Basic Business Checking is KeyBank’s cheapest business checking account. It doesn’t give you as many free transactions as the Reward Checking account, and it can’t earn interest like Interest Checking, but it’s a solid basic account.
You can waive the already low service fee by keeping an average account balance of $1,000 in your business checking account or with a $10,000 balance across your business deposit accounts.
Business Internet Checking, as you can probably guess, lets you earn interest on your account balance. The APY (annual percentage yield) on this account isn’t great (Axos Bank more than quintuples KeyBank’s best rate), and you get only 100 free transactions. Still, if you like KeyBank and want to earn interest, this checking account works.
You can waive the service fee on this interest-bearing checking account with a $5,000 daily balance in your account or a $15,000 balance across your business deposit and financing accounts.
KeyBank claims that Business Reward Checking is its most popular business checking account. In addition to giving you more free transactions than the other checking options, Reward Checking gets you discounts on things like merchant services and payroll processing—so there are some big advantages to paying the higher monthly fee.
If you’d rather avoid the monthly fee altogether, you can waive it by keeping an average balance of $7,500 average balance in your Reward Checking account, by having a $20,000 balance spread across your business deposit and financing accounts, or by using Key Merchant services.
KeyBank has three choices for savings accounts (one traditional and two money market), as well as a handful of certificates of deposit (CDs).
Business Saver Account has the lowest opening deposit and maintenance fee, but it also has the lowest interest rates by far. If you plan on keeping a very low balance in your savings account, you might choose the Saver Account—just don’t expect to earn much. Otherwise, we suggest upgrading a tier. You can waive the fee on this account with a $300 minimum account balance or a $600 average account balance.
A tier up is Business Silver, which offers higher (if still low) rates at a still-affordable cost. You can waive its monthly fee if you keep a $5,000 minimum daily balance, set up a monthly direct deposit of $25 or more into your account, or have a Business Reward Checking account.
For the best interest rates, you’ll want to go with Business Gold—assuming you can pony up the cash for that hefty opening deposit. To waive the monthly fee, keep a $25,000 minimum daily balance and maintain a Business Reward Checking account.
(For a savings account with higher rates and a lower opening deposit, check out Small Business Bank.)
If you’re comfortable setting your money aside for a while, you can go with one of KeyBank’s certificates of deposit instead.