LendingClub Business Banking Review 2023

LendingClub bank is the best full-service online bank we’ve seen, with checking accounts, savings accounts, loans, and more. Plus, it has a value-packed business checking account that earns interest and debit card rewards.

We do have a few concerns, though, like the lack of customer reviews, the limited account information, and LendingClub’s credit check requirement to open an account. Let’s dig deeper into LendingClub banking.

LendingClub offers a wide range of business bank accounts—at least in theory. 

See, LendingClub’s website lists a bunch of different bank accounts, from basic checking to IOTA checking to money market savings to certificates of deposit (CDs). But it only offers detailed information about one account: its tailored checking account.

Fortunately, that account alone packs a big punch, with several great features you won’t see at most banks. 

So let’s take a detailed look at Tailored Checking, and then we’ll talk about those other accounts.

LendingClub’s Tailored Checking isn’t a free business checking account, but we think many business owners won’t mind.

LendingClub charges a $10 monthly fee for its business checking account. But like many other banks, LendingClub lets you waive that fee―in this instance, by keeping an account balance of just $500. That’s a much lower requirement than you’ll find from most traditional banks.

And that waivable $10 fee gives you access to some excellent features. For starters, Tailored Checking accounts earn interest―and at a pretty good rate, too. You’ll earn 1.50% APY (annual percentage yield) on account balances up to $100,000, and then you earn 0.1% on excess balances over that. 

Is that the highest rate we’ve found? No. Actually, that would be at Bluevine banking. But it’s a much higher rate than you’ll find at any traditional bank and most online banks.

And that’s just one way Tailored Checking earns money. You can also earn 1% cash back on debit card purchases. To get this perk, your account has to be at least 30 days old and have at least a $500 balance. But meet those conditions, and you get the reward-earning potential of a cash back business credit card without having to qualify for one.

Another great feature? Tailored Checking not only doesn’t come with ATM fees, but it gives you rebates for ATM fees charged by other banks. So you’ll never have to waste time looking for an in-network ATM again. Tailored Checking also doesn’t charge transaction fees on most transactions.

For most business owners, the only fees you’ll need to worry about are wire transfer fees, which range from $18 for domestic wire transfers to $40 for international wire transfers. You won’t even have to worry about cash deposit fees, since LendingClub lets you deposit cash at free MoneyPass and Sum ATMs across the country. (As with all business banks, we still recommend asking LendingClub for a complete list of fees.)

We did find a couple weird things about Tailored Checking, though. For example, LendingClub requires you to have a business website to apply. It accepts even social media pages, but still, that’s an odd requirement we haven’t seen elsewhere―and it’s one that might be difficult for freelancers or brand-new businesses. 

Likewise, LendingClub does a credit check when you apply. LendingClub says it’s just verifying your personal information, not looking at your credit score. And to be clear, it performs a soft pull, so you won’t see any effect on your credit score. Still, we can see why some business owners won’t like this.

But if you can put up with those oddities, Tailored Checking has lots of other features that make it a worthwhile account.

As for LendingClub’s other bank accounts? As we said, we don’t know much about them.

LendingClub does say that you can apply for a savings account by sending a message after you’ve opened a Tailored Checking account. Maybe that applies to its other bank accounts too―but LendingClub doesn’t explicitly say that on its website. 

At any rate, here’s the complete list of checking accounts that LendingClub supposedly offers:

• Analyzed checking account
• Business interest checking
• Custodial checking
• Free business checking
• Escrow checking IOLTA/IOLA checking
• ICS

And these are its saving account options:

• Money market
• Statement savings
• CDs
• CDAR

We wish we could tell you more about them, and we’ll update this review if we get more information.

Still, like we said earlier, LendingClub’s Tailored Checking offers so much value that even without these accounts, we’d still recommend LendingClub banking.

We’ve already told you about most of our favorite things about LendingClub, but they’re worth mentioning again.

Take that rewards debit card, for example. We haven’t seen another business checking account that offers cash back on debit card purchases. We love the idea, especially since many business owners don’t have high enough credit scores to qualify for the best small-business credit cards.

Similarly, we like that LendingClub offers interest-bearing checking―and at such a good interest rate. You can get interest-bearing checking accounts from other banks, yes. But traditional banks offer much lower interest rates than LendingClub banking does. And online banks may have higher rates, but those banks have fewer products and services.

Which brings us to our other favorite feature: LendingClub has many types of business bank accounts (supposedly, anyway), offers financing, can help with cash management, and more. 

In other words, it has most of the products and services you’d expect from a traditional bank―but with all the perks of an online bank.

With all those features, LendingClub has earned a spot on our list of the best banks for small-business checking. Still, we don’t blame you if you want to see how LendingClub compares to other banks. So let’s look at LendingClub’s competition.

LendingClub competes with both traditional banks (given its full suite of banking services) and online banks.

LendingClub’s Tailored Checking costs less than similar accounts from traditional banks. Sure, it has a monthly fee―but that’s easily waived. And LendingClub gives you unlimited free transactions, while traditional banks usually give you a set number of free transactions per month and then charge a fee for additional transactions.

Online banks like Bluevine and Kabbage don’t charge any kind of monthly fee―and they offer higher interest rates than LendingClub. But neither of those banks offers a cash back debit card or refunds all your ATM fees. So depending on how much you spend, a LendingClub bank account could still end up costing you less than those totally free business accounts.  

Put simply, LendingClub isn’t our favorite bank of all time―but it can hold its own against the competition.

We have a few concerns about LendingClub―but we’ll tell you now that these pale in comparison to the downsides from other banks (most notably, most traditional banks).

While we do think you need to know about these drawbacks, we don’t think they should necessarily keep you from using LendingClub banking. But ultimately, that’s a choice you’ll have to make yourself based on the facts. 

As we told you earlier, LendingClub lists a whole lot of banking options, but it doesn’t provide any information about most of them.

We don’t know account fees, for example. We don’t even know for sure how to apply for some of those accounts.

So if you have your heart set on, say, analyzed checking, you might want to stick with a bank that offers more transparency about its analyzed checking account. 

But if you just need simple business checking, then maybe you won’t care about the lack of information on LendingClub’s bank accounts.

We like to get business owners’ take on the companies we review. But in this case, we can’t really tell you what business owners think of LendingClub banking.

Sure, LendingClub as a whole has pretty good reviews (a 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot and a 4.57 out of 5 on its Better Business Bureau profile),^1,2 but those reviews all focus on its loans―not its banking.

We assume that positive reviews about LendingClub’s overall customer service mean you can expect similar good service from its banking. But again, we don’t know that for sure.

With any luck, customers will start reviewing LendingClub banking. When that happens, we’ll update this review.

Our final concern? The fact that LendingClub requires you to have a business website to get a business bank account.

As we said earlier, we haven’t seen anything like this requirement at any other bank we’ve reviewed. It’s weird. Really weird.

Hopefully your business already has a website. (If you don’t, we recommend using one of our favorite website builders for business to create one.) But not every business owner has a website or uses social media―especially if they freelance or have just started their business.

And LendingClub doesn’t even explain why your business needs to have a website to get a bank account.

So while this website requirement won’t keep us from recommending LendingClub, we hope they get rid of the requirement soon.

We’ve told you all the stuff we like (and don’t) about LendingClub’s bank accounts. But don’t forget that LendingClub offers way more than just business bank accounts.

LendingClub has a few kinds of small-business financing, including a few types of SBA business loans, term loans, real estate loans, and equipment loans.

You can learn more about LendingClub’s business financing in our LendingClub business loans review. But put briefly, it has fairly competitive interest rates and loan terms. While LendingClub isn’t our favorite business lender, it can help you get a solid business loan.

LendingClub also has a handful of miscellaneous banking services you might want:

• Cash management services
• Escrow services
• Union banking
• Government and municipality banking
• Nonprofit banking

And as you probably know, LendingClub offers a large range of personal loan and personal banking products too.

On the whole, we like LendingClub business banking.

LendingClub has a great business checking account. Its Tailored Checking earns a competitive interest rate, has few fees, and comes with a cash-back debit card. That account alone offers lots of value, but LendingClub offers many other accounts and business banking products too.

Keep in mind, though, that we haven’t seen many customer reviews for LendingClub―so we can’t promise a great experience. We also wish LendingClub listed more information about its many bank accounts and that it would get rid of its bizarre business website requirement.

Still, even with those complaints, LendingClub is our favorite full-service online bank for business.

Think you want a LendingClub bank account? Make sure you’re ready to apply by learning how to open a business checking account online.

We don’t claim to be personal banking experts, but LendingClub’s high-yield savings account looks pretty good to us. It doesn’t charge monthly fees, and you earn a very competitive interest rate on your account balance.

Yes, LendingClub is FDIC-insured.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.