Suffolk Bumpkin

Hi ,

My wife and I need to open a small business account here in the US - but it seems like they're a bunch of bloodsucking sharks.
In the UK you usually get 18 months free banking with small business accounts. Over here - they practically rape you from day one.

Does anyone have any suggestions for banks we can go to to open a business account with good terms in the US?

We live in New Hampshire.

Internet banking coys. might be a good idea - dunno. We will need merchant banking services too from somewhere.

Any help from all you good people out there would be gratefully received - many thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Bumpkin

Bob

Yeah, they do a bit...our banks a bit dodgy, but better than others in the new england area...Peoples bank...there's a whole link of banks with them in the new england area, so that is quite handy if you shuffle around a bit...they do offer free banking services if you have a constant debit, or keep a certain level in an account or whatever...
Worth having a look I guess....

DaveC

I've got a free business checking from the Bank of Texas which has been great, although perhaps not so good for you, but I'm sure one of the banks in New Hampshire would do something similar. It took me 2 seconds on Google to find this, which you might want to investigate:

http://www.banknh.com/small_business/checking.html

fatbrit

The usual brainless US corporate bonus system often means that the person who serves you may not even give you all the options. Instead, they will attempt to sell you whatever will give them the biggest bonus. If the freebie account ain't paying bucks to the banker, you'll be SOL.

Try to check all products on the web before you visit the branch, then tell them the product you've come to open rather than the one they'd love to open for you.

anotherlimey

I hate US banks, they are one of my main gripes about living here.

They seem to charge for everything; and I love the way they try to get you to pay a subscription for their premium account which gives you the single benefit of a gold coloured card rather than a regular one.

Dan725

Anything in this country to do with money, whether it be banks, insurance, realtors, mortgages, investments, car finance or whatever - they are all a bunch of bloody sharks and you have to really keep on top of them.

Seems far more difficult to find the person who offers you the best deal from the off than in the UK. Doing your research and standing on them from the get go is the only way to go, seems like they are generally used to dealing with a lot of stupid people and giving them a bit of a shock by being well informed is recommended.

Bob

That'll be the bank north group then, the new england bank group that mine is part of

NC Penguin

The only thing I can suggest is to look at www.epinions.com for any reviews of those who've used banks for business purposes.

Also, if you're eligible to join a local credit union, perhaps they offer business accounts that are more reasonable.



NC Penguin

Franklin

... and apart from "sharking you to death" ... there is the issue of running your account, "simple" things like sending your a check book, etc. We set up a business bank a/c and ordered a check book "as you do" and it never arrived ... we rang up after waiting a while, got told something along the lines that it hadn't been sent out yet (in fact it had) or maybe it's on its' way and we should wait, etc. etc. Still didn't arrive, so they sent out another checkbook on emergency order … it became a mess, I rather forget about it but the avoidable stress of this mess seared my brain. We got issued some temporary business checks. Still no checkbook and we went to our bank, the branch around the corner from our office. They insisted the checkbooks were sent out; we asked to see the address the bank used to send out our business checkbook (these things are quite big, about 3 or 4 checks per page). The bank had somehow got our address wrong, the checkbooks were sent to an address in DC. We said something like, "you know this branch is in Arlington, not DC - don't you? And we are just around the corner, so we are in Arlington too, and everything west of the Potomac is outside DC?” Reminds me of DC folk who think Ronald Reagan National (DCA) airport is in DC, it isn’t … it’s in Arlington, VA. DC folks have to cross, or metro under the Potomac, to get to DCA, but many DC folk think it's in DC.

The under or assistant or assistant to the assistant manager (who apparently took the metro from DC everyday) thought “his” branch was in DC (he thought he was still in DC, when in fact this branch was in Arlington, VA), he didn't have a clue about the boundary for DC/VA, which is the river, the Potomac, he didn’t seem to know they he was in VA. I also noticed that the zip code in their version of our actual address was wrong, he said that it was changed to fit the street address to a zip code in DC (apparently there was a street with the same street name as ours in DC, he thought we got it wrong, got our own zip, county, and state wrong so the bank changed it to fit the same street address in DC. Unbelievable.

We went through hell and back without a business checkbook, it was hard to pay our contractors on time, we had to go and get emergency temporary checks from our branch who would only issue about 3 or 4 emergency checks at a time and when you are starting a business you end up writing a lot of checks for all sorts of stuff like furniture, office equipment, etc. What was frightening was that the checkbooks they sent to the same street address (but in DC, not Arlington, VA) were not returned. All the checks sent to the wrong address were cancelled (least that is what we told them to do) and we got an emergency delivery checkbook that was sent to our actual address - the same exact address we gave the bank when we opened our business account.

We had another mess just recently, we ordered a new checkbook and it arrived at our new address (so they got that right) but with the wrong business name on the checkbook - go figure. We got a rushed replacement and profuse apologies. What a shambles, but we are stuck with them. We rather be with the devil we know, also we can process credit cards and changing our business bank will mess that up good and proper. If you think it is hard opening a business bank account, try and get a credit card system set up that pays into your business account. We had to pay several thousands of dollars into a special account, at a different bank (the one involved in processing credit card payments), we noticed that this bank took more into that account - overpaid by about $2k and they were still taking a % of our credit card receipts beyond what was authorized and originally agreed, we got that fixed and a profuse apology for the error. A significant chunk of our incoming cash flow comes from credit card payments, especially with regard to foreign-based customers, so for us we have to stay with our current business bank or be willing to set up the credit card payment system all over again.

Until someone who has never started or run a business actually tries to set up a business, they don’t know what hell is. I now marvel at folks who complain about their private business owner bosses, little do they know what that boss goes through each day, each week, each month, each year, to stay in business. It’s hell. But there is a big upside too, its great being in charge and not having to worry about what your boss might be thinking etc. It’s a completely different ball of wax. And I love "making it" in the USA – go USA! Imho, the USA is the greatest country to start a successful business in. Yes sure there is lots of bureaucracy to deal with, but I suspect there are just as many business regulations and hurdles in the UK. Also, the UK banks really rip you off on interest rates, the interest rate here on loans is typically far less than UK bank interest rates.

fatbrit

A sweeping and rather insular generalization through rose-tinted specs, IMVHO. You state that the US is the greatest country to start a successful business in, and then you compare it only with the UK. There's a whole world out there you know. And is this any business or specific ones?

Manc

you're talking shit.

The cost of living is so much lower here than the UK

earwig told me, so it must be true.

Bob

hehe
Speaking of, it's been rather quiet lately...

Franklin

Ahhh, Manc reminds me of that phrase, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

Yorkieabroad

Take a look at Wells Fargo if they are near you - we have our personal and business accounts with them, and they're not bad (nowhere near as good as our UK bank, but by local comparison, pretty decent).

They have a good range of business accounts, but we went with them basically cos for the style we need, its free - we have a low volume checking account (max 75 checks a month) and a linked savings account which pays derisory interest (but then so does everywhere). Can access them both online, thru a reasonable site, and the local staff are very helpful. There are no monthly fees, and we've only been hit with unexpected charges once when we blew our checking account cos we forgot to transfer cash from the savings account - totally our fault, but a quick word and they refunded the fee , and then provided a free overdraft protection linkage between the checking and savings accounts. The only other charge we get hit with is $11 on incoming wire transfers from overseas, which we get once a quarter or so. We don't bother with check books - we use versacheck and print them at home - slightly concerned about security, but (touchwood) we've not had a problem so far.

Franklin

I can recommend the Credit Unions, if the OP can get an account with a Credit Union he/she will be cooking, imho. I don't know if Credit Unions do business accounts, if they do ... give them a shout. In my experience Credit Unions offer excellent services for personal a/c holders. I have always found them to be very courteous and very up front about everything. Most scrumptious service, imho.