NorthOne Business Banking Review: Low Fees for Business Owners

Small business owners and sole proprietors can have a tough time finding bank accounts that don’t charge astronomical fees. This NorthOne review shares why small business owners have an attractive option with NorthOne.

The deposit account comes with a variety of features perfect for small business owners, including the ability to pay invoices, integrate with accounting software and Shopify and Etsy, and set up sub-accounts for easy money management.

At a Glance

• Standard account has unlimited mobile check deposits and no monthly maintenance fees.
• NorthOne Plus costs $20 per month and comes with reduced fees and priority customer service.
• Integration with accounting software like FreshBooks and QuickBooks.
• No physical branches or paper checks.

Who Should Use NorthOne?

NorthOne works with nearly all types of small business owners. However, they likely won’t have the capability to handle a large corporation’s banking needs.

However, if you’re a sole proprietor, freelancer, or are running an S-corp or other small business, NorthOne might work well for your banking needs.

Between the low fees and features like bill pay and sub-accounts, it should cover most banking needs for small business owners who can conduct their businesses entirely online.

If you prefer in-person banking and/or need paper checks, NorthOne is not for you.

NorthOne Alternatives

Table of Contents

1. At a Glance
2. Who Should Use NorthOne?
3. NorthOne Alternatives
4. What Is NorthOne?
5. NorthOne Business Banking Services
1. Business Bank Account: Deposits and Bill Pay
2. Sub-accounts with Auto-transfer Capabilities
3. Accounting Software Integration
4. Payment Processor Integration
6. NorthOne Fees
7. How to Open a NorthOne Account 
8. NorthOne vs. Bluevine
9. NorthOne vs. Novo
10. NorthOne vs. Axos
11. FAQs
12. Summary

What Is NorthOne?

NorthOne was founded in 2016 and officially launched to the public in 2019. It is not actually a bank, but a financial tech company. Its deposit account is backed by The Bancorp Bank and is FDIC-insured through Bancorp.

NorthOne’s Connected Bank Account is a demand deposit account that was created specifically for small business owners. It can work with all types of small businesses, including freelancers, sole proprietorships, and small corporations.

The NorthOne account has a long list of features for managing your business’s finances. These include automated tasks to help you more easily close your books at the end of the month.

The NorthOne mobile app gives you full control over your business finances so you can run your business from anywhere there’s internet access.

Learn more about NorthOne

NorthOne Business Banking Services

Here’s a rundown of some of NorthOne’s most prominent features and how they can help your business.

Business Bank Account: Deposits and Bill Pay

With a NorthOne business bank account, you can:

• Make unlimited, fee-free mobile check deposits
• Send up to $10,000 per day by ACH transfer
• Send up to $200,000 per day by domestic wire transfer
• Receive unlimited ACH and wire deposits
• Receive debit cards for every business owner

As NorthOne is not a physical bank, you won’t have access to in-person services or receive any paper checks with a NorthOne account. All account transactions are conducted online or at an ATM.

However, you can still send paper checks to vendors within the U.S. through NorthOne — they will send a pre-funded paper check on your behalf for a fee of $1 per check (although this fee can be waived if you sign up for NorthOne Plus for $20 per month).

If you need to deposit cash, you can do so free of fees at the cash register of most Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, RiteAid, and 7/11 locations.

You can withdraw cash up to five times per day, for a maximum of $2,000 per day, from ATMs in the Mastercard, Maestro, or Cirrus ATM network.

Sub-accounts with Auto-transfer Capabilities

One of my favorite features of the NorthOne account is the sub-account feature. NorthOne has sub-accounts called “envelopes” that allow you to divide your business funds into different categories for easier money management.

For instance, you could have sub-accounts for categories such as:

• Payroll
• Paying taxes
• Emergency savings
• Future purchases, expansions, or growth
• A variety of business expenses

The NorthOne account allows for unlimited sub-account envelopes at no extra charge. Designed much like a personal financial envelope budgeting system, NorthOne’s envelopes help ensure your business has money set aside when it’s needed.

Bonus: You can set up auto-transfers for your envelopes to make setting aside money for specific expenses or savings even easier.

Accounting Software Integration

NorthOne has integration abilities with accounting software such as:

After you connect your NorthOne account to one of its compatible software programs, you can import your chart of accounts. Then you can sync all of the information and transaction details between NorthOne and your accounting platform to help you easily manage your business income and expenses.

In addition, the company partners with both Shopify and Etsy and allows you to link those accounts to your NorthOne account. This means you can see all of your order numbers and the coordinating payments with either of those e-commerce platforms right on your NorthOne account.

Payment Processor Integration

NorthOne also integrates with several payment processing companies, including:

• PayPal
• Venmo
• Stripe
• Square

Partnership with these platforms means you can accept payment from any of these payment processors and have the money deposited directly into your NorthOne account.

Learn more about NorthOne

NorthOne Fees

When you open your NorthOne account, you’ll be required to deposit $50. After that, there are no minimum balance requirements.

NorthOne has two plan options. All customers are first assigned to the NorthOne Standard plan, which has no monthly account fees. However, you can choose to upgrade to NorthOne Plus for $20 per month. With this plan, you get reduced fees and priority customer support.

With NorthOne Standard, fees are as follows:

• 1.5% on same-day ACH transfers, up to a $15 maximum
• $1 per check for sending physical checks
• $0.50 on bill payments
• $20 for sending or receiving domestic wires

By comparison, with NorthOne Plus there are no fees on ACH transfers, physical check sends, or bill payments. Sending a domestic wire costs $15, while receiving still costs $20.

Regardless of which plan you’re on, NorthOne won’t charge you for using in-network ATMs. However, the ATM owner may charge you a fee — even if you’re using an in-network ATM. 

How to Open a NorthOne Account 

Signing up with NorthOne is fairly simple and can be done in just a few minutes. Here’s the information you’ll need to open your account:

• Valid government-issued photo ID
• Valid phone number
• Social Security number
• Employment insurance number (for LLC, S-corp, C-corp, and Partnerships)
• Home and business address
• Details about your business and owner(s)

NorthOne’s customer service team can help via chat, email, or phone. The hours for the customer service center are Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time.

Learn more about NorthOne

NorthOne vs. Bluevine

Bluevine Business Checking offers features for small business owners that include:

• $0 monthly fee
• 2.00% APY interest paid on account balances up to $100,000
• Paper checks
• No minimum balance
• $0 initial deposit requirement
• $0 fees for non-sufficient funds

There are unlimited transactions with the Bluevine account. And you can use MoneyPass ATMs for free. You can make cash deposits at GreenDot locations, but you’ll pay $4.95 per deposit for doing so.

Online bill pay is free with Bluevine as well. Note that there are no in-person banking capabilities with Bluevine.

Bluevine’s website doesn’t clearly list partner integrations, so you’ll have to call customer service for information on partner integrations for your business.

Check out our full review of Bluevine.

Learn more about Bluevine

NorthOne vs. Novo

The Novo Business Checking account includes the following features:

• $0 monthly service fee
• $50 minimum initial deposit
• No minimum balance 
• ATM fee refunds up to $7 per month
• Novo reserve accounts

Note that there are no paper checks and no in-branch banking.

With Novo, you can invoice customers for free using the Novo app. You can even set recurring invoices. Novo also offers online bill pay. Integrations include QuickBooks, Amazon, Shopify, Xero, and more.

Incoming domestic and international wire transfers are free with Novo. Novo doesn’t allow outgoing domestic wire transfers but uses the ACH transfer system instead. You can send outgoing international wire transfers from your Novo account, but Novo partners with Wise to do so and you’ll pay applicable fees.

Bonus feature: Novo offers software discounts on many business software programs. See the Novo website for specific information on these discounts.

Check out our full review of Novo Business Checking.

Learn more about Novo

NorthOne vs. Axos

Features of the Axos Basic Business Checking include:

• $0 monthly service fee
• $0 minimum deposit
• $0 minimum balance
• $0 fees for in-network ATMs
• Paper checks
• Unlimited transactions

Axos offers separate business savings accounts and money market accounts as well. If you don’t care for the sub-account option where monies are tied to the main account but categorized, you might prefer Axos Bank for your business banking.

Also, while the Basic Business Checking account doesn’t pay interest, Axos does offer a high-yield Business Interest Checking account.

This account will pay interest on balances, however, there is a $10 monthly fee if your balance is below $5,000. The Business Interest Checking also features ATM fee reimbursements and an initial opening deposit minimum of just $100.

Check out our full review of Axos.

Learn more about Axos

FAQs

Summary

Having the right bank account for your business is so important. Small business owners often have a tight budget and can’t afford to be lackadaisical about banking fees. Plus, small business owners can reap huge benefits from automated systems and smart partner integrations.

NorthOne offers low fees, bill pay capabilities, and integration with a wide range of accounting software and e-commerce platforms. If you’re good with banking that is entirely digital, NorthOne may serve your needs — just be sure to compare other business bank accounts before committing, to find the one that’s best for you.