Most people don’t cry over their banks. Well, I guess I do. In the past few days, I received an email from Simple bank informing me that BBVA the parent company of Simple Bank had decided that it was time to shut the doors on my favorite online bank.
Why does this matter at all? Well, Simple was one of the OG online banks that popped up in the 2000s. I‘m always on the early adopter’s list for pretty much anything online. You could say I’m a professional Beta tester and part-time Alpha tester.
When Simple opened their Beta doors I jumped on board and was pleasantly surprised by the ease of use and Simplicity of their online money management concept. They offered a nice to use digital cash envelope system, which I often offered my advice to the developers on ways to improve.
I told everyone I knew that they should open a Simple Bank account, why not it’s free. Well, over time I kind of stopped using Simple as my “Main” bank in favor of banks that allowed me to deposit cash at an ATM. This is something that all online banks are failing to grasp. They need to allow their users to deposit cash easily, instead of getting a money order and then taking a photo in-app to deposit it. Sure it’s convenient, but not optimal.
Now it seems that the current owners (BBVA) have decided to plunder and pillage, instead of making Simple a more known name in the online banking world.
As of today, there is a “Thanks for the memories” place holder on the main Simple page.
A few other things to note at the time of writing this post. BBVA the parent company of Simple Bank is also in talks with PNC Bank to decide its own future. PNC being the bigger of the two.
I also heard that Azlo Bank an online business bank was also closing its doors. Not sure why, but welcome to 2021 the twin sister of 2020. Know what I mean?
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