
With GoBank, You Can Carry All Your Money In Your Pocket - sama
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57563963-94/with-gobank-you-can-carry-all-your-money-in-a-pocket/
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henrikschroder
I read the other GoBank story, but since it linked to the actual website,
which IP-blocked me, I had no idea what they were actually about. So, thanks
for this one. :-)

That said, everything they offer I get at my current bank, which has been
following the same strategy for over a decade now; almost no branch offices, a
stellar internet bank, an even more stellar mobile app, and no weird fees at
all. I pay ~$30 a year, and only because my debit card is a VISA card as well.

To me, it's hilarious to read about all the breathless Valley startups doing
"amazing products" for personal finance that will "revolutionize" whatever. I
haven't yet seen anything that my boring old bank doesn't already do. In
addition to everything I listed above, all my purchases are automatically
categorized, all my income and deposits are automatically categorized, and my
bank automatically generates pretty Web2.0 pages and diagrams where I can
slice and dice my personal finance as I wish, or export everything to Excel
spreadsheets or whatever.

But then again, I'm not in the US, and my bank isn't a US bank, so to those
living in the Valley bubble, the bank I'm using simply doesn't exist, and only
the stuff made in the Valley is exciting and awesome, despite there being
superior products made long ago, elsewhere.

Of course, there are also probably a lot of products that are outside of _my_
spheres, which blow whatever solution _I'm_ using completely out of the water,
but I'm just blissfully unaware, because it's in some country I don't have
dealings with or know anything about, but I sure wish some ideas would spread
faster and wider than they do. :-/

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imjared
I've had a similar experience with Simple. The app is beautiful but it's
really just another credit card. I love my bank and the features they provide
(insurance, different types of credit cards, loans, etc.) are significantly
better than what's really just a pretty iPhone app.

~~~
encoderer
Same here. I have a simple account with the $100 opening deposit in it. It's a
beautiful UI, but changing banks is an awful pain in the butt and I'm pretty
happy, in general, with Bank of America.

My wife and I have our personal and joint accounts there. I hardly ever use my
debit card (nobody should! Debit cards are, in general, awful. Credit cards
give you actual protection and far more perks). What I care about in my bank
is that I can easily connect everything with my wife, that I can easily do
bill pay, and that I have full-service ATMs and iPhone apps that include
deposit features.

But if I was 20 again and had far simpler banking needs, I think I'd use
Simple.

Oh, another thing is, when it comes time for a mortgage or other installment
loan, it's sometimes beneficial to have my money at the same institution. If
we decided to dump BofA I can see us moving to a credit union (Alliant is
great, for example), but as Simple isn't a full-service bank I'd have to pass
on it.

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jmillikin
Most of the article is merely breathless praise of features that other banks
and credit unions have had for years, but one paragraph caught my eye:

    
    
      > Altman said GoBank was also designed to save customers
      > time and that Green Dot looked for lots of ways to
      > accomplish that. One, he explained, is that customers
      > can check their account balance, without logging in, in
      > just two seconds -- far faster than the 80 seconds or so
      > it takes people on many banks' mobile apps, he said.
    

So anyone who borrows my phone can see my account balance? If my phone gets
stolen while it's unlocked, the thief knows who I am and how much liquid cash
I have available?

~~~
henrikschroder
I have no idea how it works in the GoBank app, but in my bank's app I can mark
one account as the "quick-check" account, and on the start-screen of the app
there is then a pull-down which reveals the balance of that specific account
when you activate it. No account numbers or any other info, just the balance.

I love the feature, it literally takes two seconds to find out my balance, but
yes, if someone borrows my phone or steals it, they can know how much money I
have on one of my accounts. If you're the type of person who worries about
that, simply don't activate the feature. :-)

(Oh, and you have to re-authorize the "quick-check" account once a month or
something while being fully logged in to the bank app, so it automatically
expires if you forget about it, which is a nice feature. Still, that's my
boring old bank, and not cool and hip and revolutionizing GoBank... :-) )

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Apocryphon
As cool as GoBank and Simple are, financially speaking, how do they improve
upon simply switching to credit unions or community banks?

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austenallred
Based on the title, I was really hoping this would be a parody.

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josh_fyi
> You Can Carry All Your Money In Your Pocket

With that headline, this looks like an anti-GoBank article. The though "carry
all my money in my pocket" suggests to me that a mugger could grab my 401(K).

Sure, there are security features, but this is NOT a good pitch-line.

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contingencies
As I am involved in implementing a banking style system (from scratch) at the
moment, I would really like to know what features people are interested in
(not) seeing at their bank. Please.

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tlrobinson
Applying "the Radiohead model" to a faceless bank seems odd. I feel like
people would be more willing to choose to pay more in the case of artists.

