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What Bank Do You Use for Business?

Since starting my company in 2004 I’ve been using Commerce bank for my business accounts. At first everything was cool, but after the first year or so with them, things quickly began to fall apart.

Just over the past year I’ve endured numerous strings of fraudulent activity on my account. Most recently in August there was a deduction by a mysterious “Dr. Symantec”. Who the hell is Dr. Symantec?

Anyways, I filed a complaint and received my money back after a month… then just a few days ago they all of a sudden they decided to change their minds and withdraw the money from my account.

When questioned why they were doing that, I was told that the person handling my claim no longer worked at the bank and they wouldn’t be able to help me. Grrr… Commerce bank has been nothing but a pain in the ass since I started with them.

But enough about me and my banking problems. The point here is to do your research before you decide to go with a bank for your business. I’ve been told that Bank of America and Wachovia are much better banks when it comes to business accounts. I guess Commerce is still just a mom and pops operation, eh?

You shouldn’t have to be worried about someone stealing your money or some incompetent bank clerk misfiling your account papers every time that you use your bank card to pay a bill or register for a new service. You have better things to worry about like scaling your business and finding new clients.

That’s why it’s so important that you try and find the right bank from the beginning. If you do your research and weigh the pros and cons with each bank, then you’ll find that you’ll be worrying much less about fraudulent activity and much more on growing your business. Believe me, it’s worth the piece of mind.

What bank do you use?

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 26th, 2006 at 5:41 pm and is filed under my thoughts, finance. You can trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “What Bank Do You Use for Business?”

1

I use US Bank, mostly for their free business checking (I’m completely tight when it comes to my business). They’ve been completely professional and helpful and I’ve never had a problem with them. Plus, they don’t charge me for having an account with them.

2

Thanks for sharing, Nate. Hmm… I’ll look into US Bank and see what they’re all about — I could use some professionalism. Rock on.

3

Never use commerce bank. My friend has his ATM card copied and someone cleaned out his accounts of $900 before he checked his balance and called Commerce Bank. They refunded him the money immediately, but weeks later revoked it after the ATM security camera showed the guy looked like my friend. At least that’s what they claimed. They threatened to close down his accounts and tried to scare him away from pursuing it further by suggesting they would sue him for lying about the ATM fiasco.

Problem was that he had evidence it wasn’t him withdrawing the money from the atms. Twice, he was at work where you have to scan your hand ever time you enter and leave the office. The third time he was with me, an hour from where the ATM location.

He took them to small claims court and won back all of his money.

I have my business accounts with Bank of America. My only complaint is their low interest rates for savings accounts. Customer service at my local branch is unbeatable.

4

WOW, that’s a crazy story! Thanks for sharing that. That gives me ever more of a reason to get rid of commerce as my bank. I’m glad that things worked out for your friend! I think I’ll look into Bank of America.

5

I’m not sure if this will be of much use to you, but Coutts Bank are pretty supportive of entrepreneurs, they don’t have any US branches though. It might be worth a look through none the less.

6

Thanks Henrey. Hey, I think that’s the bank that Richard Branson used to fund his ventures in England, yeah?

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