Recently, my husband opened a Tangerine Chequing account. While doing so, we noticed that Tangerine now also offers a Business bank account which I decided to investigate.
Does Tangerine.ca Have a Business Chequing Account?
No.
Unfortunately at the time this is being written at the end of April 2017 June 2014, Tangerine does not offer a business chequing account. That’s unfortunate because a no-fee chequing account would be a boon to many small businesses.
Tangerine only offers a Business Savings Account at this time.
What Is the Tangerine Business Savings Account Intended to Do?
It’s intended to be a place to park surplus cash to earn interest.
According to the Tangerine website: “The Tangerine Business Savings Account is not intended to be used as an operating account and is not intended to provide general cheque clearing or currency trading services for your business.”
In case you’re curious, funds can only be transferred between this business savings account and another business account with the same ownership details. Tangerine won’t transfer money from this business account to the personal account of an authorized account holder, nor to another non-business account.
In other words, the money has to come in from and go out to your Canadian business chequing account elsewhere.
Can I Deposit Cheques or Cash into a Tangerine Business Savings Account?
You cannot deposit cash directly into the account. You do not get a ABM card with this account. You would have to deposit it elsewhere and then move the money into the Business Savings Account.
The Tangerine website didn’t seem to make it clear, however, whether you could deposit cheques into the account.
So I wrote Tangerine and asked:
Can I deposit cheques? And, if so,
- Can I use the Cheque-In app? or
- Can I use an ABM? or
- Can I mail in a cheque for deposit?
They replied that:
- You cannot use an ABM with a Business Savings Account and you will not get a bank card.
- You cannot use the Cheque-In app to deposit cheques.
- You can mail at cheque to Tangerine, at your own expense, to deposit into the account. You need to write your Client Number and bank Account Number on the front of the cheque.
However, since their terms clearly state that the account is not intended “provide general cheque clearing” I think if you tried to mail in very many cheques they would close your account.
Since the cost to mail a cheque would be about 96 cents just for the stamp, it’s probably not going to save much money compared to cashing a cheque in a Business Chequing
Account anyway.
How Many People Can Have Access to my Tangerine Business Savings Account?
The Tangerine website says you can have up to 3 people with access to the account.
What Do You Need to Open a Business Savings Account at Tangerine?
I was surprised to read this on the Tangerine site:
“As a means of identity confirmation, each Authorized Individual must submit a personal pre-printed cheque made payable to the Business, drawn from a personal account belonging to the Authorized Individual and held at a Canadian financial institution.”
So you have to link your Tangerine Business Savings account to a personal chequing account, even though you cannot transfer money back out to a personal chequing account from the Business Savings Account!
You will also need
- a cheque written on your business chequing account
- the full registered address of your business
- full addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and dates of birth for all people (up to 3) who are authorized to use the account
The application form says them may contact you to require further documents. Since I don’t have any way to actually open a new business account, I can’t check what these documents may be.
Things I Didn’t Expect about the Tangerine Savings Account
I didn’t expect you’d need to link it to all users personal chequing accounts, not just an external business chequing account for which they have signing authority.
Did I Open a Tangerine Business Savings Account?
No.
At this point, having only an ultra-small sole proprietorship business I wouldn’t really use a Business Savings Account.
If my business ever grows to a multi-million dollar enterprise, however, I might re-visit my decision. : )
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Do you have a separate Business Savings Account? Does your bank or credit union offer you a good interest rate? Please share your experiences with a comment.