Anyone using online banks for rental property business account?

Question

Hey all,

I'm in the process of buying a home in a different state from where I live and would like to keep my personal funds separate from my rental funds. I'm looking at different options for opening a business checking account for this purpose.

Are there any obvious downsides I may be missing in going with an online-only bank like BlueVine? I like them because they have no fees and I don't need to walk into a branch in person to open the account (since they don't have brick+mortar branches). You still get all the regular things that come with a checking account: debit card, checkbook, ATM withdrawals, etc.

I figured it would be a quick and easy way to set up a business account and avoid fees but I just want to get some feedback in case I'm missing something.

Are there any advantages in going with big-name banks (most of which do charge fees) that I would miss out on if I were to go with an online-only bank?

Abhishek Pareek · Answer

I always use Ally Bank Accounts for my rentals. Their interest rate is declining but its still .50% much better than nothing.

Alexi Schreier · Answer

@Megan Brooks I ended up not going with BlueVine. They informed me I needed to have an actual business entity formed to open an account with them, I couldn't do it under my name. Since this is not what I wanted to do I ended up just opening a second personal Checking account with my bank Discover. I'm using that to manage my rental funds to at least keep my personal finances separate from my real estate.

As far as the experience I had with BlueVine over the phone, it was pretty terrible. I got bounced around quite a bit to different people that couldn't help before I got to someone who could give me a straight answer. They weren't the kindest either. From that first experience and what others are saying about the BV in this thread I personally wouldn't go with them.

Megan Brooks · Answer

@Alexis Schreier did you end up going with Bluevine? I was thinking using them for my OOS rental as well but was reading mixed reviews online. If you didn't use Bluevine, who'd you go with? Thanks!

Colleen F. · Answer

I have used capitol 0ne 360 but  also a regular brick and mortar bank.  Capitol one 360 did have a transition period where online transfers were problematic but I have  had that happen with a large banks too.

Denise B. · Answer

I second the recommendation for Capital One 360!

Adam Azam · Answer

Capital One 360. No fees. Mobile deposits. Zelle instant transfers too. Can quickly add external accounts as well.

Aaron Lee · Answer

I signed up for bluevine this past week and was having trouble adding my external bank to transfer funds into my bluevine account [external bank does not show up]. I called into bluevine customer service and have been on hold for 90 minutes.

I plan to cancel...My fear is that i'll have a more serious issue like not being able to transfer my money out of my bluevine and they won't be able to resolve.

Let me know if you find a good alternative!

Shyam Deval · Answer

Alexi,

Who did you end up using for banking?  I was looking at Baseline and a couple other options but can't really get a good feel for how good they are to deal with so looking at some of these older threads for any feedback.  Thanks!

Anyone using online banks for rental property business account?

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