Business Checking Account Promotions - 2021

Choosing a bank account to house your business finances is one of the first and most critical decisions you’ll need to make once you’ve started your business. After all, this account will not only store your business’s funds, but it will also allow you to separate your personal and your business finances—which is essential for legal, tax, and even organizational purposes.

This being said, if you’re looking for a business bank account, you might be wondering what kind of promotions or special offers you can take advantage of. Without a doubt, opening a bank account is all the better if you can get a cash back or other welcome bonus to jump start your business when doing so.

Therefore, to help you through your search, we’ve compiled this list of the best business checking account promotions for January 2021. We’ll break down each of these business checking account bonus offers as well as explain what each account can provide your business on a regular basis.

It’s important to remember, however, that all of these offers may change at any time and are subject to the terms and conditions as set out by their respective financial institution—so you’ll want to make sure you review all terms thoroughly before applying for any account.

As you’re exploring different business checking account bonus offers, you’ll find that many of the national banks that provide dedicated business bank accounts will include promotional bonuses when you open an account. Let’s check them out.

Not only are the Chase business checking accounts some of the most robust on the market, but they also offer three unique options, each of which includes a new business checking account promotion—a $300 cash bonus when you:

• Open a new Chase business checking account
• Deposit a total of $2,000 in new money within 20 days of opening your account
• Maintain the $2,000 balance for 60 days
• Complete five qualifying transactions within 60 days

You can choose from Chase’s three business checking accounts: Chase Business Complete Checking, Chase Performance Checking, and Chase Platinum Checking, depending on your business needs.

Of the three options, the Chase Business Complete Checking account is perhaps the most small-business friendly, with a $0 minimum opening deposit, unlimited electronic deposits, 20 free paper or teller transactions per month, and $5,000 in cash deposits included per month.

Additionally, the Chase Business Complete Checking account has a low monthly fee that can be waived multiple ways—including if you maintain the minimum daily balance.

With nationwide bank HSBC, you can receive a $250 business checking account promotion when opening a new Fusion account—including Fusion First, Fusion Smart, or Fusion Professional.

To qualify for this cash bonus, however, you’ll need to:

• Deposit a minimum balance of $5,000 or more in new money within 30 days after opening the account
• Register and log on to HSBCnet within 45 days after opening your account
• Maintain at least the minimum qualifying balance in your account for 90 days after the initial deposit

Once you’ve met these qualifications, HSBC will automatically deposit the $250 welcome bonus in your account within eight weeks.

Overall, each of the Fusion business checking accounts are small business-friendly, offering online banking, free business debit cards, 24/7 instant domestic payments, and a dedicated relationship manager.

With the Fusion First account, you also receive 200 free transactions and can waive the $30 account fee by maintaining a monthly balance of $5,000 or more. The Fusion Smart and Professional accounts will include a greater number of monthly transactions, but will also require a higher threshold to waive their account fees.

Compared to many brick-and-mortar banks, as we’ll see in more detail below, most online-based banks that provide business checking accounts don’t offer welcome bonuses or other promotions.

After all, the biggest benefits of choosing an account from an online-based bank are that they’re generally fee-free, easy to apply for, and of course, can be wholly managed digitally—but this also means that the bank is not likely to offer a welcome cash bonus.

All of this being said, however, there are two current exceptions:

Radius Bank offers their Tailored Business Checking account which can be opened quickly and easily online. This being said, although their promotional offer is different from many of the others on our list, it’s certainly a perk of this business checking account.

With Radius, you’ll not only earn 0.10% APY on account balances of $5,000 and up, but you’ll also earn 1% cash back on online and signature-based “credit” transactions made with a Radius debit card. You will, however, have to maintain an average monthly balance of $10,000 to be eligible.

This offer allows you to earn unlimited cash back and the amount you earn will automatically be credited to your account at the end of the month following the earning period. Additionally, if you spend in specific categories—health, food, entertainment, and social good—you’ll earn 1.50% cash back instead of 1%.

Plus, other than meeting the $10,000 minimum balance requirement, the only other qualification you’ll need to meet for this business checking account promotion is having your account open for at least 30 days.

For new business owners who incorporated after June 1, 2020, online-based Axos Bank is offering a $100 welcome bonus with their business bank account.

To access this business checking account promotion, you simply need to use the promo code NEWBIZ100 on your application.

That said, this bonus is limited to the basic Axos business checking account and expires on March 31, 2021.

If you’re searching for new business bank account promotions, you might look to regional banks—many of which offer these kinds of bonuses on a more regular basis compared to national or online banks for small businesses. Of course, however, you’ll need to be in an applicable state to take advantage of these business checking account bonus offers.

There are four business checking account options from BMO Harris Bank, two of which currently include a cash bonus: $200 for their Essential Business Checking Account and $500 for their Business Advantage Checking Account. BMO Harris has locations in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

To receive either of these new business checking account promotions, you’ll need to fill out the form to get your promo code and present it at a BMO Harris branch when you open your account. Additionally, for the $200 bonus with the Essentials Business Checking account, you’ll need to:

• Have at least $1,500 in your account beginning on day 31 and keep at least $1,500 in your account for the next 90 days
• Post at least 10 electronic transactions within 90 days of opening your account

For the $500 bonus with the Business Advantage Checking account, on the other hand, you’ll need to:

• Have at least $5,000 in your account beginning on day 31 and keep at least $5,000 in your account for the next 90 days
• Post at least 10 electronic transactions within 90 days of opening your account

With all of this in mind, the BMO Harris Essentials Business Checking account is your more traditional business bank account, with 200 free transactions included per statement period, up to $5,000 in cash deposits, and mobile banking. This account has a $15 monthly fee—but this fee can be waived if you maintain an average collected balance of $1,500 or more per statement period.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for an account to accommodate higher transaction volumes, you might consider the Business Advantage Account—which is interest-earning, includes 500 transactions, but has a higher threshold ($5,000 average collected balance) to waive the $20 monthly fee.

With locations in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, Huntington Bank is offering new business bank account promotions in three tiers: $200 cash bonus, $400 cash bonus, to $750 cash bonus. To earn any of these bonuses, you’ll need to request a promotional coupon and bring it with you to open an account at a Huntington branch.

More specifically, for the $200 bonus, you’ll need to:

• Open a Huntington Business Checking 100 account
• Deposit at least $2,000 within 60 days of opening your account
• Keep the account open for a minimum of 90 days

With this particular Huntington business bank account, you’ll receive 100 monthly transactions, up to $5,000 in monthly cash deposits, and you’ll have no monthly fee.

For the $400 business checking account bonus offer from Huntington, you’ll need to:

• Open an Unlimited Business Checking, Unlimited Plus Business Checking, Business Analyzed Checking, or Non-Profit Checking account
• Deposit at least $5,000 within 60 days of opening your account
• Keep the account open for a minimum of 90 days

With the Unlimited Business Checking account, you’ll receive unlimited monthly transactions, up to $10,000 in cash deposits, and one bonus service from Huntington. You’ll pay a monthly $20 fee unless you maintain a total deposit relationship balance of at least $10,000.

Finally, for the $750 cash bonus, you’ll need to:

• Open an Unlimited Plus Business Checking, Business Analyzed Checking, or Non-Profit Analyzed Checking account
• Deposit at least $20,000 within 60 days of opening your account
• Keep the account open for a minimum of 90 days

With any of the aforementioned accounts, you’ll receive greater benefits than the Business Checking 100 or Unlimited Business Checking accounts, however, designed for larger businesses, these accounts will also require higher monthly fees and a higher threshold to waive those fees.

If you’re looking for new business bank account promotions and are located in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, or Washington, D.C. you might consider a SunTrust business checking account. You can choose from their three checking account options—Simple Business Checking, Primary Business Checking, and Business Advantage Plus—and receive a $200 cash bonus when opening one of these accounts.

This being said, not only does this $200 offer apply to all three accounts, but SunTrust has some of the simplest requirements to qualify for this cash bonus. To qualify, you need to:

• Open a SunTrust business checking account either online or at a branch and enroll for the bonus offer
• Deposit a minimum of $1,500 within 30 days of opening your account
• Open the account with a minimum of $100
• Keep the account open for 180 days

It’s worth noting here that unlike some of the other promotions on this list, you can open your SunTrust business checking account online and use the promotional code to enroll in this offer.

If you sign up for the Simple Business Checking account, you’ll receive 50 transactions, $2,000 in cash deposits, and an included personal checking account. There is no minimum balance requirement for this account and the monthly fee is waived for the first 12 statement cycles. Plus, you can continue to waive the monthly fee by making five debit or credit transactions per month—making it very easy for this to be a free business checking account.

With the Primary and Business Advantage Plus checking accounts, you’ll receive higher monthly transactions and cash deposits, as well as additional benefits—however, you’ll have to maintain either a $1,000 minimum daily collected balance (for the Primary account) or a $20,000 minimum daily collected or combined balance to waive the monthly fee (for the Advantage Plus account).

Servicing 19 states in the Northeast and Midwest, you might choose to open your bank account with PNC and receive their $200 business checking account bonus offer. Applicable to all four of their non-specialized business checking accounts, PNC offers a substantial amount of options for you to be able to qualify for this $200 bonus. This being said, to receive this offer, you’ll need to:

• Open a PNC business checking account—Business Checking, Business Checking Plus, Analysis Business Checking, or Treasury Enterprise Plan in-person or online and use or present the offer email (for the Treasury Enterprise Plan, you must open an account in person)
• Maintain a minimum average cycle balance of $5,000 for each of the first three statement cycles
• Make at least 20 total qualifying PNC Bank Visa Debit Card transactions within the first three statement cycles

If you choose either the Business Checking or Checking Plus account, you’ll have a fairly traditional business bank account—with free online and mobile banking, an included amount of monthly transactions, an included cash deposit monthly limit, and a monthly fee—with a variety of different ways to waive it. Both of these PNC business checking accounts will also require a $100 minimum opening deposit.

The other two qualifying accounts—the Analysis Business Checking and Treasury Enterprise Plan—are a little different. The Analysis Business Checking account is designed specifically for businesses that need to manage multiple accounts, whereas the Treasury Enterprise Plan is for larger businesses that need higher cash deposit and transaction limits.

Although these regional banks can service the greatest variety of business owners around the country (each of which operates in at least eight states), you might prefer to look for a business checking account promotion from a bank that’s even more specific to the area where you’re located.

In this case, you might look into one of the new business checking account bonus offers below:

Although it’s important to remember that credit unions are, in fact, different from traditional banks—if you’re looking into the best credit unions for your small business, you might also consider ones that offer new business bank account promotions.

This being said, however, even more so than the banks we’ve discussed thus far, these credit unions are going to have very specific membership, as well as account requirements, to qualify for their promotional offers. Nevertheless, let’s explore some of your top options.

Unfortunately, there aren’t currently many options for credit unions offering business checking account promotions that also have flexible membership requirements. If, however, you’re located in any of the following states, you might look into the available business checking account bonus offers from your local credit union:

• Arizona
  • VantageWest Credit Union: $200 cash bonus for opening a business checking account

• California
  • Provident Credit Union: $150 when you open a business checking account
  • Technology Credit Union: $100 cash bonus when you open a business checking account and sign up for merchant services

• Florida
  • Brightstar Credit Union: $100 open a new business checking account with eStatements
  • Community First Credit Union: $50, $100, or $200 cash bonus depending on which of the three business checking accounts you open
  • MIDFLORIDA Credit Union: $300 cash bonus for opening a business bank account, $300 additional bonus when you also open a personal checking account

• Michigan
  • First United Credit Union: $100 cash bonus for opening a business checking account
  • Consumers Credit Union: $200 cash bonus for opening a business checking account

With all of the business checking account promotions available, you may find yourself wondering: What option is right for my business?

Although you may be searching specifically for a business checking account that offers a cash bonus, you never want to choose an account only because it offers this bonus. First and foremost, the business bank account you choose should meet your needs, considering factors such as—monthly fee, monthly transactions included, cash deposit limits, minimum balance or deposit requirements, wiring allowances, online and mobile banking capabilities, as well as any other features your business may require.

This being said, if you can find a checking account that meets your needs that also offers a new business bank account promotion, all the better—however, you’ll also want to be sure that you can fulfill the promotional qualifications. After all, there’s no use choosing a business checking account for the promotional offer if you won’t be able to meet the requirements to actually receive the cash bonus—making it all the more important to review the terms and conditions of any business bank account you’re considering.

At the end of the day, finding a business checking account requires taking the steps necessary to ensure that you’re choosing the account that will work best for your business. Although this may require some time and effort—especially if you’re looking at various business checking account promotions—researching and exploring all of your options before making a final decision will ultimately benefit your business in the long run.