5 ms·

Poll: Which bank does your (US) company use?

15 points by iamclovin 15y ago

Any pointers regarding "user"-friendlines, merchant accounts, levels of scamminess, etc will be very useful, TIA!

Corrado 15y ago
PNC - they were the only ones to listen to me (a small startup) and give me a chance. Their online tools could be better but I'm fairly happy with them.
- conformal 15y ago
  when i closed a Nat City (PNC) account a few years back the "banker" must have had an IQ of like 80. afaict she was an exotic dancer and this was her day job. every single form she presented to us that was needed to close out the account had errors in it to the point it was funny: she mismatched names and SSNs, printed stuff on incorrect lines, etc. took an hour to escape
davidw 15y ago
A local credit union!
- bradhe 15y ago
  Same here!
- lsc 15y ago
  My understanding was that credit unions can't handle corporations as customers. Am I mistaken?
  - davidw 15y ago
    It's a Limited Liability Company.
hajrice 15y ago
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)
rdl 15y ago
Silicon Valley Bank will probably get the majority of SFBA startups. We use them. I actually had ok luck with BoA too, but only due to the local branch manager.
- dsl 15y ago
  Someone needs to make BankSimple but for startups. To quote a good friend: "If you are happy with SVB, you haven't had an account long enough."
- iamclovin 15y ago
  Do you use their merchant account services too?
  - hajrice 15y ago
    Nope. We use Stripe for billing however.
borski 15y ago
We use SVB, and have been very happy thus far. They throw a lot of really good events too (and some bad ones). You just have to make sure you have someone high up to talk to.
aeden 15y ago
Bank of America (sigh)
mikiem 15y ago
Bank of America. Sure they are huge, evil and have horrible telephone service, but their web interface/bill pay is pretty decent.
- conformal 15y ago
  got forced to use BoA when they bought LaSalle Bank (domestic arm of ABN Amro) and wow does BoA suck. you cannot even compare their online interface to Chase, Chase's is vastly superior. BoA sucks so bad that LaSalle Bank was awesome in comparison. if there were one US bank i could make collapse it would be BoA: it has awful customer service, crappy online interface and is run like a giant turd. nothing quite like waiting 45 minutes to make a fucking wire transfer at a branch. employees turn over at their chicago branches more often than any other bank i've ever been to.
jaysonelliot 15y ago
M&T Bank. We used TD Bank, based on my earlier personal banking relationship with Commerce Bank, but boy was that a mistake. Fees out the wazoo, bureaucratic service, and a creeping indifference to all but their biggest customers. They've been skating on the old Commerce Bank reputation for some time now. M&T is much smaller, but they've been willing to bend over backwards for us, and treat me like a major customer, even when our balances are low.
conformal 15y ago
have used Chase, LaSalle, BoA, National City/PNC and Broadway Bank domestically. of these Chase is by far the least shitty and has the best online interface. the responders here must be mainly west coasters based on the Wells Fargo vote count :)
lsc 15y ago
I use wellsfargo. Meh, it's okay. I don't use their merchant account. I keep getting hit with little fees here and there (there are hoops you can jump through to avoid most of those, but who has time to optimize a bank account? jesus christ. It's only like $20 a month. I go and fix it maybe twice a year, and the checking is free for a while until something changes again.) They have a pretty okay automatic bill pay thing; but mostly I'm still there because wellsfargo was nearby, it is still nearby; when I have a problem I can walk in and it gets solved fairly quickly, and twenty dollars here and there isn't worth the pain of dealing with moving banks to another bank that is probably just as bad. Really, I don't mind paying a couple bucks a month for a banking service; most of my equity is in servers; I don't keep a whole lot in cash, and heck, interest rates right now are super low, so yeah, I'm okay paying a few bucks for the service. I'm kinda irritated by how they advertise the service as free, then make you put effort into going through hoops to keep it free. It seems deceptive.
kabuks 15y ago
New Resource Bank
RudySF 15y ago
Bank of America - They're big and old school BUT - They answer right away, (rarely on hold) and on several occasions they've - Every six months when we ask to have our credit limit increased they do it
feint 15y ago
Chase - one of the investors did an intro. So far no problems
chrisgo 15y ago
Wells Fargo ... I use their Billpay service to pay vendors (I have lots of subcontractors ~1000 and I pay ~60 of them every week) it's almost free and the checks have a MEMO field! They also have a DirectPay (kind of like direct deposit) which kind of sucks. I do NOT use their merchant account.

15 points by iamclovin 15y ago

Any pointers regarding "user"-friendlines, merchant accounts, levels of scamminess, etc will be very useful, TIA!

PNC - they were the only ones to listen to me (a small startup) and give me a chance. Their online tools could be better but I'm fairly happy with them.

conformal 15y ago
when i closed a Nat City (PNC) account a few years back the "banker" must have had an IQ of like 80. afaict she was an exotic dancer and this was her day job. every single form she presented to us that was needed to close out the account had errors in it to the point it was funny: she mismatched names and SSNs, printed stuff on incorrect lines, etc. took an hour to escape

davidw 15y ago

A local credit union!

bradhe 15y ago
Same here!
lsc 15y ago
My understanding was that credit unions can't handle corporations as customers. Am I mistaken?
- davidw 15y ago
  It's a Limited Liability Company.

hajrice 15y ago

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)

rdl 15y ago

Silicon Valley Bank will probably get the majority of SFBA startups. We use them. I actually had ok luck with BoA too, but only due to the local branch manager.

dsl 15y ago
Someone needs to make BankSimple but for startups. To quote a good friend: "If you are happy with SVB, you haven't had an account long enough."
iamclovin 15y ago
Do you use their merchant account services too?
- hajrice 15y ago
  Nope. We use Stripe for billing however.

borski 15y ago

We use SVB, and have been very happy thus far. They throw a lot of really good events too (and some bad ones). You just have to make sure you have someone high up to talk to.

aeden 15y ago

Bank of America (sigh)

mikiem 15y ago

Bank of America. Sure they are huge, evil and have horrible telephone service, but their web interface/bill pay is pretty decent.

conformal 15y ago
got forced to use BoA when they bought LaSalle Bank (domestic arm of ABN Amro) and wow does BoA suck. you cannot even compare their online interface to Chase, Chase's is vastly superior. BoA sucks so bad that LaSalle Bank was awesome in comparison. if there were one US bank i could make collapse it would be BoA: it has awful customer service, crappy online interface and is run like a giant turd. nothing quite like waiting 45 minutes to make a fucking wire transfer at a branch. employees turn over at their chicago branches more often than any other bank i've ever been to.

jaysonelliot 15y ago

M&T Bank. We used TD Bank, based on my earlier personal banking relationship with Commerce Bank, but boy was that a mistake. Fees out the wazoo, bureaucratic service, and a creeping indifference to all but their biggest customers. They've been skating on the old Commerce Bank reputation for some time now. M&T is much smaller, but they've been willing to bend over backwards for us, and treat me like a major customer, even when our balances are low.

conformal 15y ago

have used Chase, LaSalle, BoA, National City/PNC and Broadway Bank domestically. of these Chase is by far the least shitty and has the best online interface. the responders here must be mainly west coasters based on the Wells Fargo vote count :)

lsc 15y ago

I use wellsfargo. Meh, it's okay. I don't use their merchant account. I keep getting hit with little fees here and there (there are hoops you can jump through to avoid most of those, but who has time to optimize a bank account? jesus christ. It's only like $20 a month. I go and fix it maybe twice a year, and the checking is free for a while until something changes again.) They have a pretty okay automatic bill pay thing; but mostly I'm still there because wellsfargo was nearby, it is still nearby; when I have a problem I can walk in and it gets solved fairly quickly, and twenty dollars here and there isn't worth the pain of dealing with moving banks to another bank that is probably just as bad. Really, I don't mind paying a couple bucks a month for a banking service; most of my equity is in servers; I don't keep a whole lot in cash, and heck, interest rates right now are super low, so yeah, I'm okay paying a few bucks for the service. I'm kinda irritated by how they advertise the service as free, then make you put effort into going through hoops to keep it free. It seems deceptive.

kabuks 15y ago

New Resource Bank

RudySF 15y ago

Bank of America - They're big and old school BUT - They answer right away, (rarely on hold) and on several occasions they've - Every six months when we ask to have our credit limit increased they do it

feint 15y ago

Chase - one of the investors did an intro. So far no problems

chrisgo 15y ago

Wells Fargo ... I use their Billpay service to pay vendors (I have lots of subcontractors ~1000 and I pay ~60 of them every week) it's almost free and the checks have a MEMO field! They also have a DirectPay (kind of like direct deposit) which kind of sucks. I do NOT use their merchant account.