Deciding which bank to choose for your small business can be a challenge, so it’s good to narrow down your options by thinking about what you need for your business. Consider the size and type of business you own, your transaction volume, and whether you need a full-service bank with many convenient locations or an online bank with just a checking and savings account.
We’ve researched the best banks to help you find the right one:
- Chase Bank: Best overall bank for small businesses
- Wells Fargo: Best for small business loans and convenient branch access
- Bank of America: Best for cash-heavy small businesses
- U.S. Bank: Best for startups and small business credit cards
- Capital One: Best for unlimited transactions for small businesses
- Axos Bank: Best for its small business high-yield checking
- First Internet Bank: Best for fee-free banking for small businesses
- Mercury: Best for e-commerce small businesses
Read our article on how to choose the right bank for your business for a more in-depth understanding of what type of bank you need for your business.
Chase Bank: Best Overall Bank for Small Businesses
As a full-service bank with a wide selection of deposit and loan products, a convenient nationwide branch and ATM network, easy-to-use online and mobile banking, and the ability to scale with you as your business grows, Chase wins for best overall bank for small businesses.
With Chase Business Complete CheckingSM, you get unlimited electronic deposits and transfers, with no minimum initial deposit and no minimum balance. Since its monthly fee can be waived easily, it’s our first choice for the best free business checking account. Chase Merchant Services offers point-of-sale (POS) solutions and online credit card processing, including Chase QuickAccept, which allows you to accept payments through the mobile app or with a separate card reader.
Plus, you can earn a $300 introductory bonus when you sign up for the Chase Business Complete CheckingSM account. Whether you’re a sole proprietor or own a larger business with many locations, Chase can partner with you to achieve your financial goals.
Wells Fargo: Best for Small Business Loans and Convenient Branch Access
Along with its full suite of banking products and services, Wells Fargo stands out for its extensive selection of loans and lines of credit. If you’re a small business owner who’s been operating for at least two years with good credit, and you’re an existing Wells Fargo customer, you’ll likely qualify for a small business loan. If you aren’t currently a Wells Fargo customer, you may be interested in its three checking accounts that complement the needs of small business owners with low, medium, and high transaction volumes.
As one of the nation’s top SBA lenders, Wells Fargo’s fees, loan terms, and rates are competitive with other large banks, making it an especially attractive choice. Also, if you invest in real estate, there are no origination or appraisal fees and no lender closing costs. Practice finance loans are available specifically for dentists, optometrists, physicians, and veterinarians. Wells Fargo helps with startup financing, relocation, remodeling, and purchasing equipment or technology.
As one of the biggest national banks with nearly 5,000 branches and more than 12,000 ATMs, convenience is a top priority, and it’s easy to find a branch near you.
Wells Fargo also offers a wide selection of personal accounts. Keep in mind that if you choose Wells Fargo for both business and personal banking, it no longer offers personal lines of credit.
Bank of America: Best for Cash-heavy Small Businesses
Bank of America offers a complete selection of banking products for small business owners, and it’s a great choice if your business makes significant cash deposits. It offers a checking account that’s flexible and allows you to save on cash deposit processing fees. The account has two settings, Business Advantage FundamentalsSM and Business Advantage Relationship Banking. The FundamentalsSM account setting allows you to deposit up to $7,500 with no fee, then it’s 30 cents per $100 per statement cycle. The Relationship account setting lets you deposit the first $20,000 with no cash deposit processing fee, then it’s also 30 cents per $100 per statement cycle. As your needs change, you can move from one setting to the other easily. It’s one of our picks for best small business checking accounts.
Also, Bank of America’s credit cards offer substantial rewards if you qualify with a minimum of a three-month combined average daily balance of $20,000 or more. With the Preferred Rewards Program, you get a 25% to 75% bonus on credit cards, a 5% to 20% interest rate boost on savings accounts, cash back on payroll service fees, interest rate discounts on lines of credit and other loans, and zero fees on select banking services. Business owners with $100,000 or more have the potential to earn benefits that total over $10,000 in value in one year.
U.S. Bank: Best for Startups and Small Business Credit Cards
As one of the largest banks in the nation, U.S. Bank provides a complete selection of business bank accounts that fulfill a variety of business needs. If you own a startup, you might only need an account with a limited number of transactions and cash deposits. The Silver checking account from U.S. Bank is free for the first 125 transactions and free for the first $2,500 in cash deposits, with no monthly fee. As your account activity increases, you can upgrade to the Gold or Platinum checking account, where there are many ways to waive the monthly maintenance fee.
U.S. Bank also offers some of the best business credit cards available. The cards offer extended introductory rates for purchases and balance transfers, as well as abundant rewards. The U.S. Bank Business Platinum card offers one of the longest 0% APR terms for both purchases and balance transfers, at 18 months, and one of the lowest starting purchase APRs among all business credit cards, at 11.99%.
Its selection of products includes a wide variety of loan options for small businesses, such as term loans, lines of credit, SBA loans, and practice financing.
U.S. Bank also offers McDonald’s franchise financing. U.S Bank is an approved lender for McDonald’s owners and operators. If you’re interested in acquiring, building, remodeling, or purchasing equipment for your McDonald’s franchise, U.S. Bank offers competitive fixed and adjustable-rate loans as well as working capital lines of credit and payments and cash management tools to keep your business running.
Named one of the most ethical companies in the world during the past seven consecutive years, U.S. Bank is known for its strong company values and highly rated customer service.
Capital One: Best for Unlimited Transactions for Small Businesses
If you live near a Capital One branch in Virginia, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Louisiana, or Washington, D.C., you can benefit from the wide variety of business products and services offered by one of the 10 largest banks in the country.
You’ll get unlimited transactions with either the Spark Business Checking account or the Spark Business Unlimited checking account. Deposits, withdrawals, and transfers are all unlimited, so you won’t have to worry about counting your everyday transactions.
Additionally, Capital One’s savings account is one of the best business savings accounts available, with a 0.20% APY for the first 12 months.
Capital One’s assortment of credit cards suits a range of business owners who have fair to excellent credit, with unlimited cash back and no spending categories to keep track of. However, it’s best to pay off your balance with each billing cycle as Capital One credit cards have some of the highest regular APRs―the highest at 23.99% with excellent credit.
Among the largest national banks, Capital One ranks the highest in customer satisfaction in a J.D. Power annual study.
Axos Bank: Best for Its Small Business High-yield Checking
Few business checking accounts are interest-earning, so the Business Interest checking account from Axos Bank is especially valuable. Business owners who maintain an average daily balance of $5,000 and stay under $49,999.99 earn a generous 0.81% APY. This is far more than the 0.20% APY earned with any of Axos Bank’s savings or money market accounts. You may want to consider opening two Business Interest checking accounts to use one for expenditures and the other as a business savings account.
The Basic Business checking account doesn’t pay interest, but there are no monthly maintenance fees. New business owners can earn a $100 welcome bonus if their business was incorporated after June 1, 2020. All fees for U.S. ATMs are refunded, but Axos Bank doesn’t accept cash deposits. If you need to make frequent cash deposits, you may want to consider Bank of America, as its monthly deposit limit before fees with the FundamentalsSM checking account is $7,500.
As an online-only bank, Axos Bank offers many products essential for business owners, but it doesn’t offer credit cards. Its desktop and mobile banking platforms make banking easy and convenient. Its merchant services offerings include software and hardware for debit and credit card processing, as well as online payments.
First Internet Bank: Best for Fee-free Banking for Small Businesses
If you’re looking to eliminate unnecessary fees, First Internet Bank offers business banking with no monthly service fees, no transaction fees, and no ATM fees. We voted it our best online business checking account. Everyday banking activity is free with First Internet Bank, which helps you save money. You also get unlimited transactions with no minimum balance, an interest-earning checking account at 0.30% with an average daily balance of $10,000, plus business savings and CDs that pay higher-than-average rates. One product they don’t offer is business credit cards.
Since they’re an online-only bank, their desktop and mobile banking apps for business allow you to perform all the transactions you need. Cash deposits aren’t accepted, so you may want to look at Bank of America for frequent or recurring cash deposits. The FundamentalsTM Checking account allows up to $7,500 in cash deposits per month before charging a fee.
Plus, if it’s important to you to keep all your finances in one location, First Internet Bank provides a full suite of personal banking products and services, including checking, savings, money market, cash back personal credit cards, CDs, and mortgages.
Mercury: Best for E-commerce Small Businesses
Mercury is a distinctly different, online-only financial technology (fintech) company, servicing startup businesses that aren’t sole proprietorships. If you’re a sole business owner, you would need to incorporate as a limited liability company (LLC) to use Mercury. If you own an e-commerce small business, Mercury is especially impressive in that you can customize your banking with integrations and various digital tools. You get application programming interface (API) access with every account, which means you can customize your online banking experience by creating custom dashboards, automating payments or funds transfers, and reconciling transactions. Also, you can connect to any payment processor in the United States, including Shopify, Stripe, and PayPal, as well as Xero, Gusto, and QuickBooks for accounting and payroll.
You can use the Allpoint ATM network to withdraw cash using your debit card, but Mercury doesn’t accept cash deposits. If you anticipate you’ll be making a lot of cash deposits, Capital One’s Spark Business Unlimited Checking account allows unlimited cash deposits with no fees.
Mercury offers a standard checking and savings account with no monthly fees, no minimum deposit, and no overdraft fees. They do not currently offer business credit cards or loan products. All customers have access to software discounts on security, sales and marketing, insurance, HR and payroll, developer tools, accounting and invoicing, and more. If you have $250,000 to deposit, you can be part of the exclusive Tea Room. This includes treasury management and extra perks and bonuses.
Since its launch in 2019, 40,000 small businesses in 200 countries have used Mercury for their business banking, and all accounts are Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC)-insured.
How We Evaluated the Best Banks for Small Businesses
To determine the best banks for small businesses, we looked at features important to small business owners. We examined their selection of checking and savings accounts, credit cards, loans, and lines of credit, and we looked for competitive rates, low fees, availability of branch and ATM networks, a robust online and mobile banking platform, and a variety of merchant services such as point-of-sale hardware and software.
Bottom Line
One of the most important things you can do as a small business owner is select the right bank for your business. If you choose to do your business banking with your personal bank, this can help build your business relationship, since the bank is already familiar with you and your account activity. However, it’s always important to ensure the bank can fulfill your business needs and scale with you as you grow.
Once you select the best bank for you, you’ll need to gather business documentation to apply. Check out our article on how to open a business bank account for more details.
