Today I officially became a customer of Simple. On Tuesday, Simple finally invited me to become its customer. I first asked to be a customer in September 2010. That’s so long ago, some of the hair at my temples have had time to turn grey.

But beyond the wait, Simple is elegantly constructed and the onboarding process was envious. I loved the “Do you want our iPhone app texted to you?” stage, which upon clicking yes, promptly produced a ping sound on my phone from the text message linking me to Simple’s iTunes app page. The word for that is “frictionless.”

Upon becoming a Simple-ton, the online financial services provider shared two valuable pieces of information with me: its fees and privacy standards. They both deserve a deeper look since Simple aims to revolutionize banking. Let’s see what the company came up with.

Let me say at the outset that Simple’s fee structure is far, far more streamlined that some of the major banks I checked on. Simple has 26 items on its fee menu that prints on three pages. Citibank, for example, shares its fees in a 37-page document. Among the services for which Simple does not charge are:

• Checking
• Overdrafts
• Returned Items
• Returned Deposit Items
• Debit Card Transactions
• Incoming Domestic Wires
• Incoming International Wires
• ACH Transfers
• Research
• Account Closing

Just to offer a comparison, Citibank charges a $20 fee if a customer’s checking balance is below $15,000. The fees go on from there.

That is not to say Simple is fee-less, because it is not, and that might be the most striking truth of all. Even Simple must incorporate fees into its operational model. Its most expensive fee is a Writ Processing Fee that will set you back $175. The truth is most, if not all, of Simple’s fees seem reasonable — but they are there.

Simple’s privacy rules similarly skirt the line between wildly pro-consumer and the reality of running a business. It should be noted that Simple’s privacy rules appear to be set by the provider of Simple’s white-label banking services, The Bancorp Bank. Despite that, the rules are straightforward and easy to understand. There is a handy chart that describes the “reasons we can share your personal information,” which elements of information The Bancorp Bank can share, and whether the consumer can limit the sharing of that particular information set.

Here’s where I offer a quibble. The Bancorp Bank states that it may share personal information “for our marketing purposes — to offer our products and services to you.” The Bancorp Bank/Simple does not allow consumers to limit the sharing of information for this purpose. Additionally, The Bancorp Bank/Simple does not allow its consumers to limit the sharing of personal information “for joint marketing with other financial companies.” That’s unfortunate. Consumers should at the least have a right to limit the sharing of their personal information with third parties to The Bancorp Bank/Simple, even if those third parties are financial companies.

Alas, these are the realities of marketing today. At Simple, these realities only slightly diminish what the company is clearly aiming to do: provide financial services products and services that delight consumers. I, for one, couldn’t be more enthusiastic about Simple’s intentions.