Bluevine is a financial technology company servicing more than 450,000 customers that focuses on banking solutions and loans for small businesses. With low-interest lines of credit, no additional fees, and simple applications, Bluevine is the perfect solution for small businesses to get a kickstart in their respective industries with little to no effort.
Bluevine Compared to the Best Small Business Loan Services
Compared to other small business loan services on the market today, Bluevine competes well with its low-interest rates. After reviewing dozens of options for our top list, we found a few Golden Eggs, including the following:
Lendio is our number one recommendation for most people because of its simple sign-up process and the wide variety of lenders. Lendio pairs you with the most cost-effective lender options to help you fund your business as soon as possible.
OnDeck is a great option for short-term loans with same-day funding for up to $250,000. With no prepayment fees and free withdrawals, you can apply for a loan right now and have it accepted within minutes.
SmartBiz offers an excellent variety of lenders to help small businesses find government-backed SBA loans. With a 90% approval rate, SmartBiz will pair you with a lender that will help you immediately.
Bluevine: The Good and The Bad
Just like for all small business loan services, there will be good and bad features to consider. After extensive research, we found that Bluevine offers excellent features that most users are happy to continue using, with a few drawbacks that could make or break the product. Let’s take a deep dive into both sides of the spectrum before you decide.
What Bluevine Is Good At
Bluevine pairs low-interest lines of credit and zero fees with a simple and fast application process, FDIC insurance, and excellent customer support—making it a strong service for most people.
Low-Interest Lines of Credit: Bluevine’s standout offer is its low-interest lines of credit. Bluevine lets you draw funds when you want to and only pay for what you need, with rates as low as 4.8%. You can draw as much as $250,000 with this rate, which is outstanding for small business owners who might need the funds but aren’t able to pay a higher rate.
As you make repayments monthly or weekly, your credit line replenishes, so you can access more funds in the future.
No Fees: Instead of paying fees for opening, maintaining, prepayment, or account closure, Bluevine offers zero fees for account maintenance, which is excellent considering most small business loan services usually cost between $15-30 per month to maintain. In fact, Bluevine doesn’t have any fees on most of its services, including Bill Pay, incoming and outgoing ACH, and incoming wires. But it doesn’t stop there, as you can expect zero fees on check transactions, mobile deposits, non-sufficient funds, and in-network ATMs.
You also get unlimited transactions with Bluevine and can earn 1.5% interest, which is 50x the national average annual percentage. For the fees that Bluevine does have, they are a lot cheaper than many other loan services on the market.
Simple and Fast Application: Bluevine makes it incredibly easy to submit an application and get approved for a line of credit. Instead of filling out a long-winded form and waiting seven business days to get approved, Bluevine has an application form that takes under two minutes to fill out if you have the correct information. But the best part is everything you need to know is already on Bluevine’s website, so you can gather the information you need and apply immediately.
Currently, the requirements to apply and be accepted for a Bluevine loan includes:
- Being in business for more than six months
- Your business is a corporation or LLC
- Your business has had no bankruptcies in the past year
- Your business is in good standing with the Secretary of State
The minimum requirements are different for a personal application. But the process is still the same, and you can expect a response from Bluevine in as fast as five minutes.
FDIC-Insured: Bluevine has some of the highest security measures for a small business loan service. All Bluevine deposits of up to $250,000 are currently FDIC-insured, meaning that the bank accounts are federally protected from theft and bank failure. Bluevine also uses leading data encryption technology to ensure the protection of all business and personal information.
With Bluevine’s mobile app, you get a phone-enabled login with two-factor authentication, so you don’t need to worry about hackers reaching your accounts. From your Bluevine dashboard, you can also enable spending notifications and lock this function in place.
Excellent Customer Support: After reading dozens of reviews for Bluevine, we found that most users are blown away by its customer support. Most user reviews praised certain customer representatives, and most users felt that their questions had been answered and their problems solved promptly. We found that Bluevine’s customer representatives are knowledgeable, friendly, and patient.
Aside from the user reviews, Bluevine offers phone and email support from Monday to Friday, 8am-8pm. Bluevine has two different support lines for banking and lending and a paycheck protection program. The company is also testing a beta version of a live chat system for all Bluevine members who need to ask an urgent question can now do so right from their dashboard.
What Bluevine Is Lacking
Despite coming out on top in areas it’s good at, Bluevine is also lacking in other areas that may seem more severe to some users. According to many reviews, Bluevine has been responsible for closing accounts suddenly, fraudulently withdrawing funds, not offering provisional credit, and having industry and state limitations.
Sudden Account Closure: Despite the overwhelmingly positive reviews for Bluevine’s customer support and representatives, we found many negative reviews surrounding sudden account closures. One user claimed that Bluevine closed their account suddenly without warning during an ACH transaction, which left this customer in hardship. Another user claimed that they tried to deposit two checks, and while one was approved, Bluevine rejected the other check and closed their account without warning.
A few other users said their accounts were put on hold for months for no reason, even when there were sufficient funds in the account.
Fraudulent Withdrawals: Another unfortunate set of reviews was from users claiming that Bluevine fraudulently withdrew funds from individual accounts. One user claimed that Bluevine withdrew $2,000 from their account, and once filling out a claim form, Bluevine denied it, and the user had to file a police report instead. Another user mentioned that Bluevine took out a duplicate check from their account, and after two months of trying to contact a customer representative, they still couldn’t get in touch with anyone to rectify the issue.
A few other complaints involved Bluevine freezing individual accounts as the owner was about to withdraw funds. Many of these users couldn’t get their money back unless they complained to the Better Business Bureau.
No Provisional Credit: Bluevine doesn’t currently offer provisional credit, which can be helpful in situations where a transaction has not been verified or is being disputed. Considering so many users experienced Bluevine withdrawing funds fraudulently or had trouble depositing funds or checks, it’s unfortunate that Bluevine doesn’t offer provisional credit. This type of credit can limit cashflow problems and decrease operational overhead, which are two issues that Bluevine seems to keep having.
Limitations and Ineligible States: Unfortunately, not everyone can use Bluevine for a small business loan. Bluevine has a few limitations to ensure anyone who checks these boxes won’t be accepted for a line of credit. Some of the limitations include industries such as auto dealerships, donation-based nonprofits, financial institutions, and political campaigns. You also won’t be able to use Bluevine if you live in Nevada, North Dakota, or South Dakota.
Bluevine Options and Pricing
Bluevine is a free service with zero setup fees, subscription fees, long-term contracts, or termination fees. Bluevine’s primary offerings include bill payments and an accountant dashboard for on-the-go banking.
Bluevine Bill Pay
Bluevine makes it easy to pay your business bills from one centralized dashboard. With Bluevine’s Bill Pay system, you can manage and pay your bills while maximizing your cash flow.
You can manage and pay your business bills on the go, forward bills to your dedicated inbox, and sync with QuickBooks for convenient transactions and instant access to payee information. Maximize your cash flow with Bluevine by paying most vendors through credit cards to free up cash and increase your potential to earn rewards.
With Bluevine Bill Pay, you can choose how you pay, including with a credit card. Paying with a credit card can help you free up some cash for when unexpected issues arise. You don’t need to worry about delayed invoices or maintenance when you pay directly through a credit card.
You can add your credit card to your Bluevine dashboard in three easy steps. All you need to do is add your card details, add a bill or payee, and send the payment. There are zero monthly fees with Bluevine’s Bill Pay system—pay only a 2.9% fee per credit card transaction.
Wire transactions are an additional $15, but you can generally receive these transactions within 24 hours.
Bluevine Bill Pay also lets you schedule one-time or recurring payments through its intuitive calendar. You can pick a date for when you want to send the payment and know exactly the date it will arrive—making late payments a worry of the past.
Keep all your bills in one place by creating a custom email address that Bluevine will pair with your unique inbox. With this inbox, you can send bills to your Bluevine dashboard, where you can submit payments immediately or schedule them later.
Bill Pay also has a separate and feature-rich checking account for small business needs. The checking account comes with features, such as:
- A business debit card
- 1.5% interest on balances up to $100,000
- Zero monthly or overdraft fees
- Up to five sub-accounts
- Secured shared access for your team
Bluevine Accountant Dashboard
Bluevine is an excellent banking platform for accountants and bookkeepers that need to streamline their operations. With Bluevine’s accountant dashboard, you can create efficiencies and manage your clients’ finances from one place.
Bluevine makes it easy to support your clients properly with bulk statement downloads, bill management, and client invites. You can download all of your client’s financial statements in one click while adding and editing bills. You can also invite non-Bluevine members through a secure link for collaboration purposes.
You don’t ever have to worry about security with Bluevine, as you get 24/7 access with your own login credentials and limited permissions.
Instead of wasting time figuring out logistics, Bluevine does that for you so you can spend valuable time building relationships and trust with your clients. You don’t need to wait for your clients to send you bank statements or risk a potential liability when it comes to sharing sensitive information when you use Bluevine.
Bluevine’s accountant dashboard also comes with dedicated account support. With Bluevine’s expert account representatives, you and your clients can have peace of mind that help is always there.
Bluevine in Summary
Overall, Bluevine is a decent loan service for small businesses because of its low-interest line of credit and zero fees. Many small businesses struggle to find loans with low repayment rates and zero fees, so Bluevine certainly stands out in that aspect. However, you shouldn’t overlook Bluevine’s drawbacks, as it’s unacceptable for a company to suddenly close accounts or fraudulently withdraw money—if you want to use Bluevine, we recommend proceeding with caution.
Bluevine isn’t the only loan service for small businesses with no repayment fees or simple signup. We think Lendio is an excellent option for businesses to find a variety of reliable lenders with a simple account setup. OnDeck is great for short-term loans that don’t have repayment or withdrawal fees. And if you are looking for a service that has a 90% acceptance rate, SmartBiz is perfect for pairing you with lenders for government-backed SBA loans.
Want to read more about the best loan services for small businesses? We reviewed dozens of options and narrowed it down to the top six. If you want to scope out all of your options, see all of our top picks here.
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