Nowadays a lot of people are working online, digital nomads and other location-independent crowd can live and work from anywhere because they run their independent businesses.
If you’re an indie creator, contractor, site developer, or mindfulness mentor, you’ve already run into the horror that is small and/or location-independent business banking.
You’ve already figured out that the majority of business bank accounts are:
- Ridiculously difficult to open
- Fees that would cost you an arm and a leg
- When exchanging currencies, you’re met with high exchange rates.
Most business accounts that are low cost and easy to open remotely for most people are offered by fintech companies (a.k.a. neo or challenger banks), often without full banking licenses.
In practice, this distinction isn’t always that important, since these companies are still regulated and your funds are typically held in segregated accounts with solid partner banks.
In this article, we have listed some of the best banking accounts relevant for anyone running a small, international business.
While some of these business bank accounts are available no matter where your company is registered, some require that you have a company in their jurisdiction.
WorldWide
These financial platforms help you to accept payments from customers all over the world, just as if you had a physical bank account in their country.
Jeton Business
When it comes to simplifying your business finances and saving on fees Jeton Business is one of the best on the market.
With Jeton Business you can send and receive money internationally. You can get EUR IBAN accounts to manage your international payments and money transfers without hidden fees. All of these accounts are in the name of your company—and you can accept any type of (legal or non-restricted) payments and outgoing transfers also come from your company name.
Hold, send and receive money through your account. Jeton’s technology and coverage give you global reach so you can give your customers a local payment experience. (100+ countries, 70+ payment methods)
In the digital era, you really want your banking to be done easily and online, and signing up with Jeton Business will be an easy process one of the easiest processes we have undertaken.
Airwallex
Airwallex, whose head offices are in Hong Kong, is a business account designed to make online payments easy. It allows businesses to collect in local currencies – this is perfect for businesses looking to expand into new markets across the world. You can make payments in 18 currencies, into over 130 countries.
It helps small enterprises with operations beyond their home borders manage their foreign exchange needs, sending and receiving multiple currencies without handing exorbitant fees to the banks.
Payoneer
Payoneer has been a pioneer in the international payments industry since they launched their USD receiving accounts back in 2011. For many people it’s still the only option for getting US account details or to get paid from many online marketplaces.
Note that you can only receive funds from companies (e.g. marketplaces such as Amazon or UpWork), not from private individuals—so you can’t use Payoneer to get paid from non-corporate clients.
United States
Mercury
If you are a non-US resident with a US business who needs an easy-to-use business account, with low fees, that you can open remotely — this is a good one to get.
Europe
Holvi
Holvi is a Finnish 🇫🇮 challenger bank (technically an payment institution as they don’t have a full banking license) that is now owned by the Spanish 🇪🇸 banking giant BBVA.
Transfers outside the SEPA region is only possible with a third party and you can also not receive non-SEPA transfers directly.
If you’re based in the UK, you can only send and receive national transfers in pounds.
Monese Business
With Monese Business, you’ll get six free ATM withdrawals per month, 0.5% currency markup on spending and international transfers, and free incoming and outgoing bank transfers, including direct debits.
Asia
Aspire
Singapore has one of the most favorable jurisdictions for businesses in Asia and very popular for location-independent entrepreneurs. While it’s usually possible to open business bank accounts with several Singaporean banks for non-resident owners, it typically requires in-person visits, a ton of paperwork, large minimum deposits, and often high charges for both account maintenance and transfers. So it’s no wonder that in 2019 Aspire was voted the number one hottest startup by Singapore Business Review.
Opening a business account with Aspire is as easy. The signup is done online in a few minutes and it’s free to open, there are no monthly fees, and no minimum deposit.
Neat
Hong Kong is one of the most popular jurisdictions for digital nomads to register their businesses. However, getting a bank account for a Hong Kong business—particularly as a non-resident owner—has gotten increasingly difficult over the past few years.
Not until Neat showed up.
They will let foreign owners of Hong Kong businesses open an account online in just minutes. No need for an in-person meeting.
The account comes with a local account number, but isn’t a true bank account and isn’t covered by the Hong Kong Deposit Protection Scheme. Still, it’s much better than no bank account at all.
