It's unfamiliar territory - I've started a business. I need a bank that has branches in NH ideally. The fewer the fees the better.

What's your experience?

My experience. Any bank bigger than a local S&L or CU blows. Well, that is unless you have several million dollars to add to your account balances. My suggestion would be to shop local S&L's while also trying to determine how much of your financial needs can be accommodated via online banking. The more you can accomplish yourself online, the happier you will be with the banking world.

Thank you. Yes, balances will be modest initially.

Go local.

Go local.

Go local.

Back in the day, there was something known as the Community Reinvestment Act. Under it, banks, particularly local banks, were given preferential treatment to plow money back into the local economy. Their incentives provided incentives to businesses as well.

I have been banking with a local bank for going on ten years. I have a personal, not business account, but the service and treatment I get is exceptional in every way. They have only five branches, but I can walk into any of them and be recognized. They are a business-focused bank, so everything I have in my personal account is free. Free checks, free checking, free debit card, credit monitoring, replacement cards (without fee), and more. Gone are the days I would even look sideways at Bank of Whatever, or Bee, Bee and Fee.

quote:

Originally posted by Dan:
It's unfamiliar territory - I've started a business. I need a bank that has branches in NH ideally. The fewer the fees the better.

What's your experience?

We use Southern First for our business. They're very easy to work with. No branches in NH, of course. But perhaps with mobile banking you could work around that.

I haven't updated my location (sorry). I'm no longer in SC.

Check out local credit unions.

We have no-fee banking for our small business with a local credit union.

My Credit Union is fantastic, I recommend you go that route if possible. I have both business and personal accounts there .

Where do you do your personal banking? Perhaps they have a reasonable option for existing customers.

It really depends on what type of business you have. If it's just a local small business that deals with local customers than your local banks would work fine. If you have global customers, then you're going to want a large, nationwide bank. I have Chase, but send and receive a decent amount of wire transfers and Chase doesn't have to go through an intermediatary bank to send a wire out of the U.S. usually. etc.

Wells Fargo. I'm going to talk to them tomorrow. They don't have any branches in NH, but I'm not going to be dealing in cash, so maybe that doesn't matter.

Wells will fee you to death. Ask other small business owners who they like.

quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:

Wells will fee you to death. Ask other small business owners who they like.

Yup. We had a "no fee" small business account, originally opened with SouthTrust. Good service.

Then, SouthTrust got eaten by Wachovia. Still sort of OK, but there were a few problems that required intervention by the branch manager.

Then, Wachovia got eaten by Wells-Fargo and everything went to shit. They started charging various monthly fees, we got the fees refunded, withdrew everything, and walked across the street to a credit union.

As others have said it somewhat depends on how big your business is and how much money you’ll be running through it on a monthly basis.
It is also important (IMHO) to at least have a branch near where you work/live. At some point as your business grows you may need the help of a commercial banker and the sooner you start that relationship, the better.

I went with a regional bank that is now pretty much up and down the east coast. While most of our business was done with checks and wire transfers from other US banks, some were in cash (large amounts) and some were overseas wire transfers.

I would also second the online banking comment. The more you can do online (and the easier it is to negotiate) the better.

Depending upon your business, some banks may not want to do business with you. Found that to be the case here in AZ when I started my FFL business.

quote:

As others have said it somewhat depends on how big your business is and how much money you’ll be running through it on a monthly basis.
It is also important (IMHO) to at least have a branch near where you work/live. At some point as your business grows you may need the help of a commercial banker and the sooner you start that relationship, the better.

As of right now, nothing is coming in. It's self- funded with 3 employees, so avoiding fees is currently much more important than additional services.

In the next 12 to 18 months, however, we may be filling contracts for several hundred thousand a month. Well, if it works out at all. No cash. Clients might be from anywhere in the country. At that time additional services may be more valuable than a no fee account. So I guess a bank that I can grow with makes sense.