thinking about jumping ship from what has become Santander (used to be sovereign bank, used to be bankboston, ect ) When it was bankboston, it was great, when it was sovereign, it was good, and im getting sick of Santander pretty fast.

what are peoples opinions on BOA as far as small business? Anyone use them?
What are people using?

The attraction to BOA is the everywhere factor.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

When you state "business banking", what products are you referring to? If you simply need a place to accept deposits, etc ., most any bank can handle that task. Working capital lines of credit? Term loans for business expansion? I would look more at credit unions and smaller community banks, as lending policies are often a little less rigid than the big boys.

The "big boys" will only loan you money if you can prove you don't really need it.

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'83 300D, 126K miles.

I own three companies and only use one small bank. With a phone call, I can get as much money as I want.

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

I have been with BofA business accounts for decades primarily because they have banks most anywhere.
However, boutique banks can offer you nice service (Sterling bank and trust, First republic bank) or try credit unions.

The bad on BofA is the schedule of fees etc.
I have been with them so long that the folks know me well at the local branch so they will remove fee charges when it happens.

Credit unions supposedly have less fees.

good luck !

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1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
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1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD

BOA is evil and I wish we didn't bail them out.

I use small local banks. One for depositing money and another for borrowing it. Don't borrow from the same bank you have all your money in.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

My needs are simple, basic checking essentially, no loans.

Fees from santander are through the roof, local credit union/bank looks like a good plan. I have good service from BOA for a personal account, and their web setup is nice, but id like to get away from the impersonal gouging of my current bank.

Ill scout around locally. The bank move will come with a modernization of my business activities. No more quill pens and ledgers, moving on with the times. Might even invest in one of these newfangled contraptions, a calculator. The abacus is getting a bit worn

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Santander is moving in on banks all over. I've kept an account with Banco Serfin in Hermosillo Sonora for years and now it's Banco Santander Serfin. Oh well, I don't use it much as I'm not traveling there like I used to.
I despise BOA. Moved everything to my local credit union and never looked back. As far as small local banks are concerned I don't think they're a good long term solution as I can't help but suspect that what they're all hoping for is a juicy buy-out from one of the big boys.

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

santanders web banking is really sub par. Plus every time I call a new online banking arrangement is "getting ready for implementation". One that actually shows a running checking balance would be nice, to show where money seems to be going.

The thing that bothers me the most is my continuous monthy battle about random fees, double charging in the same month for the previous billing period, ect ect. I think with their huge expansion, their solution is to rip people off continuously. One month I was charge 3 complete times for a 15 dollar a month account maintenance fee.

As far as a business checking account, I run an extremely tight ship, every dime accounted for, and im constantly having trouble balancing my checking account with fee after fee after fee, which often aren't apparent they exist until a month later and you have a paper bill.

I never had this problem when it was sovereign, and im not a fan of BOA apart from the convenience of it being everywhere, so maybe a credit union is a good idea.

Ive never used a credit union though, time to do research.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

I’ve had BoA business accounts for a long time. I don’t respect the bank after all the bad press they’ve received due to all the bad things they’ve done (buncha slimy thugs, IMO), but they are the closest and do have a lot of cash machines. They don’t charge fees if you keep a substantial minimum balance.

I almost made a leap to a local Credit Union (CU), but the CU did not have online banking for business accounts. D’oh! That stopped me cold, in mid-leap. One of the things they (the CU) offers is to take a pix of the front and back of received chex and email that to them in lieu of going to the bank to make deposits. They also offered free use of cash machines at lots of locations. But I won’t make the change without online banking as it is way too valuable of a resource. Oy! So near and yet so far….

I had never heard of Santander before, now I see they opened a branch in town and joined our Chamber of Commerce.

If all you're looking for is a checking account and e-banking capability there are any number of small locals that can handle that for you.

Our issue is that due to the seasonal nature of our business, just punching our numbers into the loan officer's logarithm program sets off all kinds of flags. There are months with zero income and a butt-load going out, months with a butt-load coming in and little inventory on hand, months of inventory build up and no sales, months with a butt-load in and a butt-load out. Relationships with a local bank with enough resources to handle our line of credit is especially important for us.

We were with CT Bank & Trust for 85 years. Bank of America took over CBT and the service and relationship went out the window. So we went to American Savings Bank. They sold out to someone I can't recall now, so we went with Glastonbury Bank which merged with Banknorth. Well, they got absorbed into TD Banknorth then just TD Bank and out went the service and the relationship. Soooo, we went with yet another local bank which was started by the former president, and happened to be our loan officer at CBT, who didn't like the direction things were headed with the acquisition. The new bank is doing very well. So well that we're starting to get a little concerned, the bigger they get, the less personal the relationship, the more reliant they are on punching numbers into a spreadsheet and expecting them to fit within an "average."

Time will tell. But we have initiated talks with a couple local banks and Farm Credit just in case.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

And the more likely they are to be eaten by bigger fish. My point exactly.

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

I dread the day Milford Bank is bought out.

Big banks suck so bad. You can never talk to a decision maker and all they do is charge you fees for everything.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

It seems to be part of their business plan.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

All I knew of Santander is that they sponsor Ferrari and McLaren