). Another odd rule. And no auto transfers and no ability to deposit a paper check(at the time) The benefit wasn't worth the hassle and I moved on.
- joshstrange 5y ago
  Yeah, I can see how that would be a deal breaker. I don't need a joint account and just want a pretty website/app to hold my money so for me it fit the bill. I appreciate how the One Finance team is active on their subreddit and seem to be pretty good at communicating the roadmap with the community. But I totally get that it didn't work for you.
- anomaloustho 5y ago
  Curious to hear which bank you’re using now. Especially since I haven’t found a great Simple-like bank that supports joint accounts.

MrMan 5y ago

JPMorganChase has a great app, and its a great bank

klassicd 5y ago

Have you heard or tried DEFI yet? Ethereum has grown so much the past two years, along with competitors like Terra, Fantom, Polygon, etc... You can easily earn 10-30% on stablecoins using dApps like curve.fi, yearn.fi, bancor.finance, aave.com, etc... It's a revolution of the financial industry and a new global decentralized settlement layer. Stop letting TradFi banks rip you off, experiment with DEFI and you will never want to hold money in a legacy bank again. It's grown from 0-85B in just 2 years.

Red_Leaves_Flyy 5y ago
Are any of those FDIC insured? Many people are reticent to put money in the hands of people that are not accountable to or insured by the full faith and power of the U.S. government.
gruez 5y ago
A FDIC insured savings account has a vastly different risk profile than difi tokens. Not to mention, the interest is paid in tokens, so if it goes south so do your returns.
maxov 5y ago
Yeah, I have heard of it, and thanks for mentioning it to those who may not have. Like others have said, these have very few of the same guarantees people might be looking for in institutional accounts, especially that it's not FDIC insured or other legal obligations. They are also subject to risks like bugs in smart contracts or even larger ones like in the settlement/blockchain layer. And how disputes may be settled in these systems legally has not been tested and is still under question. They are also not a good fit for standard checking account features that e.g. Wealthfront Cash has. Sadly, the amount of users actually using cryptocurrency for real-world transactions is still really small. [1] I think all this stuff around yield farming, liquidity pooling, etc. is super cool, but I think the standard advice applies: "don't put in more than you are willing to lose". Given all the unknown factors and risks I would not use it for my emergency fund or savings, and right now I would think about it more like a rather risky, potentially high-return investment. Even if these products are marketed as "protected accounts", they all say that loss of principal is possible. [1]: See https://medium.com/swlh/how-many-people-actually-use-bitcoin-in-2020-b5ffa317de9b https://medium.com/swlh/how-many-people-actually-use-bitcoin.... The 2018 Chainalysis report estimated 13.5 million Bitcoin users with 2.3 million using it to make regular payments. Who knows how many of these payments correspond to "real-world" goods and services, but I'd guess it's not much. Compare this to Paypal with 300 million active users.