Found Review

Monday, December 2nd

2024 Business Bank Account Reviews

Found

• Two plans to choose from: free and Plus ($19.95/month or $149.99/year)
• Both plans come with no minimum balance requirements, unlimited transactions, accountant access, a business debit MasterCard, and more benefits
• Plus tier includes 1.5% APY interest on balances up to $20K, quarterly federal tax payments and filing (Schedule C only), priority customer support, and more
• 30-day free trial on Plus plans
• Create up to four "pockets” for cash flow management
• Easy integrations with accounting, banking, and business tools (QuickBooks, Stripe, CashApp, PayPal, Square, Venmo, and so on)
• "A” rated and accredited with the BBB

Found is on a mission to deliver "all-in-one banking for the self-employed”. It's a fintech company backed by Piermont Bank, and it's a refreshing departure from the "charge you for everything” experience you'll likely get with a business banking account through a big-name financial institution: there are no monthly maintenance fees, no hidden fees, and no minimum deposits at Found.

Use up to six "pockets” to manage cash flow

We were happy to see that Found offers one of our must-have features: a way to set up different sub-accounts for better cash flow management. This platform calls them "pockets”, and automatically starts you out with two: Primary and Taxes. You can create up to four pockets beyond those two default options: maybe you need one for operating expenses, another for owner draw, and yet another as a savings or "rainy day” account. No problem. There are also tons of tools to make those pockets work even harder for you, from linking separate virtual credit cards to each one to setting up automatic deposits of a certain percentage every time money comes into your Primary account.

Choose between free and paid banking

Found offers two tiers of service: the basic, free plan, as well as a Plus plan with additional features. Let's jump in and see what you get with each one. For starters, both options include the following benefits:

• Banking
• Business debit MasterCard
• No minimum balance requirement
• Unlimited transactions
• Getting paid two days early with direct deposit
• Multiple virtual cards with custom limits
• Bookkeeping
• Automated expense tracking
• Receipt capture
• Custom rules, categories, tags (limited with basic, unlimited with Plus)
• One-click business reports
• Unlimited custom invoices
• Management of 1099 contractor payments
• Accountant access
• Taxes
• Auto-saving for taxes
• Auto-generated tax forms
• Real-time tax estimates
• Write-off tracking

When you sign up for Plus at $19.99/month or $149.99/year, you also earn 1.5% APY on balances up to $20,000, auto-import of expenses from receipts, the ability to import activity from bank/credit cards/Venmo/PayPal, in-app quarterly federal tax payments and free tax filing through Column Tax (only for Schedule C filers), and priority customer support. Better yet, you can try the Plus tier for free for a month and see if it's worth it to pay for the extra features.

Use its bookkeeping tools or integrate with other platforms

While Found has a whole host of bookkeeping tools, both on the platform and through its own app, it also integrates with platforms you may already be using. Those include QuickBooks, Stripe, CashApp, PayPal, Square, Lyft, Uber, Venmo, eBay, and others. You've also got the ability to give your accountant access to your Found account.

BBB gives it an "A”

How about reputation? Found is still pretty new, only in business for five years as of the date of this review. But, it still earned an "A” rating and accreditation from the Better Business Bureau, despite having almost 100 complaints filed there in the last three years.

Big issues with the debit MasterCard

However, as we read through the complaints (which did all have a response from Found), they almost all referred to the same issue: fraudulent charges on the business debit MasterCard or from the main account that don't get resolved, leaving the business owner with huge losses (one mentioned a loss of $4,500, another over $13,000, and so on). Those clients also frequently rant about the inability to get in touch with a live representative, being funneled instead to communicate by email and having to retell the issue multiple times.

Strong ratings on the app stores

Then again, as you look through Found's ratings on the app stores, you'll find that it's got an impressive 4.8-star average out of 19,000+ reviews on Apple and 4.6 stars spanning 12,000+ photos on Google. And, business banking clients on Trustpilot have offered over 550 ratings that come in at a comparable 4.4-star average.

Starts out strong but flops later

Here's what we noticed, though: most people love Found at the outset, because it does what it promises. The pockets are handy, there are no minimum fees, and the features are obviously attractive. However, once something goes sideways, it goes there fast: that's why, in our opinion, you'll see either glowing 5-star ratings (usually from brand-new clients) or big rants from 1-star reviewers when their money goes missing, their account gets frozen, or they can't reach customer service.

Sponsoring bank criticized by the FDIC

To top that off, the backing bank of Found (Piermont) has only earned a "C” rating from the Better Business Bureau. That could have something to do with the 2024 order from the FDIC to review all of its transactions dating back to September 2022, due to engaging in "unsafe and unsound banking practices”, particularly with respect to fintechs. And what's the name of at least one fintech that Piermont Bank partners with? Found.

Not confident in this platform's future

In the past, there was a similar business banking option that ranked as #1 on our list. They placed strong emphasis on small businesses, no minimum balances, easy software integrations, and so on. Sound familiar? However, in 2024, account holders there got emails telling them that they should move their money elsewhere because the fintech company was shutting down after just three years in operation, citing problems with operations and finances (including a lack of investor funding). This led to delayed transfers of funds, limited account access, and poor customer support. Sound familiar again? It's hard for us to get excited about Found, when it sounds like they could very well be on track to match that other first-to-worst business banking company we used to have on our list. If, say, five years from now, Found has shored up its own issues and is doing a terrific job of supporting small business owners and sole proprietors, we'll gladly re-evaluate and move them up on our list. But, for now, we can't give this company a higher score as an option for business bank accounts.