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Banking | Editorial Review

First Horizon Bank Business Checking Review 2023

Published August 7, 2023

Published Aug 7, 2023

Tricia Jones

REVIEWED BY:
Tricia Jones

Ricci Recto

WRITTEN BY:
Ricci Recto

This article is part of a larger series on Business Banking.

Table of Contents
  1. 1 How It Stacks Up With Its Competitors
  2. 2 When It Is a Good Fit
  3. 3 When To Choose an Alternative
  4. 4 Overview
  5. 5 Requirements
  6. 6 Features
  7. 7 Other Products
  8. 8 Reviews From Users
  9. 9 Bottom Line

First Horizon Bank is a regional bank that offers affordable business checking services. It has three types of business checking accounts:

  1. A basic account with no monthly fee and 250 free transactions.
  2. An interest-earning account with a $15 monthly fee and 250 free transactions.
  3. A premium account offering 500 free transactions for a $15 monthly fee.

Your account will come with a free Visa Business Debit Card and access to digital banking. Other First Horizon Bank products include savings accounts, money market accounts, lending products―including Small Business Administration (SBA) loans―investing and planning services, and extended Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) insurance through the Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service (CDARS).

First Horizon Bank primarily operates in Tennessee. It also has branches in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.

You can open an account online if you meet certain qualifications. Read our section on First Horizon Bank Business Checking Requirements for more information.

First Horizon Bank Logo

Pros

  • $0 monthly fee for basic account
  • 250 free transactions for basic and interest-earning accounts
  • Free budgeting tools

Cons

  • Minimum $10,000 average daily ledger balance or $25,000 combined balance to waive monthly fee for interest-earning and high-tier accounts
  • Only available in 11 states
  • Poor user reviews

Features

  • Free Visa Business Debit Card
  • Digital banking
  • Budgeting and planning tools 
  • 24/7 customer service
  • Savings products, lending products, credit card, and investment services also available

How First Horizon Bank Stacks Up With Its Competitors

Monthly Fee
Monthly Transaction Limit Before Fees
Minimum Opening Deposit
Geographic Availability
first horizon bank logo
BizEssentials Checking
$0
250
$100
Limited Available in Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia
U.S. Bank logo
Silver Business Checking
$0
125
$100
All states U.S. Bank is available in all states via online banking. However, it currently only has brick-and-mortar branches in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
CHASE Bank Logo.
Business Complete Banking
$15; waivable
Unlimited digital transactions;  20 teller or paper transactions
$0
48 states Unavailable in Alaska and Hawaii

When First Horizon Bank Is a Good Fit

  • You want to bank without a monthly fee: There is no fee for First Horizon Bank’s lowest tier account, BizEssentials Checking. The account provides a monthly cash deposit allowance of $5,000 and a monthly transaction allowance of 250 items.
  • You need access to budgeting tools: Online banking with First Horizon Bank comes with budgeting and planning tools, which help you analyze spending, make budgets, and create savings goals.
  • You seek to extend your FDIC insurance: First Horizon Bank provides FDIC insurance of up to $50,000,000 through the CDARS, which spreads your deposits across multiple FDIC-insured certificates of deposit (CDs).

When To Choose an Alternative

  • You need nationwide access to in-person banking: You can only find brick-and-mortar First Horizon Bank locations in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. If you need a bank with wider geographic coverage, consider Chase, which has branches in all 48 mainland states. Our Chase business checking review provides a summary of the provider’s three business checking accounts.
  • You make over 500 transactions per month: First Horizon Bank’s highest-tier account, BizEssentials Plus Checking, only offers 500 free transactions per month. If you need access to unlimited transactions, then consider opening an account with an online provider. Our roundup of the leading online banks for small businesses can help you find an account that suits your needs.
  • You seek to earn interest on a fee-free checking account: The BizEssentials Interest Checking account charges a monthly fee of $15 and requires high balances to waive the fee. If you want an interest checking account with lower monthly activity requirements, consider Bluevine. It charges no monthly fee and offers 2.0% annual percentage yield (APY) on balances of $250,000 or less to accounts that spend $500 in debit card purchases or receive $2,500 in customer payments in one month. For more details, read our review of Bluevine business checking.

If your small business meets one or more of these scenarios, check out our guide to the best small business checking accounts for additional recommendations.

First Horizon Bank Business Checking Overview

BizEssentials Checking
BizEssentials Interest Checking
BizEssentials Plus Checking
Required Opening Deposit
$100
Monthly Fee
$0
$15; waivable
$15; waivable
Condition to Waive Monthly Fee
N/A
Average daily ledger balance of $10,000 or combined balance of $25,000 Accounts eligible for combined balance include business loans, lines of credit, credit cards, savings, CDs, and personal checking and savings accounts that are reported under the same tax identification number or Social Security Number associated with your BizEssentials Checking account.
Average daily ledger balance of $10,000 or combined balance of $25,000 Accounts eligible for combined balance include business loans, lines of credit, credit cards, savings, CDs, and personal checking and savings accounts that are reported under the same tax identification number or Social Security Number associated with your BizEssentials Checking account.
APY
N/A
Varies
N/A
Monthly Transaction Limit Before Fees
250
250
500
Monthly Cash Deposit Limit Before Fees
$5,000
$10,000
$10,000
Automated Clearing House (ACH) Fees
$1 per outbound credit
Domestic Wire Transfer Fees
Incoming: $15
Outgoing: $25
International Wire Transfer Fees
Incoming: $15
Outgoing: $55
Overdraft Fee
$35
ATM Fees
$3 for non-First Horizon ATMs Third-party operator fees may apply.
Debit Card
Visa Business Debit Card
Accounting Software Integration
QuickBooks
Customer Service
Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern time
Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET

Other Products Available
Savings accounts, money market accounts, CDs, CDARs, lending products, credit card, and investing and planning

First Horizon Bank Business Checking Requirements

You can open an account online if you meet all the following criteria:

  • You are a United States citizen
  • You are at least 18 years of age
  • You are a signer of the account
  • You are a resident of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, New York (Bronx, Brooklyn, Nassau, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Suffolk, or Westchester) or New Jersey (Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Ocean, or Union)
  • Your organization is a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, association, or unincorporated organization

If you do not meet these qualifications, you are required to visit a branch to open an account.

During the application process, all beneficial owners who own at least 10% of the organization must provide the following information:

  • Contact information
  • Date of birth
  • Social Security number or employer identification number (EIN)

Prepare at least $100 for your opening deposit. You can fund your account through the following methods:

  • Bank transfer from a First Horizon Bank deposit account
  • Bank transfer from a third-party bank
  • Debit or credit card transfer
  • Banking center, mobile, or ATM deposit

First Horizon Bank may ask you to prepare additional documents based on your business type. Refer to our guide on how to open a business bank account for a checklist of documents banks typically request upon account opening.

First Horizon Bank Business Checking Features

Visa Business Debit Card

Your business checking account comes with a free Visa Business Debit Card, which you can use to withdraw cash at First Horizon Bank ATMs or make purchases in establishments where Visa is accepted. It safeguards your purchases through services like purchase security, extended protection, auto rental insurance, travel emergency services, and more.

Digital Banking

Enrolling in digital banking lets you access banking features through the website or mobile app (available on iOS and Android). Through digital banking, you can do the following:

  • View account activity
  • Make internal transfers
  • Initiate bill payments, payroll, and vendor ACH payments
  • Manage cards
  • Use First Horizon Bank’s budgeting tools
  • Locate ATMs and branches
  • Deposit checks through mobile check deposit (mobile only)

Ratings for the First Horizon Bank app are relatively low. Its rating on the App Store1 is 1.5 (based on more than 80 reviews). On Google Play2, it has a rating of 3.5 (based on 3,000-plus reviews). Positive reviews highlight that the app’s features are useful. However, many users claimed that the app was unreliable, often logging them out or failing to load. Additionally, some found its design clunky and unintuitive.

Budgeting & Planning Tools

You can access budgeting and planning tools through the First Horizon website or mobile app. These tools automatically record and categorize your banking transactions while providing graphic reports to help you analyze business spending. You can create budgets and savings goals to keep spending under control.

24/7 Customer Support

While you can only talk to representatives from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., ET on weekdays, First Horizon Bank lets you access automated account information 24 hours a day.

Other First Horizon Bank Business Products

First Horizon Bank provides savings products, lending products, credit cards, and investing and planning services.

You can place your excess funds in the following types of savings products:

  • The BizEssentials Savings account is a basic, interest-earning savings account.
  • The Money Market Savings account earns interest and can be linked to your business checking account as a source of funds for overdraft protection.
  • Regular CDs offer competitive interest on 1- to 60-month term deposits.
  • Add-on CDs are flexible CDs that let you make multiple deposits and transfers before your maturity date.
  • Jumbo CDs let you earn competitive interest within short terms.
  • CDARS spread your deposits across multiple FDIC-insured CDs from First Horizon Bank’s network of banks. The service provides FDIC insurance of up to $50,000,000.

First Horizon Bank offers the following lending products:

  • Lines of credit from $25,000 to $100,000
  • Secured term loans from $25,000 to $3,000,000
  • Unsecured term loans from $25,000 to $500,000
  • SBA loans, including SBA 7(a) Loans, SBA 504 Loans, and SBA Express Lines of Credit
  • Real estate loans from $100,000
  • Business equipment leasing from $5,000
  • Accounts receivable (A/R) funding

The Visa Small Business Credit Card provides credit lines up to $50,000 for no annual fee. You get an introductory APR of 0% for your first six months. The card provides automatic discounts on qualifying discounts through the Visa SavingsEdge program.

First Horizon Bank offers the following investing and planning services:

  • Portfolio management services
  • Retirement planning
  • Equity trading
  • Trading online
  • Fixed income and bonds

First Horizon Bank Business Checking Reviews from Users

Most First Horizon Bank business checking reviews are negative. The bank has a rating of 2.2 on WalletHub3 (based on more than 150 reviews) and 1.5 on DepositAccounts4 (based on 30-plus reviews). Recurring complaints include:

  • Slow check processing times: Sometimes, deposited checks do not arrive in client accounts on the date they are promised. Customers claimed to have waited weeks for their deposits to appear in their accounts.
  • Poor customer service: According to reviewers, First Horizon’s customer service arm is difficult to reach. They also mentioned that representatives seemed to lack training and knowledge of the bank’s products and policies.

Bottom Line

We recommend First Horizon Bank to businesses with low or moderate monthly transaction volumes. Its basic checking account, BizEssentials Checking, offers 250 free transactions without charging a monthly fee. However, its higher-tier accounts, BizEssentials Plus Checking and BizEssentials Interest Checking, are far less accessible. Both accounts have a monthly fee of $15, which can only be waived by meeting high balance requirements.

User review references:
1App Store
2Google Play
3WalletHub
4DepositAccounts

About the Author

Ricci Recto

Find Ricci OnLinkedIn

Ricci Recto

Ricci Recto is a Banking Staff Writer for Fit Small Business. Upon completing her bachelor’s degree at Ateneo de Manila University, she worked as a content writer in the digital marketing industry. She also has previous experience as an editorial intern for the travel publication GRID Magazine.