BILL Spend & Expense vs Mercury Bank

I'm sure you've heard of a business credit card? BILL Spend & Expense is a replacement for your typical corporate card. It's totally free to use (no annual fee), you get rewards and it has a much more comprehensive feature set, giving you the ability to create virtual credit cards for each vendor with spending limits. Further, BILL Spend & Expense is an expense management solution. Bought a new marketing software? Categorize it and when integrated with Quickbooks Online, it will automatically reconcile your books for you.

Simply put, if you are a business owner living in the United States, you are missing out if you're not using an expense management solution + a BILL Spend & Expense business credit card. There are other players in the market, and we've used all of the core competitors (Ramp, Brex, Expensify, and Airbase), and we're here to tell you to look no further than BILL Spend & Expense if you're a small business (Did we mention it's totally free? 👀)

BILL Spend & Expense gives us so much control when it comes to our spending. We can easily create a virtual credit card, set a budget and Quickbooks category within seconds for each different vendor. We simply set a budget for each credit card for the exact amount that we know will be charged. If a subscription service decides to increase their pricing and charge our card, it will decline. And we like that, because we want to be the one deciding if someone should charge us more or not. 💪

Because we're able to put virtual cards down with each vendor, BILL Spend & Expense allowed us (and our vendor) to actually catch a person that committed fraud by stealing and using our credit card 🤯 Of course, the employee of our vendor was fired. Catching them would have been impossible to pin down if we had a generic credit card on file.

Have multiple employees that need their own corporate card? Create a card for them and set a spending limit, that's all you need to do. You can change the spending limit for each employee, make it $50 or $500, BILL Spend & Expensecards allow you to be flexible. If they leave the company, simply freeze the card (you have total control—just think of what the process is like with a typically corporate card. Issuing a new card for an employee is an annoying process, as is cancelling it). Not to mention the positive affect it has on your employees, as they get to feel empowered and like a trusted part of the team.

The rewards are pretty standard with others in the business credit card space, getting somewhere around 1–1.5% on all categories, with a bit more in certain categories (higher % when making payments weekly—less if made bi-weekly or monthly).

One customer that we recommended BILL Spend & Expenseto started using it and quickly saw his reward balance grow. He decided to use the reward funds as Christmas bonuses for his employees. He said, "it's money that's just sitting there, and if I can give them a little extra to take home at the end of the year, it's something cool I get to do."

Travel rewards are also a perk with BILL Spend & Expense as they are partnered with TravelPerk. While we haven't cashed in our travel rewards yet, it's a great option for our next company retreat!

The BILL Spend & Expense eligibility requirements are way more accessible than that of Ramp and Brex (who both make their account criteria unnecessarily high). BILL Spend & Expense is great for startups and teams of all sizes, even if you're just getting your business started.

BILL Spend & Expense is the best tool in the spend management, business credit cards, budgeting, and basic accounting automation suite for most businesses of all sizes.

Mercury is the best business banking platform for US companies. We've tried every business bank out there over the years, and Mercury is truly the best banking solution, regardless of whether you're a small business, startup or large enterprise.

The UI/UX is top-tier. Treasury accounts are built in. You can spin up additional checking accounts in seconds. Invoicing and bill pay actually feel smooth. It just works.

Allocating funds is handled with simple automations, so we're never thinking about setting aside cash for payroll or taxes.

And what you won't get with any other business is a free Mercury Personal account so your money can flow between business and personal accounts quickly and seamlessly. And guess what? Any of your employees can get a free Mercury Personal account too (usually $240/yr).

Mercury has turned us (and many others) into people who say, "I love my bank" and actually mean it.

• No monthly fees or minimums
• Excellent UI/UX
• Powerful sub-account automation
• Fast, simple invoicing and bill pay
• Strong integrations

• No physical branches
• No physical checkbooks
• Customer support is not instant

We all remember the days of spending an afternoon in a stuffy bank with folders full of paperwork just to open a business account. With Mercury, you can open an account online in only a few minutes, for free. There are no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements, and no fees on USD payments or transfers, so even if your business is just getting off the ground, Mercury's tools and features are accessible.

If you're someone who uses the "envelope method," you'll love Mercury's sub-accounts. Once your primary account is created, you can set up as many additional checking or savings accounts as you'd like.

Having this option shifts money management from reactive to automatic. Instead of budgeting in spreadsheets or creating reminders to set aside funds for taxes, use Mercury to create separate accounts for things like payroll and taxes, then let automatic transfer rules do the rest. It's simple, but it completely changes the way you think about cash management.

I actually enjoy creating invoices in Mercury, and I'm not exaggerating. It just has a simple, clutter free interface, that isn't distracting or doesn't make me jump though hoops just to get the task done.

Time to pay a vendor? Literally drag and drop the bill into your dashboard or forward it to your bill pay inbox, and Mercury automatically populates and scans it. Then, in just a few clicks, you can take care of sending the payment, categorizing the expense, and even setting up recurring payments. Invoices are similarly smooth and will have you on your way to getting paid in minutes

Mercury is not a traditional bank, but all checking and savings deposits are safe, sound, and FDIC-insured up to $5M through partner banks and sweep networks. Plus, your idle cash can earn interest instead of sitting at near-zero in a traditional bank.

Unlike a lot of the other high-yield investment options, Mercury Treasury makes transfers actually fast, even same-day.

We've been Mercury personal account users for a while now, and even paid their $240 annual fee for a while because we just wanted the same Mercury banking experience for personal use too.

But now, any Mercury business account user can get a free personal account, which is a huge bonus. Remember those quick, intuitive features and tools we mentioned earlier? You can use those to simplify your personal finances, too. Plus, with everything under one roof, transfers between your business and personal accounts are almost instant.

• Free: $0/mo. Best for startups and small businesses that need a powerful free business bank account (We're on this tier).
• Plus: $35/mo (or $29.90/mo billed annually). Best for growing businesses that want advanced invoicing, ACH debit collection, expense reimbursements for larger teams, and enhanced accounting automations.
• Pro: $350/mo (or $299/mo billed annually). Best for businesses with complex operations that need a relationship manager, unlimited invoicing via API, ACH debit with $0 transaction fees, and support for large teams.

Disclaimer: Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC. Deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank.