Square Banking Q&A: What is Square Banking?

[Tom]

Hello Seller Community,

We're continuing to release new features with Square Banking — some of you might have seen the recent mobile check deposit announcement! With that, our Square Banking team hosted a Q&A on Wednesday, December 8th. The main focus areas related to account setup, loans, transfers, and other key features. 💵 🏦 💳

We're unable to share specific details with regard to our product roadmap, though we will incorporate the experiences shared on this thread as we navigate future releases. 

A few example questions:

• How does Square Banking help small businesses like me manage my money?
• What are the helpful features Square Banking products provide? 
• How does Square Banking compare to a traditional bank? How are its products different?
• What’s the best way to start using Square Banking for my business?
• Is it okay to have two different bank accounts?
• How does Square Banking connect to payments I get from customers?

Block, Inc. is not a bank. Banking Services provided by Square Financial Services, Inc. and Sutton Bank, Members FDIC.

[MayaHope · Accepted solution]

Hello everyone,

Thanks again for taking the time to share your questions and feedback!

We hope your questions were answered—the experiences you've shared will help us as we continue to iterate based on your feedback.

As we close out this event, we wanted to do a recap on two themes that came up frequently:

1. You value having your payments and banking in one place. This lets you have instant access to your funds and set aside money for taxes automatically. That is fantastic, and it’s exactly what we sought out to do with Square Banking. Having no monthly fees or account minimums helps too. 
2. You want to see more flexibility, in particular with how you can use your Square Checking account. Many of you are eager to see more options for how to pay your suppliers. We’re working on that now and will share more there soon. We’re also looking into adding new features such as depositing cash and issuing checks. 

We appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences and we'll continue to improve Square’s products based on your business needs. We depend on you to tell us what you need, as that helps us direct our future efforts. So please keep the feedback coming!   

Again, thanks for your participation. For the latest updates, keep watch for announcements of new features in Product Updates.

[JayaGirl]

I already signed up for this awesome service!  On the same day I noticed my bank had increased monthly fees from $6 to $9, I received Square's email invitation to Square Checking.  No fees and no wait for money transfer....another great service Square!!!   As a small business, I have nothing but appreciation for Square.  Thank You! 

AmyO

Spavacious Skin

[MayaHope]

And we appreciate you! Our goal is to provide you with fast and fair access to your money.

[Hollyc]

Can I transfer money between my square accounts? example (checking and savings) 

How can I make an outside transfer and why is maximum amount? 

does square checking accept apps like Zelle? 

[rbarbour]

Hi @Hollyc - Yes, you can transfer money between your Square Checking and Savings accounts. You can even automatically set aside a portion of your sales to your Savings account. 

As for transfers, you can continue to make transfers to your linked bank account at another bank from Checking, for free and without limits. You can also instantly transfer up to $10,000 to another bank for a 1.5% fee. For Savings, there is a $10,000 limit per transaction, and a $25,000 daily limit.

Lastly, Square Checking is not available in the Zelle network by mobile phone number or email address. However, you are able to use your Square account and routing numbers to transfer money between banks.

[pizzashak]

how can we recieve bank statements like a regular bank account

[TreborTech]

This has been my question. Today, many banks and Fintech companies use a businesses bank statements as part of the application process. 

The other question I have is if/when paper checks will become available.

[BSLprints]

Amazon also requires new sellers to show paper bank statements.

[rbarbour]

Great question, we are working on downloadable statements for Square Checking as we speak. They should become available on your account in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

And @TreborTech - the team is looking into issuing paper checks early next year. You can mobile deposit checks into Square Checking today.

[SpritesAcres]

It is a year later and I still see no statements for Square checking.  The balance of my account hos decreased without any sale fees and I cannot find anywhere which provides a statement.  It is very simple and seems like Square is trying to hide something by not provided this?

[rbarbour · Accepted solution]

Hey @SpritesAcres, we do have Checking statements now! It sounds like they aren't easy enough to find, so we'll take that feedback and consider easier ways to locate them in Square Dashboard.

You can find your Checking statement by navigating to your Square Dashboard and going to Balance > Locations > Checking Settings > Account Statements to download your statement. You can also access your statements from the Activity page in the documents dropdown menu.

Here's a link with more details (at the bottom of the article): https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/6822-view-your-square-card-activity  

[jenni513]

I've been interested in Square Banking, My Sq account is in my previous Last Name and has changed due to marriage.  I want to do Sq Banking but in my new last name, without having to close my current Sq and open a new account.  Is there a way to do this yet?   

[MayaHope]

Hi @jenni513, great question. When I changed my last name after I got married, I was amazed at how difficult it was to update every online account. Unfortunately editing the Square account owner’s name isn’t available yet. We do have a team who is working on this right now, so please stay tuned for more soon.

[Kerry0507]

Just signed up for Square Checking, thought it would be easier to do everything in one location.  Unsure if I still need to link my account up to my personal checking account or if I do not have to do that now that I have Square Checking?

[MayaHope]

Hi @Kerry0507, you’re all set! Now that you have your Square Checking account set up, each time your customers pay you via Square, those funds will be instantly available in your checking account. You can spend those funds via your Square Debit Card or bank transfers. If you’d like to manually transfer funds to your personal checking account, you can still link it and do that.

[bodmodshop]

When are we going to be "allowed" to use our debit cards *functionally* at ATMs?

The $1000 weekly/ $2000 monthly withdrawl limit is crippling.

I have to pay even more fees to transfer money over to Venmo (which allows roughly $2800 weekly & $12,000 monthly withdrawls) to use cash to get supplies from some of my vendors.

Don't try to say it's a safety thing - no other service is anywhere as limiting, and if you want to pretend you're a bank now, you need to provide bank-like services.

[MayaHope]

Hi @bodmodshop, I absolutely hear your frustration that the limits for physical cash withdrawals are too low to pay your suppliers. We are actively working on making it easier to pay vendors, so please stay tuned for more updates there. Trust us that we know how important this is!

In the meantime, we’re eager to work with you on some solutions to help you pay your vendors today. Would one of these work for you?
1. Paying vendors via ACH. Square Checking offers account and routing numbers so you can make ACH payments for free.
2. Manually transferring to another account. Unless you need to make an instant transfer, manual transfers are free.

[bodmodshop]

These are cash-only suppliers so ach isn't acceptable. And the point of being able to get my money out of the atm is because it's instant. 

So your policies are consitantly costing us money because you can't get with the times... you're literally the only service that is this draconian with atm withdrawls.

[MayaHope]

Got it -- I can see how you can be in a tough place when your suppliers only accept cash and the Square Checking ATM limit isn't enough to cover those costs. I'll bring this back to my team to see if we can think of some more options we can offer you. 

[BSLprints]

I applied when it came out but it said my business type (LLC) was not eligable yet. Would be super nice to automatically put a % of credit card sales into a business savings account or something like that.

[MayaHope]

Hi @BSLprints, I have good news! LLCs are now eligible for Square Savings. You can sign up here and automatically put a percentage of your sales into your business savings account.