Best Business Banks in Texas

1. Best Business Bank in Texas for Growing Businesses: Texas Capital Bank
2. Best Business Bank in Texas for Nationwide Access: Chase Bank
3. Best Business Bank in Texas for Branches: BBVA Compass
4. Best Business Credit Union in Texas: Texas Trust Credit Union

The Lone Star state is a great place to start and run your own business venture, as destinations such as San Antonio and Dallas continue to be among the fastest-growing cities in the country. Plus, Texas has business-friendly tax and licensure laws, making running a business in Texas just a little easier. Part of establishing and growing your business means picking the right banking partner, which is why looking among the best business banks in Texas is a smart move.

It doesn’t matter if you’re starting a business in Texas for the first time, or if you’ve been enjoying life as a Lone Star entrepreneur for a while now. Having a business bank that fits your needs can help you at every stage in your business. The right bank will help you keep track of your money, assist you in saving on fees, and enable you to establish a partnership with a seasoned banking team (especially helpful if you plan on exploring business lending in the future).

We’ll go through the best business banks in Texas, and help you figure out how to choose the right match for you. After this, you’ll understand what makes a good match for your business, and how to begin setting up your business banking accounts.

Of course, the best business bank in Texas for one person might look vastly different than another. It will all depend on your needs. Let’s break down what you’ll need to consider as you evaluate what makes the best business bank account for your small business:

The first step to finding the best business banks in Texas is understanding your business. That may seem counterintuitive, but the bottom line is that the best business bank in Texas for someone else may not be the same for you. Every business operates with different financial factors, such as cash flow, revenue, and liquidity needs.

Say for example that you run an online boutique: You won’t likely deal much in cash, and may need a bank that can play nice with your merchant service provider. You might even be content with an online business checking account, rather than a checking account at a brick-and-mortar bank. On the other hand, let’s imagine you own a deli that usually has cash-wielding customers—you’ll need a bank that offers you plenty of fee-free cash deposits.

Before you start looking into Texas business banks, you’ll need to know a few things about how you deal with your money. You’ll want to know how much cash you handle, how often you need to make deposits, how many transactions your business might average a month, and whether or not you use wire transfers. There are many different features to a business bank account, but getting a handle on these fundamentals will enable you to confidently choose a bank to open a business account with.

Related to understanding your finances is the issue of understanding the logistics of your business. If you do business all around the state of Texas and handle cash, you’ll probably want to use a brick-and-mortar bank with a bunch of locations ready for you to use. If your business isn’t cash-based, however, and relies on a payment processor like Square or Stripe, you might prefer an online bank like NorthOne, which can integrate seamlessly with either.

As another example, if you’re a small and informal operation, your version of the best business bank in Texas might be a smaller credit union, where you’ll likely face less bureaucracy and have a more personal relationship to your bank.

Consider practicalities like the number of business locations you’ll operate from, the number of staff who might be handling bank transactions for you, how frequently you travel for business and where, and your payment processor to narrow down your options.

As we’ve been alluding to, the reason you need to know how your business interacts with money is because different accounts offer different features. Some, business checking accounts are more liberal with the number of transactions you can make for free each month. Others find their advantage in having lots of brick-and-mortar branches and ATMs for business owners that need to deposit or withdraw a lot of cash.

As you read through the accounts from the best business banks in Texas, take a look at their individual features, and compare them against each other to find your best fit. Some things you may want to look out for include:

• Customer service support
• Mobile banking
• Account fees
• Payroll services
• Retirement planning
• Discounts and waived fees
• Perks of membership

Part of understanding what your company needs from a business bank is knowing what kind of services fit you now. But the other piece is setting yourself up for growth. Even if you’re in nascent days, or just chugging along at a steady clip, there’s potential for your business to grow down the line—and you want to be prepared for it.

Part of thinking about growth is realizing that you may outgrow a basic free business checking account. There are many reasons why a foundational account may no longer be a fit for you as you grow: Perhaps you need more transactions or wire transfers, for instance, or maybe you’re looking for a business savings account to work in tandem with your checking account. It’s not a problem if you pick an account you outgrow to begin with, because you can always change your account. But it’s going to be a whole lot easier to change accounts if you’re not changing banks entirely, and rather upgrading your account to a next tier.

This is why “tiered” business checking is important for many entrepreneurs, especially many who are on a fast track. You can upgrade to different tiers of accounts within one business bank—which can save you time, trouble, and even money.

In a state this big (both in terms of land and personality, naturally), it almost goes without saying that there is a lot of ground to cover when thinking about the best business banks in Texas. There are also a slew of options out there to choose from—be they local branches of national banks, regional operations with a bit more of a personal touch, or even a credit union or two that can make banking hyper-local.

It’s no easy feat to pull together a list of the best business banks in Texas with so many factors to consider. That’s why we’ve broken down our top picks based on a few key components that can help a small business owner make their decision. These determinants include which banks are best for new ventures, feature tons of accessible branches, offer hands-on support, and provide national reach.

Here are our picks for the best business banks in Texas. These may not be the perfect banks for every business, but they’re definitely worth a closer look.

There are tons of local and nationwide business banks in Texas. Not all of them offer quite the same amount of help and support for small businesses as Texas Capital Bank. Founded in 1998, Texas Capital Bank has been offering a slew of professional banking solutions for business owners for over two decades.^[1]

Texas Capital Bank provides banking options for a variety of different companies and sectors. Whether you’re in the home-building business, oil and gas industry, or non-profit sector, this bank has the know-how and account options to help you take your business where you want to be.

They offer four business checking accounts, with one option specifically designed for small businesses, along with a savings account, investment account, certificate of deposit account, and a lawyer’s trust account. The minimum dollar amount required to open each of these accounts is $100 for all except the certificate of deposit account. Better yet, Texas Capital Bank can even help you take your business beyond the United States with its global risk management program.

If you’re looking to grow your business, irrespective of your industry or goals, Texas Capital Bank has what you need to make it happen. With treasury services, credit and lending products, and liquidity management, you’ll have plenty to propel your business forward with Texas Capital Bank.

There’s something to be said for a bank with nationwide reach. Having in-network ATMs in almost every state can be a huge relief if you’re on the road as part of your work. Chase Bank business accounts offer this kind of accessibility and much more.

Chase has almost 5,000 branches and over 16,000 ATMs across the country, making it an obvious choice for businesses that have a presence in and outside of Texas—they have over 800 ATM and branch locations in the Houston area alone.^[2] When you think about the amount of money you’ll save in ATM fees by having this kind of reach, you might be talking about a significant amount of money in the long run.

Nationwide reach isn’t the only thing that makes Chase Bank a compelling option for small business owners. This bank also offers a wide variety of account types, each intended to serve different companies and their unique banking needs. There are entry-level accounts, like their Chase Business Complete Banking account, that offer low monthly maintenance fees and low balance requirements to have them waived. These accounts have fewer free features than others (such as free monthly deposits and wire transfers), but can help new companies get on their feet with the bare necessities. These accounts can also be a great option for businesses that simply don’t need a ton of features from their bank.

Chase also offers other accounts that come with a bunch of free monthly features, high deposit limits, and hands-on support. These accounts tend to come with higher monthly balance requirements in order to have fees waived, but offer the kinds of perks that are tailored for businesses with high cash reserves too.

For example, the highest-tiered business account from Chase for small businesses in Texas is their Chase Platinum Business Checking account. This account is probably best for bigger businesses with high amounts of transactions and deposits, especially because you’d have to keep an average of $100,000 in your account to waive their monthly service fee. However, this Chase account promises unlimited electronic deposits and incoming wires, and even allows you to send four wires per month at no cost to you.

BBVA Compass has an outsized presence in the Lone Star State, which makes it a great option for small business owners who want tons of places to take care of their banking across Texas. Currently, BBVA has just under 650 branches across the country, and 336 of them are in Texas alone.^[3] In fact, you can go from Galveston to El Paso and find BBVA Compass branches all across the journey.

Having a slew of branches in Texas isn’t the only thing that BBVA Compass has going for it, either. This bank offers accounts and support that are top-class for small business owners and individuals alike. There are business checking accounts, business savings accounts, and business lending options that can help you take your business wherever you want it to—particularly if you want to expand it across Texas.

There are plenty of advantages that conventional business banking providers offer, but credit unions can often give you what other financial providers can’t. The most meaningful differentiation factor here is personalized attention. Credit unions are different from banks because they’re owned by the individual account holders, rather than shareholders and other third parties. This means that credit unions keep their clients best interests at heart.

Finding a credit union business checking account can be tricky, however. Only a fraction of credit unions cater to small businesses, which makes the fact that Texas Trust offers three small business accounts a truly unique opportunity for entrepreneurs to get in on the goodness—the most basic of which, their Foundation account, has low fees compared to its big bank competitors. However, you will have to maintain a $1,000 minimum balance to avoid their $9 monthly fee. Currently, Texas Trust Credit Union offers business checking accounts, money market accounts, loans, credit cards, and SBA Express loans.

Large, national banks and even regional banks might offer convenience and access, but Texas Trust Credit Union offers a dedicated focus on your business as its most important stakeholder. This could make the decision an easy one if you’re comfortable with some of the tradeoffs, like a lack of branch locations, that come with being a credit union member.^[4]

With a state as big and unique as Texas, there’s guaranteed to be plenty of competition for the title of “the best business bank in Texas.” The good news is that your distinct needs can help you decide which option reigns supreme, putting you in the saddle in terms of picking the best option for your company. Whether you need tons of features, lots of locations, or ample opportunities to speak with a banking professional, the good news is that there are great picks across the board to consider.