One of the first steps in starting a business is getting your banking in order. You’ll want to open both a checking and a savings account for your business. While some sole proprietors and freelancers can get away with managing their business and personal finances together in one account, it’s advised for businesses to avoid combining the two to help streamline taxes and bookkeeping. Plus, well-organized business banking can make it easier to qualify for loans and lines of credit.
Focusing on checking, comparing business checking accounts can be a challenge, as you’ll have to weigh factors like monthly fees, minimum balances, cash deposits, transaction limits, integrations, and more. Here are the items that you should keep at the top of your list.
Monthly Maintenance Fees and Account Minimums
While many checking accounts don’t charge monthly maintenance or service fees, several do, and the fees for a business account are higher than for personal banking most of the time. You’re more likely to encounter a monthly fee if your bank has physical locations rather than being online-only, as there is more upkeep involved with maintaining physical branches.
However, even if your checking account has a monthly fee, check and see if it’s waivable. Many banks will waive monthly fees once you meet their minimum balance requirement, meaning you maintain a specified amount of money in your account. This differs from a minimum opening deposit, which is the minimum amount you need to open your checking account.
Pay attention to how your bank calculates minimum balances. Some require you to meet a certain threshold every day, some take an average over the statement cycle, and some look at the combined amount of funds you have across other account types at the bank.
Annual Percentage Yields (APY)
The APY is the amount you can expect your money to grow over a year, incorporating interest on your deposits, as well as interest on the interest you’ve already earned. APYs for checking accounts are much lower than those for savings accounts on the whole, and some earning no interest at all.
However, high-yield business checking accounts exist, especially at online banks. With high-yield checking, you could earn up to a few percent in interest on your funds, although the same APY doesn’t apply to all of your money. Some checking accounts have a minimum threshold that you must meet to earn the advertised APY. Others are tiered, with different APYs applying to different amounts of funds.
How heavily you should weigh the APY depends on how much money you plan to keep in your account. The more money in your account, the more important the APY becomes, but you shouldn’t put too much emphasis on small point differences. Plus, APYs can and will change along with the national economy, so don’t expect your APY to stay the same forever.
Cash Deposits
If you own a restaurant, retail store, or any other business with heavy in-person operations, you’ll want your bank to make it convenient for you to deposit cash. You can deposit cash in-person at a physical branch, and you can sometimes make ATM deposits. Some banks offer unlimited free cash deposits or have high monthly limits on them.
If your business deposits a lot of cash, pay close attention to how much you can deposit per month without incurring a fee. Also, look at the fees for deposits over the threshold to ensure they aren’t exorbitantly high. The need for cash deposits will effectively eliminate most online banks from the running when you’re deciding on a business checking account, as few allow you to make them. Some exceptions let you deposit cash through third-party ATMs or retailers, though.
Specifically to ATMs, it’s important to choose a bank with a large network of supported ATMs, as using one that’s out of network can come with additional fees. However, some banks will reimburse out-of-network ATM transaction costs.
Transaction Limits
Just as there are limits with cash deposits, you may also face monthly transaction limits, with fees for transactions exceeding this cap. If your business’s volume is high, you’ll want to look for an account with either unlimited transactions or a higher limit, as transaction limits can extend into the hundreds.
Be sure to read the fine print to see the types of transactions that the limit applies to. Often, it can include things like checks, debit cards, and ACH transactions for money moving either in or out of the account. In most cases, wire transfers are treated separately and have their own fees. Often, there’s no charge for incoming wires, but outgoing wires will usually cost you. International wires are more expensive than domestic wires.
Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) and Overdraft Fees
A couple of other fees to be aware of are for non-sufficient funds and overdrafts. The two share some characteristics but are distinct. You’ll encounter an NSF fee when your account doesn’t have enough funds to cover a payment, like a check or ACH payment, and so the transaction doesn’t go through.
An overdraft is similar, but in this case, the bank covers the transaction for you even though there weren’t enough funds in your account. Some banks don’t charge NSF or overdraft fees at all, but for those that do, they can be quite high, such as $20 to $30 or more.
Software Integrations
Software integrations are important considerations for business checking accounts, as they can help you keep transactions organized and up-to-date across platforms, cutting back on the amount of manual work needed. Accounting integrations are particularly important, as well as syncs with your payroll software and payment processor, if applicable.
Other integrations you may want are those for invoicing or expense management, and API access could be a priority if you want to build a custom connection. Plus, some digital banks have MCP servers for connecting with AI models like Claude and ChatGPT.
Employee Debit Cards and Spend Management
If you have several employees at your business, you may want your business checking account to offer employee debit cards. Some banks have a limit on how many you can have going at once, such as 50, while others have no cap on the number of cards you can get. Debit cards may be physical or virtual, depending on what the specific bank provides.
You may be able to establish spending limits on employee debit cards. It could be a dollar limit across all spending categories, or you could set up limits for specific merchant categories, like restaurants or travel.
Online vs. In-Person Banking
If you’re open to using an online bank for your business, this gives you plenty more options to explore compared to relying on in-person banks near you. However, online-only banks aren’t for everyone, and it’s crucial to consider your banking needs. If you think you will need to deposit cash or would like the opportunity to speak with someone in-person, then a traditional bank with physical locations may still be the best choice, even though you could miss out on potentially lower fees and higher APYs through online banks.
Conversely, if your business doesn’t handle cash and you like the convenience of managing everything online, then an online-only bank could work for you instead.
Customer Service
There’s only so much you can learn from researching fees, account minimums, and other characteristics, as customer service quality also plays a significant role in determining which bank to use for your business checking account. You should look for banks that offer both phone support and live chat. Ideally, the customer support hours will extend beyond normal business hours, with 24/7 support being preferred. When evaluating a bank’s customer service offerings, don’t just take them at their word. Take the time to explore user reviews online and the results of customer surveys to see if there are any notable trends.
Mobile App
Your bank should offer an user-friendly mobile app with all the necessary features that you might need. You should be able to deposit checks, send ACH and wire payments, view your transaction history, and establish or edit debit card spending limits all from your phone. If your bank has physical locations, an ATM and branch locator is also a must-have.
Plus, consider the level of security built into the app, with multi-factor authentication or biometric login being critical features for preventing unauthorized account access. The ability to receive notifications is useful as well, as the app can send real-time alerts when there is unusual activity in your account.
Other Financial Products
It’s common for businesses to prefer having all their bank accounts in one place, as it can make it easier to manage. You may want to look at what the bank has as far as savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit (CDs), and multi-currency accounts and wallets, which let you hold several global currencies at a time.
It’s also important to consider which business credit cards your bank offers, as well as funding options like loans and lines of credit. It can sometimes be easier to qualify for business loans if you have an existing banking relationship.
Comparing Business Checking Accounts Online
Even if you know all the factors that you should be mindful of when comparing business checking accounts, this doesn’t help you much in carrying out your search. If your search involves going to each individual bank’s site, you’ll end up with an excessive number of tabs open in your browser, and it’s difficult to conduct fair comparisons with each site presenting its information differently.
To compare business checking account information across banks, one of the most efficient approaches is to use a financial comparison site, such as BestMoney. Sites like this present multiple options all on one page, so you don’t have to click back and forth across websites.
Comparison sites surface important details, like APY information, minimum deposit requirements, and any active sign-up bonuses. Depending on the number of banking options they present, they may have filters for you to narrow down the list. Beyond the list itself, comparison sites usually have thorough editorial ratings and reviews, so you can get a more well-rounded look at a particular bank.
Getting Started with Business Checking
Getting set up with the appropriate business bank accounts provides a solid foundation for your business. Adequate research beforehand can result in smarter decision-making, helping you land on an option with potentially lower fees, higher transaction limits, and a higher APY. Fees and interest shouldn’t be the only considerations, though, with in-person banks offering a different range of features than those that are online-only.
Instead of juggling all these factors in your head, consider visiting financial comparison sites, which streamline the comparison process and give you a broad view of the business banking landscape.
