Grasshopper Overview

Founded in 2019, Grasshopper is a digital bank that offers several business banking and lending solutions. Its business checking account has no monthly fee, offers 1% cash back on purchases, and up to a 2.25% APY.

There’s no minimum balance requirement, and businesses can enjoy unlimited transactions. Grasshopper also provides several digital tools like invoices, automated bookkeeping, and a collection of helpful online resources.

Pros and Cons

Axos Bank at a Glance

Suitable For?

The Grasshopper business checking account is best suited for small businesses that want an online-only checking account with benefits like cash back and a high APY. It’s also good for businesses that don’t make cash deposits and companies that want to avoid a monthly fee.

Features/Highlights

Advantages over traditional banks

A major advantage of Grasshopper is that it doesn’t have a monthly fee, whereas many traditional banks generally charge $5 to $30 monthly for a business account. It also doesn’t have a minimum balance requirement and gives you unlimited fee-free transactions.

The Grasshopper business checking account provides unlimited 1% cash back on debit purchases (including online) and a generous APY on your balance, which are rare features for a checking account.

Cutting-edge banking services

Grasshopper provides many digital tools for your business, including instant and scheduled bill payments, a cash flow manager, invoices, and automated bookkeeping. It even integrates with third-party tools that many companies already use, like Quickbooks and Plaid.

The bank also offers a collection of exclusive perks for businesses. These include discounted accounting and bookkeeping services, discounts on digital marketing plans, free trials for project management platforms, and discounted business insurance.

It also lets you create and issue digital debit cards for your team to use online or in person through a mobile wallet. You can easily add transaction limits and spending category restrictions to the cards.

The quick and easy online application allows you to open an account in minutes from home without going into a physical branch or making a phone call.

Traditional banking services

Despite being an online bank, Grasshopper offers some traditional banking services like small business loans and business savings accounts. It also gives customers free withdrawals from thousands of ATMs across the country. Unfortunately, it doesn’t let you deposit cash at any ATMs and has no physical branches.

Interest rates and fees

The Grasshopper business checking account has no monthly fee and doesn’t charge for checks, ACH transfers, or incoming domestic wire transfers. However, there’s a small fee for other types of wire transfers.

Unlike many other checking accounts, you can earn interest with this account, and the amount you earn is based on your balance.

Customer service and online experience

Grasshopper offers customer service over the phone at 888-895-9685 and via email at support@grasshopper.bank . Its phone hours are 9am-9pm (ET) on weekdays, but there’s no weekend support.

The company maintains a 4.0 rating on Trustpilot with around 150 reviews. Positive reviews highlight how patient and helpful the team is, while negative reviews mention accounts being closed or frozen with no communication from Grasshopper.

Its site is streamlined, easy to navigate, and includes many useful resources. For example, it has a collection of guides full of screenshots to help you do everything from paying bills to depositing checks.

There’s a blog that covers topics like business banking, digital security, money movement, and others, as well. Grasshopper also has a comprehensive FAQs section that includes answers to dozens of common questions like “what are the cutoff times for transactions?” and “is a credit check required?”

Mobile app

The Grasshopper mobile app is available on Apple and Android devices. Its design is distraction-free, user-friendly, and features several great features. These include remotely depositing checks, issuing cards, sending international and domestic transfers, sending invoices, and viewing transactions.

You can message directly with support, and the app has several security features, like the ability to set user permissions and lock cards.

It maintains solid reviews, with a 4.4 out of 5 on the Apple App Store, and a 4.2 on the Google Play Store. Positive user comments mention the ease of use and straightforward design of the app.

Security

Grasshopper uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption to protect all communication between you and the company, and 2-factor authentication to secure user data. The company also has fraud monitoring and ensures that only employees who need to know your information to provide you services have access to it.

It also offers FDIC insurance, which protects your deposits if the bank fails. While most banks provide FDIC insurance up to $250,000, Grasshopper spreads your deposits over several FDIC-insured banks to give you up to $125 million in coverage.

The company has a thorough privacy policy covering the information it collects, what it does with your personal information, how it collects it, and more.

Application Process

To be eligible to open a business checking account with Grasshopper, you need to:

• Be at least 18 years old
• Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident with a verifiable American address
• Have an existing bank account to fund your new Grasshopper account

Apply online by visiting the Small Business Banking page on the website and clicking “Open an Account.” There are 3 straightforward parts of the application process:

• First, you’ll need to provide your personal information. This includes your name, job title, ownership percentage, address, email, phone number, date of birth, and Social Security number.
• Next, you must provide details about your business. This includes the type of business, business name, EIN/Tax ID number, state it’s registered in, when it was established, phone number, and address.
• Lastly, you’ll need to provide the details of another bank account so you can fund your new account with at least $100.

If more than one person owns at least 25% of the business (either directly or indirectly), you’ll have to include their personal details as well.

The application is straightforward and only takes a few minutes to complete. It may be approved within minutes, but some accounts need a manual review first. An example is if Grasshopper requires additional documentation to verify your personal or business information.

The company doesn’t perform a credit check when you open an account but uses information from credit bureaus to validate your personal information, which doesn’t impact your score.

If you asked for a physical debit card during the application, it will arrive within 14 days after the account opening.

Grasshopper Summary

The Grasshopper business checking account has no monthly fee and offers cash back on your purchases along with a generous interest rate. There's no minimum balance requirement and you only need to deposit $100 to get started. It also gives you access to several powerful tools to help you send invoices, automate your bookkeeping, and pay bills.

While cash deposits and weekend customer support are missing, the account provides unlimited free transactions, a highly rated mobile app, and a quick and easy sign-up process

Physical Address

261 5th Ave

Suite 610

New York, NY 10016

Disclaimer

© 2024 Grasshopper Bank, N.A. | Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender | All rights reserved

1. Innovator Business Checking Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is accurate as of 2/16/2024. The minimum amount to open an account is $100.00. Rate tiers are as follows: 1.00% APY applies to balances of $0.01—$24,999.99. 1.80% APY applies to balances of $25,000-$250,000.00. 1.00 APY applies to balances of $250,000.01 and above. Rates may change after the account is opened. Fees may reduce earnings. National average interest rate for interest checking is 0.06% APY – source: www.fdic.gov .

Cash Back rewards offer 1.00% cash-back on all Qualified Purchases made by eligible Innovator Business Checking account holders. To qualify for the Cash Back reward of 1.00% cash-back in an Innovator Business Checking account, account holders must meet all requirements and a transaction must be deemed as a Qualified Purchase. Clients are required to maintain an average balance of $10,000 or more within the calendar month in their Innovator Business Checking account and the account must remain open, active, and in good standing to participate in the program, meaning: No NSF (non-sufficient funds) items during the preceding twelve calendar months. Grasshopper Bank reserves the right to modify the description of “good standing” at any time.

Qualified Purchases are signature-based purchases made with a Debit Card from an Innovator Business Checking Account. To make a signature-based purchase, select “credit” rather than debit at point-of-sale kiosks. The “credit” option is most often pre-selected when making purchases online using a debit card. Online subscription payments may not be considered signature-based purchases. The payment transaction type (signature-based or other) is ultimately decided by the merchant and how the transaction is transmitted to Grasshopper Bank at the time of processing. We reserve the right to determine if a transaction was a Qualified Purchase, and to establish additional types of Qualified Purchases that could be made available in a variety of ways. Any goods or services purchased with the Debit Card issued by Grasshopper Bank that are returned or otherwise credited to the account are not qualified purchases. Unlawful purchases and purchases of currency, cash or cash equivalents (including, without limitation, currency from the U.S. Mint, Travelers Cheques, gift cards, Cryptocurrency, Casino Chips, Peer to Peer Payments, prepaid debit cards, account openings, loan payments, or other cash equivalents) made with a Debit Card issued by Grasshopper Bank are not Qualified Purchases. We may require documentation to validate that certain purchases are Qualified Purchases. If you or the Bank closes the account for any reason before the end of the statement cycle, you will forfeit all rewards accrued through your linked Debit Card during that statement cycle.

Important Tax Information

The value of this reward may constitute taxable income and may be reported to the Internal Revenue Service as miscellaneous income to the first signer on the account, in the year received, as required by applicable law. Offer is limited to clients who are citizens of the United States that furnish or have a valid Form W-9 on file and the account must not be subject to backup withholding.You may be issued an Internal Revenue Service Form 1099 (or other appropriate form) to you that reflects the value of such reward. Please consult your tax adviser, as Grasshopper Bank does not provide tax advice.

2. Innovator Money Marketing Savings Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is accurate as of 2/16/2024. The minimum amount to open an account is $100.00. Rate tiers are as follows: 0% APY applies to balances of $0.01—$24,999.99. 3.75% APY applies to balances of $25,000 and up. Innovator Business Checking is required to open an Innovator Money Market Savings account.Exclusive access to Innovator MMA Savings account where you earn 3.75% APY on balances $25,000 and up. Offer is valid for new and existing clients. Rates may change after the account is opened. Fees may reduce earnings. National average interest rate for interest checking is 0.06% APY – source: www.fdic.gov .

3. By opening an Innovator Business Checking account you have access to Grasshopper’s ICS Deposit product. If you choose to open a ICS Deposit account through Grasshopper Bank N.A. you deposit your funds into a deposit account at Grasshopper bank which sweeps those funds into deposit accounts across a network of FDIC-insured banks, for up to the current SMDIA of $250,000 per eligible depositor, per destination institution, for each ownership capacity or category, subject to applicable terms and conditions of Grasshopper’s ICS Deposit Placement Agreement. A sweep network is a secure network of partner banks that allows us to strategically distribute your ICS Deposit balances. This way, your funds are held by multiple trusted, FDIC-insured banks within the network, and you can manage your finances more confidently, knowing that your deposits are protected up to $125 million instead of the standard limit of $250,000, subject to change at any time by Grasshopper. Terms and restrictions apply. Subject to applicable rate sheet. Interest rates and yields are effective as per the date on the rate sheet and are subject to change without notice. See applicable rate sheets. See our Account Agreements and other applicable terms. Grasshopper Bank, N.A. uses a third-party vendor and agent to help administer this sweep process.

Grasshopper Bank reserves the right to modify or discontinue this program for any reason without notice, except as otherwise expressly indicated.

For full terms and conditions about our products and services, please refer to the Master Service Agreement .