When I decided to quite my job and go freelance, one of the first things I then decided was that I wanted to change banks and move to Bizner. A recent startup, Bizner is an online-only business bank set up by the reputable Rabobank Group here in The Netherlands. I quite liked the tone of voice of their commercials, and more importantly I was getting dissatisfied with my old bank.

Recently, they sent me an online survey about my experiences so far. To my surprise, one of the questions was whether I was likely to post my experiences on my blog. But then it dawned on me just how clever that question was. For one thing it made me think about whether I perhaps should, but more importantly, considering how they’re an online bank I can see how important the blogosphere could be to them. So here goes.

My experiences so far have been overwhelmingly positive. My old bank charged me twice as much as Bizner does for an account with regular bank cards and one credit card. And they didn’t respond to email at all. I had a few questions after I received my starters kit in the mail, and Bizner’s email service desk replied within hours. The whole registration process went very smoothly indeed.

The online banking system is better than any I’ve used before, but I have to admit that I haven’t used all that many. It’s layout is functional and clear, and in part because Bizner only offers a limited number of services it’s very easy to find what you’re looking for. They do not do mortgages or insurances, nor will they refinance your current loans. Instead they offer only that which startup companies will need, like checking accounts, savings accounts, deposits and business loans.

One thing that’s been highlighted by many is the fact you can get significant credit and even loans without having to submit a business plan. But much like focusing on Gmail’s large storage capacity, emphasizing this is missing the point. Gmail is simply the best email client out there (for which the storage is instrumental), and Bizner’s ambition appears to be to take a similar approach to business banking.

One thing I particularly like is the “Saldo Equalizer”, which enables you to automatically move money to your savings account and back based on how much there is in your account(s). This is easy to set up by specifying a minimum and maximum amount you want to have in your checking account. These settings are applied daily, so this feature will probably save you a bit of interest.

The only thing lacking in Bizner’s portfolio that I’d actually use at this point are iDeal payments. This Dutch online payment system has become my weapon of choice when shopping online, and I was happy to read on Bizner’s website that they’re working on iDeal support. Once that’s in place I can think of no reason to ever switch banks again, unless perhaps if my company were to somehow become a multinational overnight, but we’ll see about that when we get there.