Always Bank
$0/mo
- Deposits held by
- Bank division; 22nd State Bank
- Free cash deposits /mo
- —
- Entities accepted
- Sole proprietors
- Branches
- No
- To open
- Not published at source
- Monthly fee
- $0/moFree outright
Always Bank
Small-business-only digital bank, a division of 22nd State Banking Company, whose free Essential tier is the only one that can currently be opened.
Best for
A sole proprietor who wants a free account at a chartered bank and does not need to deposit cash.
- Rate on your money
- Not published on checking
- Cash deposits
- Not published at source
- FDIC coverage
- $250,000, combined with 22nd State
- EIN required
- Not published at source
Pricing breakdown
All prices in USDPrices checked
Every fee we track, grouped by where it applies.
How Always Bank compares
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Side-by-side with the closest alternatives by monthly fee.
Each account's published monthly fee, and the plan that fee belongs to. Where a fee can be waived, the condition is stated rather than applied. Interest is shown as the rate each account publishes, with its conditions, and never as a forecast of what you would earn.
Mercury
$0/mo
- Deposits held by
- Fintech; Choice Financial and Column N.A.
- Free cash deposits /mo
- Not applicable
- Entities accepted
- Not published at source
- Branches
- No
- To open
- None
- Monthly fee
- $0/moFree outright
Relay
$0/mo
- Deposits held by
- Fintech; Thread Bank
- Free cash deposits /mo
- $2,000/day (ATM), $5,000/mo (retail)
- Entities accepted
- LLC, corp, partnership, sole prop, non-profit
- Branches
- No, Allpoint in network
- To open
- Not published at source
- Monthly fee
- $0/moFree outright
Novo
$0/mo
- Deposits held by
- Fintech; Middlesex Federal Savings
- Free cash deposits /mo
- Not applicable
- Entities accepted
- Sole prop, LLC, corp, partnership, non-profit
- Branches
- No
- To open
- None
- Monthly fee
- $0/moFree outright
Strengths and trade-offs
Pros
- A chartered bank division rather than a fintech with a partner bank
- The entry tier is genuinely free, with no maintenance, NSF or overdraft fee
- Free standard bill pay and a Mastercard debit card included
- Small business is its stated sole focus
- Fee-free access to the MoneyPass and Allpoint ATM networks
Cons
- Only the free Essential tier can be opened; the $99 and $199 tiers are waitlist-only
- No fee schedule is published anywhere on the site
- No rate is published on checking, and the two tiers that advertise one cannot be opened
- Cash deposit terms, transaction allowances and minimum opening deposit are all unpublished
- FDIC cover is combined with 22nd State Bank rather than additional to it
About Always Bank
Always.bank is a division of 22nd State Banking Company, chartered in 1917 as Farmers Exchange Bank and operating today as a fully digital institution with no branches. It is a bank rather than a financial technology company with a partner bank behind it, which puts it in the same class as the other chartered institutions here.
It publishes three business checking tiers, and only the first can be opened. Essential is free, carries no maintenance, NSF or overdraft fee, and its button reads open an account. Premium at $99 a month and Pro at $199 both read join the waitlist, and the bank's own FAQ describes them as coming soon, so neither is a price a business can pay today and neither is used to cost this row.
What is published beyond the fee is thin, and deliberately recorded as such. There is no fee schedule anywhere on the site, no cash deposit terms, no transaction allowance and no minimum opening deposit for checking. The rate is not published either: the two waitlisted tiers advertise a competitive APY with no number, and the bank states that the rate and yield are coming soon.
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