Business Banking Cincinnati

[Michael Klinger]

Hopefully not too off topic? I'll try to avoid asking "where does a multi-family investor buy a set of toe nail clippers?"

But... I need a new bank where I can open up a pile of business cehcking accounts to operate Cincy properties.

In my dream world, that would be a bank that has branches in Cincy, Southern California and the South Coast of Massachusets. But no such thing exists. In some research the closest match is Chase.

The big hitches missing with what I have is emergencies that can only be solved at a local branch, and the ability to move money online from one business bank account to another at different bank. Wells Fargo does this for my other business accounts, but no Branches in Cincy or Mass. So that doesn't work.

I currently have a lot of banks, but related to Cincy I have mortgages at LCNB and operating accounts at U.S. Bank. To get a lower mortgage rate, LCNB requires to keep a checking account with them and then the payments must flow through that account. But they don't offer online transfers to business accounts at another bank. And otherwise that account serves me no purpose.

U.S. Bank was supposed to have this feature, but after going in circles, it turned out to be not true for a business account. Instead they have a third party system through Viewpost that either wants to draft a paper check and then mail it to my office in CA (which doesn't help me one bit), or can do an electronic xfer that TAKES 6 BUSINESS DAYS. Since cash flow has been tight and can't plan that far ahead, right now, the workaround to save the 6 business days  (which is often 8 real dasy) is for my management company to email me a check draft that I deposit to LCNB with mobile. This can be done in minutes instead of 6 business days, but it takes up the time of my management company and the premise of it all is really annoying.

So. Long story short. What about Chase? Can I move money online out of chase to a business account of my own? Certanily, I could call customer service and ask, but that's what I did before opening the U.S. Bank accounts and they were wrong. Plus their minimum balance to not get fee-d is little high.

Also US bank has now twice locked me out of my online for no reason whatsoever and one time they said the only way to fix it was to go to a branch. When I said I was in Massachusets, she said they had branches in (Western) Pennsylvania. When I pointed it that the nearest branch was a 10 hour drive, it didn't phase the customer service person in the slightest. I did find a sneaky workaround and didn't drive 10 hours to reset my online password.

Sigh...