Kickass online business banking?

January 29, 2013 6:48 PM

I run my small company (freelancer) and want a kickass online banking experience; minimal fees, good TOS, photo check deposits, and sure, why not, ATM reimbursements. I won't mention my brick and mortar bank (out of Boston for 'citizens') but they leave quite a bit to be desired.

I think the only other thing I'd mention, is that I don't have more than a couple of transactions a month; I'd like to avoid 'stupid' fees - my existing bank charges me ($5? $15?) if I don't have at least 4 transactions a month; so I have them send me a physical check for one penny to get around such dumb behavior.

Yeah, they can be a physical bank if needed. What I really want is USAA to have business bank accounts.

posted by filmgeek to Work & Money (7 answers total)

I know a lot of people are shying away from ING (not my referral link) since they've been bought by Capital One, but I have their savings and checking, no fee ATM's a lot of places (637 in Boston), no monthy fees at all, almost 1% interest, photo check deposits.
posted by deezil at 7:04 PM on January 29, 2013

I've heard great things about Bank of the Internet (seriously)
posted by arnicae at 7:21 PM on January 29, 2013

USAA is pretty sweet.
posted by bz at 8:55 PM on January 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

I've been really happy with Schwab for more than 5 years. I don't know if they offer business accounts, but for an individual account they've been great.


Upsides

They have never charged me a fee.

They reimburse any ATM fees, including at international ATMs, at the end of the month.

Their debit card has no foreign transaction fee. Also, I just used it in Germany and Poland and I got the exchange rate I expected.

I can deposit checks the same day with my iPhone.

Free checks.

Electronic bill pay.

Phone support has been great.

They pay me a bit of interest for the money in my checking account.

They have an overdraft account so if I accidentally overdraw my account they charge me interest rather than bouncing the check and charging me a fee.


Downsides

That said, they aren't quite as transparent and organized as Ally Bank (of which I am also a customer). For example, there are a lot more legal notices from Schwab.

In order to initiate an electronic transfer to another bank (ACH) I have to either transfer money to my brokerage account (also free; came with my checking account), or I have to set up the external account by sending them a form in the mail. ACH transfers from another account (e.g. Ally) work fine, of course.
posted by danielparks at 9:12 PM on January 29, 2013 [2 favorites]

Ah, I just saw that you wrote “What I really want is USAA to have business bank accounts.” Does that mean you’re looking for business checking? I’d like an answer to that too!
posted by danielparks at 9:14 PM on January 29, 2013

I've heard HSBC has good small business accounts, but I haven't used them. At a glance, I see they have no fee, no minimum balance checking accounts, but no ATM reimbursement. May be worth seeing if they otherwise fit the bill.
posted by gimletbiggles at 9:40 PM on January 29, 2013

Response by poster: Danielparks - yes, I'm looking to get a business account as good as my USAA which I use for my personal account. When I started my business my first question was if they had business accounts which they said (sadly) no.
posted by filmgeek at 2:51 AM on January 30, 2013