2017 RANKING & REVIEWS
BEST RATED TOP ONLINE BUSINESS ACCOUNTS
Finding the Best Online Business Bank Accounts | 2017 Guide to Business Banking Online
What is the point of a business account, let alone an online business account? Is a business account any different from a regular checking account?
A regular checking account facilitates day-to-day banking and transactions for individuals. Your bank provides a debit card and a checkbook, in addition to access to online banking, so that you can pay bills, make cash withdrawals, and more. An online business account on the other hand is meant to facilitate the large sum transactions for your business.
But why can’t a person run their business out of their individual checking account? Why do they need online business accounts? For the most part, the features offered by a regular checking account compared to an online business account are the same.
Award Emblem: Best Online Business Accounts
The two biggest incentives for opening business accounts or online business accounts are 1) your business finances are kept separately from your personal finances and 2) the fact that customers can make checks out to a business as opposed to a person lends credibility to your company.
In our digital era, many of the business-related activities that used to take place through physical means are now conducted online.
Our invoices are generated by softwares, our appointments are booked in shareable calendars, and our payments are received electronically. It only makes sense that many businesses would consider moving their finances entirely online, too, by opening online business accounts.
Whether you choose to get a regular business account or choose to conduct your business banking online, exploring your options and finding the product that works best for you is of tantamount importance.
This article will focus on business banking online by reviewing and comparing a few popular choices for online business accounts.
Each business account offers valuable services backed by recognizable brands, but deciding on the best online business bank requires identifying which products and features match your business’s needs. It will also go over how to open a business checking account online free of charge.
In order to help you do this, this article will review the banks that we have selected as some of the best online business banks: Chase online business banking, Citibank business online banking, PNC online business banking, and Wells Fargo online business banking.
See Also: The People’s Banking and Trust Company Ranking & Review
List of Banks with the Best Online Business Accounts
List is sorted alphabetically (click any of the names above to go directly to the detailed review section for that bank)
Best Online Business Accounts:
Best Online Business Accounts | Contact/Web Info: |
| Chase | https://www.chase.com/ |
| Citibank | https://online.citi.com/US/login.do |
| PNC | https://www.pnc.com/en/personal-banking.html |
| Wells Fargo | https://www.wellsfargo.com/ |
Table: The Best & Top Online Business Accounts | above list is sorted alphabetically
Chase Online Business Banking
(Fees, Features, & Review)
Chase Bank offers an online business account to help business owners track their expenses and manage their company finances, and it is one of our choices for best online business bank. Existing Chase customers can use their user ID to manage both their personal and online business accounts.
Chase online business banking allows customers to keep tabs on their range of available business products.
Source: Chase Online Business Banking
They offer three products for business banking online for business checking accounts: Chase Total Business Checking, Chase Performance Business Checking, and Chase Platinum Business Checking.
Chase Total Business Checking
This Chase online business banking account is meant for growing businesses that need an account to control their company’s cash flow and keep their business finances separate from their personal finances.
The monthly fee for this Chase online business banking account is $10 a month, but it is $12 a month if you choose to receive paper statements. The entire monthly maintenance fee can be waived if a minimum daily balance of $1,500 is maintained.
This Chase online business banking account comes with 200 free transactions per month and $7,500 in cash deposits each month without incurring a fee. This online business account comes with $50,000 of cash deposits and withdrawals each month. If the cash deposits or withdrawals per month exceeds $50,000 for four months in a rolling 12-month period, the bank may upgrade the account.
This online business account allows incoming and outgoing wires domestically, as well as incoming international wires. Outgoing international wires are not allowed.
Chase Performance Business Checking
This Chase online business banking account is for mid-sized businesses with basic cash flow needs. This account carries a $20 monthly maintenance fee, and this monthly fee can be waived if account holders maintain a $20,000 qualified balance. The account holder receives 350 free transactions for each statement cycle and $20,000 in cash deposits without incurring any charges. This online business account comes with two free domestic wire transfers, and there are international wire transfers available for a price.
Chase Platinum Business Checking
This Chase online business banking account is specially designed for larger businesses with more complex financial needs and a higher volume of transactions. For maintaining a qualifying balance of $100,000, this online business account’s monthly maintenance fee of $95 is waived. In addition to unlimited incoming wires and electronic deposits, 500 free transactions each month.
Up to $25,000 free cash deposits come with this online business account, and there are four outgoing wires each month at no cost.
Details and Benefits of the Chase Online Business Banking Account
All three Chase business checking accounts can be facilitated online, but opening an account requires going to a branch. The difficulty with business banking online through Chase Bank is that the fine print and details required for understanding each business bank account is not made available on the website. Business owners must visit a branch in order to gain full information, and they must bring the necessary documentation verifying their business’s existence if they wish to open an account.
All of the Chase online business banking accounts offer a debit card with a number of security features. These debit cards allow employees to make business purchases on behalf of the owner, and the owner can rest assured that employees will not overspend thanks to custom set daily limits.
The Chase online business banking accounts are set apart from other online bank accounts for one big reason: they have the entire network of Chase Bank to supplement them. This allows for easy transfers between accounts, where other online business accounts may be limited in terms of cash deposits and movement between bank accounts.
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Citibank Business Online Banking
(Fees, Features, & Review)
Citibank also offers online business accounts for its customers and future customers. Their Citibusiness products offer a number of solutions for businesses and small businesses alike. They offer four main online business accounts for checking: the Citibusiness Streamlined Checking Account, the Citibusiness Flexible Checking Account, the Citibusiness Checking Account, and the Citibusiness Interest Checking Account.
Source: Citibank Business Online Banking
Citibusiness Streamlined Checking Account
This Citibank business online banking account. This comes with 250 free transactions, a monthly maintenance fee of $15, no withdrawal fees when the account holder uses Citibank ATMs, and up to $250,000 of protection from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Customers who wish to avoid the monthly maintenance fee must maintain a minimum average monthly balance of $5,000. (The numbers used in this article will assume the online business account holder opens the account in New York State; if this is not the case, your numbers may vary.)
Citibusiness Flexible Checking Account
This Citibank business online banking account is for businesses that handle a relatively high volume of transactions each month. This account carries the same features as the Citibusiness Streamlined Checking Account in terms of free withdrawals from Citibank ATMs.
If you choose to conduct business banking online using this Citibusiness online business account, you get 500 free transactions and the monthly maintenance fee of $30 is waived if you maintain a minimum average monthly balance of $10,000.
Citibusiness Checking Account
Larger businesses with more sophisticated cash flow and financial needs will find this Citibank business online banking account suitable. There is a monthly maintenance fee of $22, and while there is no minimum average monthly balance to eliminate that fee, there are earning credits this account can earn, based on how much money the online business account holder keeps in the account, which can be put toward offsetting the monthly maintenance fee. This is one of the online business accounts that comes with unlimited check writing, making it easier for businesses to pay vendors and carry out several daily transactions.
Citibusiness Interest Checking Account
This Citibank business online banking account is perfect for business owners who maintain a high balance in their accounts by making fewer than 25 transactions a month and wish to earn interest off that balance. This account comes with a monthly maintenance fee of $30; however, that fee can be waived if the online business account holder maintains a minimum average monthly balance of $10,000.
Details and Benefits of the Citibank Business Online Banking Account
As with the Chase online business banking account, you have to open the account in a branch first. After all of the necessary details and documentation has been verified, you can continue to facilitate your online business account transactions through the bank’s web portal. This is one of our picks for best online business bank because of the several options that are available for businesses looking for online business accounts that can help them with their cash management needs.
Every Citibank business online banking account comes with a Citibusiness debit card, overdraft protection, the Citibusiness safety check, remote check deposits, earnings credit, and (of course) an online business accounts portal to manage company finances over the internet.
Related: Capital One vs. Chase vs. Citibank | Ranking & Comparison
PNC Business Online Banking
(Fees, Features, & Review)
Our third pick for the best business online banking accounts are those offered by PNC business online banking, particularly the PNC small business online banking services. We will be looking at the following PNC business online banking accounts that are offered: Business Checking, Business Checking Plus, Business Checking Preferred, and Analysis Business Checking.
Source: PNC Business Checking
Business Checking: The Best Online Bank for Small Business
This PNC online business banking account is specifically meant for smaller businesses that need to separate their company account from their personal accounts. It offers two cash management solutions.
The first cash flow solution offered by this PNC small business online banking account is PNC Merchant Services, which allows small businesses to accept card payments from customers.
The second cash management solution offered by this PNC small business online banking account is a PNC business credit card, which permits small business owners to better facilitate transactions related to the operation of their business.
We have chosen this as the best online bank for small business because of the simplicity of the options available and the chance to waive the monthly maintenance fee by maintaining a minimum balance. The monthly maintenance fee is $12, and you can have the fee waived by maintaining a $1,500 monthly balance. Additionally, there is a minimum deposit of $100 required to open this account, which we recommend as the best online bank for small business.
Business Checking Plus from PNC Online Business Banking
This is the best online bank for small businesses that are growing and whose cash flow needs are growing more complicated as well. The account holder gets up to 500 free transactions per month in addition to $10,000 of cash deposits a month, either over the counter or at the ATM.
This PNC business online banking account does not charge for online or paper statements, and it comes with a free Visa business debit card.
Business Checking Preferred from PNC Online Business Banking
This account is designed for larger businesses. It would not be the best online bank for small business, but it would be very useful for companies that have already grown and that are experiencing a high volume of financial transactions and cash management needs.
There are 1,500 free transactions a month with this PNC online business banking account, and $50,000 of cash deposits can be made, including over-the-counter deposits and ATM deposits. It also comes with a discount of up to $100 for the first order of business checks. Like the previous account, there is no charge for paper or online statements.
This PNC online business banking account carries a monthly maintenance fee of $50, but there are a number of additional ways that you can offset the monthly maintenance fee in this online business account, including a number of different monthly minimum balances that the PNC details on its website:
- $25,000 Average Monthly Collected Balance in the Business Checking Preferred Account
- $50,000 Average Combined Collected Balance in linked PNC business checking and Money Market Accounts
- $75,000 Average Combined PNC Business Loan Balances
The minimum deposit required to open this PNC business online banking account is $250.
PNC offers the best small business online banking in the form of its Business Checking account, which provides the necessary minimum needed for small businesses to manage their finances. In addition, the Business Checking account (in addition to the other two PNC business online banking accounts) offers a number of beneficial ways for businesses to offset or eliminate the maintenance fees associated with the online business accounts they use.
Popular Article: Citizens Bank Review & Ranking | What You Should Know About Citizens Bank
Wells Fargo Online Business Banking
(Fees, Features, & Review)
Wells Fargo offers a Wells Fargo online business banking account called Wells Fargo Business Choice Checking. This account comes with 200 free transactions, and $7,500 a month in cash deposits can be made at no additional charge. The required minimum balance needed to open this account is $25.
Source: Wells Fargo Business Choice Checking
There is a monthly maintenance fee of $14, but this fee can be waived by maintaining a $7,500 average ledger balance, a $10,000 combined balance (which includes business checking, savings, or CD accounts with Wells Fargo online business banking), or by meeting any other eligible requirements listed on the Wells Fargo website.
What to Keep in Mind When Choosing From Our Selection of the Best Online Business Banks
These are our choices for the best online business banks because of the options and services offered by each. These online business accounts come with incentives for keeping a healthy cash flow and balance, the most notable incentive being the ability to waive monthly maintenance fees. In addition, they come with the accoutrements necessary to run a smooth business, such as free cash deposits, free transactions, discounted business checks, and debit and Visa cards, if required.
Keep in mind that while these online business accounts can facilitate business banking online, it is not possible to open business checking account online free of charge through these banks. They must be opened in a branch. This is to verify the documentation that demonstrates you are a business owner.
For instance, if you wish to open a PNC online business banking account, you will be required to provide your business’s Tax Identification Number in addition to bringing government-issued ID with you to the bank and a secondary form of identification such as a utility bill or home rental agreement.
This can be a bit of a hassle for those who were looking for a way to open business checking account online free of any physical interaction, but it is a relatively small inconvenience for the services offered. And of course, you can manage everything completely online after the fact.
Healthy finances and good cash management are crucial components of any successful business. Finding the bank to entrust your money and cash management to can be a challenge. Consider looking into some of our picks for the best online business banks to facilitate a smooth financial operation.
Read More: First Citizens Bank and Trust Company Ranking & Review
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