Having a bad ChexSystems report or consumer score can definitely make it harder to open a business checking account, but it’s not the end of the world. You have some options.
Much like how you can do some things to build business credit, there are a few ways to improve your ChexSystems report and score.
For example, you might find information in your ChexSystems report that’s incorrect. In that case, go ahead and file a dispute. ChexSystems will conduct an investigation (so official) and get back to you within a month or so.
If you have (accurate) unpaid balances in your report, paying those off can help your score. Once you do, creditors should let ChexSystems know.
And if time isn’t an issue, you can always wait it out. Items appear on your ChexSystems report for only five years. So even if you bounced bunches of checks in 2015, you’ll be good to go in 2020.
If time is an issue, you can look for banks that don’t care about ChexSystems.
That’s not difficult if you need a personal checking account, but we’ve been unable to verify if there are any big banks who don’t look at ChexSystems for business bank accounts. We’ll update this article if we find any.
Instead, your best bet may be to ask around at local credit unions. While many of them will check ChexSystems, they may have second-chance checking accounts in addition to regular business checking accounts.
And of course, you can always try opening an account without a perfect ChexSystems score. Banks don’t broadcast their requirements, so your less-than-ideal score might end up being just good enough.