Full featured business bank with branches and low min checking

[Anonymous]

I am in NYC Metro and am looking for a business bank for checking account that has a decent sized national branch footprint with low minimum for checking.

So far I’ve found Wells Fargo which has a 500 minimum balance requirement for a business checking account and PNC happens to be lowering the minimum from 1500 to 500 for its checking accoung on 2/1/2019.  While they don’t have as many branches as Chase around here, they do seem to have a local footprint where I can travel to a branch in the metro area.  Are there any other banks of this size around with better products?  Or would you choose Wells Fargo or PNC?  PNC’s product is more competitive with more included transactions but seems to be somewhat of a smaller bank than Wells Fargo.

[Anonymous]

I have been using TD Business Convenience Checking (was Commerce before take over) for 20+ years, I believe minimum to avoid $25 fee is $1500 but I always have at least $45k in the account so never paid attention to it until I read this thread. TD opens 7 days a week, 7/8pm on most week days, convenient in deed.

[Anonymous]

I would not use Wells Fargo for any thing after all the stuff they pulled zip credibility.  It really comes down to what services do you need loc, regular loans, credit card clearing and type of business ie large ticket few transaction paid by wire, lots of small transactions paid by cash and credit.   The biz DW and I have is large ticket paid by wire. We keep a small account 2 doors down from the biz to cash checks but our operating account is with a no fee very much on line bank with the closest branch over 75 miles away.  We do not take cash for our business. 

The bank we use has strong website and is reachable  by phone up to 7 PM.  Chase offers some great deals on credit card clearing 

[Anonymous]

Popular Bank which is a Puerto Rican based bank has free business checking locally as does Flushing Bank.  They appear to be smaller banks.  In banking it is hard to trust anyone.  

Citibank business has min balance requirements too high as does Bank Of America and Capital One and Chase.  

I am looking for either a free and/or low min account and so far I have seen Wells Fargo with 500 min, PNC being lowered to 500 min on Feb 1st 2019, and free business checking from Popular Bank and Flushing Bank.  TD Bank has high business minimums as well.

TD Bank is 1500 min, same as Chase and I would rather do business with Chase Bank than TD Bank if I was to have a higher minimum balance.  Wells Fargo is a top small business lender with a large amount of loans given as well.

[Anonymous]

https://www.bankbranchlocator.com/top-100-banks-in-usa.html has been helpful in finding banks.  Wells Fargo offers the most for the $500 minimum in terms of total branch network.  PNC obviously has to lower minimums to stay competitive and PNC has a lot of great locations but falls shy of Wells Fargo.  Popular has some good branch locations in the few areas it serves.

As someone looking to conduct business where the money is, access to a more national banking network is a good thing and Wells Fargo seems to do this quite well taking aside the other known issues of Wells Fargo so I am leaning in the direction of a Wells Fargo account.  

I am considering Chase, Wells Fargo and PNC although Popular and Flushing seem to have a tempting offering that is more local based in nature.  

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of free or very low balance requirement banks out there .  In my area atleast 5 small banks.

[Anonymous]

There are a few small banks with free business checking in the area.  Iberia Bank apparently has a Park Avenue branch on an upper floor with free business checking as well apparently.  Iberia Bank is too small however in terms of branch footprint.

[Anonymous]

BoA and either put $250 a month on their debit card or their business credit associated with your account.

Easy to do it you have any business expenses that you pay with a card.

I did that for years while building my revenue stream up enough to maintain minimums.

[Anonymous]

Not interested in Bank Of America as they are rated poor with high minimums which are more than double that of Chase.  The wealthiest clients in NYC seem to use Chase as one branch alone has a huge amount of deposits no other bank can match.  I guess the largest depositors and big businesses use the larger banks which give them a lot more.  The deposits at the smallest banks which have free business checking are much lower.  I wouldn’t be putting 250 a month on a Bank Of America debit or credit card.  Would rather put down 500 minimum which Wells Fargo and PNC offer but Chase seems to offer a good package for 1500 minimum.  

According to JD Power, Chase is rated high overall for small business banking and I was reading they are more lenient on small business loans to newer businesses.  Wells Fargo also rated as a larger small business lender with a lower 500 min deposit.  Not sure where I will bank.  Will see if any new promotions for business checking show up as the current ones have expired.  

[Anonymous]

There’s more to banking than minimum amounts on deposit. Be sure to look at the whole package now and as your business grows. Things like number of transactions, a robust ACH mechanism, teller, online or mobile deposit availability and amounts can all be factors in making a good decision.

Try meeting a few small business banking reps at each of your potential banks

And yes Chase/JP Morgan provide nice services for their “wealthiest clients in NYC” who have significant amounts on deposit as do most big banks with customers with significant amounts on deposit.