I'm making a career shift from an employee to the independant consultant world. I have a business plan and it includes enough cash to get things started. Work is lining up and I'm discussing a deal with a independant sales rep that will allow me to focus on billing hours, instead of selling future work. The LLC filing has been done., along with the tax number request.  The insurance quotes are in and I'm evaluating them.

I'm at the point of needing to set up a bank account and credit card for the new company.  The first thought is just to march down to my local Chase branch, where I do my personal banking, and work through it with them.  Having personal and company accounts together in one place would be convenient...but is that a bad thing?  I'm setting up the LLC, and  separate accounts, to protect personal assets.and make accounting/taxes easier.  Do I want my business banking removed a little further from my personal banking?

I'd love to hear how others have decided to handle this and if they still think the decision was a good one.

Thanks in advance.

My wife and I started a business 5 years ago.  We went with a small community bank because they were easier to work with and would give us a large line of credit and also give us a mortgage on a new home purchase. Fortunately we have never needed to tap into the line of credit, but it is there if we need it.

We have failrly large deposits with them between personal and business accounts and they are very responsive whenever we have an issue.  Not sure we'd get that from Chase or BoA.

When I opened my business, such as it is, I went to Navy Federal Credit Union.

Same for us... 18 years in business... small bank, personal accounts.. and business accounts. The seperate accounts are enough "space", and doing that much business with a single bank/branch have its benefits.

I had read to keep your personal and business accounts at separate banks. If you got into financial issues with either your personal or business side it may be more difficult for you to negotiate with the bank when they can see all your banking assets.

I was worried about maintaining separation to make sure I didn't create an unintended link between personal and business should the business get sued... I had not thought about a situation where the issue was with the bank.