Bank of America Business Checking Accounts Review

When you’re starting your business, one of the very first things you’ll need to tackle is finding the right business bank account for your business’s finances.

Plus, as your business progresses and grows, at some point, you might decide to revaluate your options to see if there is a different business checking account that can better fulfill your needs.

This being said, whatever the reasoning behind your search, you might turn to a well-known brick-and-mortar bank, like Bank of America, to explore their business banking solutions and see what they can offer you.

Is either of the Bank of America business checking accounts right for your business?

We’re here to help you find out.

In this guide, we’ll break down both of the BoA small business checking account options—discussing features, fees, and more.  We’ll also review some top alternatives to these Bank of America business accounts—so that you have everything you need to know in order to make the best decision for your business.

Within their business banking suite, Bank of America offers two different business checking accounts—Business Advantage Fundamentals Checking and Business Advantage Relationship Checking.

On the whole, both of these Bank of America business accounts are notable for the number of methods they offer to waive the service fee, as well as for the access they offer to online and mobile banking tools.

With this in mind, let’s get down to the details, starting with the Bank of America Business Advantage Fundamentals account.

To begin, the monthly service fee for the BoA Business Advantage Fundamentals will default at $16 per month.

Bank of America also allows you to add a Business Advantage Savings account to the Advantage Fundamentals Checking account for a $10 monthly fee.

As we mentioned briefly above, one of the benefits of these Bank of America business accounts is the ways you can waive the service fee.

With this business checking account, you’ll have access to three different ways to get this service fee waived:

1. Spend $250 in net new purchases on a business debit
2. Maintain an average monthly balance of at least $5,000
3. Qualify for and enroll in the Preferred Rewards for Business program

Generally speaking, your typical business checking account will give you (at most) two ways to get your service fee waived—making this a particularly unique feature of Bank of America business banking.

With the Business Advantage Fundamentals Checking account, you’ll be able to make 200 transactions every month with no fee. After this cap, you’ll have to pay a fee of $0.45 for every transaction you make beyond 200.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that Bank of America does not charge an excess transaction fee for ACH transfers, debit card transactions, online bill pay electronic debits, or checks deposited through remote deposit online.

As for cash deposits, this Bank of America business checking account will allow you to deposit $7,500 in cash every month without a fee.

If you need to deposit more than that amount of cash in one month, then you’ll have to pay a $0.30 fee for every $100 in cash you deposit beyond $7,500.

Finally, you’ll be able to perform wires—both domestic and international—with this Bank of America small business checking account.

This being said, any wire you make with this business checking account will always carry a fee. These fees will vary based on your location and can change at any time.

In the New York area, for example, you’ll pay $15 per domestic incoming transfer and $16 for an international incoming transfer.

You can contact your local Bank of America financial center for more information on wire transfer fees.

As we mentioned above, one of the most notable features of the Bank of America business accounts is their online and mobile banking tools.

This being said, the BoA Business Fundamentals account includes:

• Online banking with free bill pay, alerts, statements, and self-service account requests
• Mobile banking with mobile check deposit
• Chip-enabled business and employee debit cards
• Online cash management tools
• Ability to transfer transactions to QuickBooks

If you need higher monthly allowances for transactions, deposits, and wires and can handle (or waive) a higher service fee, you’ll want to take a look at your second Bank of America business checking account option: Business Advantage Relationship Checking.

If you opt for Business Advantage Checking, then your monthly service fee will default to $29.95.

For this price, you’ll be able to add a second Bank of America business checking account without paying an additional monthly fee.

You can also add a Bank of America business savings account—the Advantage Savings account—without an extra monthly fee.

Plus, you’ll have access to the BoA online banking account management tools for free—if you wanted to add this service to the Advantage Fundamentals account, however, it would cost $15 per month.

Unlike the Business Advantage Fundamentals account, the Business Advantage Relationship account from BoA only offers two different ways for you to waive the monthly service fee.

1. Maintain an average monthly balance of $15,000 or more
2. Qualify for and enroll in the Preferred Rewards for Business program

With this Bank of America business account, you’ll have access to 500 free transactions every month (which is more than 2x as many as the Advantage Fundamentals account).

If you end up surpassing this cap, each transaction you make in a month will carry a fee of $0.45.

Additionally, like the Advantage Fundamentals account, you will not face an excess charge for ACH and debit card transactions, online bill pay electronic debits, or checks deposited with through remote deposit online.

The Business Advantage Relationship account allows you to make up to $20,000 in cash deposits for free every month.

Beyond this monthly cash deposit threshold, you’ll have to pay $0.30 for every $100 you deposit in cash.

With this Bank of America business checking account, you’ll find greater access to fee-free wires than you would have with the Business Advantage Fundamentals account.

In fact, Bank of America will waive all of the standard wiring fees that come with incoming wires—both domestic and international.

This being said, you’ll still have to pay standard fees for every outgoing wire you send with the Business Advantage Relationship Checking account.

Finally, like the Advantage Fundamentals account, this Bank of America business account will include:

• Online and mobile banking
• Business and employee debit cards
• Cash management tools

However, the Advantage Relationship Business Checking account will also offer some additional benefits:

• Full QuickBooks integration at no cost
• Free introductory check package
• No fees for:
  • Stop payments
  • Check image service
  • Copies of checks
  • Copies of statements
  • ATM or Debit card replacement, including rush replacement

As you can see, with relatively low-service fees, substantial transaction and cash deposit limits, as well as a focus on online and mobile banking tools, Bank of America offers two very competitive business checking accounts.

So, how do you know if a Bank of America business account is right for you?

Let’s break down some of the pros and cons of these accounts—so that you can compare these points to any other business bank accounts that you’re considering.

Without a doubt, some of the top benefits of either of these Bank of America business checking accounts are points we’ve mentioned thus far.

First, both of these accounts include multiple different ways to waive the service fee (making them more likely to become free business checking accounts)—which is something you’re unlikely to see with other business bank accounts.

Additionally, both accounts offer high cash deposit amounts, especially in comparison to top competitors like Chase, as well as many online-banks that don’t accommodate cash deposits.

Finally, both of these Bank of America business accounts include useful tools that, on the whole, can help you manage your finances—and especially if you want to access other business products from BoA.

With either the Advantage Fundamentals and Advantage Relationship accounts, you can link additional checking or savings accounts for low costs (or for free), utilize both mobile and online banking, as well as access other banking and accounting solutions.

Overall, if you’re looking for an affordable, accessible, and small business-friendly checking account from a traditional bank, either of these BoA business checking accounts are worthwhile options.

On the other hand, as is the case with all business banking products, there are downsides to consider with these BoA small business checking accounts as well.

First, and perhaps most notably, although Bank of America has relatively reasonable fees and transaction allowances for a traditional small business bank, compared to digital-first, online-based bank accounts, you could be paying a significant amount to manage your money with BoA.

Ultimately, whether you’re looking at Bluevine, NBKC, or Novo, you’ll find that you can access an unlimited number of transactions with no monthly fees—regardless of how much you have in your account at any time. On the whole, these accounts will be fee-free and you’ll have access to some of the best tools in mobile and online banking.

Along these lines, many of these online-based accounts will allow for free wire transfers, or at least free ACH payments, as well as give you greater flexibility with the ways you can receive and send money for free.

On the other end of the spectrum, you might find that whereas Bank of America only offers two business checking accounts, other brick-and-mortar competitors, like Chase or Wells Fargo, offer three or more unique accounts to better accommodate businesses of different sizes.

First, if you think you need more flexibility than what either of these Bank of America business checking accounts can offer, you’ll want to turn your search to digital-first, or online-only banks, like Bluevine.

You can open a Bluevine business bank account very quickly and easily online—and this account includes unlimited transactions, two free checkbooks, a free business debit card, mobile and online banking—and all while earning a high APY and charging no monthly service fees.

In addition, the Bluevine business checking account has no NSF fees, no minimum opening deposit requirement, no minimum balance requirement, no ACH fees, and no incoming wire fees. The only fees you’ll pay are for outgoing wires—$15.

Moreover, this bank account gives you access to over 38,000 fee-free ATMs around the U.S., as well as over 90,000 Green Dot locations—where you can deposit cash for a fee—something that’s not always an option for online-based business checking accounts.

Finally, you can manage your entire account online—pay vendors and bills, make transfers to and from other accounts, schedule one-time and recurring payments, and more.

Overall, Bluevine is a great option for accessibility, flexibility, and affordability—especially if you’re looking for digital tools and the ability to earn interest on your funds.

On the other hand, if you’re more interested in what top brick-and-mortar competitors can offer your business, you might look to the Chase business checking suite.

Although Chase may offer a lower cash deposit threshold than the two Bank of America accounts, there a few notable benefits to working with Chase.

First, Chase offers three unique business checking accounts, each designed for businesses of different sizes. Additionally, and perhaps most notably, Chase is one of the few nationwide traditional banks that offers a cash welcome bonus for opening one of their business checking accounts.

Each of the Chase options has comparable fees to the Bank of America accounts, plus, the Chase Performance account (equatable to the BoA Advantage account) includes two outgoing domestic wires per month. With Bank of America, you’ll always have to pay a fee for outgoing wires.

At the end of the day, Chase is a top competitor to Bank of America—and therefore, worth considering—especially if you’re looking to take advantage of a business checking account promotion.

Finally, through this process, you may come to realize that you don’t need a business checking account at all, instead you need a business savings account.

Generally, you’ll want to turn to a business savings account if you’re looking for a place to store extra capital and earn interest on those funds. On the other hand, if you need an account to store your funds for everyday use, you’ll want to keep searching for a business checking account.

This being said, however, if you are looking for a business savings account, you’ll want to start with high-yield accounts—in other words, accounts that will accumulate the greatest amount of interest.

As we discussed in this review, Bank of America offers savings account options for no additional cost with both of their business checking accounts, however, you’ll find these accounts have pretty low APYs.

Therefore, you might start your business savings account search with the online-based NBKC Money Market Account, which has a 1.01% APY and no monthly fees—or the Capital One Business Advantage Savings account, which has a 0.20% APY for 12 months and a $3 monthly fee (which can be waived with a $300 account balance).

All in all, Bank of America business checking accounts can offer you some of the best features and affordable fees of any checking accounts on the market—especially within the traditional banking space.

This being said, however, it’s up to you to decide whether either of these Bank of America business accounts is right for your business, or whether there’s an alternative option that can better fulfill your needs.

Ultimately, this decision will come down to how your business works and what you’re looking for in terms of many of the factors we’ve discussed, such as:

• Service fee (and ways to waive it)
• Transaction allowance
• Cash deposit allowance
• Wiring policy
• And any additional features that are important to your business

At the end of the day, if you need a high monthly transaction and cash deposit allowance with a low (and waivable) monthly fee, Bank of America certainly stands out amongst brick-and-mortar competitors.

However, on the other hand, if you’d prefer completely fee-free banking, you’ll likely want to turn your search to digital-based banks or similar places where you can open a business checking account online.