Choosing a small bank for small business

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Love-hate relationship with BoA over the last 5 years.

Want to change to a small local bank. Have a great LOC with a credit union, but it's far away, impractical for deposits. Very unfortunate, otherwise easy choice.

A lot of banks in the arear to choose from from very small to medium.

Don't have time to go sit down, armed with financials, with any of them, for an interview, and they'll likely tell me what I want to hear anyway.

Any advice on choosing a small bank? Specific questions to ask? My key drivers are:
online banking/account management
LOC
Credit card transactions


wish there was a bank rating site.

[MRM]

Choose the banker first. The bank he works for doesn't make that much difference. Find a banker who will work with you on a personal basis and develop the relationship with him. A good personal business banker will cut all the red tape for you and get done what you need done. Call a few banks and ask if they have small business bankers who work directly as personal bankers for the business. Any bank that is set up that way will have any number of educated and highly motivated people who will want to be your personal banker.

[Tobra]

Good advice, speak to other small business owners in the area for leads.

[look 171]

Agree with you guys. IF you have no leads, go in and get a feel for the place. Talk to someone about the things you expect out of them and if they are willing to cut out the red tape to make you business funtion easier. I love my small bank. We know all the managers and all of their tellers (only 3 of them). They bend over backwards for us. when there's an issue, they call. Establish a relationship with them. Good luck.

[gr8fl4porsche]

I use a small bank and they routinely come to my office to visit and deal with financial matters.
For deposits they give me a scanner and the checks never leave my office. They are small and everything is modern and online including direct deposit for payroll. We never need to go to the bank.

I deal with the President and one or two people only. Excellent service. I found them by a recommendation from another small business owner.

[campbellcj]

A number of years ago, I switched our personal and business accounts to a local bank that's not 'small' per se but not one of the huge retail giants. BTDT with BofA, Wells Fargo, and US Bank and will never deal with them again if I have any say in the matter.

Our current bank (City National) caters to small businesses and relatively high net worth individuals. I can't think of anything to complain about thus far -- they come to meet us in person for semi-major stuff and branch managers are readily available to talk by phone or in person.

With the big retail banks I always felt like a suspected criminal the moment I walked into a branch - and I'm sure that's how they regarded me. I actually YELLED at a moronic US Bank branch officer once, and I very very rarely yell at anybody, period.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Thank you all for the good advice, will have to start calling and meeting next week.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

After visiting 4 banks, I went with Rockland Trust. A very small bank feel with big bank resources. Service has been excellent so far, can't wait to shut down Bank of America on Monday.

[Tobra]

I enjoyed closing out my accounts at B of A very much.

Got the new account up and running, waited until the last check cleared from B of A went and got a cashier's check for the balance. I had nothing but trouble from them, and the manager still acted surprised when I came in to do it, "Good aftenoon doctor, is there a problem?"

Teller was not sure of the process, "We have to wait until all the checks out have cleared." Yeah, I know, they already did. I had that account for only a few months, and was on the phone to the bank at least a few dozen times. They would put holds on deposits for a week after the check cleared, kept trying to slip extra fees and charges past me. Like they were actively trying to chase me off.

[Dantilla]

In my experience, ANY small, local bank will be an absolute joy to work with compared to the big national banks.

[rusnak]

Go with a local state chartered business bank, or a very small one or two branch commercial bank.