Hi, all! I wanted to jump in and thank everyone for the support and the great conversations Iām seeing throughout this thread. As a few people have already noted, Monzo USA is still in beta phase so we may not have all the great features that Simple had yet, but we are up and running and welcoming anyone interested to sign up for our waitlist.
We may not be able to respond to each and every comment, but be assured that we are reading everything posted here and appreciate the feedback as it helps guide our product roadmap and helps us build the bank you want to use! Again, thank you for all the support and feedback!
More out of curiosity more than anything @stephanyhong is it a case of youre still continually giving people access from the waitlist or when do you see the waitlist being removed?
Its a long time ago but believe monzo uk removed the waitlist while still in beta. When do you think monzo us will be in a state to do similar?
Hello!
Fellow Simple refugee here. I was always a big fan of the Safe-to-Spend and Expenses feature. I tracked pretty much every monthly expense and subscription through expenses, which meant that I never overspent because I avoided letting my Safe-to-Spend number go below zero. Simple was incredibly easy to use and the automatic transaction categorization was generally pretty good. Even if it got a transaction wrong, it was easy to make adjustments quickly.
Fortunately, I had a beta invite from Monzo from a few weeks ago and am waiting for my card in the mail. Pots, Salary Sorter, & Summary seem like will mostly replace my workflow, even if it requires a few more manual steps.
I did want to ask one question though. As a former employee of a now-defunct regional-bank backed neobank project and someone who is losing their primary bank, how committed Monzo is to launching a full product here in the US? Sometimes projects donāt work out and with the uncertainty of the past year I want to be sure that my next bank is will be around for a while. If anyone from Monzo is reading, can you speak how likely or unlikely it would be for Monzo to pull out of the US?
Thanks!
Hi Nathan,
Thanks for the question! As you pointed out, we currently have a waitlist and are continually unlocking people from the waitlist. We havenāt set a deadline to remove the waitlist yet, but it is something we are discussing. We want to be intentional in unlocking customers at the right pace to ensure we are providing the best customer service and customer experience as we continue to build out the US product.
Thanks!
n26 only offers 2 spaces? I have 20+ āspacesā in Simple.
Inspired by this thread - and by @N26throwawayās Simple evangelism - Iām keen to understand more about Simple.
Being in the UK I canāt open an account (and presumably sign ups have stopped now anyway). But can anyone point me in the direction of videos, articles etc that can show the interface and how things work?
Keen to educate myself!
I wonder if anyone (Monzo or otherwise) has approached BBVA about acquiring Simple? Even if they donāt want to sell the customer base as a going concern, the technology, engineering teams and IPR would have some value.
Unless BBVA sees value in that stuff too and wants to keep it for reasons unknown.
(Actually, Iād be intrigued to know if the Simple residual liabilities, IPR, tech stack etc will stay with BBVA or transfer to the acquirer of its US business. If BBVA intend to keep it that would be interestingā¦)
Looks like the end is coming soon. Simpleās website is now talking about the BBVA transfer and content about Simple features is hard to find 
Thereās a Simple/BBVA comparison on the website now. Are these BBVA fees typical? They are painful 
Theyāre quite common across banks with a physical presence. Especially the overdraft and insufficient funds fees. Some will take it farther; for example, Santander charges $35 as an initial overdraft fee and a further $35 āsustained overdraftā fee on US accounts if you stay in overdraft for more than five business days (imagine if they tried that in the UK). One of the biggest selling points of challenger banks like Simple was that they wouldnāt charge you such onerous fees for overdrafting your account or if they had to refuse an ACH debit for insufficient funds.
That being said, the above is for what would be called āunarrangedā overdraft in the UK. Some banks in the US also offer arranged overdraft facilities but unlike a lot of UK overdraft facilities, charge both a fixed fee and interest. For example, my account at BMO-Harris (regional bank in the Midwest) has a $1000 overdraft facility that charges 18% APR and $10 each time I need to dip into it. I also have a $500 overdraft facility at a local credit union that charges 12% APR and $4 per use. And cheaper still than both of those if the need arises and I know in advance is to withdraw cash from my Barclaycard Ring, at 8% APR and $1 cash advance fee (itās also a backup source of funds when I travel; I keep it and a couple other credit cards tucked away in my luggage in case my wallet is stolen).
May 8th
If you read BBVAās fine print, youāll know why. They are a predatory bank. They even state in their documents that they will charge a secondary fee for NSF fees, and (like a community credit union named Rivermark) they will charge you a fee for every pending charge, no matter if itās posted. Thatās where the secondary fee comes in as well; once an item posts to the account (bank A actually presents the charge to your bank) youāll be charged another fee, if not another NSF fee as well. If you look deep enough, there are transaction fees as well for some items.
RUN from BBVA if you value your money and, like my husband and I, refuse to support predatory companies.
Sounds like everything is going just swell over at BBVA during the end days of Simple
HugOps to their IT department!
Whoops, normally Discourse indicates if an article has been shared before
Given that Simple has now closed, and that other topic exits, letās close this one in favour of the other:
Maybe post your questions over at the other topic as well @N26throwaway - be a shame to lose them on this older topic I mistakenly resurrected