Mercury Banking for Business Review

Mercury is a financial technology company designed to help startups of all sizes create, build and grow their companies with ease.

Mercury offers their customers a zero-fees banking stack, inclusive of a business checking and savings account. Although technically not a bank themselves, they partner with regulated partner banks such as Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust to offer banking services and protect users’ finances.¹

In this article, we’ll take a look at Mercury reviews, as well as all the features it has to offer.

Learn more about mercury

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Table of Contents
Mercury review Mercury fees Mercury payment processing Is mercury safe? Mercury debit card Mercury API Mercury App Mercury reviews

Mercury review

Mercury is a FinTech company that offers its users both a business savings account and business checking account, free of monthly fees.

With its API access, lack of fees and range of digital tools and integrations, Mercury is ideal for financial technology businesses and start-ups - which is reflected in customer reviews.

Key Features

• Low cost fees
• Digital tools and integrations
• API access
• FDIC insured¹
• Mercury Tea Room
• Fee-free withdrawals at over 55,000+
• Allpoint ATM locations²
• Domestic and international transfers in 30+ currencies¹
• Earn yield on Mercury Treasury³ (interest rates updated weekly.)
• No cash deposits¹
• Sole proprietorships and trusts can't open an account¹

Find the best online business bank account for your own business with the help of this review. Choosing the right option shouldn’t be time consuming.

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How does Mercury work?

Mercury is a financial technology company that partners with FDIC insured partner banks to protect your money.

Mercury offers its users a “banking stack”, with the goal of empowering startups, as well as making banking easier for all businesses.

A banking stack is simply a collection of related financial and banking tools, features and accounts. Mercury’s banking stack consists of:

• A business checking account
• Business debit cards¹
• Digital tools and integrations
• Check and ACH payments
• Domestic and international wire transfers
• A business savings account¹ 

Additionally, you can invite as many team members as required to your Mercury account, as well as control each member’s access level with a three-tier permission system:

• admin
• bookkeeper
• and custom access.

This makes Mercury banking flexible for startups who want more control over their banking platform. Moreover, it makes Mercury good for any business wanting more control over their banking experience, as well as the chance to save time on administrative tasks.

¹ The Mercury Debit Cards are issued by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC, pursuant to licenses from Mastercard.

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How to apply for a Mercury account

To apply for a Mercury business account, you’ll need to provide:

• your company’s Employer Identification Number (EIN),

• a picture of your government ID, in addition to your company’s official formation documents.

Mercury supports US incorporated companies, meaning that you don’t need to be physically present in the US nor a resident to open an account.¹

Despite supporting non-residents, Mercury banking currently doesn’t support accounts for owners present in these countries:
South Sudan, Libya, Belarus, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Syria, Iran, Burundi, Iraq, Liberia, Nicaragua, Democratic Republic of the Congo, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela, Russia, Yemen, Cuba and Lebanon¹

Mercury fees 

An outstanding feature of Mercury banking is its lack of fees - a point scoring high in Mercury reviews.

• There is no minimum opening deposit, no minimum balance, no monthly account fees, as well as no transactions fees.¹ 

• Similarly, there are no overdraft fees, and domestic and international USD wires are free of additional charges.⁴ 

The only time Mercury charges a fee is a 1% fee on currency conversions when using non-USD currencies, as well as for treasury management and mass payment on API.¹

This makes Mercury banking ideal for start-ups looking to save on banking costs and fees.

Mercury payment processing

Here’s an overview of Mercury’s payment processing.

Sending with Mercury

• Mercury supports domestic and international wires in 30+ currencies. 

• Mercury also allows you to send and deposit checks. 

• Additionally, you can send payments via the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network for free using Mercury.¹

Mercury cash deposits

At the time of writing, Mercury doesn’t support cash deposits.

This makes it less than ideal if your business works regularly with hard cash transactions.

Is Mercury safe?

Mercury ensures that its users are well protected. They require HTTPS on all of their web pages, ensuring a secure connection for all banking activities. 

Similarly, all stored passwords are hashed with bcrypt, and databases and sensitive information are also encrypted. 

In addition to this, Mercury uses time-based one-time use passwords for two-factor authentication, rather than relying on insecure channels such as SMS. They also never store debit card information. 

Lastly, Mercury subjects themselves to yearly penetration testing by a third party to expose weaknesses in their system.¹

Is the Mercury account FDIC insured?

Prospective users will be glad to know that all Mercury accounts are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) limit of $250,000. 

Mercury itself is not a bank, but rather a financial technology company. Mercury works with FDIC insured banks, meaning that your money is thus insured by the FDIC standard.

Mercury debit card

After your Mercury business account has been approved, you’ll be sent a Mercury debit card.

If you’re still waiting for your card to arrive, you can already create virtual debit cards to use immediately.¹ 

After activating your Mercury business debit card, you can use it at ATMs without any additional charges from Mercury. 

Similarly, Mercury cards are part of the Allpoint ATM network, meaning that Allpoint won’t charge fees on ATM withdrawals at any of its 55,000+ locations.¹

Mercury API

All Mercury accounts come with read-write Application Programming Interface (API) access.⁵ 

This enables you to customize Mercury’s software to your business’s needs, allowing you to create custom dashboards, automate mass payments and reconcile transactions, among many other features.

Mercury API is ideal for businesses involved in technology, as well as for start-ups.

Mercury App

Mercury offers an app for both iOS and Android users. The Android app currently allows users to:

• View transaction history
• View account balances
• Edit card limits
• Freeze and unfreeze cards
• Copy and paste card numbers, and view card details⁶

The Mercury app for Android is still being developed, with new features, such as transaction search, becoming available in the future.

On the other hand, the Mercury app for IOS currently offers a few more additional features, such as transaction search, as well as the ability to transfer funds to and from linked bank accounts.

Mercury reviews

72% of Trustpilot Mercury bank reviews rate the company as “Excellent”, with an overall average rating of 4.0 out of 5.⁷ 

Mercury bank reviews emphasise its streamlined, easy to use user interface, its suitability for start-ups, as well as its email customer support team.

Here are just a few Mercury bank reviews:

“I just opened my account recently, but so far the service has been excellent. I initially had apprehension about the customer service and not having a phone contact, but the chat and email support has been fairly responsive. The ease and simplicity of the user interface is also really nice. As I'm starting up my business and getting the ball rolling, Mercury has been a great bank”

“Mercury is the best bank for any startup. With its low or non-existent fees and easy to use website, it is a dream. Their UX/UI is phenomenal and I want to give a huge amount of credit to their design team for how well the website and more is designed”

“Great banking experience. Streamlined interface is a sharp contrast to traditional bank services. Great partner integration support”⁷

Overall, Mercury banking reviews are positive.

A convenient alternative - manage your international business with Wise

Mercury reviews show that it’s a provider you might want to choose. Mercury is a trusted partner of Wise, via Wise Platform. As a result of our integration, Mercury users have access to fast, low-cost and transparent international payments.

Lastly, Wise offers a business account with some similar features - It's worth checking out the specifics to see what works best with you. Some benefits of a Wise Business account include:

• Own your multi-currency cash flow, managing payments in 40+ currencies, and simplify invoicing, all with the help of the Wise Business account.

• Take advantage of local account details - like IBANs, Sort Codes and Routing Numbers - to get paid like a local.

• Convert and send your money abroad using the mid-market exchange rate, the one you see on Google.

Open your Wise Business account today

Here are some other business bank accounts to discover, such as:
Veem BlueVine Novo Adyen payment processing for businesses Credit Union business account Simple Bank business account Axos

Sources:

1. Mercury - FAQ
2. Allpoint - Network locator
3. Mercury - pricing, yield
4. Mercury - Pricing
5. Mercury - API
6. Mercury - Android app
7. Trustpilot - Mercury

All sources checked 22 December 2023

Disclaimer:

1. “Mercury Treasury is not insured by the FDIC. Mercury Treasury are not deposits or other obligations of Choice
   Financial Group or Evolve Bank & Trust, and are not guaranteed by Choice
   Financial Group or Evolve Bank & Trust.”