Found Banking Review

Pros

• Up to 1.5% APY
• No minimum balance
• Unlimited transactions
• Free built-in expense tracking, invoicing, & basic tax support
• Freelance-specific tools & features
• Unlimited free ACH transfers

Cons

• No savings account
• APY on the paid plan only
• Some bookkeeping & tax features with paid plan only
• No outgoing wire transfers
• Purchase limits apply

What Is Found Banking?

Found Bank is an online bank aimed specifically at freelancers and self-employed individuals. Found Bank stands out with little to no fees and built-in “smart banking” that helps with expense tracking, basic bookkeeping, and taxes.

Found Bank’s freelance-specific features like auto-categorizing tax deductions and automatic savings for self-employment taxes are especially compelling. While the company only offers a checking account, the APY is competitive for rewards checking and the freelance-specific features make Found Bank a top choice on our best bank accounts for freelancers list.

Services Offered By Found

Found offers the following services:

• Checking accounts
• Bookkeeping

One major drawback is that Found does not offer savings accounts. Also worth noting is that while the free checking account includes some basic bookkeeping features, a subscription to Found’s paid Found Plus plan is required to access all features. Because it falls short in terms of services when compared to its competitors, we rated Found Bank 3.6/5 for this category.

Found Banking Rewards & Perks

The biggest perks that Found offers are its unique bookkeeping and tax features designed to help freelancers manage their expenses, invoices, and taxes with ease.

In terms of traditional features, you won’t find quite as many perks with Found as with other business checking accounts like Bluevine Checking or Axos. Found does offer 1.5% APY but only with the Found Plus account, which costs $19.99/month and only up to $20,000.

Many business checking accounts don’t offer APY at all. On the other hand, compared to other rewards checking accounts, Found’s APY rate is low, earning cap is low, and earning APY comes with a monthly charge. Most others have no monthly charge for their APY with both slightly higher rates and earning caps. For example, Axos offers 3.30% on its rewards checking accounts currently, and Bluevine offers 2% on up to $100,000.

Found also does not have any welcome bonus offers for new customers.

All-in-all, Found Bank’s rewards are a plus if you want or need its freelance-specific features. If you don’t want the freelance features or are looking specifically to maximize your checking account rewards, other online bank account options might be a better fit. Because its rewards and perks are a bit lacking, we rated Found Bank 2.7/5 in this category.

Found Banking Fees

Found Bank has very few fees, and the company is relatively transparent about its fee schedule. Notably, Found has no ACH fees, overdraft fees, or monthly fees unless you opt for the Found Plus plan.

The Found free plan offers business checking with an impressive number of free features including:

• Expense tracking
• Customizable invoicing
• Basic customer management
• Basic tax support

The big kicker is that you don’t get any APY earnings on your checking account unless you opt for the $19.99/month ($149.99/year) Found Plus plan.

There is a free 30-day trial of Found Plus. If you decide not to use Found Plus after the trial, don’t forget to cancel because Found Bank will automatically deduct the subscription cost from your bank balance, which is a bad practice we couldn’t overlook in our rating of 4.6/5.

If you use Found Bank’s invoicing feature to accept customer payments, you’ll also be charged for payment processing. Found Bank uses Stripe for payment processing. Fees start at 1% per transaction and vary based on the customer’s payment method.

Found Bank Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible for a Found Bank account, you have to be the sole owner of your business, even if you have your business set up as an LLC. Freelancers and self-employed individuals can use Found regardless of their business structure, so long as they are the sole owner. This does limit some businesses from opening a Found account, lowering our rating to 3.9/5 for Found’s eligibility requirements.

You’ll also need an SSN and will need to use your legal name for setting up your account. Opening a Found account does not affect your credit score.

Found Banking Application Process

To sign up for a Found account you’ll need your legal name, address, SSN, and date of birth, plus basic income and tax filing information. You can then sign up for Found from the mobile app or your desktop. Found will walk you through the signup process step by step.

Once you open your Found Bank account, you’ll get a routing number and account number and can start requesting virtual and/or physical cards.

Unfortunately, Found is not completely transparent about the application process upfront and also does not disclose application processing times — both factors that brought our rating down to 3.7/5.

Found Bank Features

Found Bank offers a seriously impressive number of features for freelancers to manage expenses, invoices, and taxes directly from a desktop or the Found mobile app. The depth of the free features is also impressive from an invoicing and bookkeeping perspective.

Some of the checking features are left wanting on the free plan, but the benefit of built-in bookkeeping and tax support may be more than worth it for freelancers looking to manage their self-employed finances in one spot.

Found Checking

• Physical & virtual debit cards
• Pockets to organize funds
• FDIC insurance up to $250k
• Cash deposits
• Mobile check deposits
• Incoming wire transfers
• Unlimited ACH transfers
• Found mobile app
• Payment integrations
• Link card to Apply Pay or Google Pay

You can use your Found debit card anywhere that accepts Mastercard. You can also have your business name displayed on the front of your Found debit card.

Found Bookkeeping & Tax Support

For all Found Bank accounts, you’ll find these tax and bookkeeping benefits:

• Expense management
• Automatic expense categorization
• Customizable invoicing
• Accepting invoice payments from customers’ bank accounts, Cash App, PayPal, Zelle, or Venmo accounts
• Saving items & invoices
• Saving customer information
• Scheduling recurring invoices
• Automatic payment reminders
• Auto-savings for taxes
• Tax estimates
• Tax deduction tracking
• Reporting
• Accounting integrations

If you opt for the Found Plus account, you’ll also get access to these features:

• Custom expense categorization rules, categories, & tags
• Automatic receipt capture with mobile app
• Bank, Credit card, Venmo, & PayPal activity importing
• Auto-generated Schedule C forms

You’ll also get Priority support and APY earning options with Found Plus.

Noticeably missing from both accounts are checks, international wire transfers, and outgoing wire transfers. These missing features combined with transaction limits outlined below contributed to a score of 3.9/5 for Found’s features.

Transaction Limits

While Found Bank has “unlimited” transactions, there is a card purchases and transfers limit of $4,000. For a freelancer, this limit might not be a huge problem, but for self-employed individuals needing a larger purchase maximum, this could be a problem.

Found Bank does allow you to request limit increases.

Transaction Processing Times

Payments from one Found holder to another are instant and don’t cost anything.

Found Bank Sales & Advertising Transparency

Found Bank provides plenty of information on its website to give prospective customers an idea of what to expect after signing up for an account. In addition to its website, Found is also active on social media and provides plenty of useful information for current and prospective account holders.

There is a lack of transparency in some areas, such as the application process, application processing timeline, and eligibility requirements. Overall, the company is fairly transparent and provides plenty of information without misleading advertising or spam, earning Found a rating of 4/5 in this category.

Found Bank Customer Service

Found Bank has a detailed Help Center that answers many FAQs about getting started with and using Found. When you need to talk to a customer support rep, there are several avenues available.

Existing customers report overwhelmingly positive customer service experiences. Found Plus users get priority customer support, which means shorter phone wait times.

Found Bank doesn’t have extended support hours, and there are no dedicated account reps available. This did slightly lower our rating, but overall, Found’s has solid customer support that earns a 4.3/5 rating.

Found Bank Reviews

While Found Bank was only founded in 2019, the company has already gained a loyal following and a large number of happy customers according to reviews.

Found Bank receives 4.5/5 stars on Trustpilot with 82% of reviewers giving a 5-star rating. Found Bank also receives 4.5/5 stars on the Google Play Store based on 10,000+ ratings and 4.8/5 on the Apple Store based on 15,000+ ratings. Taking all of the feedback into account led us to our rating of 4.4/5 for Found’s user reviews.

Negative Found Banking Reviews & Complaints

• A couple of reports of freezing accounts with money still in them
• One report where Found wouldn’t refund an unauthorized transaction
• The inability to write checks

Positive Found Banking Reviews

• Great mobile app
• Easy to use
• Simple setup process
• Freelance-specific tax tools & features
• The convenience of having everything in one place

Is Found Banking Safe?

Found Bank uses industry-standard security methods including data encryption and two-factor authentication. Found Bank also has 24/7 fraud monitoring. Found accounts also have FDIC insurance up to $250,000 through Piermont Bank.

How Does Found Bank Compare To Other Banking Options?

While Found Bank’s checking features aren’t quite as built out as other competitors, the company’s freelance-specific features are almost unmatched. While many other cards include invoicing and some like Lili even include bookkeeping, Found Bank’s freelance tax support features make Found stand out.

While we would like to see Found Bank have a lower monthly fee for the APY rewards and a higher max, it’s worth noting that the Found monthly subscription would be tax deductible. We also took into account that the lower max of $20,000 is targeted specifically at freelancers while Axos and Bluevine Business Checking’s accounts are geared toward small businesses, so this limit may be more than sufficient for most self-employed individuals.

The Bottom Line: Is Found Bank Worth It?

For freelancers, Found Bank is worth looking into. Found’s built-in bookkeeping and tax support is a huge plus and makes tracking expenses, taking deductions, and filing self-employed taxes much easier. With an overall rating of 3.9/5, we here at Merchant Maverick do recommend Found Bank for freelancers, sole proprietors, and micro-businesses.

For small business owners, you’ll likely find better rewards-checking options elsewhere.

For self-employed individuals who are looking to grow their business, Found might also not be the best fit as it won’t scale alongside your business. Check out our top online business bank accounts to see all of your best banking options.

Business Banking Review Methodology

Merchant Maverick has been researching and reviewing business banking services since 2015. Our writers have tested over thirty different banking products, including checking accounts, savings accounts, employee spending cards, and more. In each review, we evaluate rates and fees, services, rewards, features, eligibility requirements, application process, sales and advertising transparency, customer service, and user reviews.

Read more about how we rate business banking products.

When comparing different banks and banking services, we consider many data points, including the ease and transparency of the account application process, account fees, sales ethics, minimum deposit requirements, and revenue, time in business, and credit score requirements. Our lists of the best banking services include only those we’ve deemed worthwhile from multiple vantage points, and often share qualities such as widespread accessibility across fifty states, valuable rewards, numerous transaction options, and competitive APY.

We spend an average of 10-15 hours researching and updating each one of our lists, making sure the banking services included meet our internal standards for quality and reputation.

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