*Update as of June 26

I have FINALLY found a bank that is better It's called Qube and you need to check it out here.

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*Update as of January 2021 simple bank has closed (noooooo!) and I still have not found anything remotely as perfect as it.

Feel free to read below to see what you should be looking for out of your bank.

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SIMPLE BANK

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Arvest can suck it. Everyone uses them around here, but everybody has multiple issues with them. You can't live with "OK" from the people you keep your money. You need the perfect solution.

First off, ditch the notion that you need to go talk to someone.

You are used to places like Arvest where you have issues more often and feel like it'll get solved quickly if you take (even more) time to go talk to them. The reality is that always takes longer. Often times they don't know how to help, because they're own computer software has been confusing them for years. It literally looks like the Matrix with green text on a black screen. *Barf.

Use Simple Bank. It's backed by BBVA Compass Bank, so you know you can trust it. "Simple Bank"is the interface you use for that bank and it is exactly what you need.

It's 100% Free

They send you a beautiful card and provide you with the cleanest mobile app of any online bank.

Expenses

The best feature is Expenses. NOBODY offers this and it's so fundamental. They have a simple system for budgeting thats ultimately a digital version of the envelope system.

You can set up a goal for Eating Out, Coffee, Groceries...whatever you want. When you go to Yeyo's and get a burrito bowl, you'll see a push notification on your phone as soon as you swipe your card. You can set your expenses to automatically take food purchases out of Eating Out or just hit the notification and tap what goal you want to pull it from. Then your balance goes down and you know how much is left in that goal. Its so easy to pull up your phone and see how much you have left for coffee this month. Set it to refill each month or two or whenever.

Joint Accounts

Also completely free. You and your wife each sign up for an account. From the app you can let them know  and they'll give you a joint account and send both of you new cards for that shared account. Incredible. You can send money instantly to all three accounts from the app.

Goals

Goals can be used just like expenses, but they're intended to help you save. Other banks offer similar features, but Simple makes it easiest to do.

It's online so what do I do with cash?

Easy! They work with ATMs in the area to let you use them for FREE. They have a map you can look at but it seems most of them are in Rogers. Us Bentonvillians don't get it that easy, so another idea is getting an a free account at First National Bank and using it to transfer your cash between accounts. I think it's easiest to use your Simple card get cash back at the grocery store when it comes time for Farmers Market or whatever you may rarely need cash for.

Checks

They will send you checks - sure, but you can use the app to write a check that they will mail to the person you owe. Simple. Perfect. If you think about it, your check has all the important account information just sitting on it, so it's nice that it's not laying around.

Support

They're support team is open during business hours and they are fast and phenomenal. You can always understand them and I'm pretty sure it's the people gathered around the table in the header image. When I get off the phone with them I'm always surprised how quickly and easy things are because I'm used to dealing with Arvest growing up.

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Managing your money has to be clear and easy or you end up spending it when you shouldn't. Simple Bank knows that and they actually want to help. Our families have been using it for years and there's no going back. It's one of those things that you wonder where it's been the past 10 years. I always tell people it's made the biggest difference in my life, as far as normal everyday things.

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So there's another little musing for ya, because we care.

Also We hate ads. Nobody pays us for this. It's honestly because it changed our lives for the better.

We can't help but pass it on. We got your back.

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- Brad