thread Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦 in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

Square Banking Q&A with Christina Riechers 🏦

isabelle — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 20:37:16 GMT

Hey Seller Community! ✨We’re very excited to announce that on 9/16 at 2pm PST | 5pm EST, we’ll be hosting a Q&A with Square Banking's Head of Product, Christina Riechers!

Christina Riechers has been with Square for 6 years and is Square Banking's Head of Product. She was the founding Product Manager of the Square Debit Card, and before that, the first Product Manager of Instant Transfers. Christina is passionate about helping small business owners with cash flow products that give them more control over their finances to thrive in their business.

We will be selecting 10 of your replies for Christina to answer on recorded video. Joined with her on video will be our Super Seller, @pessosices, asking your questions. The video will then be posted on 9/16 for you all to see!

Please reply to this post with any questions you may have related to:

For those of you who reply to this post with a question that isn’t selected for Christina to answer, we will do our best to answer all of your questions via text in the thread below.

Some example questions include:

Why did you start Square Banking?
What do you hope Square Banking can provide Square sellers?
What are the advantages of using Square Banking over a traditional Business Bank account?
Can I deposit and write checks with a Square Checking Account?

Note on account-specific questions: For your privacy and security, we are not able to address issues related to specific account status details in our public forums. If you need account assistance, please contact our Customer Success team and they'll be able to take a deeper dive.

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

HC_Charlie — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 16:40:04 GMT

Great Q&A, I'm looking forward to this topic! I have a few questions:

With Square Checking and Savings, can an external funding account be setup to deposit funds into these Square products, or is the only source of funding through our business credit card sales?
Also regarding Square Checking and Savings, are there any limits to fund withdrawals (per day/per week etc.)? And can funds be transferred out into an external account with another financial institution

Thanks for answering our questions!

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

Thevioletfox — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 16:49:42 GMT

Are there plans to allow cash deposits at some point in the future?

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

Doran — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 19:22:53 GMT

I am very excited about Square banking but have a few reservations.

1. How can I accommodate my cash and check sales/deposits?

2. How would you recommend making the switch?

3. I'm thinking of starting with just savings. Is that an option?

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

JessBrilliant — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 20:22:13 GMT

When will you offer savings accounts for LLCs?

This is really inconvient that only sole proprietor is the only business category that is accepted. As a result of this limiting factor, I can not fully utilize your banking services because I can not set aside half my earnings for tax purposes. It means I need a separate savings account through another lending source and most do not offer a business savings without a business checking. If I have to go to another source, then why have a checking acount through square. I would love to utilize your services and have all my business dealings with one source. Plus your business checking is a great deal compared to other bank offerings.

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

Thevioletfox — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 21:26:08 GMT

Why are LLCs not allowed? Or what's the drawback? I'm an LLC and just opened checking... did I make a mistake?

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

Minion — Sun, 29 Aug 2021 19:05:47 GMT

I think many people will be looking forward to this one. I am excited that Square took the next steps to create a checking and savings account. It will evolve to something very useful for some small business owners. Some questions that I have, and have seen if you are able to answer them would be great.

1. Will Square Loans now look at "cash/check/other" payment methods when considering square loans for business' and not solely on credit card sales?

2. Will Square checking be offering monthly statements? And if so will those statements have a more formal header, and not simply be a csv file?

3. I have business bank accounts with Navy Federal and my local Credit Union. Both of which have outstanding customer service, and make you feel valued as a customer. Will Square offer a dedicated service team for checking and saving account questions and concerns?

4. Even though Square offers Capital Loans, will Square checking consider Business Lines of Credit (BLOC) that can be tied to the checking account?

5. Is there a projected ETA on depositing checks, possibly even mobile deposit?

Thanks for taking the time to answer some of our questions.

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

carsonsuite — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 16:18:14 GMT

Tell me what depositing checks and cash will look like as your customer base interactions are not through traditional brick and mortar locations. Will we have to create money orders essentially depositing those forms of payment somewhere else to get into our checking/savings accounts?

A good follow up questions:

Electronic (mobile) deposit systems are promising (hardware and software solutions are right up Square's alley and I think if anyone can figure out a good solution, it's Square), but checks are becoming less popular. That still leaves cash. Do you have any planned partnerships with other financial institutions to make depositing cash easier?

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

washtubquilts — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 15:38:24 GMT

Please give a little more detail on how shops can qualify for a Square Loan.

Over the past few years, I have been given the opportunity to take advantage of the Square Loans. But, now I'm told my business isn’t eligible right now. I also have the option to try Paypal Capital and maybe it would be best to funnel most of my business sales through Paypal if I'm no longer eligible for Square Capital.

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

Thevioletfox — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 15:01:57 GMT

How are we able to pay bills, vendors, etc. through Square Checking?

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

Twpchair — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 18:36:51 GMT

Hello, with your square checking is there a feature for mobile deposit of checks? I have been with our local credit union for year's and it recently 2-3 weeks ago had a fire and their next closet branch is close to 2 hrs one way! Their Mobile deposit is horrible either down or the camera won't accept the pictures. The only way I can deposit checks now is to use 2 of my business credit cards that offer 360 checking but I don't need the money going to my cards but the bank! Thank you!

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

Ria — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 20:54:50 GMT

Hi @Twpchair - Thanks for checking in to the community!

The ability to deposit checks via mobile device is a feature request at this time. We appreciate your feedback and will make sure to make this visible to our product team.

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

Twpchair — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 20:57:31 GMT

Thank you!

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

pessosices — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 20:22:31 GMT

Thanks so much for this awesome opportunity!

I'm really looking forward to getting to ask Christina some of these amazing questions from other sellers.

I have a few questions myself:

What's the difference between Square Banking and a traditional Business Bank account? What makes it stand out and what makes it a good choice for small businesses?

Square Loans have been incredibly helpful to keeping my business afloat over the last couple of years. How do Loans integrate with Square Banking as a whole moving forward? Are they changing or improving?

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

Twpchair — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 20:24:24 GMT

Following this as well!

Re: Q&A with Head of Square Banking Product, Christina Riechers 🏦

JUYBoutique20 — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 21:48:59 GMT

Will we be able to open more than one account for banking and savings? Will you be offering mobile banking to deposit cash sales, example, I buy money orders to deposit through mobile banking?

Re: Square Banking Q&A with Christina Riechers 🏦

erikjones — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 15:25:07 GMT

Really excited that Square has added banking into the mix! Would love to ask some questions...

As far as Square Loans are concerned, it seems as though the repayment is similar to that of a total daily sales royalty - with the repayment amount following the ebbs and flows of sales, instead of just a flat daily or monthly charge. Will there be optionality to increase that percentage should the business choose to do so? Will there be penalties for early loan pay-offs? Can you clarify the difference between a (no-penalty) prepayment and an early loan pay-off? Is this royalty-like structure the only option that will be made available for repayment?

As for Square Checking and Savings, I'm curious about the structuring of multiple entity banking in particular. For example, if a parent company LLC was the primary company/contact for Square, and that company had several locations (each a separate LLC), would Square be able to make that more seamless than a traditional bank? Similar to Square Online that sort of makes each location a sub-account - for lack of a better term - providing a means for each location to separated by sales and processing, etc.

To bring that back to the Loans for a moment, will maintaining business checking and (eventually) savings accounts with Square increase access to capital? Similar to how a traditional bank may be more inclined to approve a loan for a customer that has been banking with them for a decade.

And finally, a few last thoughts on Square's dive into banking. Considering that using the full line of services would provide Square a deeper insight into the true health of a company, my hope would be that it also creates an avenue to help provide a more catered education for, and relationship with, entrepreneurs. On that note, are there any plans for the implementation or introduction of Bitcoin or other digital currencies to Square's financial services? Is there any aspect of it that you might be able to discuss? I feel like this would provide a pathway for Square to become a merchant educator within the space.

Apologies for the lengthy message!

Thanks for the time - looking forward to seeing this!

Re: Square Banking Q&A with Christina Riechers 🏦

true2texas2 — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 20:34:06 GMT

We fall under a corporate structure and the bank does not allow us to build upon the success with the bank and savings products, how can we separate companies and take advantage of banking and saving?

Re: Square Banking Q&A with Christina Riechers 🏦

true2texas2 — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 20:37:12 GMT

I like this response from @erikjones I have the same questions. As for Square Checking and Savings, I'm curious about the structuring of multiple entity banking in particular. For example, if a parent company LLC was the primary company/contact for Square, and that company had several locations (each a separate LLC), would Square be able to make that more seamless than a traditional bank? Similar to Square Online that sort of makes each location a sub-account - for lack of a better term - providing a means for each location to be separated by sales and processing, etc.

Today it appears that if you are an LLC with multiple companies (shops) you cannot use the service am I right or is Customer Support not have updated information?

Re: Square Banking Q&A with Christina Riechers 🏦

golden_pond_llc — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 23:41:26 GMT

Hi Isabelle:

I want to know why we cannot open a savings account for our small business which is presently structured as an LLC and has an employer identification number? The whole point of opening a Square checking was to also have the savings function so that we could effectively manage our cash flow and earn some interest income. So, imagine my surprise when, after all the ballyhoo about your new banking accounts, I couldn't open a savings account. I really wanted to simply close the account as I thought your advertising was misleading and misrepresented what Square was offering. So, I would appreciate an answer to this question.

Regards,

Julie Lowrie

Managing Member

Golden Pond Water Plants LLC