This offer is now unavailable. You can view our list of the best interest bearing accounts here or see our extensive list of banking promotions here.
Simple currently has a promotion where you can earn up to 0.50% annual percentage yield (APY) – 12.5x National Average. If you’re interested, see below on how you can earn this bonus and competitive APY with Simple.
About Banking with Simple
So what is Simple?
Simple is a digital banking platform where customers can bank, budget, and save all in one place. Simple builds features and offers products that help people feel confident with their money.
All in all, Simple’s online banking account is merely a streamlined method of keeping your personal finances managed through the convenience of your smartphone.
Much like other banks that do not operate via a brick and mortar, you can expect no fees to be charged for banking with Simple.
So where are your funds held? Funds in your Simple account are held by BBVA USA and are FDIC insured up to the legal limit.
Who can apply? Any one over the age of 18 years of age that has a social security number can apply!
How To Earn Rate
Bank, budget & earn up to 0.50% APY when you open a new Simple Account with qualifying activities.
When you open an Individual Protected Goals Account and transfer funds there to earn up to 0.50% APY.
Bank, budget, and save with up to 0.50% APY. Simple’s Protected Goals Account is designed to help you save in a separate high-yield checking account.
- Earn 0.50% APY on balances $10,000 and above
- Earn 0.50% APY on balances $9,999 or less
None
Simple Up to $400 Checking Bonus
The bonus offer is current unavailable.
Bank, budget & earn up to $400 and 0.50% APY when you open a new Simple Account with qualifying activities.
How to earn $400 bonus
- Earn $400 when you apply for a new Simple Account by 3/15/20 4:59PM PT,
- Deposit(s) totaling $20,000 or more must be posted to the new account by 4:59PM PT 15 days after account opening, and
- Maintain a balance of at least $20,000 through 5/31/20 4:59 PM PT. OR
- Qualifying customers will receive the bonus credit to their Simple Account by 6/15/20 4:59PM PT.
How to earn $200 bonus
- Earn a $200 bonus when you apply for a new Simple Account by 3/15/20 4:59PM PT,
- Deposit(s) totaling $10,000 or more must be posted to the new account by 4:59PM PT 15 days after account opening, and
- Maintain a balance of at least $10,000 through 5/31/20 4:59PM PT.
- Qualifying customers will receive the bonus credit to their Simple Account by 6/15/20 4:59PM PT.
Open an Individual Protected Goals Account and transfer funds there to earn up to 0.50% APY. So long as your combined balance in both accounts total the minimum balance requirements for the offer, you’ll be eligible for the bonus – meaning you could earn up to $400 and the competitive APY.
Bank, budget, and save with up to 0.50% APY. Simple’s Protected Goals Account is designed to help you save in a separate high-yield checking account.
- Earn 0.50% APY on balances $10,000 and above
- Earn 0.50% APY on balances $9,999 or less
None
- Qualifying customers will receive the bonus credit to their Simple Account by 6/15/20 4:59 PM PT.
- Accounts must be open and in good standing with a balance greater than or equal to $0.00 at the time of the bonus credit.
- Maximum of one (1) $400 bonus OR one (1) $200 bonus per customer.
- BBVA USA may report the value of the bonus to the IRS as required by law. Any client whose tax status would require BBVA USA to impose tax withholding of any sort will not be eligible for this bonus.
- Offer may be modified or withdrawn without notice. – Balances in the Simple Account earn 0.01% APY. – All tiers and balances in the Protected Goals Account earn 0.50% APY.
The following customers and accounts are excluded from this promotion:
- Customers who applied for and/or opened any Simple Account before 2/29/20 at 4 PM PT do not qualify. – Balances in Shared Accounts and Shared Protected Goals Accounts are excluded from the combined balance calculation. – Simple employees are ineligible for this promotion.
Simple Banking Features
Not only are Simple online checking account deposits FDIC-insured up to the legal limit, you can expect no sort of monthly fee to use the account.
In addition, you get access to built-in budgeting & savings tools, quick direct deposit set-up, no overdraft fees, over 40,000 totally-free ATMs, and instant push notifications for every swipe.
Sounds great, yes? The benefits don’t stop there – here’s more
Earn 0.50% APY on Protected Goals Account balances of $10,000 or more, Protected Goals Account balances lower than $10,000 still earn a competitive 0.50% APY
Use Goals to stash away money.
Save for the unexpected or automate saving for things you want. From a trip to Italy to a new bike.
Set it & forget: Set up your Expenses one time and going forward, we’ll do the boring work of recreating the Expense for you.
That way, when you pay your rent bill, your Expense is already saving up for next month’s bill.
Yep, it’s our job now. (You can even split Expenses with a partner when using a Shared Account).
Earn interest with whoever you’re interested in: Let your money earn several times national average APY with a Shared Protected Goals Account.
And when it comes to shared bills, two paychecks are better than one!
Open a Simple Shared Account and Shared Protected Goals Account and tackle them together.
Spend spontaneously, without derailing your budget or bills (or doing math on the spot…).
We take your account balance, subtract your Expenses and Goals, and tell you exactly how much money you have leftover to spend on whatever you want. (Buy the shoes!)
Whenever you make a purchase, Simple will round up what you spend to the next whole dollar amount.
When the “change” from those transactions reaches or exceeds $5, Simple transfers it to your Protected Goals Account — so easy you won’t even feel it.
It’s like a digital change jar… one that adds up to real money in the bank.
Mobile App Deposit
Using their mobile app, you can take a picture of a check and have it deposited directly into your account. The funds will be available between 0-9 business days after the deposit is processed.
Other ways to fund your account:
- Direct deposit
- Transfer funds electronically from an account at another institution
- Check Deposits by mail
- Use cash to get a money order at any USPS, local grocery or convenience store then deposit it with the mobile app
Simple. So many great features.
Bottom Line
With mobile banks rapidly growing, Simple offers you a non-traditional banking experience.
If you are interested, why not give them a try and earn a generous bonus along the way?
If you are up for trying out a free account that monitors and tracks your spending, then I definitely recommend checking out the promotion!
For more promotions like this, check out our massive list of the most popular bank bonuses and the best bank rates from institutions like Chase Bank, HSBC, CIT Bank, Discover Bank, Huntington Bank, TD Bank, BBVA, Axos Bank, American Express, and more!
Is a hard pull on credit required? If so, which bureau is used? Thanks in advance
I had a similar experience. When I emailed support, I was told that there was “nothing that they could do”. So I chalked it up to not understanding the offer. I didn’t even argue, just closed the account.
…… but, three weeks later I got a cashier’s check for the $250. Thought it was junk mail and almost threw it out. I suspect that others may be seeing similar checks coming their way.
Does anyone have a printout of the $250 bonus offer in July by Simple? I opened the account in July and put $10K in their Protected Goals account before Aug 15 and kept it until Oct 31 as required. They are now bailing out on the promised bonus because I apparently didn’t open the Protected Goals account also in July but this requirement was never stated anywhere. I tend to read the fine print carefully.
Looks like a classic bait-and-switch. If I can get a copy of the original offer (I should so have saved a copy myself like I usually do), I can hold them to their word. Thanks.
Tried to deposit 20K to qualify for the bonus. After opening the account, we were informed that our ‘transfer limit’ would be 5000.00 per day. After trying for three more consecutive days to add an additional 5000.00, we were informed that the limit might be 5000.00 per MONTH. When we tried to transfer the 5K back to our linked bank they refused, insisting that we needed to ‘verify’ the institution we were transferring to – the one that they had just ‘verified’ and received the deposit FROM! Perhaps ‘Complicated Bank’ would be a better name?
Opened an account in July and they just told me I was not qualified for the $250 bonus because I opened the wrong account. Yup bait and switched that $250 bonus is too good to be true, go with CapitalOne they give you the bonus right away. Stay away from Simple.
Hi Diane,
Simple is currently offering 2.15% APY for balances of $10,000 or greater.
I just went through the steps to open an account but then saw that the Protected Goals account pays 2.02% not 2.15%. I may cancel…
It sounded too simple- so is it true that it requires 20,000?
For the 500$ you will need both an account just for you with 10k and a share account with another 10k. And moving money into the protected goal is like confusing as hell
Would you mind clarifying how opening this account is not simple. And just so I am clear on this deal, an individual will only earn $250, but if two people share a new account then they will earn $500 right?
OMG I just said the same thing to the someone helping me on the phone….not simple at all
It should be called not so simple account or simply confusing account.
yes 20k to get 500 , it doesn’t worse it , 250 for 10k is better than nothing.
You are absolutely right about that. The instruction is not clear and in fact, confusing. One has to be knowledgeable enough to navigate different tab in order to meet the qualification. It is not as simple as open an account, transfer money in and wait. My guess is that many will be disappointed at the end when they found out they did not follow all the “steps”, when the “steps” were not clearly explained.
P.S Hustlemoneyblog is great, however, always thankful to get info here.
It seems to be 10k per protected goal account for the $250 bonus. You can have 2 of these protected goal accounts, an individual and a shared for a possible total of $500 bonus. (funded with a total of $20k),
is this bank even fdic insured??
The Simple Bank promotion is deceptively confusing! First of all, one must open two separate accounts- an individual and then the protected goals. The required $10,000 deposit cannot be electronically transferred to the account from an external bank because their initial limit for this means of funding is $5,000 when initiated from their site. BUT this is not stated or explained anywhere! The customer service rep I reached by phone the first time advised me that I would need to send an additional check of $5,000 through snail mail by the Aug 15 deadline, which seemed like just too much work and a bit fishy, especially for a strictly online bank! So I closed the account before funding it at all in frustration. After which a second customer service rep said that I could have funded it with the additional $5,000 by initiating the transfer at my external bank. BUT because they cannot reopen my account for 30 days, they refused to help me in time to make the July 31 deadline for opening an account. Bottom line: Their required terms are misleading and insufficient and their customer service is even worse!
I have the same question. $20K deposit for $500 bonus or $10K deposit for $500 bonus.?
So we have to deposit $10k for the individual and $10k in the shared account in order to get $500 or is it $10k for both?
There hasn’t been anything simple about setting up the protected goals account.
First, you need to create a regular checking account (there is no way to specify that you want the protected goals savings account when you apply).
Then once your account is created and you have logged in, you have to click Protected Goals on the top right, which is a separate account that you need to create. The problem is, they won’t create the account unless you do an external transfer from your bank via the credentials login method. I have not been able to get this to work and have tried two different bank accounts of mine.
So I guess I have no choice but to call them tomorrow and have a rep open the savings account for me manually, which means I’ll have to do an external transfer from my other bank’s site.
This blog post needs to be updated with the proper instructions, otherwise you’ll only be creating a checking account when you sign up, which is *NOT* the account that receives the $250 bonus.
I wish the instruction was more clear on how to open the required account, other than simply stating “open a protected goals account (either individual or shared)”.
What I noticed when joining Simple, is that you don’t get to choose the type of account when you sign up. A Safe-to-Spend account is automatically assigned to you. And then, you will have to click the Protected Goals on the top right to get a Protected Goals account. (When I was doing this, I didn’t feel like I was actually creating a new account, unlike some other bank).
Then, if you need to get a shared account, you will have to click on your name, then go to “Start a shared account.” Again, Simple doesn’t make navigation simple. They actually make you go to different places to get different things done.
Hi hisham,
You can find the direct link to the offer within the article. Hope this helps!
I don’t see a single word on simple.com about the $500 bonus, but when I call customer service they tell me about it verbally, why there is no something in writing, is this a scam ?
I just called them and yes you will need an individual account plus the joint shared account to get the full $500. I don’t have anybody that I would want to have a joint account with so I’m trying to decide if the $250 is worth it to open the acct. She said the interest rate is still 2.02% if you have $10,000 in there so maybe it is worth it.
We’re sorry to let you know that your Simple application was not approved. For security and regulatory purposes, we can’t tell you the specific reason.
Well that’s not helpful. Maybe Chex sensitive since I’ve opened a lot of accounts to get promotions.
So does this mean you need $10k in each account for a total of $20k?
It’s working fine. Try again.
Links aren’t working
Does it mean I will need two (individual and shared) accounts in order to get the full $500 bonus? The website is a big confusing on this one.
Thanks. It has been updated.
Just wanted to let you know that when you go to the offer link it says, “Share Simple is undergoing maintenance.”
I’m not sure if that means you definitely won’t get the $20 sign up bonus but, I’m assuming no! I did send a message inquiring about it…I’ll let you know if they respond!
I’ve gotten loads of useful info from your site & wanted to pass this info along to you in return! Not a huge thank you to you but…
Thanks for everything you post! 🙂