Quote:
Originally Posted by dkgojackets
what makes it better than a regular bank
Are you like Mint?
Yes and (mostly) no. Simple replaces your bank. Simple offers budgeting tools like Mint, but that’s where the similarities end. We do not aggregate accounts at other banks, credit cards, loans, etc. into a single view.
Now, about our categorization and budgeting functions: because we’ve built the entire banking experience from the ground up, Simple receives much richer data than third-party tools. With better data, Simple can help you do things like categorize your transactions, understand your spending in real time, and make all your activity searchable. Our Reports feature gives you detailed analysis of your finances over time. Budgeting is also much easier when it's right in your account. With Goals, you can save money over time, or flexibly set aside chunks of money for bills, treats, or any reason you want. More on our features here
What about fees?
Simple does not profit from fees. We believe that sort of business model creates an adversarial relationship between banks and their customers, since the bank benefits when customers make mistakes. That’s not right. We’re adamant about minimizing fees and never penalizing our customers.
This means:
No hidden fees, no monthly debit card fees, account maintenance fees, low balance fees, overdraft fees, or anything of that sort; and
No fees for domestic funds transfers, or for using a domestic out-of-network ATM (although the out-of-network ATM owner may charge a fee).
Though the fees are very few and far between, we’re not entirely fee-free. After 180 days (6 months) of inactivity, we charge a $5 monthly fee to avoid escheatment, which is when the government attempts to reclaim "unused" bank accounts. But don't worry: we want to avoid that as much as you do, and we'll warn you before it happens! The only other time you might ever incur charges from Simple is when the service you request is too expensive for us to cover (e.g. international wire transfers). In these cases, we only charge you what the service costs to provide. For details, see our Schedule of Fees.
If you don’t profit from fees, how does Simple make money?
Great question! Simple makes money in two ways, interest margin and interchange:
Interest margin is the main way banks made money for centuries (before the fees game). Basically, it’s revenue a bank earns from loans, less the interest the bank pays its customers on deposits. For example, if a bank earns 8% interest on its loans and pays 3% interest on its customers’ deposits, the interest margin would be 5%. Our partner bank splits this interest margin with us.
Interchange is revenue earned by a card-issuing bank when customers make purchases using that bank’s card. Our bank partners split this interchange revenue with us.
Additionally, since Simple is exclusively online, we don’t build or maintain branches, which keeps our costs down compared to the operating costs of traditional banks.