Hancock Whitney Bank’s three business checking accounts are ideal for businesses with low and moderate transaction volumes seeking to save on monthly fees. Its basic-tier account, Essential Checking, has no monthly service fees, while both the bank’s higher-tier accounts, Interest Checking and Preferred Checking, offer multiple ways to waive them.
The bank also offers overdraft protection services, discounted first-order checks, and online and mobile banking. Further, it has a full suite of business products, which include savings, credit cards, lending products, investments, insurance, and retirement accounts.
Hancock Whitney Bank is a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC)-insured bank with more than 200 full-service financial centers in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. It has nearly 300 ATMs throughout the region. Opening a business checking account requires visiting one of the bank’s financial centers or contacting (888) 224-2833.
Pros
- No monthly fee for basic account, Essential Checking
- High monthly cash deposit allowance
- Multiple ways to waive monthly fees for other checking accounts
Cons
- Branches limited to five states
- High wire transfer fees
- No online account opening option
Features
- Visa business debit card
- Online and mobile banking
- Discounted first-order check package
- Elevated call priority under Preferred Checking
- Overdraft protection
- Merchant services
- Business savings, money market, and certificates of deposit (CDs)
- Credit cards, lending products, investments, insurance, and retirement accounts
How Hancock Whitney Bank Stacks Up With Its Competitors
When Hancock Whitney Bank Is a Good Fit
- You have low monthly transactions and want to avoid a monthly fee: Hancock Whitney Bank’s Essential Checking account provides up to 100 fee-free monthly transactions and does not charge a monthly service fee.
- You have moderate monthly transactions and want to waive monthly fees: With Hancock Whitney Bank’s Preferred and Interest Checking accounts, businesses can maximize higher fee-free transactions and access multiple options to waive the monthly service fees.
- You have high monthly cash deposits: Hancock Whitney Bank offers some of the highest monthly cash deposit allowances, from $5,000 for its lowest-tier account to up to $30,000 for its highest tier.
- You prefer a full-service bank with various products: Besides business checking accounts, Hancock Whitney Bank offers savings and money market accounts, CDs, credit cards, loans, insurance, investments, and retirement accounts.
When To Consider Hancock Whitney Bank Alternatives
- You prefer nationwide branch access: Hancock Whitney Bank’s branches are limited to five states: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. If you want wider branch access, we recommend Chase for its nationwide locations. Read our Chase Business Complete Banking review to learn about its basic tier account.
- You want to open multiple accounts to organize your business funds: Categorizing business expenses is easier with subaccounts. Hancock Whitney Bank does not offer subaccounts, while the fintech Relay lets you create up to 20 individual subaccounts. Our review of Relay business checking provides details of this feature.
- You’re a self-employed professional seeking to streamline your bookkeeping: Access to integrated bookkeeping tools is invaluable to self-employed professionals. Hancock Whitney Bank’s accounting software is limited to QuickBooks and Quicken. We recommend Found for its built-in bookkeeping solutions, including invoicing and tax tools. Check out our Found business checking review to see if it’s a good fit.
Check out more providers in our list of the best small business checking accounts.
Hancock Whitney Bank Business Checking Overview
Hancock Whitney Bank Business Checking Requirements
To open a business checking account, you must visit a Hancock Whitney Bank financial center or contact (888) 224-2833. Before opening an account, see our guide on how to open a business bank account, which includes a free downloadable checklist of required documents.
Hancock Whitney Bank Business Checking Features
Hancock Whitney Bank provides three business checking accounts, online and mobile banking, and business standard overdraft services.
Business Checking Accounts
- An Essential Checking account is best for new businesses, sole proprietors, and other businesses with few monthly transactions and low balances. It does not have a monthly service fee and offers fee-free limits of up to 100 monthly transactions and $5,000 monthly cash deposits.
- An Interest Checking account is suitable for businesses with high account balances wanting to earn interest at a competitive rate. Keeping a balance above $2,500 is required to start earning interest. This account provides 500 free monthly transactions and charges a waivable $25 monthly service fee.
- A Preferred Checking account offers plenty of features. It is ideal for established and growing businesses with moderate transaction volumes and balances, including banking relationships that reduce/waive the $18 monthly service fee. Its monthly transaction limits and cash deposit allowances are the highest among the three accounts, with 750 transactions and up to $30,000 in cash deposits.
A Preferred Business Checking account also comes with a Personal Freestyle Checking account with no monthly service fee for one owner. Account holders also gain priority access to the bank’s call center with little or no wait times.
Online and Mobile Banking
Reviews for the Hancock Whitney Bank mobile banking app at App Store1 show a high rating of 4.9 out of 5 from around 7,900 reviews, while on Google Play2, it averages 4.5 out of 5 from about 1,000 reviews.
Users repeatedly said that the app is simple and easy to use. They also appreciated the app’s convenience and reliability. However, a few complained about the app freezing and reported issues with the mobile deposit functionality. Some also said that the check deposit funds are held for several days.
Business Standard Overdraft Services
Hancock Whitney Bank provides overdraft protection plans to business customers through a business line of credit, deposit account coverage, or overdraft consideration:
- A business line of credit can be linked to a small business checking account with transfer amounts as the exact amount of overdraft up to the available line of credit. No transfer fees apply.
- Deposit account coverage works by linking a small business checking account to either a small business savings or another small business checking account for overdraft protection. The transfer amounts will be the exact overdraft amount up to the available balance. The $10 transfer fee is waived when you make an advanced transfer to cover a potential overdraft.
- An overdraft consideration is when Hancock Whitney Bank pays the nonsufficient funds (NSF) items into overdraft at its discretion. Still, it’s not always guaranteed that the bank will authorize and pay for any transaction.
Read our guide on business overdraft protection to learn more about how it works.
Other Hancock Whitney Bank Business Products
Hancock Whitney Bank features a wide variety of business products and services. The products include savings, money market and CD accounts, credit cards, lending, investments, insurance, and retirement products.
Commercial Checking Account
This account is geared toward businesses with high transaction volumes and complex treasury management needs. Deposit balances earn credits that reduce or offset banking fees. There are no transaction limits and access to a suite of treasury services is available to streamline cash management and mitigate risk through fraud protection.
Savings Products
Hancock Whitney Bank offers a Business Savings, Preferred Money Market, Commercial Money Market, and CD accounts.
Minimum Opening Deposit | $100 | $100 | $2,500 | $1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Monthly Service Charge | $3 | $25 | $10 | N/A |
Minimum Daily Balance to Waive Fee | $200 | $25,000 | $2,500 | N/A |
Average Collected Balance to Earn Interest | All collected balances | $25,000 | $2,500 | All collected balances |
Withdrawals | 3 free monthly withdrawals, then $3 per withdrawal | 6 free monthly withdrawals, then $15 per withdrawal | N/A | |
Business Credit Cards
- Business Credit Card
- Points Plus Business Credit Card
Business Financing
- Small Business Administration (SBA) loans
- Business lines of credit
- Business equity lines of credit
- Term loans
- Construction loans
- Leasing
- Equipment finance
Treasury Management Services
- Treasury exchange custom reports and alerts
- Positive pay
- ACH block
- Universal Payment Identification Code (UPIC)
- Commercial bill pay
- ACH origination
- Wire transfers
- Payroll cards
- Investment sweep services
- Zero balance accounts
- Remote deposit capture
- Lockbox services
- Cash vault
- Provisional credit
International Banking
- Foreign exchange (FX)
- International payments
- Import services
- Export services
Insurance
- Term life insurance
- Whole life insurance
- Universal life insurance
- Long-term care insurance
- Long-term disability
Investment Services
- Stocks
- Bonds
- Mutual funds
- Fee based-managed accounts
- Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
- Unit investment trusts (UITs)
Retirement and Custodial Accounts
- Traditional and Roth individual retirement accounts (IRAs)
- 401(k) and 403(b) rollovers
- Custodian for minor accounts
You may be interested in our guide on how to use a 401(k) to start or buy a business if you’re considering starting or purchasing one.
Hancock Whitney Bank Business Checking Reviews From Users
Hancock Whitney Bank’s business checking reviews are unavailable online. However, on WalletHub3, the bank shows a low rating of 1.6 out of 5 from around 190 reviews. Some positive reviews came from users with approved personal and car loans. They mentioned that the loan process was easy, the rates were good, and customer service was excellent.
However, several clients gave negative feedback and stated that the bank’s verification process was inconvenient. They also said the loan document requests were repetitive and lengthy, affecting the clients’ schedules. Some also complained about the bank’s failure to notify them of a maturing CD, which resulted in paying an early withdrawal fee.
Bottom Line
Hancock Whitney Bank’s business checking accounts are an excellent fit for businesses with low to moderate transaction activity. Business customers can save through the bank’s high monthly transaction limits, generous cash deposit allowances, available overdraft protection services, and waivable monthly service fees. However, if you rely on in-person banking, the branches are limited to five states only.
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