Citizens launches new checking service for small businesses

Citizens Bank last week launched a new business checking account service, claiming a quarter of all small business owners comingle company and personal finances.
Citizens Bank last week launched a new business checking account service, claiming a quarter of all small business owners comingle company and personal finances.

PROVIDENCE – Citizens Bank last week launched a new business checking account service, claiming a quarter of all small business owners comingle company and personal finances.
The service, dubbed “Clearly Better Business Checking,” offers no monthly maintenance fee, no minimum balance requirement and up to 200 free check transactions per statement period, according to a press release.
Citizens, a Citizens Financial Group Inc. company, conducted a survey of 200 small business owners with less than $500,000 in annual revenue. Results showed 26 percent of respondents said they didn’t separate their finances.
Quincy Miller, president of business banking at Citizens, warns that the comingling of finances can have “harmful implications for both personal and company finances,” according to the release.
“Paying personal expenses using business money or vice versa makes it far more difficult to get your accounting right at tax time,” Miller said. “You also want to have a separate account for business so you can build a financial history that you can later use to apply for credit and other products or services you may need to run your business.”
The survey showed that 31 percent of respondents agreed with the statement “my business doesn’t make enough transactions to warrant a separate checking account,” and 98 percent of respondents ranked the absence of monthly maintenance fees as being of the highest importance.
“Not having a separate account can make it too easy for companies to spend personal funds that may be needed for personal mortgage payments and other important household expenses,” Miller added.
Citizens, with $135.4 billion in total assets, is the largest Rhode Island-based bank.

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