Bluevine Review

Monday, December 2nd

2024 Business Bank Account Reviews

Bluevine

• 3 business checking plans to choose from (including one fee-free option)
• 1-month free trial on upgraded plans
• All accounts are interest-bearing
• Can create up to 5 sub-accounts
• "A+” rated and accredited by the BBB
• Over 6,500 5-star reviews
• Over 500,000 customers served
• In business since 2013

For over ten years, Coastal Community Bank has offered Bluevine as its online-only business banking fintech platform. More than 500,000 small businesses have benefited from the features of Bluevine since 2013.

3 business checking plans to consider

We've personally used Bluevine, and we can tell you that there's a lot to love when doing your business banking here. First off, you can choose from three tiers of service:

• Standard: earn interest of 2.00% APY on all balances up to $250,000, free standard ACH and unlimited transactions, and mobile check deposit, all for no monthly fee and no minimum balance requirements. You'll pay a small fee for printed/mailed checks, same-day ACH, and domestic/international wires.
• Plus: $30 monthly fee (waived with an average daily balance of at least $20,000 and a monthly spend of at least $2,000 on your Business Debit or Cashback MasterCard), earns 3.00% APY in interest, and comes with 5 free printed/mailed checks per month. Your fees will also be lower on same-day ACH and wires.
• Premier: $95 monthly fee (waived with an average daily balance of at least $100K and a spend of at least $5,000 on the business debit card), earns 4.25% APR in interest, and gets you priority customer support, access to treasury services like investments, 20 free printed/mailed checks each month, and lower fees on wires and same-day ACH than the Plus tier.

30-day free trial on Plus and Premier

The vast majority of small businesses will do just fine with the no-fee level of banking offered by Bluevine, and we love that even those customers earn interest. But, if you think you might benefit from one of the upgraded tiers of service, Bluevine lets you try it at no cost for 30 days before you decide.

Up to 5 sub-accounts

Another aspect of Bluevine that works really well is the ability to have up to 5 sub-accounts. They're all designated as checking accounts and issued separate account numbers, to make it easier to keep different types of funds separate. You can use them for whatever you need and rename them as you go; maybe you need one sub-account for your marketing budget, but after you've used it, it becomes your "rainy day” fund, for example. Transfers between sub-accounts happen immediately, and it's a fantastic way to manage your cash flow.

Easy-breezy integrations and adding user access

Integrations and account access are two more features that Bluevine handles with ease. We've used our business bank account with Gusto, QuickBooks, Wise, Stripe, and Square, and we've never experienced any issues (well, not any that were Bluevine's fault... sometimes there's a learning curve when you're running payroll for the first few times...). And, whether you need to add your business partner as a fully-authorized user or your accountant requires access to get in so she can balance your books, you won't have any trouble doing that with Bluevine.

Use ACH debit controls wisely

One of those issues we had comes from a security tool you may or may not want to use when business banking with Bluevine: ACH debit controls. You can block those debits from your main account or any of your sub-accounts - which sounds like a good idea, until you realize that your payroll comes out as an ACH debit, and you inadvertently blocked yourself from getting paid. (Like we said, not Bluevine's fault...) But, if you're smarter about setting up your processes than we were, you could set up one account as the "holding tank” to protect the bulk of your funds by using the ACH debit block there, transferring money out to non-blocked accounts for payroll or other outgoing needs. (Learn from our mistakes!)

"A+” from the BBB and 6,500+ 5-star reviews

Bluevine is one of the only business banking services on our list to get an "A+” rating and accreditation from the Better Business Bureau. There are over 6,500 5-star ratings on Trustpilot as well, with lots of happy business owners saying that Bluevine reps are helpful and supportive, the account features are as-promised, and that the overall banking experience has gone smoothly.

Accounts closed/frozen without notice

On the other hand, we've kept Bluevine from receiving our highest rating because of some of the issues we've seen cropping up in recent reviews. We found more than a few rants saying that Bluevine unexpectedly froze or closed business bank accounts with little to no explanation (and no warning). That's true of Bluevine rivals as well, particularly the online-only banks, but it's never comfortable thinking of how you'd handle the "what if”.

Technical glitches

And, in our firsthand experience, Bluevine can be glitchy: on one day when we went to sign into our account, all of our sub-accounts were showing balances much lower than what should have been there, even showing some as $0. Bluevine support confirmed that there was a tech issue, and fortunately it was resolved by the end of the day (and we never would have known about it if we hadn't signed in) - but again, "what if?”

Customer support isn't flawless

We also have had some struggles with customer service. On that recent problem we had with running payroll, we were told several times that our case would be escalated; however, each time we asked for an update, a new ticket had to be opened (and nothing had been escalated). There wasn't a lot of coordination across chats on different days, and we got conflicting responses. There was also a bit of a language barrier; only one of the reps we worked with was US-based.

Bluevine is worth considering

All that being said, you might be wondering why Bluevine still gets a relatively-high rating here. When you look at what other business banking options are providing (or not providing, more accurately), Bluevine continues to look pretty solid. Yes, you may encounter some annoyances with customer support, and you'll need to hope you aren't one of the few customers who gets shut down unexpectedly - but those aren't unheard of for any of the business banking services out there today. And, Bluevine does offer a ton of features that, as long as everything runs smoothly, you're going to love. Although it's not our favorite fee-free online business service, Bluevine ranks among our top three.