This is an anonymous post from an Elpha member.

Business Bank Account with High-Yield Interest?

What banks are people using for their businesses? I have money with one of the big banks and I know that's safe, but in a lot of ways it feels like they are taking advantage of me and using all of the SVB panic as an excuse not to pay market-rate interest. I'd like to diversify and develop a relationship with a second bank, and since I already have a "safe" bank I'm looking for the second bank to actually pay a high interest rate.

With my personal money, I'm earning 4% on my cash, and I always check Bankrate and move my money to the place that will pay the most interest. Where can I do the same thing with my business account?

Iynna·Jul 25

I am not qualified to answer this question unfortunately so I will let other Elphas speak from direct experience. That said, I like Investopedia and Nerdwallet for these types of questions as they study all these different products so maybe take a look at these here: https://www.investopedia.com/best-high-yield-business-savings-accounts-7486188

Aurea138·Jul 25

Thanks! Live Oak is interesting to me. They did really well at getting companies their PPP loans quickly during COVID, and I always associated them with SVB since they advertised themselves as a tech-oriented bank for startups. Would've assumed they might have had some issues with the runs on the banks... but I guess since they pay such high interest the deposits were stickier.It's tough because when you see these rankings they all seem like such random banks with unrecognizable brands.

Iynna·Jul 25

"It's tough because when you see these rankings they all seem like such random banks with unrecognizable brands." this was my exact same thought too! I still went ahead and shared because I have trusted Investopedia an Nerdwallet for my personal stuff and I would assume (perhaps I am wrong to do so) they'd be reliable for business-related matters too.

Aurea138·Jul 26

I know. Brand awareness is so funny because I'm like, oh, I've now been having this "WTF is Live Oak" reaction for years, so that's a positive because it's been around for years.

Iynna·Jul 27

10000% - brand awareness especially if it's related to money esp yours play a key role imo! Let me know what you decide... who knows maybe Live Oak is in your future heheh :D

Gracie214·Jul 25

Bluevine is what I use. They have a high interest rate but you have to qualify for it every month buy moving money thru the account.

Aurea138·Jul 26

Glad to hear you've been having a good experience with them. How did you hear about them? I see they only pay 2% whereas Live Oak is paying 4%.

Gracie214·Jul 28

Don’t remember how I heard about them but I’ve been happy with them so far. My goal is to eventually switch to a Black owned bank/company so I’ll likely go with Guava at some point.

carriel·Jul 26

I've been thinking about this, so thanks for the post. I have a tab open on my browser right now with Nerdwallet's July picks. I was also considering exploring a CD with my current bank. Curious if people have experience with LiveOak.

Aurea138·Jul 26

I also wish I knew someone who had actually used it. But they are legitimately a public company. You can look up how they trade in Google Finance, and you can look up their financial statements on the SEC's website.Seems legit but I still feel suspicious!

lindsaymorgan·Jul 31

We use a credit union for our main business account but it's more out of convenience because our personal accounts are there too. So we also have an account at Mercury and are happy with it. https://mercury.com/treasury? They advertise up to 5.3% with their treasury accounts, worth checking out!

Aurea138·Jul 31

👀 Ooh!! I will check out Mercury. Do you know what rate you are currently getting with Mercury? There's an asterisk on the 5.3% that says it's based on a $20 million deposit (an amount of money my business certainly does not have, haha).Might check out my local credit union too! I always forget about the weirdly good rates they have.

lindsaymorgan·Aug 01

I don't know the % but I'm sure you could find out easily. Yes definitely check your local credit union too! Not all of them do business banking but many do! Good luck.

kristingross·Aug 02

If you don't need to use the funds in the next 6 months there are FDIC insured 6 month CDs as high as 5.3% for a deposit as low as $500 https://www.bankrate.com/ Otherwise there are well established high yield savings that are over 4% like AMEX at 4.15%

kimberlysmith·Aug 04

I was just researching this for my husband's small business, and I didn't find a lot of interest, but I did find that most of the big banks were offering short-term (ie few months) with high returns (4-5%). We decided to stay with our big bank, and invest the money that was beyond our 6-month liquid needs.