Simple (Formerly BankSimple) Review

As an Ally customer, I am thoroughly underwhelmed.

The transactions UI is cool, but you have to use your debit card to take advantage of it, which means you're leaving 2-5% of money on the table with every purchase.

The only feature that could have convinced me to switch from Ally (budgeting) is not there yet.

There are tons of basic banking features missing, like checks, joint accounts, ACH transfers.

But the top thing I miss from Ally is the awesome bill pay. I've come to rely on my bank to alert me of bills when they come, and automatically pay them for me at the right time. For credit card bills I can even specify if I want to pay the minimum, full, or custom amount.

For something that's been years in the making, I was expecting more.

The biggest ding for me so far is lack of integration with Mint. That's probably done on the Mint side, but Simple has to know their customers strongly overlap and should be pushing hard for it.

I really looked forward to a Bank Simple account for years, but at this point I use a high yield account for my checking. Switching to Bank Simple would cost me about $200 a year, as their banking partner offers a pittance in terms of interest on checking.

I too signed up for the waiting list over a year ago and recently received an invite. But I just didn't see any compelling reason to move. Right now I'm using a combination of 'real' banks + ING direct and feel like I get the best of both worlds