Simple Rolls Out Shared Accounts After Months Of Testing

Simple, the online bank, announced Tuesday (Feb. 28) the launch of Shared accounts.

In a blog post, Simple said it launched the new feature after months of beta testing and 70 hours of research conversations with partners. With Shared accounts, two people open an account, and each partner has individual access with back-and-forth access to the other person’s account.

“We built Shared to help partners feel confident with their money and (dare to) hope that it will be a bank account that helps relationships. We wanted to remove the confusion that comes with traditional accounts and give every type of partnership a clear view of how they’re spending and saving — together,” Simple said in the blog post. Simple’s idea is that if there is transparency with finances, better communication and thus better trust and understanding can flourish between couples.

“With Shared, transparency isn’t a one-time transaction. The conversations customers have when starting their financial lives together are revisited the longer partners use the account, with help from the Simple features customers already know,” said Simple. Every time one partner swipes a Shared card, a push notification will appear on both users’ phones, showing the transaction and where it was made.

Simple went on to note that it designed Shared so that partners get one account to share and two they can use alone, which makes managing finances more fluid than the traditional way of banking with disconnected joint accounts. Another perk of Shared accounts is that account creation is fast and doesn’t require a visit to a branch. According to Simple, the entire process to open a Shared account should take an average of 48 seconds.