Wayne N. Kawamoto
Managing Editor, www.smallbusinesscomputing.com
The Small Business Services division of FleetBoston Financial announced the launch of its Small Business Value Package, a new suite of products that delivers services for a flat monthly fee.
According to FleetBoston, its Small Business Value Package combines these features and benefits:
– Business Checking with 200 free monthly transactions
– No cash handling fees for cash transactions
– Money Market Savings with no monthly maintenance fee and no minimum balance
– Free overdraft protection for checking with free, automatic transfers from money market savings account
– Free OfficeLink online banking with free bill payment
– Business Credit Card with no annual fee for the first year and up to $50,000 in credit. Includes a rewards program that provides opportunities to earn free airline miles
– Special discounts on payroll services (one free month of payroll processing/one free year of direct deposit processing, and $5.00 rebates for every month in which payroll is processed)
– Special discounts on merchant credit card services ($85 set-up fee is waived, and a $5.00 rebate in every month in which it is used)
– Combined monthly statement
– ATM and Debit cards
The monthly fee is $19.95. ($24.95 monthly fee in New York City, Long Island, Westchester County.) The monthly fee is waived when an average daily balance of $20,000 is maintained in the checking account.
Fleet says it has tested the product in three markets (Long Island, NY; Westchester County, NY; and Providence, RI) resulting in more than 900 Value Package accounts opened during a 10-week pilot. Nearly 80% of account openings came from new customers during the pilot program.