What the website headline leaves out
Most online business bank accounts in the US are not offered by banks at all. They are run by fintech companies, and your money sits at a partner bank: Novo holds deposits at Middlesex Federal Savings, Found at Lead Bank, and Mercury spreads balances across a network of institutions. That structure is legal and common. It also means the account details you care about live in three different documents instead of one.
The second thing that catches owners off guard is cash. Plenty of US businesses still handle it. Landscapers in Phoenix, salons in Atlanta, food trucks in Austin, weekend sellers at a flea market in Ohio. Mercury and Novo do not accept cash deposits at all. If your week includes a fold of twenties, that is disqualifying, and no amount of slick onboarding fixes it.
Then there is the branch habit. Chase Business Complete Banking runs $15 a month unless you meet a balance, deposit or spending condition. Wells Fargo and Bank of America entry accounts sit in the same $15 to $16 range. Those are solid products for someone who wants a teller, but they are not what most people picture when they search for an online account.
Paperwork is the fourth tripwire. Applications ask for your EIN or SSN, your formation state, and personal details for every owner with 25% or more of the business. Bank of America, for example, wants your supporting documents within 11 days of the application or the file is declined and you start over. A stalled application can leave invoice money sitting in a payment processor for weeks.
The comparison most review sites skip
| Provider | Monthly cost | Moving money | Cash deposits | Deposit coverage | Fits |
|---|
| Mercury | $0 | $0 domestic ACH and domestic wires | Not accepted | Up to $5M through partner banks | Startups holding larger balances, wire-heavy vendors |
| Novo | $0 | $0 standard ACH | Not accepted | $250,000 via Middlesex Federal Savings | Solo owners who invoice and want bookkeeping built in |
| Relay | $0 Starter / $30 Grow / $90 Scale | $8 outgoing domestic wire on Starter, $5 incoming, $1 same-day ACH | At Allpoint+ ATMs, up to $4.95 at Green Dot | Up to $3M | Owners who want 20 sub-accounts for tax and payroll buckets |
| Bluevine | $0 Standard / $30 Plus / $95 Premier, waivable | Up to $15 outgoing wires | $1 plus 0.5% at Allpoint+, $4.95 at Green Dot | Up to $3M | Businesses that want interest sitting inside checking |
| Found | $0 base plan / $35 Plus | Up to $15 outgoing wires | $2.00 per deposit | $250,000 via Lead Bank | Freelancers who want tax estimates built in |
| Rho | $0, no per-user charge | $0 domestic ACH and domestic wires | Not accepted | Through partner banks | Teams with several cardholders and bill pay |
| NBKC | $0 | Standard ACH | Unlimited at no cost, in person or eligible ATMs | Bank-held | Cash-taking businesses that still want a real bank |
Match the account to how money arrives
Start with the deposit side, not the fee page. A remodeling contractor outside Denver who collects checks and cash from homeowners is better served by NBKC or a branch bank than by a fintech with elegant software. A freelance brand designer in Brooklyn who gets paid by card and ACH will never miss the cash window and will care far more about whether invoices and expense sorting come included.
One common case: a two-person coffee roastery in Portland took card payments online but also sold bags at weekend markets. The owners opened a fintech account first because the signup took ten minutes, then discovered every market day ended with cash they could not deposit. They kept the fintech account for online sales and added a bank account for the cash side. Two accounts, one bookkeeping feed, no workaround at the counter.
Price the movement, not the subscription
Outgoing wires are where the quiet money goes. Relay charges $8 on its $0 Starter plan, Found up to $15, Bluevine up to $15. Mercury and Rho list $0 for domestic ACH and domestic wires. If you pay overseas contractors monthly, look at Relay's international pricing: $25 on the SWIFT network under Starter, dropping to $20 on Scale, plus currency exchange from roughly 1%.
Interest is the other lever. Bluevine's Standard plan advertises 1.3% APY on balances up to $250,000, but only in months you clear a spend or deposit test. Relay pays 1.19% on savings under Starter and 3.21% under Scale. Found's base plan pays nothing on checking. Read the qualifying condition before you assume the rate.
Confirm who holds the deposit
Click through to the page that names the partner bank, then look that institution up in the FDIC's BankFind tool. Coverage above $250,000 usually comes from sweep programs that spread your balance across several banks. That works, but it is not the same as a single bank relationship, and it matters if you carry investor funds or a large tax reserve.
Run the application like a closing
Legal name mismatches are the single most common reason a small business application gets flagged. Your formation certificate, your EIN letter and your application should all read identically, including "LLC" and any punctuation. If you trade under a different name, have the DBA certificate or assumed name filing ready.
Opening an account in one sitting
- Pull your EIN confirmation letter from the IRS and confirm the legal name exactly as filed.
- Collect your state formation certificate, operating agreement and any DBA filing.
- Check your state's business registry to see how your name appears in public records.
- Decide your deposit channel first: cash, checks, cards, or wires.
- Fund the account with a small amount, then send one ACH and one wire in each direction before you route real revenue through it.
- Connect your accounting software on day one and set up a separate sub-account for tax money.
Local help is closer than it looks. SBA district offices run free advising sessions in most metro areas, SCORE mentors work with owners one on one, and every state secretary of state publishes a business search you can check in a minute. If a provider gives you trouble, the CFPB's complaint database shows patterns worth knowing about before you sign up.
The account that works is the one that matches your deposit reality and your payment habits, not the one with the loudest $0. Spend twenty minutes on the deposit side and the wire schedule before you click apply, and the account you open will still fit two years from now.
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