Best Banks for Ecommerce and Small Business | Regional Banks and Credit Unions Reviewed

0:27 Fintech integrations

So the first thing that we look at is integrations with fintech apps, things like QuickBooks Online and other third-party fintech apps that you'll see on our channel here.

Most banks and credit unions will integrate with major accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero, although there are some that don't. So that's like a red flag. If a bank doesn't integrate with QuickBooks, run away. They're not going to integrate with anything else.

The third-party apps, the non-accounting software, that can vary quite a bit. Sometimes they play nice with regional banks and credit unions, sometimes they don't, so proceed with caution.

0:58 Bank portals and user access

The second feature we look at is bank portals. Bank portals being the portal that you log on to and move the money around, download statements.

These vary widely within regional banks and credit unions. Some are great, some are downright awful. It really depends. I definitely would lean towards ones that have more robust portals where you can do more things online than having to go in and meet with somebody in person.

1:23

Next thing we look at is user access. Do the bank portals have limited access users, allow your accountant or bookkeeper to do what they need to do but not to be able to move funds around, maybe let somebody in the business have access to certain features but not everything?

What we see is this varies widely. Some have good user permissions, some don't. Some require a lot of work to grant access, so you might have to call a phone number, jump through a lot of hoops, fill out forms. That can be a real pain. Fortunately, you don't have to do that very often, but when you do, it's nice when it's easy to do.

And some don't have multi-user access at all, which we find unacceptable. I personally wouldn't recommend any bank that doesn't have multi-user capabilities in their bank portal.

2:10 Physical branches

Another feature around the regional banks and credit unions is physical branches, and this varies widely. Typically you'll have a few branches in a specific region, but if you ever plan on moving, or if you're traveling and you need physical bank access, that's something you're not going to have with the smaller regional banks and credit unions.

Nowadays you don't really need as much of that physical access, until you do. And so you really have to consider, like, if I get into a pinch, it's nice to have that physical bank branch that I can go into and talk to somebody and try and get things sorted. So less opportunity for branches with these smaller banks and credit unions, but they're going to have something.

2:51 Customer service

Now one of the things that the smaller banks and credit unions are known for are their customer service. Oftentimes they are more friendly, they're more accessible, they're more responsive. That's definitely something that you should consider. How important is it to be able to call somebody up, get issues resolved? That's something that the smaller regional banks and credit unions are better at.

3:14 Lending

Another big feature of a bank is their lending. Now this is where we hear a lot of our customers wanting to work with these smaller banks and credit unions. They're oftentimes much more flexible around their lending terms. They're often much more flexible around programs, and so it's easier to qualify for lines of credit, for loans. And that's probably the biggest draw that I would see with the smaller banks and credit unions.

3:36 The recommendation

Overall, my recommendation would be, look at the smaller banks and credit unions for one reason alone, and that's the one I just talked about, which is lending. They tend to be very strong in this area. And so if you're in a position where you need to get a line of credit, or you think you're going to, or you need a loan, it's good to talk to them, because they might be able to give you better lending terms.

And the other thing you don't realize, or a lot of businesses don't realize, is you can have more than one bank. So you could have a big bank for your operations, you could have the small bank for your loans and whatnot, and use fintech tools to glue the two together.

All right, if you like this video, go ahead and like it, share it with others, and ask me a question in the comments, and subscribe to our channel where you'll get more videos like these.