Business Bank Accounts questions

[Austin Davis]

Hello BP,

My brother and I are starting our business together and just got our LLC established. I have a couple "getting started" questions about getting a business bank account that I would like opinions on.

1.  Is there an advantage to going to a national bank over a local bank or credit union for our business accounts?  

2.  I assume I also need to open a savings account for deposits, correct?  Or would it be smarter to put deposits into a CD?

Thanks!

[Marcia Maynard]

We prefer to keep our business accounts with a local credit union, for the reasons @Will Barnard mentions.  All of our rental property is local, so we have no need for a national bank.  We can do on-line banking with our credit union, or go inside the branch for more personalized service.   

For our rental property business we keep an account with three sub-accounts: Checking, Savings, and Money Market.  Checking is for Operational Expenses, Savings is for Capital Expenses, Money Market is for Security Deposits.  Our state landlord-tenant law requires us to keep tenant deposits in a separate account.  Security deposits are deposited into the Money Market account.  When the tenant vacates the deposit is transferred in full to Checking.  When we have completed our move-out report, any refund due to the tenant is paid via the checking account.