Recommendation For A Good Online Liberty Bank

[Liberty4Ever]

I have a small online business that I've owned and operated for eight years. I need a small business checking account. I doubt I'll write more than 1-2 checks a month, but I'd like a debit card. I don't want a line of credit, but I do want online banking. I don't need to make nightly deposits, nor will I be depositing many checks. I'd gladly mail my few deposits. Most of all, I don't want my money in a bank owned by Chase, Bank of America, etc. I'm looking for a good community bank for my very simple online banking needs. It would be nice if they didn't freak out when they learn that my business sells the most innocuous firearms accessories imaginable. Any suggestions?

 

[CPUd]

Depends on where you live, that's the whole point of local. Go for a credit union if there is one where you live.

 

[Liberty4Ever]

I've looked at the local commercial banks and tried to find one that wasn't affiliated with a big Wall Street bank, but that's not all that easy for me to do. Once I threw out the big banks, the rest all looked about the same. I know that local banking is a cultural tradition, and there are even Know Your Customer laws that probably make it difficult on banks wanting to leverage the power of the internet and technology to break away from the brick and mortar banking limitations to better serve their customers. I don't really need local banking. The last business checking account I had, when I finally went into the local branch bank, the bank manager was snippy with me because she wasn't convinced I was a bank customer because she had never seen me. I always used the ATM, usually after banking hours.

I know there are online banks, like Ally. I was hoping someone might know of an online bank that caters to people with a strong liberty bent, or a liberty minded bank somewhere that doesn't mind a non-local customer who does most business online and occasionally writes a check or mails in a deposit. Really, my needs are very simple, and the business is well established with very satisfied customers. It's a no risk deal for the bank.

 

[LibertyEagle]

You want to check more than that. There used to be, and I'm sure still are, websites to check to see how well various banks are doing. I remember spending time checking these to find a bank that hadn't been involved in the bad housing loan thing. Because when push comes to shove, you want a bank that isn't going to close their doors and tell you so sorry, when the next financial bust happens.

 

[Liberty4Ever]

I'm definitely not planning to keep my life savings in this business checking account. Mostly, I want a place to sweep online purchases until I can convert them to physical commodities, a place where I can write a check or two per month, and an account that I can manage online.

Fiduciary sanity is a nice feature in a bank, but after Dodd-Frank, no banks are a safe place to keep money. Dodd-Frank sets the stage for bail-ins (ala Cyprus). The government won't use tax dollars and The Fed won't use money printed out of thin air to bail out the banks. The money will simply be seized from the bank's demand deposits (checking and savings accounts), the depositors will be given IOUs, and they'll then be 7th place in line to be repaid when (if) the bank is on better financial footing. I know that sounds crazy and many people think that can't happen in the US, but that's what the people in Cyprus thought... until the morning they awakened to learn it had happened to them.

 

[LibertyEagle]

I'm definitely not planning to keep my life savings in this business checking account. Mostly, I want a place to sweep online purchases until I can convert them to physical commodities, a place where I can write a check or two per month, and an account that I can manage online.

Fiduciary sanity is a nice feature in a bank, but after Dodd-Frank, no banks are a safe place to keep money. Dodd-Frank sets the stage for bail-ins (ala Cyprus). The government won't use tax dollars and The Fed won't use money printed out of thin air to bail out the banks. The money will simply be seized from the bank's demand deposits (checking and savings accounts), the depositors will be given IOUs, and they'll then be 7th place in line to be repaid when (if) the bank is on better financial footing. I know that sounds crazy and many people think that can't happen in the US, but that's what the people in Cyprus thought... until the morning they awakened to learn it had happened to them.

All the more reason to go with a solvent bank on a good financial footing.

 

[wizardwatson]

Start your own bank. Decentralize the deposits as contracts recorded on a blockchain or similar public ledger. Use audit algorithms at specific intervals to eliminate untrustworthy nodes.