Nearside Business Checking Accounts Review

Fees and Restrictions

Perhaps one of the best features of a Nearside business checking account is that customers don't have to maintain a minimum balance or meet a deposit threshold each month. While that's not unusual among business checking accounts, it's particularly important for businesses just starting out, gig workers, and other customers whose monthly income can vary considerably from one statement period to the next. The company offers unlimited withdrawals from its network of over 55,000 ATMs nationwide. ACH transfers are also free—an important benefit now that fewer and fewer businesses are paying their bills by writing paper checks. In addition, Nearside does not impose insufficient funds fees and doesn't charge customers for replacing lost or stolen cards. Nor does the company charge a monthly maintenance fee on its checking accounts. Overall, Nearside checking accounts are a very economical solution.

Nearside charges just a couple of fees. Out-of-network ATM transactions will cost you a dollar each, on top of any fees charged by the ATM network you use. The company also charges a $25 stop payment fee. To its credit, Nearside makes its fee structure quite easy to find and clear on its website and we give the company props for transparency.

Account Features

With banks that operate strictly online proliferating and gaining popularity, players in the industry compete for your business by adding features to their checking accounts that help them stand out from the crowd. Nearside offers a particularly generous cashback rewards program that reimburses you up to 2.2%, depending on the purchase you're making. You'll receive a minimum of 1% back on all purchases. You can also earn up to 5% on everyday spending at participating restaurants, gas stations, hotels, and car rental companies. You'll also earn 5% cashback on select business tool purchases, including Wordpress, Go Daddy, Shopify, and Squarespace. If you purchase Facebook or Google ads as part of your marketing program you'll earn 4% cashback. Nearside offers smaller rewards for purchases at other participating retailers and you can read about them on the company's website. All of these cashback rewards stack on top of Nearside's minimum 1%, which makes Nearside's cashback rewards program a real stand-out account feature.

Screenshot from nearside.com 11/29/2021

Nearside also offers a program called Nearside Perks, which will allow business checking account customers to purchase software and other business products at a discount. The company has a long list of participating companies, and those discounts could add up if you make a lot of tech purchases. And what small business doesn't nowadays?

The Nearside business checking account features include a few that we would consider the cost of entry into the market, including an ATM card that can be used at 55,000 ATM network locations worldwide. That's plenty for most people, but some cards do offer larger networks. Nearside also limits ATM withdrawals to no more than three per day totaling no more than $1000, which may be an inconvenience to some business customers. 

User Experience

Nearside.com is a straightforward website. The company offers a narrow product line: just business checking accounts and business lines of credit. Not surprisingly, Nearside uses one to market the other, but information on each product is easy to find. 

Nearside recently rebranded and was originally known as Hatch Credit, Inc. Hatch Credit Inc. has been accredited by the Better Business Bureau since 2019 and receives B+ rating from the organization. Neither Nearside nor Hatch has been rated by users on Trustpilot at this time, which isn't terribly surprising for such a young company.