Bank of America Business Checking Review 2024

Bank of America Business Advantage Fundamentals™ Banking

Bank of America’s primary small business checking account is its Business Advantage Fundamentals Banking account. This checking account is designed for small businesses that need essential business banking features and flexible account tools at a low monthly cost.

Key elements of the Business Advantage Fundamentals Banking account include:

• Online banking and bill pay
• Mobile banking and mobile check deposit
• Automatic account alerts via text in case of low balance, bills due soon, suspicious activity
• Business debit cards with Total Security Protection

In addition to these core features of your business checking account, Bank of America provides a few additional perks and optional add-ons, depending on your needs:

• Access to a Bank of America Business Advantage Savings Account ($10 monthly fee applies)
• Access to Account Management services, providing more control over accounts and managing access for multiple users, including integration with QuickBooks, with no additional fee
• Access to Cash Flow Monitor and Erica to track your business’s financial performance

Bank of America charges a monthly fee of $16 for its Business Advantage Fundamentals Banking account. You can reduce this fee to $0 by meeting one of these requirements:

• Maintain a $5,000 combined average monthly balance
• Use your Bank of America business debit card to make at least $250 in qualifying purchases
• Become a member of Preferred Rewards for Business

If you’re adding Business Advantage Savings to this account, there’s a separate $10 monthly maintenance fee. But you can avoid it by maintaining a minimum balance or becoming a Preferred Rewards member.

Bank of America Business Advantage Relationship Banking

Bank of America also offers Business Advantage Relationship Banking, which provides additional services for larger companies that have a higher volume of business and larger monthly deposit amounts and that need more complex business banking services, such as merchant services and payroll support. As your business grows, you can talk with the bank about expanding or changing to this business checking account.

Business Advantage Relationship Banking has a $29.95 fee that includes some additional services for free that you might pay for with the Fundamentals account. To avoid the monthly fee, you’ll need to either maintain a $15,000 combined average monthly balance or join Preferred Rewards for Business.

Bank of America Business Advantage business checking offers powerful digital tools for managing your business’s needs, including Erica, Bank of America’s virtual assistant. With Business Advantage Banking, you also have access to:

• Zelle mobile payments. Zelle is a fast and secure tool that you can use to send payments to vendors or receive payments from customers with no fees. Many small business owners may be looking for easier ways to receive payments without paying transaction fees. Zelle is an excellent solution for mobile payments, and you can use it right from the Bank of America mobile app.
• Cash Flow Monitor and Connected Apps. Bank of America offers free tools for small business owners to track their cash flow and monitor business performance. Cash Flow Monitor and Connected Apps can help you automatically analyze your business financial data, identify key insights on how your business is performing and find opportunities to improve efficiency or invest for better profitability. Bank of America lets you connect your account for seamless integration with QuickBooks and ADP if you use those apps for bookkeeping and payroll processing. Small business bankers also are available if you need help.

The Bank of America mobile app is well-rated and offers a comprehensive range of features for managing your business checking account. Using the app, you can:

• Manage your account, view balances, make transactions, pay bills
• Ask virtual assistant Erica to do basic banking tasks, pay bills and get alerts, insights and guidance
• Use mobile check deposit
• Secure biometric access with Face ID and Touch ID
• Send and receive payments with Zelle

Bank of America has locations in 37 states plus the District of Columbia, with 15,000 ATMs and approximately 3,900 retail financial centers. There is no fee for transactions at Bank of America ATMs. For non-Bank of America ATMs, there is a $2.50 fee in the U.S. and $5.00 in foreign countries.

Bank of America also has a significant international presence, with operations in 35 countries throughout Africa and the Middle East, the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe.

If you need general customer support for your Bank of America business checking account, call 888-BUSINESS (888-287-4637) on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. ET or on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET. If you have specific questions about other business banking services, like remote deposit or online banking, you can call additional dedicated service lines listed on Bank of America’s website.

Bank of America business checking accounts carry monthly maintenance fees, but you can avoid them by meeting certain criteria. In addition to the monthly fee, there are some other fees to be aware of:

• Excess transaction fees
• Cash deposit fees
• Debit card replacement fees
• Foreign transaction fees
• Non-Bank of America teller withdrawal fees
• Statement and check copy fees
• Legal processing fees
• Overdraft fees
• Stop payment fees
• Wire transfer fees

Preferred Rewards Business members can avoid some of these fees. For example, Gold tier members can get waivers for monthly maintenance, domestic inbound wire transfer and stop payment fees. At the Platinum Honors level, fees are also waived for inbound international wire transfers and up to four outbound wire transfers per month.

There’s no fee to join the Preferred Rewards for Business program. The tier you’re assigned—and the corresponding benefits offered—depends on the average balance maintained in your business account.

Bank of America could be a good fit for business owners who want to do all their banking with the same institution and take advantage of business tools that can make managing their finances easier. Banking with Bank of America could also make sense if you’re interested in taking advantage of the various benefits offered through the Preferred Rewards for Business program.

You might consider another business banking option if you’re concerned about paying a monthly fee. While Bank of America gives you a few ways to avoid the fee, you might prefer to look for a free business checking account. Analyzing your business’s spending habits and how much money you typically keep in your checking account can help you to decide if it might be right for you.

You can open a Bank of America business checking account online without visiting a branch. You’ll first need to enter your ZIP code, then select the type of account you want to open. You can open a Business Advantage Savings Account or a Bank of America Business credit card with the same application.

Once you’ve made your selections, you’ll need to provide Bank of America with some details about yourself and your business, including:

• Your name
• Citizenship status
• Country of residence
• Business structure
• Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)
• Date of birth
• Phone number
• Email address

Once you’ve added all of the relevant details, you’ll need to share your current bank’s routing number and account number. That’s necessary to make your opening deposit to your new account.

If you’d prefer to open your account in person, you can do so at a Bank of America branch near you.

Bank of America offers two attractive business checking accounts that provide the essential banking features that you would expect from a major bank. Plus, it provides some added value in the form of special tools like Cash Flow Monitor and Connected Apps.

Being able to send and receive payments via Zelle—with no fees, instantly from the mobile app—could make a big difference for small business owners who want to accept mobile payments without the costs and complexity of a larger merchant services account and without paying transaction fees to a third-party payment processor.

Bank of America has a massive nationwide footprint, with locations in 37 states plus Washington, D.C., 17,000 ATMs and thousands of brick-and-mortar locations, in case you need to talk with a loan officer or otherwise do in-person banking for your business. The bank’s significant global presence in 35 other countries worldwide may also add value for small business owners that do business internationally.

Getting started with a business checking account is often the beginning of a larger banking relationship. Bank of America’s Business Advantage Fundamentals Banking account provides a solid business checking foundation with versatile features. Bank of America also offers a wide variety of additional business banking features, including savings accounts, business management tools and services, credit cards, lending and retirement solutions from Merrill Edge.

Wells Fargo vs. Bank of America Business Checking

Wells Fargo offers three business checking accounts that are designed for smaller, mid-sized and larger businesses, respectively. Similar to Bank of America, Wells Fargo charges monthly fees for its business checking options, but you may be able to avoid them by meeting minimum balance requirements.

These accounts feature a low opening deposit requirement as well as convenient features like mobile deposits. Wells Fargo offers relationship benefits such as fee waivers and a chance to earn interest on balances. While that’s similar to Preferred Rewards, Bank of America offers a little more in the way of special perks.

Forbes Advisor looks at a handful of factors to rate banks, including features and benefits offered, as well as fees, interest rates and ATM access. We assign separate ratings to financial institutions and their product offerings, such as checking accounts, savings accounts and CDs. Banks and accounts are rated on a scale of one to five stars, with one star being the lowest score possible and five stars being the highest.

To learn more about our rating and review methodology and editorial process, check out our guide on How Forbes Advisor Reviews Banks.