Finding the Best Business Bank Account
A reader named Paul recently wrote in asking for recommendations for a good business checking account. He’s been dealing with Chase, which has recently instituted a $20 monthly fee for accounts with balances below $7500. Ouch!
My personal experience has been with a “Business Economy Checking Account” from Bank of America, which pays zero interest and has a $3k minimum to avoid a $15 monthly fee. Not as bad as Chase, but not good. The primary reason that I’ve been using BofA for this is convenience. We use them as our local brick and mortar bank so it’s easy to use them for business banking, too.
Unfortunately, the best business banking deals are typically fairly localized, making it difficult to make recommendations on a national basis. In fact, the minimum balance and fees listed above for the Business Economy checking account vary by state, and may or may not apply to your particular situation.
One intriguing option in the realm of online banking is the business savings account from ING Direct. There’s no minimum balance requirement, no monthly fees or service charges, and it pays 0.50% interest. The downside is that it requires a linked business checking account at an outside bank.
In other words, the ING option is really just a way of bumping up your interest rate if your business needs to keep cash on hand. It also provides a way to expand your FDIC protection, as separate coverage limits apply to different banks. But aside from those benefits, it doesn’t really solve the problem at hand.
Another option is the HSBC Business Direct account, which has no minimum balance requirement and offers free wire transfers (10 per month), ATM access, free online billpay, etc. While they don’t appear to pay interest, you can link your account to a business savings account to improve your returns.
And now, dear readers, I’ll turn it over to you… What are the best business banking deals that you’ve run across?
Disclaimer: Discover is a paid advertiser of this site.
Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. See the Discover online credit card application for full terms and conditions on offers and rewards.
Modified on July 1st, 2012 - 8 Comments
Filed under: Banking, Self Employment
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
Related articles...
» Finding a Job When You’re Unemployed» Opening a Bank of America Home Equity Line of Credit, Part II
» Discover Bank Premium Savings Account Upgrade
» ING Direct Adds Remote Deposit – Finally!
» Big Banks vs. Small Banks: Which is Right for Me?
» How Many Bank Accounts Do You Have?
» What’s Your Favorite Checking Account?
» How Long Does the FDIC Have to Pay You Back?
Was this article useful? Please sign up to receive our content via e-mail:
8 Responses to “Finding the Best Business Bank Account”
Leave a Reply
Top Cards by Category
Earn 100 Reward Dollars after you make $1,000 in purchases in the first three months of Cardmembership.
Bonus Miles: Earn 30,000 bonus miles toward Award Travel after you spend $500 on the Card within the first three months of Cardmembership. Earn As You Spend: Get 2X miles on Delta purchases and 1X miles for all other eligible dollars spent.
Consumer friendly credit card with a great low rate of 7.25% and save on interest charges. No balance transfer fees and no annual fee.
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
Consumer friendly credit card with a great low rate of 7.25% and save on interest charges. No balance transfer fees and no annual fee.
Limited Time Offer: Get 25,000 Membership Rewards(R) points after you spend $5,000 in the first three months of Card membership. Enroll and select a qualifying airline to receive up to $200 annually in statement credits for incidental fees, such as checked bags and in-flight refreshments, charged by the airline.
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
- How to Become a Millionaire
- How to Get Out of Debt
- The Best Dollars I've Ever Spent
- How Our Estate Plan is Structured
- How We Paid Our Mortgage In Less than 10 Years
- Money Making Ideas
- How to Manage Your Asset Allocation with Multiple Accounts
- Consumption Smoothing - Save While the Saving's Good
- How to Save on Groceries
- How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
- Eleven Great Books About Money
- Dave Ramsey is Bad at Math
- Dish Network Customer Service SUCKS
- $8,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest?
- How to Claim the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Termite Control: Sentricon vs. Termidor
- How Much Should You Pay a Babysitter?
- Ethanol Blended Gas = Lower Mileage?
- Reduced Credit Limits? Share Your Experience
- $15,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Will Mac OS X Lion Kill Quicken 2007?
- Federal Income Tax Rates Went Down but Your Federal Tax Withholding Increased. Here's Why...
How to save money on insurance
- Overdraft fees soared to $32 billion in 2012
- How do you combat prom inflation?
- How should you choose a bank? Look in the mirror.
- The cost of clean water
- College debt 101
- Is it possible to live debt free?
- How to prepare for a home appraisal
- Home prices are up: good news or bad?
- A bit of foolishness
- Passive solar homes: the basics
June 27th, 2012 at 9:49 pm
Sorry, ING was going to be my suggestion. Maybe Ally? Does Paul have a big credit union in his area that has locations around the main areas he stays in? Around here, First Community Credit Union is in pretty much all Krogers where I shop. Anyway, good luck!
June 28th, 2012 at 1:29 pm
We use Fifth Third. No monthly fees and no minimum balance required. They have branches in Kroger so they are open later than other banks which is a plus for those with 9-to-5 jobs that can’t make it to the bank during the day.
June 28th, 2012 at 6:59 pm
EverBank.com offers business checking and money market accounts. Its small business checking is free without monthly service fees.
August 18th, 2012 at 10:54 am
None. They all nickel and dime you to death…
January 5th, 2013 at 1:22 am
Etrade has a good free account.
January 8th, 2013 at 4:31 pm
Fifth Third DOES charge a monthly fee for their business checking, something like $18. That’s what I currently use and would not recommend it. They have the highest overdraft fees of ALL banks and will refuse to refund them even if you only make the mistake one time in 15 years of being a customer. Just got burned and am looking for a new bank.
January 14th, 2013 at 12:16 pm
We currently use Wells Fargo. I would advise staying as far away from them as you can! They started charging us for everything they quoted as free shortly after we opened the account, even online bill pay. I keep noticing “bank originated debits” on my statements with no explination. The latest was for $2000! WF’s explanation was it is a computer generated error. I am looking to report them to the proper autority. Any suggestions?
Bank of the West has a business account that is free with $3,000 bal or $10 monthly fee.
January 14th, 2013 at 11:26 pm
BB&T bank has a no monthly service fee for small business checking account.