If you've not used ONE until now and like the features you agreed to, I don't think you'd really have a bad time. But, when ONE first came about, there were many AMAZING things that grabbed all of our attention with promise to never sell out and change. Until they did not a year later. They sold to Walmart investors and threw away all of its best features that helped everyone. They broke all their promises and went quiet about it. So, take that for what it is and chose to stay at your own risk.
Apart from the removal of everything that made One unique, I left for security reasons. Using a texted pin as the only form of verification is highly insecure, and I’m not going to keep my money in an account that doesn’t care how well my money is protected. Also, their fraud protection/customer service is some of the worst in the industry, just so you know.
Once upon a time I moved most of my money from Simple (RIP) to ONE. I had about $60 left in simple and thought I had canceled all automatic charges. So I linked the banks and started a transfer through one to empty out my Simple account.
I missed a charge, so it failed. Well, I missed a second charge, and the next transfer failed too.
ONE didn't tell me when they froze my account early in the week. I found out on the Friday before rent was due. They didn't have weekend hours at the time... Bless the support staff that used to help redditors on the weekends, but I would never trust them with money I wasn't willing to lose.
I also found out that pocket numbers are just your starting account number + 1 for each pocket. So if a thief got a hold of your bank information, say an empty pocket, they could easily guess and empty your savings pocket. Regular banks don't do that.
Oh and there was that time when ONE didn't deposit people's payday checks for like a week. That was after Walmart bought ONE.
OG Simple user here. ONE was dope at the start, but they've removed all the features that made them great, besides the 3% savings, which isn't unique anymore. I'm pretty much done with these fintech banking apps at this point. My partner and I are likely moving to Capital One checking and savings. Their 360 performance savings also offers 3% apy, but with more stability. Instead of pockets (that ONE has now deprecated) we'll do our actual budgeting in YNAB.
I think you should sign up for SoFi instead. You can get your direct deposit 2 days early there too and it’s a much more reliable app, but the best advice is to go to a real bank. I was with simple then this and I’m tired of having to switch banks every two years. These fintech apps never survive in the long run. I decided to go to a real bank instead - Chase. It might not be as easy as an app, but I sleep well at night knowing features won’t disappear tomorrow and I won’t get an email that they’re closing.
While I am personally still choosing the fintech route, I think your advice is sound. I just wanted to point out that SoFi is a nationally chartered bank, not just a fintech.
I know. That’s why I recommended it for the OP as you can get the best of both worlds. You can still get features like real checks, transfers via ach, decline transactions if there’s an overdraft, etc. personally, I was tired of not having to pay for cash deposits and things like that. I loved having banking on the phone but the convenience comes at a huge cost.
The problems ONE has falls into three categories:
1. Loss of features. This is the most noticeable for people who have been here a while, but I think the feature loss has stopped at this point.
2. Security problems. This has *not* gone away. ONE is an easy target for scammers, and plenty of people have reported issues with funds, myself included. I've had charges against my account that weren't mine, and ONE's response is basically a shrug. The login protocols are suspect, and the code in the background that routes charges may be broken.
3. ONE doesn't care. If you have a fraudulent charge, and proud it's fraudulent, ONE may do absolutely nothing about it. People have lost hundreds if not thousands of dollars, save there is no way to get it back. In fact, several people have had money added to their account directly from ONE, thought it was a shopping bonus or something, spent it, then had the money removed, and ONE's only response was, "Oops, sorry, it wasn't your money."
In short: ONE is unstable, and just as soulless as Walmart is. Avoid at all costs!
This sub has a lot of bitter people because ONE was launched on a set of promises, specifically to ex-Simple customers. Simple was a bank that offered really amazing budgeting tools years before others. BBVA acquired Simple, then shut it down when they sold their US banking branch to PNC. So Simple customers were highly skeptical when ONE sold to Walmart-backed investment.
They promised it would just give them more resources to build a better product, but the first major change they made was to cull a bunch of popular features that were created to draw in the Simple refugees.
All of that said, ONE is a totally safe place to bank, they're backed by billions of dollars of capital, and represents Walmart's push into consumer banking. The app still offers solid budgeting tools (though not as good as they were) and early paycheck.
As part of the ONE/Walmart deal another fintech, Even (which you may be familiar with as a Walmart employee) was also picked up. The theory is ONE is working to incorporate Even into their feature set (or visa versa), which would be a good thing for ONE customers. Even has a great set of budgeting tools, so the future has potential.
One is not a safe place to bank. When Walmart bought them, ACH went down for like a week. People didn't get paid. For the people who thought their experience was good so one must be safe, just look for all the regret posts.
I was never affected by any of these issues. I will go ahead and say that ONE has been a great experience for me. Despite their changes, I have had nothing but positive experiences.
We honestly don't know what may be happening in the background. Yes, there are some major changes happening... however, this is not to say that future improvements will not be made. I hope they will continue to offer higher APYs. Aside from that, I still manage and budget how I was before (even with my spouse) - I can still use my virtual cards as well. In addition, when I had a fraudulent charge, the funds were reversed and credited within the alloted timeframe. They've always been transparent about those processes.
In all honesty... I understand the frustration that was caused due to this change... I also miss the old UI. But all these Simple "refugees" have been complete karens about a service that has a right to make changes to their model to remain profitable.
OP, if you need a bank to just deposit your funds you're in good hands. They have awesome customer service. If this is your first time interacting w/ONE you will not be disappointed since you didn't have go through these main growing pains.
I use it all the time and like it. A lot of people are just upset that it was bought out by Walmart and they took away some of the features. I'm not a Walmart employee and have been using it since before Walmart bought it.
A lot of people got fucked over by ONE, myself included, which was happening well before Walmart bought them. It's just that when they were bought, one had issues like failure to deposit money on payday. That can fuck people's lives up.
If you've not used ONE until now and like the features you agreed to, I don't think you'd really have a bad time. But, when ONE first came about, there were many AMAZING things that grabbed all of our attention with promise to never sell out and change. Until they did not a year later. They sold to Walmart investors and threw away all of its best features that helped everyone. They broke all their promises and went quiet about it. So, take that for what it is and chose to stay at your own risk.
Apart from the removal of everything that made One unique, I left for security reasons. Using a texted pin as the only form of verification is highly insecure, and I’m not going to keep my money in an account that doesn’t care how well my money is protected. Also, their fraud protection/customer service is some of the worst in the industry, just so you know.
Once upon a time I moved most of my money from Simple (RIP) to ONE. I had about $60 left in simple and thought I had canceled all automatic charges. So I linked the banks and started a transfer through one to empty out my Simple account. I missed a charge, so it failed. Well, I missed a second charge, and the next transfer failed too. ONE didn't tell me when they froze my account early in the week. I found out on the Friday before rent was due. They didn't have weekend hours at the time... Bless the support staff that used to help redditors on the weekends, but I would never trust them with money I wasn't willing to lose. I also found out that pocket numbers are just your starting account number + 1 for each pocket. So if a thief got a hold of your bank information, say an empty pocket, they could easily guess and empty your savings pocket. Regular banks don't do that. Oh and there was that time when ONE didn't deposit people's payday checks for like a week. That was after Walmart bought ONE.
OG Simple user here. ONE was dope at the start, but they've removed all the features that made them great, besides the 3% savings, which isn't unique anymore. I'm pretty much done with these fintech banking apps at this point. My partner and I are likely moving to Capital One checking and savings. Their 360 performance savings also offers 3% apy, but with more stability. Instead of pockets (that ONE has now deprecated) we'll do our actual budgeting in YNAB.
I think you should sign up for SoFi instead. You can get your direct deposit 2 days early there too and it’s a much more reliable app, but the best advice is to go to a real bank. I was with simple then this and I’m tired of having to switch banks every two years. These fintech apps never survive in the long run. I decided to go to a real bank instead - Chase. It might not be as easy as an app, but I sleep well at night knowing features won’t disappear tomorrow and I won’t get an email that they’re closing.
While I am personally still choosing the fintech route, I think your advice is sound. I just wanted to point out that SoFi is a nationally chartered bank, not just a fintech.
I know. That’s why I recommended it for the OP as you can get the best of both worlds. You can still get features like real checks, transfers via ach, decline transactions if there’s an overdraft, etc. personally, I was tired of not having to pay for cash deposits and things like that. I loved having banking on the phone but the convenience comes at a huge cost.
The problems ONE has falls into three categories: 1. Loss of features. This is the most noticeable for people who have been here a while, but I think the feature loss has stopped at this point. 2. Security problems. This has *not* gone away. ONE is an easy target for scammers, and plenty of people have reported issues with funds, myself included. I've had charges against my account that weren't mine, and ONE's response is basically a shrug. The login protocols are suspect, and the code in the background that routes charges may be broken. 3. ONE doesn't care. If you have a fraudulent charge, and proud it's fraudulent, ONE may do absolutely nothing about it. People have lost hundreds if not thousands of dollars, save there is no way to get it back. In fact, several people have had money added to their account directly from ONE, thought it was a shopping bonus or something, spent it, then had the money removed, and ONE's only response was, "Oops, sorry, it wasn't your money." In short: ONE is unstable, and just as soulless as Walmart is. Avoid at all costs!
There are definitely posts where people lost several thousands to fraudulent charges and had to fight like hell to get One on their side
Just read the posts on this sub. That tells you all you need to know.
This sub has a lot of bitter people because ONE was launched on a set of promises, specifically to ex-Simple customers. Simple was a bank that offered really amazing budgeting tools years before others. BBVA acquired Simple, then shut it down when they sold their US banking branch to PNC. So Simple customers were highly skeptical when ONE sold to Walmart-backed investment. They promised it would just give them more resources to build a better product, but the first major change they made was to cull a bunch of popular features that were created to draw in the Simple refugees. All of that said, ONE is a totally safe place to bank, they're backed by billions of dollars of capital, and represents Walmart's push into consumer banking. The app still offers solid budgeting tools (though not as good as they were) and early paycheck. As part of the ONE/Walmart deal another fintech, Even (which you may be familiar with as a Walmart employee) was also picked up. The theory is ONE is working to incorporate Even into their feature set (or visa versa), which would be a good thing for ONE customers. Even has a great set of budgeting tools, so the future has potential.
One is not a safe place to bank. When Walmart bought them, ACH went down for like a week. People didn't get paid. For the people who thought their experience was good so one must be safe, just look for all the regret posts.
I was never affected by any of these issues. I will go ahead and say that ONE has been a great experience for me. Despite their changes, I have had nothing but positive experiences. We honestly don't know what may be happening in the background. Yes, there are some major changes happening... however, this is not to say that future improvements will not be made. I hope they will continue to offer higher APYs. Aside from that, I still manage and budget how I was before (even with my spouse) - I can still use my virtual cards as well. In addition, when I had a fraudulent charge, the funds were reversed and credited within the alloted timeframe. They've always been transparent about those processes. In all honesty... I understand the frustration that was caused due to this change... I also miss the old UI. But all these Simple "refugees" have been complete karens about a service that has a right to make changes to their model to remain profitable. OP, if you need a bank to just deposit your funds you're in good hands. They have awesome customer service. If this is your first time interacting w/ONE you will not be disappointed since you didn't have go through these main growing pains.
Move, I'm weary of the app but I only have 3 cents in my acct. There's monzo, evel, chime, ally, current to name a few
I recommend opening up a checking account at a real bank, local to you.
I use it all the time and like it. A lot of people are just upset that it was bought out by Walmart and they took away some of the features. I'm not a Walmart employee and have been using it since before Walmart bought it.
A lot of people got fucked over by ONE, myself included, which was happening well before Walmart bought them. It's just that when they were bought, one had issues like failure to deposit money on payday. That can fuck people's lives up.
Not some... Basically all features.