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October 1, 2013 | 4-minute read (715 words)
Originally featured in LifeHack .
Ask The Entrepreneurs is a regular series where members of those involved in the Young Entrepreneur Council are asked a single question that aims to help Lifehack readers level up their own lives, whether in a area of management, communication, business, or life in general.
Here’s the question posed in this edition of Ask The Entrepreneurs:
What’s your favorite online-only banking service, for personal and/or business use?
1. Ally
My favorite online-only banking service is Ally (www.ally.com), mostly because of its stellar customer service. Nothing upsets me more than having a difficult time contacting an online-only banking provider when I have a question, but Ally poses no problem. A CSR always answers the phone promptly and quickly takes care of my needs.
- Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance
2. Dwolla
Dwolla (www.dwolla.com) is a new tool we’ve been using at Poshly for online banking. It’s the best peer-to-peer money transfer system I’ve seen so far. It’s incredibly simple to set up, and their customer service is incredible. We have our team using it for reimbursements and monthly paychecks.
- Doreen Bloch, Poshly Inc.
3. Bill.com
While Bill.com (www.bill.com) isn’t exactly an “online-only banking service,” it is a fantastic online bill pay service, offering a great way to streamline your payables while eliminating paper. You can easily enter bills, pay them (or submit for approval), record payments, create invoices, send invoices, and send invoice reminders. Clients can even sign in to a secured portal to pay invoices.
- David Ehrenberg, Early Growth Financial Services
4. Chase
Chase (www.chase.com) has been pretty tech-savvy with their online banking, and, so far, we’ve had great pleasure working with them. I’d say their strength is allowing read-only access for your advisers to pull data from, and their weakness is some of the transaction descriptions they provide. Overall, I’d give them an eight out of ten for ease of use, as well as price point.
- W. Michael Hsu, DeepSky
5. Charles Schwab
I love Charles Schwab (www.schwab.com/) because their interface is straightforward; They have an amazing mobile app, and they make banking with them really easy. You can use any ATM and they reimburse you the fees, and you can also take a picture of incoming checks with your smartphone to be deposited electronically. I’m a very happy customer.
- Nathalie Lussier, The Website Checkup Tool
6. Simple
For online-only banking, you have to strongly look at Simple (www.simple.com). It’s a real bank without all the fees and BS associated with the old-school mentality of the current brick-and-mortars. Other than a very nice UI, there are category features like Mint and some very useful graphing functions, too.
- Chuck Reynolds, Vuurr
7. Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo (www.wellsfargo.com) has, by far, the best online banking experience I’ve ever seen. That’s not to say it couldn’t be improved, but that is to say that everything else is absolutely horrid. On a scale from one to ten, Wells Fargo’s online banking experience is a solid seven, whereas everyone else is at a three or lower. Overall, I think the online banking space is chomping at the bit for reinvention.
- Chad Halvorson, When I Work
8. PerkStreet Financial
A local Boston startup, PerkStreet Financial (www.perkstreet.com), aims to provide convenience by acting as an online bank with access to ATMs, surcharge-free. Account owners earn “perks” as cash back for what they spend, hence the name. The online account is tracked via a simple interface for history and mobile alerts. Customers will appreciate 24/7 customer service, as TD Bank, Ally and other institutions have adopted.
- Lane Sutton, Social Media from a Teen
What's your best online banking tool? Tell us about it in comments
below or contact Early Growth Financial Services with banking and other startup finance questions.
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program.
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