A few years ago I created an LLC to encapsulate some business that I do. I went shopping around to find somewhere to open a bank account for the LLC. I checked with the credit union I normally use for my personal finances, but they didn't offer any sort of business account at the time (they do now). Compass Bank was advertising "free checking for small businesses" so I thought I'd give them a try.
The terms of the free checking account seemed ok. I could make up to 150 transactions per month (I see it's 500 now) before I would get hit with a fee. That was plenty. About the only thing I had to pay for was to have the checks printed. Fair enough.
Then I got my August statement.... Read on...
Currently my LLC spends more money that it brings in (a situation I hope to change soon!) so I have to occasionally "loan" it money from my personal account. In July, I was a little worried about some checks I'd written overdrawing my account. So I did the right thing and deposited some money. Since I was concerned about the hold time that might be imposed on money I deposited in the form of a check, I decided to just deposit cash I'd withdrawn from my personal account at the credit union.
I must have done this twice in one month. The total amount must have been more than $1000. These two conditions together trigger a $1.25 fee they call a "deposit cash $1000+" fee or some such. Of course I'd never heard of such a fee. I certainly didn't think it should apply to my "free" checking account. I suppose its existence was buried in some fine print somewhere, but I'd never seen it.
So today I went by one of the branches and talked with a nice guy named Brian. I played dumb and asked "what is this charge for?" He looked at it and scratched his head and said he wasn't sure, but he'd try to find out. He said if he couldn't figure it out he'd refund the $1.25. He went away for a while then came back and told what I already knew... it was for depositing more than $1000 cash in more than one transaction. (Actually, I didn't know the "more than one transaction part... I could have done it in one transaction and not been hit with the fee.) He agreed to reverse the charge, however. After about ten minutes, he had filled out enough forms to return the $1.25.
I didn't go ballistic on Brian, since he was so nice, but I'd like to go ballistic on Compass Bank. How dare them charge me a fee for depositing money in their bank. I've already decided I'll probably move my business account to the credit union. I'll not support a bank that steals from me in such a sneaky way like that.