Entrepreneuer Josh Reich’s BankSimple concept (the bank that isn’t a bank because banks suck) continues to get closer to reality and is expected to go live this Fall for its first 10,000 customers. Heavy on the technology and light on the fees, he received a pretty nice write-up in Business Week. This just might be a good option for those of you reaching the end of the BS you have to put up with at Chase.
Innovator: Building a Better Bank
Fed up with poor service at traditional banks, Josh Reich is building BankSimple—an alternative with “the agility and mindset of a tech company”
By Ira Boudway
Ask Josh Reich about banks, and he’s quick to tell you they “suck.” Traditional banks, Reich says, have become giant tangles of computer systems that can’t talk to each other and can scarcely keep track of their customers. So the 32-year-old developed what he calls BankSimple, an alternative bank with “the agility and mindset of a tech company.”
As reported today in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, entrepreneuer Josh Reich is moving ahead with his BankSimple idea, which is meant to be an antidote to big banks like Chase and will have features like
No branches (yes, this is a feature)
Access to a large network of ATM’s
Smartphone optimized access
No overdraft fees
Earn interest at above average rates
Smartphone notification system for debit transactions – you get notified of every transaction so you will know the second fraud occurs
The motto for BankSimple is “BankSimple isn’t bank becasue banks suck.”
The plan is to begin serving an initial 10,000 customers this Fall.
Sometimes you just have to stand back from all the negative news about Chase and laugh. It is really quite hilarious what they do at times.
Like this latest letter Chase’s Paymentech subsidiary sent to customers, under the guise of being even more transparent with its customers about its merchant processing fees. Even one recipient of the letter, a lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard, can’t understand what they are trying to say.
That BankSimple concept we wrote about a few days ago is looking better and better.
It is no secret here at chase-sucks.org that we don’t like Chase. But the truth is that we have struggled to find ANY bank that we like and treats customers like the valuable asset that we are, rather than the way Chase (and most banks) treats its customers, like a resource from which to repeatedly extract fees and treat with disdain.
Well, a new banking concept called BankSimple, a bank built on simplicity and with no hidden fees, or heck, even non-hidden fees is in the works. While this concept is still in the planning stages by one of the early Twitter employees, the fact that someone is thinking of this concept is making us think about whether it is the future of banking.
Is it possible that a bank like BankSimple, and perhaps others of the same mold, could decimate the current banks customer base?
According to the lifehacker poll in the above link, a full 40% of respondants are unhappy with their current banks and would consider switching to a bank like BankSimple.
Do you know what a loss of 40%, or even 20% of their customer base would do to big banks like Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo?
Ask Josh Reich about banks, and he’s quick to tell you they “suck.” Traditional banks, Reich says, have become giant tangles of computer systems that can’t talk to each other and can scarcely keep track of their customers. So the 32-year-old developed what he calls BankSimple, an alternative bank with “the agility and mindset of a tech company.”
Tips | admin July 31, 2010 | 
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