I wonder how much Google's reputation around accounts will impact this. It is one thing to get locked out of your Gmail account with no recourse. It is something else entirely to get locked out of your bank account. From the article, it sounds like the account is with BankMobile and Google is just adding integrations for it, but Google's reputation would still be in the back of my mind when signing up for the service.
My opinion is that this reputation is confined to the Hacker News bubble and therefore will make no difference.
I've been looking for an alternative to Simple for a while now and haven't heard of this until now. However, I don't think this is my answer. It's slightly confusing to me what Google is offering here since it appears that BankMobile already has apps and accounts?
In either case, Google being tied to this doesn't give me much confidence. "Google will provide the front-end, intuitive user experience." Ah yes because Gmail is the pinnacle of UX. I haven't used any Google services in years (other than YouTube I suppose) but the last I remember of them were not impressive.
My opinion is that this reputation is confined to the Hacker News bubble and therefore will make no difference.