I'm surprised so many people are clamoring for this. While the system seems excellent overall, the lack of a rewards program on the card seems like a deal-breaker for day-to-day use. Why would I use this instead of a credit card that gives me 1-5% cash back?
1. Unless you're doing an absolute ton of spending on your rewards credit card, any fees you pay on your credit card probably wipe out any cash you're getting back. If you're not paying fees yourself, merchants or other institutions may be subsidizing your rewards in ways that aren't sustainable. Many rewards programs have been slashed during the financial crisis of the last several years.
2. Cash-back rewards make your personal accounting more complicated. If you really want to set and meet financial goals, you need to be keeping close tabs on what you spend on what card, how much you're getting back in rewards, what fees you're paying, and where those reward dollars are going so that you're actually accumulating wealth (saving account, brokerage account, etc.). Our model combines an interest-bearing account with the ability to easily track your financial goals. Keeping it all in one place is, in our experience, way easier.
We're not crazy about the idea of rewards programs, but it's also not something we've completely ruled out. If we can find a way to do a rewards program that has clear incentives for our customers, merchants, and our partner institutions, we'll explore that.
1. I pay no fees on my credit card. My full balance is paid automatically and 1-5% is refunded (depending on where I spent the money). To put that in perspective, if I spend $50,000 I get back $500-2500, which is not an insignificant amount. You are absolutely correct that rewards are subsidized by merchant and banking fees. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but don't merchants have to pay fees when accepting Visa debit cards as well?
2. Cash-back rewards only make personal accounting more complicated if you calculate them on an ongoing basis and pay additional fees for the credit card. If you do neither of these you'll stay within your budget and be rewarded with a substantial bonus every month that you can then spend or invest.
With all that said, I agree that keeping it all in one place would be much easier and I would love to try Simple myself. I just can't imagine replacing my day-to-day purchases with a debit card, no matter how awesome the system that surrounds that card may be.
And if you're not into credit cards just by principle, there's always Perkstreet's debit card. As their tagline goes, "No fees, just perks." (Perks being gift cards or cash back.)
