Before any bank opens a new business bank account, the business needs to be properly incorporated, so that the bank can verify and validate certain requirements.

In my experience, those requirements are primarily:

  • Business Organization Documents
  • Tax ID (Federal Employment Identification Number - FEIN)
  • Personal Identification Documents

Business organization documents usually include the company formation documents, corporate bylaws (if available) and operating agreements.

The Federal Employment Identification Number is issued by the IRS right after the business is formed at the State level.

Personal Identification Document could be a passport or a valid US driver’s license.

My favorite option for opening the first business checking account actually isn’t any of the well known household brand names. I decided to go with Mercury. I really liked how they allow the whole account opening to be done online.

It eliminated the need to call a bank and set up an appointment and then having to drive somewhere, just to show a few PDF print outs. If it can be done online, it’s certainly preferable - it’s more convenient and quite a bit faster for me.

Ultimately Mercury provided a really straightforward user interface to open a bank account, to upload and validate everything and saved me couple hours of my time.