A simple customer of Simple Bank

[simplebank-blog]

I've requested an invite for Simple and am very excited to start using all of its features. How long should I expect to wait for an invite?

You should ask them. Their customer support is great, and if you mention @simplify in Twitter, they tend to respond rapidly.

[simplebank-blog]

Hello. Thank you for writing such an informative blog. As a current Bank of America customer who is about to open a Simple account, I have a question about making an initial deposit that I hope you can answer. Did Bank of America charge a fee to electronically transfer money from your old account into your new account?

No, they didn't.

I cannot guarantee they won't charge you anything either, but this is the only charge I have in my BoA account: exactly the money I deposited to Simple bank.

[simplebank-blog]

Hi, I just wanted to write and say that I appreciate your thoughts on Simple! As someone who has just recently signed up and is waiting to start his new job in order to start actually using my account (AND is also attempting to ditch Bank of America in the process), I'm always interested in hearing interesting things about how Simple is different as a bank. Looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts!

Thanks!

[simplebank-blog]

Thanks for writing on this, I'm determining whether to join myself or not. Have you experienced anything you did not enjoy about Simple or something you missed by leaving the larger bank? Also, how was the customer service after you contacted them regarding the restaurant charging you a tip?

I haven't completely left my other bank since I still have my bills charged there, though I plan to do it soon.

Everything else works greatly, there are some features missing but they are added rapidly and the customer service really listens to the feedback through Twitter.

I still have to write an article about the tip, but in short Simple Bank refunded me the money before they got it back from Visa; they trusted my word and didn't let me handle the burden of waiting for Visa confirmation.

[simplebank-blog]

Why join or leave a “big bank”

The reason why I joined Bank of America is simple: no other bank would open an account without a Social Security Number. Months later, I got my SSN and I remained with Bank of America, for three reasons:

a branch literally 20 feet from my home

an excellent online bank account

the lack of a better alternative

I did spend time looking for a Credit Union that would accept me, or for a smaller bank with a good-looking and usable online service, but I couldn't find any, until I became a customer of Simple bank.

Now that I found a bank that works, I start getting concerned about what will Simple bank do with my money. Honestly, I don't know. I don't know anything about the financial groups behind Simple bank. I wish they would promote Ethical Banking but I don't know much about them.

What I know, though, is that leaving my money with Bank of America or any other “big bank” won't make much good to the world. Bailouts, bad mortgages, arrogance, well… the list can be long, just watch this funny/tragical episode of The Daily Show: A Look Back at Banking.

Yet, I have one more reason to drop BoA in favor of Simple: I love to support small, new, independent acts. I love to shop at small groceries, to attend tiny concerts of local bands, to buy art and clothes from young creators, to promote college radios. I don't feel the pressure of having to “belong to something bigger than me”. I like to keep things at a human level, and Simple bank somehow dropped in the right spot.

[simplebank-blog]

Big banks send tricky spam to their customers

This is what I received today in my (physical) mailbox: three separate letters from Bank of America (and its affiliated Merrill Edge) for services I never requested.

Nobody likes spam, but in this case I feel like Bank of America is going beyond that, and is treating me like a stupid, eroding my trust as a customer.

These are not the first letters of this kind that I receive, and since I previously ignored them, someone had the brilliant idea of stamping Time-sensitive account information on one envelope, and Important information about your account on another. So I hurry to open them, thinking something bad happened to my money, just to realize… it's spam!

Someone in the marketing department of BoA must be really desperate to play these nifty tricks on their customers. I'm not going to fall in the trap, but I have to say that the text in the letter is misleading enough to make you think you already have requested their service.

I call this tricky spam because the next time I receive a similar letter, I will be obliged to open and read it again, since it might indeed contain important account information, but I won't be able to know unless I go through the burden of separating valid content from spam.

Dear Bank of America, you shall not treat as stupid the people that trust you with their savings. And you shall not burn more trees to send spam… email has been invented for that. I hope Simple Bank won't ever betray my trust in this way.

[simplebank-blog]

Goodies from the iOS app of Simple bank

The iPod/iPhone app for Simple bank is well designed. Loads fast and presents exactly the information I want: how much money I spent recently, where, and how much I have left (sorry for the Photoshop):

Rather than asking for your passphrase every time the app is opened, Simple lets you introduce a four-digits code and type that instead to unlock the application every time you open it. This makes the mobile experience even snappier!

I can only wonder if the iOS developers also left some easter eggs in the application source code… that would really make it over the top!

[simplebank-blog]

Cashiers' reactions to Simple bank debit card

I have been paying with Simple Bank debit card for the last month, and its stunning white background surprises most cashiers. They rarely see VISA cards that are not cluttered with logos and images, so it takes them a fraction of a second to realize that it is actually a debit card and not a piece of paper that I inadvertently took out of my wallet. Funny!

[simplebank-blog]

Contacting the customer support

I already mentioned how great is to see the tip separated from the bill in my bank account. Thanks to that, I was able to spot that a restaurant had charged me an extra tip that I hadn't left on the bill.

I had dinner with a friend, and since I didn't eat much, we decided my friend would leave the entire tip on his card, so I marked a clear line on my receipt. What a surprise when I saw tip added to my bill as well on the next day!

After contacting the restaurant (and not getting a response), I decided to try the Customer Support service of Simple bank. I didn't have to look for numbers in the Yellow Pages or hold online for minutes… I only had to click on the "Support" button next to the transaction and write a message. That's a great start for a complain!

[simplebank-blog]

Separating the bill from the tip

Many features of a Simple Bank account are well described in the official Simple Blog. However, I just found a very neat feature that I've always wanted from my bank account: separating expenses from tips. Here is how debit/credit card tipping works in the United States:

you give your card to the waiter (at a bar or restaurant)

the waiter swipes your card for the amount reported in the bill

you sign the receipt, add a tip (generally 15% to 25%) and leave the restaurant

some days later, the merchant adds the tip to the amount you paid

Coming from Europe, all this was new to me, including the fact that I have no way to verify that the amount added as a tip actually matches the number I wrote on the receipt. Apparently, this is a common issue, and people have come up with a list of genial ideas to avoid tipping scams and ripoffs such as:

You could leave a tip where all the digits are the same, or the dollar digit matches the cents digits ($11.11 or $12.22).

Simple Bank has solved this problem, so I don't have to: the tip amount is clearly indicated, separately from the bill amount:

This is way better than Bank of America solution, which is to mark a transaction as pending while the tip is being processed, and then to increase the amount without letting you know how much the merchant charged:

[simplebank-blog]

The packaging for Simple Bank debit card is cool but…

Today I received my debit card from Simple bank. The debit card has an awesome design: it's plain white! You might think it's silly, but it's really smart, because you cannot read the 16 digits unless you are really close to the card. This makes it harder for curious people to sneak on your VISA numbers (sorry for my Photoshop skills):

The packaging for the debit card has an extreme design, and I would like to keep it hidden as a surprise for future customers. However, in my opinion, design should never go beyond purpose, and in this case, Simple bank designers have gone a bit too risky.

Receiving your debit card in this envelope sounds cool, but there is a high probability that the postman will leave it ‘outside’ of your mailbox, rather than inside, both because it won't probably fit, and because it does not come with any note saying ‘urgent’, ‘personal only’, or ‘requires signature’. Luckily enough, I was eager to receive it, so it caught my eye even among all the unwanted mails that my block receives.

[simplebank-blog]

I received a Simple bank invitation!

Sounds incredible, right? Well, good things come to those who wait. Finally I was able to sign up for Simple bank and in a couple of days I should receive my new debit card.

I never mentioned this before, but I'm positively surprised by the quality of the front-end of simple.com – all the forms have a snappy inline validation and confirmation that makes it hard to submit wrong data, while maintaining a nice user experience. The same form to request an invitation is well designed. It's interesting that Simple bank programmers have decided to use MooTools rather than the more popular jQuery.

I found only this minor glitch while submitting the form:

  Since I use an iPod Touch, I don't have a ten-digit phone number associated with my iOS device. But selecting "Other" as the Device Type would not work. The solution was simply to select "iPhone" as the Device Type… just a minor glitch, I know.

Well now… let's wait for the card to arrive!

[simplebank-blog]

More delays from Simple bank

Maybe some day Simple bank will see the light. Maybe some day this blog will make sense. This is what we have from now, just another email, with a vaguer promise of “a bit of a wait before we can bring you on”.

ON: Nov 11th, 2011 FROM: Rachel Giuliani SUBJECT: Thank you from Simple Hi Claudio!  I'm Rachel with Simple's Customer Relations team. Thanks for signing up for an invite to try out Simple.com! Right now we're slowly adding new users and ramping up features. We are really, really excited to show you what we've been building, but as you might have read on our site, there's going to be a bit of a wait before we can bring you on.  So, I'd love to know from you in the meantime: why are you making the switch? What's your story? We're committed to building the best banking experience possible, and that means really understanding where you're coming from and what you're looking for. So what's up?

[simplebank-blog]

Waiting again for a Simple account

Guess what? Almost one year has passed and I don't have an account yet! Looks like they spend more time changing their name (they are now just called Simple) than building their site.

I fully understand that it takes time to launch a new business but, hey, promising an invitation for a given date and not maintaining your word is not a great business card! I'm starting to wonder whether Simple bank will ever see the light…

[simplebank-blog]

Will I ever, ever become a Simple bank customer?

I cannot say I'm unhappy with my Bank of America account: the online service is good and the fees are low. Still, I'd like to give my money to someone else, someone I can trust better. It's really hard to gain my trust by breaking promises, but for a reason or another, it looks like that's what Simple bank intends to do before even opening.

I'll just keep this post brief. First I received this email 7 months ago:

ON: Nov 29th, 2011 FROM: Josh Reich (Simple) SUBJECT: An update from Simple, formerly BankSimple […] I know a lot of future customers are wondering when they’re going to be able to use Simple, and we want to be sure you know what to expect.  You were one of the earliest people to sign up and have been on the list a long time, and we’re thankful that you have stuck with us. Because you got in early, you can probably expect to get your invite by Spring of 2012.   We have begun sending out invites, currently a few dozen at a time, and then we will escalate from there. If that seems a bit slow, it is deliberate. To get ready for a wider release, we are beginning with the core features of spending and depositing, and looking to our first customers for feedback before releasing the full product. We’ve been using the full product internally for a few months, but Simple presents key departures from how banking typically works and we want to make sure that you all love it as much as we do.

Therefore, I simply waited for Spring to be over, and then replied with a short email, asking where my invitation was. Here's today's reply:

ON: June 25th, 2012 SUBJECT: Re: An update from Simple, formerly BankSimple   FROM: Liene from Simple Hi Claudio,  You are definitely right. We hoped to get out the first wave of invites this spring, and we're officially out of spring and into summer now. :(  That said, we are really, really close -- and you are way towards the front of the line. You're very likely to get your invite in the coming weeks -- we'll let you know as soon as it's ready for you.

I have to admit, I started looking at online alternatives because this is taking too long. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any good one, and I don't have access to nearby Credit Union branches. So I'll just give Simple bank one last try… let's hope those coming weeks will not be hundreds of weeks.

[simplebank-blog]

Waiting for a BankSimple account

After five months, I haven't got yet any invitation from SimpleBank (which meanwhile has changed name to BankSimple). Their last e-mail promised an invitation by the end of 2010 but, alas, today I just receive this disappointing e-mail:

ON: Dec 20th, 2010 FROM: Bill DeRouchey SUBJECT: Thank you from BankSimple Hello Claudio,  Thank you for requesting an invitation to try out BankSimple. We can't wait to show you what we've been working on and get your insight into how we can make it better.  Note that we have not sent out any invitations yet. In 2011 we will begin opening up BankSimple for people to try, honoring invite requests in the order they were received. We'll be adding new customers gradually to guarantee that BankSimple works well for everyone.  But until then, I'd love to hear your story. I want to hear from you, personally, about what you want from a bank: your loves, hates, quibbles, desires, hopes, and dreams regarding your financial life. Your insight helps us build a better service. You can also keep up with us by following us on Twitter at @BankSimple or on our blog at http://www.banksimple.com/blog/  Thanks again. Hope to hear from you soon!  Bill DeRouchey Creative Director [email protected]

Well, wait can I say? I'm a bit deceived if they cannot maintain their promises. I hope all of this is for good.

[simplebank-blog]

Signing up for BankSimple

Today I signed up for BankSimple. This is the confirmation email I received:

ON: July 1st, 2010 FROM: [email protected] SUBJECT: Thanks for signing up to BankSimple Hi,  Thank you for expressing an interest in opening an account. Right now we’re in a closed beta but we plan to launch later this year. And because of your early interest, you'll receive an invite soon.  Meanwhile, we'd love to hear about your banking experience and what you're looking for in a bank. If you'd like to help, you can share your thoughts with me through e-mail or you can follow us on either Twitter (http://twitter.com/banksimple) or Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=113300028681393).  Once again, we appreciate your interest. Thank you for your patience and I hope to hear from you soon.  Regards,  Michelle Lee

Hopefully the site will launch soon! Meanwhile I will send them some feedback…