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Hands-on: New budgeting app is a drop-in replacement for Simple, and I love it
Simple may be dead, but DAS Budget copies its best budgeting features and works with nearly any bank
On the day of Simple’s scheduled migration to BBVA, a new and Simple-inspired budgeting app has emerged: DAS Budget. A Simple user himself, developer Anthony Alves first reacted to the news of the bank's shutdown much like I did: By trying out nearly every alternative bank he could. After being similarly disappointed, he decided to shift his focus, trying new budgeting tools instead of banks, but the overly complicated options left him (and all of us) unhappy. What he really wanted was Simple's user interface yanked out and plugged into any bank. So, that's exactly what he built, and I love it.
Earlier this year, we found out that the much-loved bank Simple would be shutting down, with customers transferred over to parent company BBVA. At the time, a precise date had not yet been set for this change, but today the company has sent out an email blast, notifying customers that they can anticipate the change to happen on May 8th. And if you were hoping there would be a softer transition, you're out of luck: both the Simple app and site will go dark on that date as well.
BBVA-owned Simple has announced that it is shutting down. The popular online-only bank offered features like a smart budgeting "goals" system and a very high savings interest rate — back when high interest rates were a thing. However, BBVA has decided it's time to sunset Simple, and more information regarding the transition to servicing by BBVA directly will be available soon.
Google is getting into banking — again, if you count the failure of Google Wallet
It's called Plex, and you can sign up for the waitlist now
Google has decided the time is right to get into banking — again, kinda. This even more deeply-integrated do-over is called "Plex," and this time, it's going to be backed by a pile of partner institutions, starting with Citi and Stanford Federal Credit Union, but expanding to include nine more later. You can't sign up just yet, but there is a waitlist.
We've known Android Pay was coming to Spain for a couple of months now, and the app started showing up for some users on Android a few days ago, but now the news is official. Android Pay has launched in Spain with BBVA being the first and only supported bank.