If you want to open a US business account for your LLC, you have several options. More and more entrepreneurs now choose a so-called neobank, and one of the best known is Mercury.
Neobanks are especially practical when your LLC is in the US but you live somewhere else: they make it easy not only to open the account but also to bank online from anywhere.
A US dollar account, not a multi-currency account
Mercury does not offer a multi-currency account, only a US dollar account. That makes it a good fit when what you need is a US bank connection for your LLC.
Even as a pure US account, Mercury has a number of advantages. Accounts are quick and straightforward to open, and the platform is widely considered very user-friendly.
For example, the account is not frozen for verification, and you do not have to send in documents to verify transactions.
Opening a Mercury account: the documents you need
According to the bank itself, you need the following to open an account with Mercury:
- your company's formation documents
- proof of the EIN issued by the IRS (EIN = Employer Identification Number, the company's tax number)
- proof of identity (as a non-US person, your passport)
Getting an EIN without a Social Security Number (SSN)
If you formed a US LLC as a non-resident without a Social Security Number (SSN) and now need the EIN to open the account, one of our Third Party Designee services can obtain it for you within a short time, so nothing stands in the way of the account on that front either.
Why Mercury keeps getting more popular
Mercury is one of the banks that gained popularity during the banking crisis and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
Online banking with Mercury was popular even before, but after SVB went under, neobanks like Mercury saw such a rush of new customers that they had to hire more staff.
Mercury CEO Immad Akhund said that in the six days after the SVB collapse the bank won thousands of new customers who chose to move their deposits to a Mercury account. In that period alone, deposits of more than USD 2 billion came in.
He sees the reason for this success in the fact that online banking with a neobank such as Mercury or Wise offers far better service than traditional banks like Bank of America.
Traditional banks are still an option for opening an account, but they come with far more hurdles for the future account holder. That is why we generally recommend neobanks for the US account, especially if you live outside the US.
Opening a Mercury account: how we help
Opening a business account for your LLC at Mercury is part of our all-inclusive package. We support you through the application, but your input matters too: your LLC should, for example, have a convincing website.
If you have questions about opening the account or about your zero-tax LLC, we are happy to talk them through with you in a consultation, held in English. Just get in touch.
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