Simple has been permanently closed by its parent bank, BBVA.
Very Scary Experience With A Happy Ending
I opened an account with Simple several months ago, mainly for the generous $250 new account bonus they were offering. I transferred $10k into the account, intending to just let the money sit there and collect interest. Last week I received an email from them notifying me that the $4,000 which I attempted to transfer from my account to Best Buy had failed because there were insufficient funds in my account. After logging in, I saw that $3800 of my $10,000 had already been transferred to Best Buy and an additional $3,400 had been transferred to PayPal! I have never had an account with Best Buy and I haven't used my Paypal account in at least 5 years! I have no idea how someone was able to login to my account since no one else ever uses my computer, I have never told anyone that I have an account with Simple (or with any other bank) and I've never received a phishing email purportedly from Simple. Three days ago I sent an "Affidavit of Unauthorized ACH" to Simple for each of the felonious withdrawals from my account, and this afternoon I received an email from them stating that $7,246.85 had been credited to my account and that the case was now closed. I felt like printing and framing it!! I don't know if this can be considered identity theft, since that usually has to do with credit accounts rather than deposit accounts, but I'm sure glad that Simple had my back! THANK YOU SIMPLE!
Worst Financial Institution
This is the worst financial institution I have ever encountered. First they opened my account and allowed me to initiate a transfer of 5K to them. They then froze my account pending color pictures of my ID and SS card (PDF's not allowed)along with Pdf's of my other banks statements. I furnished them almost 2 weeks ago and nothing from them. My 5K is in limbo since it has left my other bank but has not entered my Simple account since it is frozen. Repeated contacts get me nowhere. I have contacted the Federal Reserve Board but they take time to move. Also I tried to open an account for my wife and was rejected a month ago. I guess I was lucky they didn't allow her to open one in hindsight. All I hope to do is get my 5K back and close this account.
No Fee And Fair APY For A Checking Account.
Love the no maintenance fee, no account minimum, no fees on incoming wires, and the $5 checkbook which is fair. Plus 1.00% APY for a checking account is better than what most banks have for a checking account.
WOW THIS WAS A LONG ROAD BUT WORTH IT
Thank God that this money came to just in time
Love This Bank!
There are a good deal of cons, but for me the pros outweigh them by a lot.
Pros:
* Fees are low and few.
* App is amazing. Clean and yet full of great features, like Goals, check deposit, photo attachments, memos, tags, and more.
* Scheduled Payments.
* Instantly block your card if you lose it.
* Instant notification for every purchase.
* Great customer service.
Cons:
* Debit card, not credit.
* Low interest rate.
* No savings account (or any other account).
* Depositing cash is a hassle.
* No checkbooks. You can use the app to send checks to people, but you cannot write them yourself.
For more details, check out my full, detailed review:
http://www.whateverthehelliwant.net/2017/07/simple-bank-review/
Decent But Not Really For Users Of This Site
tl;dr Simple has on point branding and a smooth app experience, however, it is very much tailored to Simple being your only bank with their debit card being your only card. I imagine most users of this site have multiple accounts in use to various degrees looking for the best savings rate as well as multiple rewards credit cards (or even just one decent one).
If you operate in those limited parameters you'll gain a lot of insight into your spending and help you with savings goals. It automatically categorizes your purchases (with simple manual correction if necessary) and "learns" from your behavior. It can set aside money that is "safe to spend" while pulling money into a pool for goals you set. You need to get up on their lingo though as these "goals" do not earn interest unlike their "protected goal" which is a separate savings account that cannot be used to automatically fund your checking account in the event of an overdraft. This account is earning 1.7% APY (1.9% APY for 10k+ balances) as of today which isn't bad but not the top of the pack.
For us though this means a less than useful interface for basic banking and moving cash around as necessary. Their ACH is awful so be prepared to have your accounts set up to push or pull from them.
Overall I'd recommend Simple to newbies as it is "simple." It's a one-stop-shop for folks just entering the work force from school to not pay any fees and get a handle on their spending before they get themselves into trouble. For DA readers though, you might want to shop around.
PS: I'm not a binary rater. 3/5 stars for me means exactly average. 5 stars would have to be absolutely incredible and 1 star would be Satan (i.e. Bank of America or Chase).
Bumpy Road Trying To Open The Account
I opened the account 9 days ago and they still haven't been able to "verify" me. The money I was transferring into the new Simple account was pulled the very next day but then I received an email that they weren't able to verify me so I needed to submit copies of bank statements, drivers license and social security card to "unfreeze" my account. 3 days after I submitted them I hadn't heard anything so I called to follow up and then they requested I send in my W-2. I sent it the next morning, waited another day and called them. The last person I spoke to could not give me a time frame as to when my account would be unfrozen. She said that they would notify me when It was done. I also received the debit card in the mail which I tried to activate and apparently I am unable to do it because my account is still frozen. I have never gone through this much trouble to open an account. Let's see how much longer this is going to take and how long my opening deposit will be in limbo. 9 days have passed and the deposit does not show in the Simple account.
Avoid! Something Off Here.
Tried for two days to open for bonus. Its server would not accept online application and kept the rotating circle for hours. Customer service person was unable to open account. Application rejected "for security reasons" which I would not be told. Have excellent FICO, never any troubles with Chex Systems validation. Probably just as well in light of other commentaries.
We do not have health information for Simple, because it is no longer an operational bank.